Do I really NEED a Wacom pad?

[Thremix]

Hello I'm new here, I just wanted to know how many people use a wacom pad, and if I should invest in one? Or would a really good mouse get me by?

[Scott Weichert]

It depends entirely what you do with the mouse/pen and what kind of control you want.

Without a table you only ever see about 60% of Photoshop's power. In Illustrator they tablet offers maybe a 5% benefit. Tablets for Illustrator aren't the huge leap they are for Photoshop.

I personally love my tablet and wouldn't work without it.

[TORCH511]

I am going to echo Scotts sentiments, and add on.

For photoshop, a tablet is huge. I also like it a lot with Corel PainterX, one of the only Corel programs I like and use. Illustrator, as Scott said you do not gain as much BUT I am much faster with a tablet, so what I gain is time. And that differece is huge for me.

[Egypt Urnash]

I have to disagree.

A tablet is not 100% necessary, but drawing with a mouse just plain sucks. When I got a tablet, my Illustrator workflow immediately felt more pleasant and fluid - even before I discovered the secret settings that make the pencil tool not suck. Just pulling out points with the pen tool was quicker and more accurate.

My AI workflow doesn't involve pressure sensitivity, I don't think AI even supports tilt or the eraser - but I wouldn't use a mouse for it unless you paid me a lot of money, and I'd bitch a blue streak for the duration.

Which would you rather draw with on paper: a pencil, or a cracker box with a crayon stub poking out of the bottom?

Don't blindly buy the biggest tablet you can afford, either. There is such a thing as "too big". Where the threshold is depends on the size of your hand and your monitors - but people tend to covet tablets a size or two too big to be useful, in my experience.

[Scott Weichert]

No one stated a tablet was 100% necessary.

Ai DOES support tilt and the erasure.

[micke]

I got my first Wacom about 14 yrs. ago, and it only took about a week to get very comfortable with it. I was developing carpal tunnel syndrome before then, and my wrists ached all the time, but within a week of using the tablet the symtoms (pain) went away. I highly recommend that anyone starting to feel wrist, hand, finger or other arm pain try a drawing tablet before giving up working on computers.

I'm on my second Wacom, and I got them both for about $100 each on sale (newer replacement model out). If I didn't already have a tablet I wouldn't hesitate to check out the new Bamboo model. See if you can get it for under $90. :D

micke

[aesthie]

Hi - just thought I'd contribute something to this forum, like my opinion, rather than just get my questions answered.

The thing about a tablet is that you have to get used to drawing on a surface that is physically located elsewhere, to where your drawing is appearing. Hand eye coordination becomes quite a weird experience and there's a pain threshold to push through. Some do this quickly, others it takes time, some it never feels natural. It can take quite sometime, I suspect it depends on the style and type of illustration work you're producing.

The tablets that allow you to put a piece of paper under a clear plastic surface and then trace over, can be a good bet for anyone who draws more fluidly with a pencil, than with a mouse.

It's a difficult call to be honest, I wish I could give you a simple decision making framework. If you're producing line work (as in Illustrator), then it really is debateable whether a tablet gives you a great deal extra... a tablet won't make up for not knowing the software like the back of your hand - and to be honest that's more likely to be the best way of developing drawing ability in the computer domain. PhotoShop is a much more unclear thing for me... though if you're aiming to produce very 'PhotoShop airbrushed' stylie illustrations, then knock yourself out. The pressure sensitive feature can be a real boon.

Just my thoughts, for what they're worth. Hope it helps.