Wacoms

oXYnary

I am finally replacing my old Intuos version 1 that broke about 5 months back. Im really strapped for cash, and though I have enough to get the Intous 3 6X8.. Im wondering if the Graphire would be good enough? I never used the mouse.

The cheapest I have found the Intuos 3 is $250 shipped (ebay). Anyone know a online deal somewhere?

gauss

I say go for the Intuos. Saving money is important, but putting good money into quality tools will also help enormously. Spending as much as we do on our computers and on our Wacoms, it's one of the soundest investments you can make relative to your professional life. Don't skimp and your work (and your wrists) will thank you.

SuperOstrich

If you don't think you'll use the slider on the side of the Intuos3, then try to find a place that still has Intuos2's in stock. I love mine. Way better than a Graphire, and you might find a deal on the Intuos2 model.

Steve Schulze

EDIT: D'oh, beaten by the Ostrich.

I don't think theres any great advantage to getting an Intuos 3 over a 2. The buttons on the side of the 3 are largely superfluous and I believe the surface stats are exactly the same for both. You should be able to get a good sized Intuos 2 far cheaper than a 3.

ScoobyDoofus

I have an Intuos 2 at home, a 21" Cintiq at work (which has the touchstrips as well) and I frankly, prefer my Intuos 2 at this point.

The touchstrips & buttons are lame. Im ALREADY used to using the 100 or so keys on my keyboard. Why do I need these 3? Anyway, Inuos 2 is clearly the way to go for you, even if I do prefer the design & aesthetic style of the 3 model.

thomasp

yep, doesn't matter which intuos you choose. 1 and 2 are very similar, 3 seems to have improved technically but i never noticed the difference myself. especially the larger intuos-models have a much better, smoother feel to them than the graphire, imo.

i found that as a left handed person i always accidentially activated the scrollstrip on one of the smaller intuos3. took a while to figure out why the machine was acting weird and turn it off in the panel. the tablet buttons feel like crap. spectrum zx81 had a better keyboard - and the glossy surface looks nice but stores fingerprints really well.

gauss

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The buttons on the side of the 3 are largely superfluous

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The touchstrips & buttons are lame.

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woah woah woah, you guys do use Photoshop, right? painting textures or concepts and the like? think of the core hotkeys you use from the keyboard while you're in Photoshop. Zoom in and out (slide bar!), alt for color sampler, space to move the hand around, and undo/redo.... AND NOW THOSE ARE ALL ON YOUR WACOM. all of a sudden you don't have to lean that extra bit forward to noodle with the keyboard, and saving time is what hotkeys are about in the first place.

want in on one of many of gauss' secrets to his super spectacular concept art? USE THE INTUOS 3 BUTTONS AND SLIDER. i'll work for hours at a time, with the Wacom propped at a comfortable angle without ever having to touch the keyboard for a hotkey, since all the important hotkeys are right there.

Bonus with Painter, too--even with the same grouping of hotkeys assigned to the buttons, now you've got the "resize brush on canvas" (which is awesome) hotkey easier than it is to do on the keyboard, as well as the hotkey for grabbing/rotating the canvas to draw at different angles through the use of key combos... in addition to the functionality described above.

and here i haven't even assigned the far side buttons to any uses, 4 keys takes care of everything!

so i don't want to hear any more jibber jabber about the buttons being useless, if you do any decent amount of painting in Photoshop or Painter, they're amazingly useful--you just aren't taking advantage of them.

Illusions

The buttons are also especially useful when working on a laptop, as I don't want to have to put down the tablet just so I can push a button on the keyboard that could've easily been setup on the tablet.

I actually have mine setup differently than Gauss for Photoshop. On the left I have one button for the pen tool, another for the paintbrush, one for undo, and one for save. Then on the touchstrip, I have the top set as ] to scale up the size of a brush, and the bottom set to [ to scale down. The right side buttons and touchstrip are set to things like zooming, and other tools...

If you keep activating the touchstrip with your hand, set it to activate only with the pen. In all actuality the only gripe I have is that whatever adhesive they used to hold down that paper like frictional surface in the drawing area is slowly losing its hold, and its coming off.

ElysiumGX

I've had my Intuos3 6x8 for over a year now and I love it. And I have to agree with gauss, the buttons are very helpful when customized. At first I was annoyed with the right touch strip. I'm right handed, and it would touch the strip while painting. Easy solution, DISABLE IT! I only use the left. Left handers can do vise versa.

I have my buttons set to increase/decrease brush size, and toggle colors (left side), with undo (right side...1 button instead of 3). I change it up as I go, adding whatever improves the workflow. I slide my keyboard under the desk while using the tablet.

SuperOstrich

I agree that the buttons and slider can be useful, but they don't actually improve your painting/drawing like the move from a Graphire to Intuos can. That's why I suggested an Intuos2, it's simply cheaper than a 3, and Oxy mentioned his budget is tight.

hawken

I'm on an Intuos3 wide from an intuos3 a4

I use the side buttons on a daily basis, you don't? You're dumb.

oXYnary

And dumb spelled backwords is bmud.

oXYnary

Thanks for the feedback. I ordered one from ebay. $275 shipped was the best I could do. I got a Intuos 3. I think I might actually use those buttons. Does Wacoms software work with zbrush with custom commands?

Zcubed

Not quite sure what you mean, but you can customize how everything functions in different applications. The wacom drivers make it easy to set up different profiles for each app.

oXYnary

Just making sure it works though.. sometimes applications dont react the way they should. If anyone has this set up. What do they have the buttons and such do in zbrush?

Can I use my old original Intuos pen as a second pen with different characteristics? Meaning does the tablet see older input devices?

thomasp

no, you can't. the intuos3 will only play nice with intuos3 pens.

oXYnary

Ok I got it today.. Badly shipped though I mean the cardboard was falling apart next to the wacom because the entire package had gotten soaked during the way (lets hear it for UPS). Works fine however.

Question I have does someone make a velvet or felt bag for this? I will be transporting it between work and home and dont want to scratch it up in my dirty backpack.

MoP

Surely you could make your own felt bag? Buy thread, needles, felt and some string... probably cheaper than trying to find a custom made one (of which I'm not sure there are any).

aesir

mine's always been fine in my backpack.. They're not all that fragile.

edit: or you could just wrap it in a T-shirt

Steve Schulze

I've dropped one down a flight of stairs and it still worked fine. Scary few minutes, I tell ya.

There may be official Wacom covers available from somewhere, but I think I came up with a pretty good solution seeing as my tablet wouldn't fit in my backpack. I bought myself a cheap portfolio binder (one of the ones with the zipper to hold it all together) and simply hacksawed out the ring bindings. The 9*12 Intuos fits in it perfectly, it only cost me about $20AU and everyone goes "Woah, where'd you get the cool Wacom case".

oXYnary

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I bought myself a cheap portfolio binder (one of the ones with the zipper to hold it all together) and simply hacksawed out the ring bindings. The 9*12 Intuos fits in it perfectly, it only cost me about $20AU and everyone goes "Woah, where'd you get the cool Wacom case".

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Hmmm.. I see plenty of these at goodwill.. Thanks for the idea!

Mop: The amount of time and headache to gather all that material for one project would be a waste. I cant justify the stress to do that.

JonT

But you'll ge the chicks when they ask "cool bag,where can I buy one?" and you reply "I made it, come round later and I'll see if I can knock you one up".

It works!
(this is not a Guarantee)

Joao Sapiro

i bought a graphire 4 by 120 dolars :P its all dirty now , but hey, still recognizes the pen harr harr!