first!

I’ve a Intuos 2 (and I don’t think it seems a piece o cardboard…=P). And it increased a lot my works.

I painted this one with a Genius tablet;

And this one with a Wacom Intuos 2.

But they don’t make miracles, of course.

=D

I recently got my intuos 4. I´ve had an intuos 1 for almost 10 years now and decided to take the upgrade. You´re damn right about the fact that wacom tablets are the way to go. Everything else is plain waste of time and money.

I´ve never used a cintiq, but I can for sure match your drawing lines/matching points in my intuos. I´m very used to sketching directly on PS so I kinda disagree with that method to compare those two models.

All in all, very useful review. I like your work a lot.

great post, lot of cool info here thanks alot!

I have currently an intuos 3, which performs awesomely for the kind of work I do (I am specializing as a 3d texture artist) now I have read from a lot of people of how great the new intuos 4 is, and I am kind of tented to sell my intuos 3 and replace it for the new version.

Now that being said, I never use the “buttons” that come embedded in the tablet…almost never…mmm, well never at all, at least in the intuos 3, I find them too clumsy. So if one of the reasons the intuos 4 is so cool is because of its new button arrangement I will kind of pass for that unless it is really a considerable improvement.

I am more interested in the actual tablet response dynamics, if some of you guys have already used the intuos 3 and have switch to the new intuos 4, have you really find it worthfull, I will take your opinions in consideration, thanks in adv.

Nice informative tutorial. I wish I had seen this just 3 days ago when I purchased my first tablet. Luckily for me I decided to go with an Intuos 4 Small. So far I’m very happy with my purchase. A bit disappointed that the surface scratches so easily with the pen but at least the table surface can be replaced.

The Cintiq is my next goal but there is quite some saving to do before I get to that level.

For not the Intuos is great!

Nothing against your work, which I really like, but I think you exaggerated a little bit with drawing the curves when you compare the cintiq with the intuos.

but anyways, its a good collection, thx for writing it down. but you gotta admit that the outcome of your review is not really surprising right ?

My first Tablet was a cheap aiptek. But since I bought my beloved Intuos 4 I use it a lot more. I am faster and more into details.

It was totally worth every cent!

Best wishes from germany, Oliver

Great info,

i had a cintiq but i sold it because i never used it so its back to the bamboo

I’have use the cintiq for a while two weeks ago. And I discover that the cintiq have two very uncomfortable problem. The first one is that the screen get hot, it don’t burn but it is uncomfortable after an hour. The second HUGE problem is that the cursor do not correspond exactly to the pen, it have to be calibrate every time you change your position… That sucks!

I have an Intuos 3 9×12 and it’s really great for professional ilustration and design but uncomfortable for navegating. I don’t use paper anymore.

I have a question for the some one who can explain me. With 1024 pressure level some times you have to reduce the sensivity because its too much, what’s the deal with 2042 level of presure? It’s really a different when you are illustrating?

Nice article, However the author writeup is rather misleading, I would hardly call Sergio a Master of character design. His work is good for the niche he illustrates for, however, it’s far from being the work of a Master. I also think he can agree with me on that. I believe that statement like I believe the guy’s who wear the shirts that say “World’s Greatest Dad”. If you want to see Masters of Character Design check out any of the artists that appear in the Ballistic books.

Great article coming at th right time! When I got it right, the Cintiq is the better for calligraphic works, isn’t it?

This is a very informative article and honestly made me want to look deeper into buying a graphics tablet, however, to be blunt it should have been titled “How to Choose a Wacom Tablet that Fits Your Needs”.

Although a great review, there were no comparisons of other products, their benefits or caveats like the title suggested. If I had posted something along the lines of “How to choose a smart phone that fits your needs”, it just wouldn’t be right to simply rant about how great my iPhone is without losing some credibility.

Tablet in the hands of an experienced artist great force..

Man, i love you for posting this this really help me! THX! U rock!

I have an ancient Wacom Graphire and I can’t imagine my life without it… anyway, after reading this post realized that I need an upgrade

It think you overlooked the low-end tablet a little too much. I use a Graphire 3 (similar to Bamboo), and it works very well for what I need (I am an illustrator and graphic designer). I think it may be worth mentioning that vector/vexel illustrators don’t need extra sensitivity as much as digital painters.

I also agree with others that the test doesn’t really give a good idea of the differences. I think a small painting, timed, would have been a better comparison. But the nature of the differences certainly speaks volumes!

Also, configuration can really change how well a tablet and stylus work for you, and that doesn’t seem to have been mentioned. There are settings for the tablet itself, as well as tool settings in software such as Illustrator and Photoshop.

Nice overview. I can certainly see this as being a good starting point for people looking for Wacom tablets, while they’re researching which will work best for the type of work they do.

Just to add to the “Alternative List” of interactive displays and tablets:

Hanvon – Chinese version of Wacom. Check it out:http://www.hanvon.com/en/products/PenTablet&Display/index.html

Yutron – Another manufacturer of tablets:
http://www.yutron.com.tw/

Don’t know if any of the pen displays will ever make it to the states.

I wouldn’t say that “you would never get this outcome with a mouse”

Check this guy out, he works only with a mouse.

http://raynkazuya.cgsociety.org/gallery/

I like your work by the way.

For those who haven’t heard. Wacom has upgraded the Bamboo series. A few of the Bamboo tablets now sport a multi-touch surface in addition to the standard pen surface.

http://www.wacom.com/bamboo/bamboo_fun.php

Anyone have the new bamboo? I think there are three new ones, the touch, pen, pen and touch and a medium one?

thankx bro.

Just to add to the list of alternative tablets and displays:

Hanvon – http://www.hanvon.com/

Yutron – http://www.yutron.com.tw/

Would like to see these available in the states, but oh well.

i own a bamboo a6 wide

I just have seen the new wacom bamboo series, think of buying one.

I have a Bamboo Fun (meaning I spent like $20 more for a couple programs I never use and a mouse I never use =P) and for me, I think it’s the perfect tablet. I’m just sort of getting into design so I didn’t see the point in buying on of the pricier tablets just yet. I used an Intuos 3 in my high school Digital Imaging class after I bought my Bamboo tablet and didn’t really notice any difference. But if I get serious about design, a higher end tablet is something I’d definitely invest in.

My intuos3 has been great for everything. Took forever to go from a mouse to a tablet in illustrator, but using it all the time from browsing the net to word processing helped a lot.

I do get my intuos 4 L. I really like it and it’s very useful for me.

i recently got myself a Wacom Intuos3. its amazing how much it helps. will there be an article for DSLRs soon too?

I have serious injury in my mouse finger. I get lot of pain just clicking. So, I bought a Genious mousepen 6×8, and use it instead the mouse. I have to say, this tablet saves me. And, as a plus, I start getting into Photoshop.

Here in Argentina, is hard to get a Wacom, and a Bamboo can cost 350 usd, so Genius is the easy choice. Its a good tablet, the pen use a AAA battery, and probably enough to the no professional.

Unfortunately for a lot of people who do not live in the USA, Wacom tablets are incredibly expensive and that is the biggest turn off. When comparing prices for an Aiptek 10.5″x6.5″ at $105 NZ and then looking at something in a similar price range from Wacom, all you can get is a Wacom Graphire4 4″ x5″ tablet. See the big difference in size? Being on a tight budget and still not wanting to cut corners like size, I went for the Aiptek. I used one of the same Aiptek tablets and school and after growing accustomed to the larger size there was no way I would sacrifice that just to get a Wacom.

They may be great tablets but for people on strict budgets they are highly unaffordable. It would have been nice if you actually went over a few other tablet brands rather than being biased and comparing Wacoms against Wacoms. They may be the biggest name in tablets, but they’re certainly not the only name, and for anyone who cannot afford them, having comparisons between them and other tablets would have been helpful. I think the name of this article is highly misleading. Instead it should read ‘How to choose a Wacom tablet that fits your needs’.

Bought my bamboo roughly 3 weeks ago. If I didn’t suck so much at drawing freehand, this would be a gold standard.

Nice article. I would love a Wacom tablet but I just can’t justify spending that much. I feel, like most ‘industry standard’ design products, that they are VERY overpriced.

Intuos4M in the US e-store is $349.00 (Pricing is not clear as to whether this includes shipping, or what shipping rates are.)

Intuos4M in the European e-store is ¢369.90 including VAT & Shipping (since it’s over ¢300; otherwise it would be ¢6 for standard shipping within the EU). Assuming 15% VAT on the total, the product price would be roughly ¢321.65, including the ¢6 shipping.

¢321.65 EUR, at today’s exchange rate on xe.com, is $472.667 USD

That’s roughly $124 USD higher. I don’t think shipping and tax for US customers will be anywhere near $124.00. (Would tax even be charged in the US store?) Even so, it wouldn’t be $124.00; even the EU VAT at 15% only comes out to be a little over 48 Euros.

But let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. Let’s say they have to add a 15% tax onto that £349.00. That would be $52.35, for a total of $401.35.

Still almost $73 cheaper for US customers than for EU customers. Unless it costs $73 to ship in the USA. Which I sorta doubt. Hell, Amazon ship the thing for free.

So, assuming my maths are correct, Wacom charge their EU customers *AT LEAST* $73 more than they charge their US customers for the same product.

And this is nothing new. They’ve been doing this for years. I asked them a few years back why they charge so differently.

Their answer?

Because the market accepts it.

In other words, because they can get away with it.

for me, i have just Trust TB7300!! the wacom tablet is very expensive for me!

at the moment im rockin’ the 3 series..

but i hope the time vor the cintiq will come soon ;D

Using a tablet is great for any graphic work.I do compositing for TV ads and i work 2x times faster with a tablet.For me anyone working for graphic industries should buy a tablet .

Great tips, by the way I liked your 4. character; awesome, thanks…

i like you art you’ve done by any chance do you have a deviantart account?

This article overlooks one of the big issues: what size tablet? If you draw from the wrist, you’ll want a smaller tablet. If you draw from the elbow, a larger one.

Also keep in mind your display(s): I find the smaller tablets work best for me, but with a dual monitor setup the medium tablet is the way to go. Otherwise on a smaller tablet your movements will be amplified.

I have a 24″ and a 22″ monitor setup, and find the Intuos4 medium to be the perfect size as a “wrist draw” artist. If I had just the 24″ monitor I would go with the small size.

The smaller the tablet, the further your cursor moves with less movement. Too small and your moise will be zipping all over the place. Too large and it will take lots of hand/arm movement to move the cursor a few inches.

Decent article but I there are a few very misleading opinions in there that really should be corrected.

* “and for designing, you need no more than a mouse.” – false. Anyone who works with photos and/or complex layering and masking could benefit from a Wacom tablet. I worked for approximately 5 years before I bought my Intuos 3 several years ago and it was a night and day difference in my workflow (I do very little illustration, lots of layout and image manipulation, and a fare share of compositing)

* “Smaller tablets are better, cheaper, easier to fit into your desktop, and they work just like the bigger ones. I would only choose the big model if you’re going to use it for CAD.” False. The reviewer actually demonstrates why this is false himself. You are forgetting the fact that you are translating the movement from a small area to movement on a large screen; there is interpolation that goes on here and in my experience the smaller the tablet the ‘harsher’ the interpolation; either that or you get a 1 to 1 movement and end up with a tiny little space to work with on the tablet (this makes for FAR more hand movement, thus more work on the artist’s part). You actually illustrate this with your Cintique vs. Ituos comparison. The reason the Cintique is so precise is that you are drawing directly on your screen, it’s a 1 to 1 movement, whereas the Intuos needs to interpret the difference between the size of your tablet and the output on the screen, hence some loss of accuracy. Lesson: the larger the surface of the tablet the less your software has to work to compensate for your screen size, resulting in a more natural feel and a better overall experience.

I fool around in Photoshop, mostly doing jokey image manipulations and some photo retouching. Is a graphics tablet helpful for those types of activities? Most of what’s talked about here seems to focus more on illustration and graphic design, so I’m not sure if I should make the investment for my purposes.

great information and really good work

wow … great post , thnx

Great review. I really want a writing tablet someday, I just need to save up first!

I have drawn on an Intuos 4 and the Vis Tablet.

This is my conclusion.

You can but a Vis Tablet for 100$.

…or you can buy an Intuos 4 for 300$ ( research, you will find it )

The question you need to ask yourself is what level of efficiency would you like?

Standard or HOLY SHIT!

Buy a Wacom, you will never regret it.

I bought Intuos3 A4 size a few months ago for just 260€ or so from the wacom website and I’ve been quite happy with it! Don’t know if they are still selling those for that price tho.

Hopefully we’ll also see some character design article from you soon, it’s been quite a while from the last one!

Wow! Excellent marketing brochure.

Does anybody noticed, that Pentagram’s Virtuoso is slowly knocking out Wacom out of market?

I’m not sure if I want to make the step and actually buy one of these. Is it really worth it if one doesn’t do illustration?

I’m thinking of getting a Bamboo Fun really soon seeing how I’m just starting to get into drawing and coloring and such. This guide really helps and since I’m tight on money, I’ll be sticking with my decision. Thanks for the help.

How much you get from Wacom for a full blogpost of advertising?

Thanks for the review, Sergio. I’m considering a Cintiq 12WX – the larger models are way out of my price range. Just a few questions, if you have the time:

I was wondering, have you any experience with the 12WX? It sounds like some of the negative issues you had with the 21 inch model might not be as bad in the 12 inch.

Wouldn’t it be true that because you would normally have the Cintiq close to your face, the 12 inch screen is effectively ‘bigger’? As I think you mentioned somewhere, some reviews even find the 21 inch screen a little big, since you’re much closer to it than a normal monitor.

How are the viewing angles and colour fidelity on the Cintiq? No Cintiq reviews I’ve seen seem to address that very well.

My own experience is that unless you have an expensive LCD with something like 170 degrees horizontal / 170 degrees vertical viewing angles, you can see colour shifts from the top to the bottom of the screen – luminance uniformity still seems to be an issue for LCDs -at least low to mid range ones.

With work intended for professional printing, that hugely detracts from an INexpensive LCD’s usefulness – if you want high colour accuracy and you need to cough up for something like a high-end Eizo – which can be even more expensive than Cintiqs. I guess I’m kinda answering my own question here?

Although everything you said was true, this article reads like a wacom advertisement. Nothing against wacom, I love them and have a bamboo myself.

Informative, but not really a tutorial.

More of an op-ed piece. I’ve learned why the author prefers something.

Well written though, and genuinely felt. Like a well-thought-out Amazon review.

: )

Nice. I like that!

Entertaining. Not a tutorial but always good to learn something new)

Thanks for the review, Sergio!

I currently own an original Bamboo, and I’m thinking about upgrading to an Intuos 4. I saw some people commenting about if they should pick up a tablet or not. For you, stop wondering, and go get one.

After a year with the Bamboo, I can attest that it has helped me with web-design, and has helped my bottom line. But it does have some draw backs when making lines and in my opinion having a small active area.

The only thing I can add, is that for my non-work artwork I’m still drawing on paper and scanning in. Although it still beats a mouse for coloring. So if your like me, your going to become frustrated with the lack of the ability to draw like you would on paper with it.

I hope that helps… kind of wish this review had a detail demonstration of all the products in hindsight. eh, oh well.

this is a good help. i am thinking of getting a new one. i am using a Bamboo Fun righ now. Still learning. And yes, you are now my hero, i wish i could be like you when i grow up…

Thanks for this information! I bought myself a Intuos 4 today.

I have wacom bamboo fun a6 small, but works well

Still have a Graphire ET (one of the original models) and it works great! It really does work way better than a mouse. I’d love to have an Intuos 4 (the pressure levels are very alluring). Maybe when I get some more money…

Still though, Wacom makes great products that last.

I bought an Intuos 3 on a whim a few years ago. I moused it for years the long way; click-click-stroke, click-click-stroke. It hardly does a newb much good until ya build the manual dexterity to draw a consistent line and stop pressing those damn stylus buttons by accident, and it’s quite a learning curve going from watching your hand draw to drawing while watching the screen.

Since then I’ve picked up an Intuos 4 (medium). Some helpful tips I’ve picked up:

Practice by using the pen for EVERYTHING initially. Web surfing, icon selecting, writing your name, etc.

For freehand drawing zoom in to 200 or 300% for better accuracy with tiny tablets.

Tick the Force Proportions option in the Wacom preferences.

Skip Photoshop and draw in Illustrator with brush options set to pressure. The self-smoothing is handy if you’re a caffeinated artist.

Tablet settings between programs would be a handy tutorial.

It actually depends on what expertise or kind of work you have and you don’t have to buy expensive ones. I use Graphire 4 and Bamboo Tablet for my works mostly vector (all almost 4×6) in mouse mode so i don’t have to raise my hand to navigate the whole screen. and you are right about the productivity when you go with a high-ender products like cintiq. you can produce much faster, finer and even explore more ideas for your art and projects.
I have read this article on your blog way before and it is very useful as i will be buying a 12wx within this month.

Very true post. My first tablet was a wacom which I bought years ago but when I lost my pen, I found a new cheaper set on the shop and decided to try that one. True to some of the testimonials here, the cheap one was really frustrating to use. It was hard to control the pen movement so it ended up looking like a useless mouse pad on my desktop. I liked my wacom so far but would also like to try other brands to really see for myself which one works best for me. =)

Seriously good article. Sergio is one of the sickest character artists designing. I could read his tuts all day… as long as I can mute the Creed soundtrack.

Thanks for posting.

Under #4 – and for designing, you need no more than a mouse. – I disagreed. I design websites and print layouts with wacom product as well. It’s a lot easier than using the mouse. I know some people uses wacom for TV shows and movies as well.

Hey mate- for a couple of bucks you can score some real black ink and colour, nibs, brushes and a pen holder + paper and draw well. Your missing out !

Sergio, or anybody who feels like helping:

I’ve been reading several reviews and after reading everything I could find I decided that I’m going to buy a pen tablet and my options are these:

-Intuos3 9×12 (used) $300
-Intuos3 6×8 (Used) $185
-Intuos4 small (new) $300
-Intuos4 medium (new) $430

(those are the best prices I can get here)

And I pretend to use it with a 24″ iMac as a photographer.

What could be best for me? I’d prefer the Intuos4 small for the price and new technollogy but i don’t know if it’s going to be wierd having a tablet that small with a 24″ screen (though it’s the only one with the same 16:10 ratio).

Thanx a lot.