Bamboo tablet and concept art?
polycounter lvl 14
Hey,
I hope this is the right section for this, but I have been drawing a lot lately, and I am a good prop concept artist. Its about time to get a tablet. I am a college student so I obviously don't have a lot of money but I have one on my eye for a beginner digital artist and its the Wacom Bamboo Pen Tablet for $69.
I want to be able to make quality concepts like this :
http://www.splashdamage.com/images/content/arttest_concept01.jpg
or
this:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_jGui1JNBXCY/TLm_weEKUCI/AAAAAAAACSs/EvmBSqGBG_0/s1600/sing_prop13.jpg
I know it depends on how good I am to draw like that, but I meant can the bamboo pen tablet allow quality like this? so if my skills are similiar, I can produce similiar concepts?
I hope this is the right section for this, but I have been drawing a lot lately, and I am a good prop concept artist. Its about time to get a tablet. I am a college student so I obviously don't have a lot of money but I have one on my eye for a beginner digital artist and its the Wacom Bamboo Pen Tablet for $69.
I want to be able to make quality concepts like this :
http://www.splashdamage.com/images/content/arttest_concept01.jpg
or
this:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_jGui1JNBXCY/TLm_weEKUCI/AAAAAAAACSs/EvmBSqGBG_0/s1600/sing_prop13.jpg
I know it depends on how good I am to draw like that, but I meant can the bamboo pen tablet allow quality like this? so if my skills are similiar, I can produce similiar concepts?
Replies
You can use it however to produce good art if you are skilled with it.
- And yes my Bamboo works awesome in Mudbox for sculpting.
In the end it doesn't matter what tablet you use. Like you said it's skillset that limits people in making good art. Ofcourse a tablet can make the process easier but if it's a wacom tablet i think you are safe when it comes to penpressure and such.
But if you really want to do a lot of concepts you'll probably want to get something bigger.
Down to personal preference, and depends on whether you draw using your wrist or elbow, buying a large one can be quite a waste if you only use a small portion of it.
Bigger doesn't always equal better.
http://supermortalhuman.com/how-to-use-graphics-tablet
I found in reviews that this tablet is clunky and shaky etc, but those reviewers must have been biased, or never even took the time to setup their tablet - it works really well, and while I know I will want a wacom, I was glad to get a huge drawing area for only 50 bucks. When it comes time for a wacom, it'll be a couple hundred dollars to get something good anyhow.
I figure I will wait until I can get a cintiq :P
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003LVKQ18/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000RSNVTW&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=01K29130RNNPW6AJQTFG]here's a bamboo for $69[/ame]
I've owned a refurbished Intuos in the past and it was as good as new. As far as competitors in the tablet space, longevity is where they usually lose out to Wacom - the tablet shell starts to separate and you get stress breaks in the usb cable. I've never had a wacom crap out on me, I typically sell them when I'm looking for an upgrade.
Most are saying the smaller Intuos is way better, but has problems nibs and screen wear and tear? They also mention that the Intuos has better 'advanced' features, but I never see any mention of what these features are other than 2048 vs 1024 levels of sensitivity. This is the only thread I found saying the bamboos are any good.
Seems like I could hold the larger bamboo in my lap and treat it like a drawing pad, and the intuos would sit on my desk? Also, the bamboo's touch seems like a nice extra feature to have.
I also had no clue that these things needed replaceable nibs. Can you just walk into bestbuy or a similar store and get these off the rack, or do you have to order away for them from Wacom? I've done searches on the websites of different art stores, and electronics stores, and nobody lists them.
Replacement pens also cost about 100$ here? Do you actually need replacement pens? I notice there are different styles of pens, but are they actually breaking down? The bamboo pens only cost ~40$ though.
Also, what happens with my mouse? Would I end up swapping the tablet out to use my mouse for blender, or other things, or does the tablet do a good job of completely replacing the mouse?
I'm thinking of going out and buying one of these, possibly today. I'd just like to get a these things clarified first. I don't want to spend 250$ on one of these and then need a constant stream of new pens or be ordering away for new nibs all the time.
> They also mention that the Intuos has better 'advanced' features, but I never see any mention of what these features are other than 2048 vs 1024 levels of sensitivity. This is the only thread I found saying the bamboos are any good.
intuos 4 has pen tilt and rotation (with an optional art pen), plus fancy OLED-keys, plus precision mode (for painting smaller details), plus radial menu that is quite nice
pens get fucked up sometimes (if you drop them quite hardly, for example);
I also have extra-pens for my intuos 3 because
a) I don't like the default pen and there're slimmer options
b) corel painter remembers different pens and their settings during a painting session, so you switch between them without losing brush type/colour/whatever;
nib wear is quite noticeable on intuos 4, but you get about 10 nibs with your pen and that should be fine for at least a year.
tablet surface will wear down eventually towards a very slick-smooth one, and it will pretty much stop nib wearing.
> Also, what happens with my mouse? Would I end up swapping the tablet out to use my mouse for blender, or other things, or does the tablet do a good job of completely replacing the mouse?
I'm left-handed, so use both pen and mouse. I hold the pen all the time and switch to the mouse occasionally.
don't ask me, ask them - http://forum.wacom.eu/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1438&start=0
74 pages of drama over $ 15 worth packs of nibs, hyuck hyuck hyuck hyuck hyuck hyuck hyuck
I remember someone at conceptart.org saying he or she went through 6 or so pen nibs during the first year, and after that it stopped due to surface wearing off.
they used sandpaper or something for intuos4 cover sheet, so nibs do wear faster, but they include more nibs too (it was 5 of them for intuos 3, afaik)
now...im not so sure
if you're planning to do more painting (either textures or concept art), you will end up with intuos at some point (unless you totally skip it and go classy with cintiq)
it's well worth purchasing, even despite its flaws.
bleh...intuos4, pack of extra nibs...that should be good enough
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like this -
I was using an Intuos 4 in my last job and wasnt very impressed with it, there seems to be some issue with the current driver randomly stopping working. I would have put it down to the computer but it was an issue across the entire office. (Winodws 7 64)
I also place mine like Ikken.
i find it is more limited by it's drivers than the actual hardware thing like not supporting different applications profiles like the intuos does but that can be worked around via simple scripting.
i made 2 versions of my configuration files for my bamboo one for photoshop and one for zbrsuh and made a simple batch script that swaps the files and restarts the bamboos input service.
though the surface seems to be taken some wear and tear after just 1 month of using it.
just by looking at it, it is pretty easy to tell where my photoshop canvas usual is on it.
and like ikken i put it right in front of my keyboard with a few inches between it and the edge of my desk.