Wacom and Graphics Tablets

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2006-12-09 03:26am

Hey--Christmas is rolling around, and people have been asking me what I want, hoping to get me something useful. I'm a 3D animator, but I'm new enough to the field that I'm trying to keep all my freelancing options open while pursuing fulltime employment right now. If anyone knows someone stateside who is looking for an animator, I could always use another interview!

Anyway, I mentioned in passing that a graphics tablet might be interesting and fun, but once I saw the price of the modern ones (I knew the old ones were pricey, but I stupidly figured I could get one for 150 bucks or so) I realized it was a much more major purchase than I expected. I don't want someone to buy me a 400 dollar piece of graphics equipment that I'll only use for sketching. I'm really no good at digital paint, and though a wacom might solve that problem, I have some doubts.*

And if I retract this idea and tell them not to consider it, I'd like to say something else. So to you professional 3D or assorted graphicsy folks, any ideas of something I could get that'd improve my efficency enough to make it worth the cost? I'm out of college, so it's not like I need anything for schoolwork. A wacom is still a good possibility, since you can fanagle the thing to work in Maya (albeit a little oddly), but I just don't know yet and would like some feedback.

Right now the only other thing I can think of is a wrist brace. Ow! Don't want to get arthritis by the time I'm 30!

*about how often I'd use it for that, not about the improvement. it's obvious it'd help me draw on the compie better, but right now I'm just not sure it's important enough for me to do that when I have paper right here and a scanner

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2006-12-09 04:01am

That's strange about the pricing, because I was able to snag a 6x8 Wacom Grapire4 tablet for about $160 off Amazon back in May.

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2006-12-09 04:37am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:That's strange about the pricing, because I was able to snag a 6x8 Wacom Grapire4 tablet for about $160 off Amazon back in May.

I was hoping for something bigger than a 6x8 since I've heard that they can be a little frustrating to do entire pieces with, but given that I've got a short stroke, it would do okay. Ebay and Amazon have pretty competitve prices, and most of them are pretty affordable. If I get a wacom now, it'd be a smaller one. I'd love one of the digital display ones, those are great for 3D and have several controls for it, but those are so expensive that it's just silly.

But a small wacom I could probably get my money's worth for, especially if I start doing more hand drawn animation for my updated reel.

Meest · Post by **Meest** » 2006-12-09 06:29am

The 9x12 is nice, depends on your draw style. I found the 9x12 good enough for full strokes edge to edge. Are you just focusing on animation or do some texturing? A tablet is essential for texture work and is nice stress relief on your hand and wrist for using for your toolsets too. There's a widescreen ratio style one that's new, 6x11 but I found the height to be abit limiting even with a widescreen monitor. The 9x12 is $200ish more than the 6x8 but $400ish cheaper than the 12x19 so it's the best bang for the buck for the Intuos line.

salm · Post by **salm** » 2006-12-09 02:16pm

Covenant wrote:
Spanky The Dolphin wrote:That's strange about the pricing, because I was able to snag a 6x8 Wacom Grapire4 tablet for about $160 off Amazon back in May.
I was hoping for something bigger than a 6x8 since I've heard that they can be a little frustrating to do entire pieces with, but given that I've got a short stroke, it would do okay. Ebay and Amazon have pretty competitve prices, and most of them are pretty affordable. If I get a wacom now, it'd be a smaller one. I'd love one of the digital display ones, those are great for 3D and have several controls for it, but those are so expensive that it's just silly.

But a small wacom I could probably get my money's worth for, especially if I start doing more hand drawn animation for my updated reel.

I´m a professional 3D Modeller and work with a Wacom Graphire4 classic XL A5. That´s 6 X 8 inches and i find that to be the optimal size. On a larger one the distances you have to cover are too large.
These tablets are at about 150€.
I never use it for 3D. I think a mouse is a lot better for that. But it´s really nice for texturing.