I'm currently working with a 1600 DPI, €10 mouse, and for normal modeling it's just dandy. But for sculpting you'll definitely want a tablet. You'll want to try a few different ones to see what you prefer. I personally prefer a cheap brand A4 over a small wacom, because it allows me to make large swooping strokes.
Why not hold off until Wacom released their tablet PC. Its supposed to come out sometime this summer. If you cant wait, then get cheapy...something like a used asus ep121, samsung slate, fujitsu lifebook or surface pro. I really would hold off if possible though. The good art tablets are right around the corner.
I dont use references. I have no idea about my workflow I just produce the idea in my brain then I draw the shape then I do colours and details. I want to get better and colabs. I use a wacom tablet, I just press too hard I guess so it isnt very visible.
I use my left and right hands. I'm right handed and use a small wacom intuos for the right hand, and a logitech cordless mouse for the left. One of the guys at the office is having real problems with his mouse forearm. I think it doesn't really matter what setup you have, as long you can relax properly.
thanks for the comments and suggestions. I modelled the nose after a lion photo and cat ears the anatomical features. I like the vein idea and I'll give that a shot too. I did a bit more higher level detailing. also just got my wacom so we'll see how that goes. I'll post an update soon.
yeah MoP... that's what i am talking about... thank you very, very much... and no problem i have a Intuos 2 6x8 wacom tablet... i worked with that allready and i'll never miss it again...! so... are there some other techniques or are all doing it the same way? i am very iterested to learn more about this...
Ive done a lot of changes to the face and i think that im happy with it so i created a uvmap and applied flat colours to it just to see how its going to look. im going to start with texturing the face next. wait with the hair until i get my wacom tablet. Its going to be tricky to create the hair shapes with a mouse.
I am looking forward to seeing you there!!! I am trying to get wacom to give up some tablets as door prizes - hopefully will hear something back soon. Take a few minutes to register at the website www.cgdallas.com as the sponsors look at the stats so the more we have as active members the better stuff we can get.
I usually like doing it on airplane flights and places where a laptop/wacom combo isn't realistic. The lack of pressure stinks. But there are things like http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jonatherton/jaja-worlds-first-pressure-sensitive-stylus-for-ip in the pipes. So maybe soon that will be more realistic.
Yep - my left hand is happy D: ...but maybe it's worth to switch to my graphic tablet for this. Actually I don't like to model with it, but maybe I can get some kind of zbrush navigation I am used, too. I hope the wacom settings can 'emulate' this ^^