Wacom Intuos Pen and Touch?

[Rez007]

Hello,

I am looking into possibly getting the Wacom Intuos Pen and Touch,

http://accessories.dell.com/sna/product ... u=A7195025

I wanted to see if anyone might have this or used it at all and what your impressions might be. I have about $200.00 in Dell gift cards/coupons and I am trying to find something to get with it as they expire shortly. I was looking at this Pen and Touch tablet (medium size) from Wacom and I did not know if it is really good or not. One of my concerns is if it registers hand placement while drawing. From the pictures, you can use it as a touch device but have any of you experienced difficulties while sculpting if you place the side of your palm down while drawing. Also, how does this stack up against the Intuos Pro?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as this is what I am leaning towards. If not this, maybe I will get a tablet or PS4, but I am looking for to put it towards work related items. Any other suggestions would be great too.

Thank You.

[Bullit]

I can't give advice but one of the things i do when checking hardware is Youtube. Many people put videos of stuff they buy with comments.

[xsi_fanatic]

Personally, I would go for the Intous series. That's what I currently own.

Also I second what Bullit said. I'd look it up on youtube. That's your best bet.

[Rez007]

Thanks guys. I did do some checking around and I didn't know if it was good for Zbrush or if maybe I should just put the credit towards a Pro series instead. I will look for some YouTube videos.

Thank You.

[xsi_fanatic]

In theory it should be fine. The pressure sensitivity is what you should be looking out for in a tablet. I've seen some people use low end bamboo tablets in Photoshop and it works just fine. The only draw back is they'd have to adjust most of the sensitivity manually in their 2D or 3D application.

[Bullit]

Then also a drive to a Zbrush forum and ask is a good policy i think. Or a Google search of those 2 terms.

[Rez007]

Thanks again guys for the advice I tried looking on YouTube and there were not too many videos using Zbrush and that tablet - more just reviews of the tablet, which were all really good. I also checked Zbrushcentral and looked up some threads about the same question I had. Both of you have been pretty much spot on with your recommendations/advice about checking around, so thank you for that. Since my coupons expired last night I decided to go with the Intuos Pen and Touch medium. I was looking for something a little more compact that can sit next to my keyboard and I think this size should work good, since the active area is virtually the same as the pro model.

I had an old Intuos (maybe first gen) and that only had 1024 levels of sensitivity and that seemed to work okay for me. I think the only thing that I will be missing is the tilt functionality and the increased levels of sensitivity, so I will have to see how that plays out. I will keep you guys posted on how it works.

Thanks Again.

[FXDude]

Hi Rez,
I've been using it for years also as my mouse, or not just for painting.

Touch function is like an enormous laptop touchpad, which I personally find good for browsing,
but otherwise as soon as the pen tip is near, touch function is disabled, so there isn't much if any inadvertent mouse activity.

But you can still turn it off (with a button on the wacom) if it sometimes happen to move or click by brushing-up to it after typing.


For me I also put it in "Mouse mode" while doing the following..

[...] MouseMode doesn't work with QT intefaces Such as Nuke, and others.

(With Wacom and QT still always saying it's because of the other.)

BUT!, you can download Autohotkey, http://ahkscript.org/download/
and use this .ahk script to start your QT apps.

Code: Select all

runwait, net stop TabletServicePen
sleep, 1000
run, "C:\Program Files\Ormr\Ormr.exe"
sleep, 1000
runwait, net start TabletServicePen

Replace appropriate path to your app with QT interface, and the service name which depends on your wacom model..
(you can find it in your running services )
and save that script as a *.ahk where you want,

It will stop the service, start your app, and re-start the service.

(service start needs to happen after executable is run,)

Then your pen will work in your QT app as much as anywhere, with the freedom of mouse mode!
(with a caveat of a few seconds pause of the pen on app startup)

You can then create a shortcut to that .ahk script, while pointing the shortcut's icon to your app path,
and then always use that to start your app.
Cheers!

So I don't know how it is in pen mode or how is pixel precision in that mode with the small surface but I haven't heard/read any complaints.

Good luck!

[Rez007]

Hi FXDude,

Thank you very much for posting the information. Yes, the touch functionality does sound like it will be very useful, and good to hear that it turns itself off while brushing/sculpting. The script for "mouse mode" and QT sounds very useful, I am a little unfamiliar with that so I will have to dig into that some more if I look into using the tablet for Softimage/Maya. Thanks!

[FXDude]

In case you never used mouse mode, by default in pen mode,
the lower left corner on the wacom refers to the lower left corner on the screen,
and if you lift your hand in the middle and then point to the the lower left,
the pointer will snap to the lower left.
(also can be an issue with dual screens where your pad is split in half, or you can choose to have on one screen)

And in mouse mode acts more like a mouse (hence the name)
in which wherever you point on the pad moves your pointer from wherever it is on the screen (instead of snapping to a new position)
and also allows for adjustable speed relative acceleration.
(slow moves a pixel at a time, fast moves across the screen in a short distance)

You may want to switch to pen mode sometimes or disable acceleration for 1:1 hand to screen movement when painting
(also assignable to pad buttons)

But for me I only need to do that when trying to write something with the pen.

Cheers

[Rez007]

Thank you for the information. I am looking forward to playing around with it when it arrives.