Digital Art Tablet Pleeeeeease Help.

[Whirlwind123]

I realise I have another thread on here about what tablet to buy but my situation and questions have totally changed and it seems to have been abandoned.

New Situation:

Up to £1000 (about $2000) to spend on a tablet PC.

I am a 3D Artist DESPERATLY trying to learn digital painting. I decided to take the tablet PC route over of the tablet rout (was this a good idea?)

I need it to be powerful enough to paint in Photoshop but also model in 3DS Max, Modo and Zbrush.

More importantly I need it to be ultra portable (I have an M200 which I got a while back which just isn’t portable enough for me). So I can doodle where ever I go, on the bus, at uni, on the sofa etc.

....

On a total side note is why isn’t there any decent instructional dvds (like there are for 3D animation) for digital painting?

[WNewquay]

Hi Whirlwind,

More portable than the M200?

Can you say more about what that means to you?
Is that:
Lighter?
Smaller?
Better battery life?
Faster?

You aren't going to get them all in one machine and you are likely going to take a step down in terms of screen resolution. You had 1400 x 1050.

For example
There are several machines that will give you some combinations of factors like battery life, faster, high resolution, but they won't be smaller or very much lighter.

But if you talk about what you mean by more portable, maybe some suggestions will arise.

[Whirlwind123]

Hi WNewquay thanks for the reply.

I was thinking with the M200 being quite old now you may get everything you mentioned in one package (especially with the higher buget as I only payed £200 or so for the m200)

In answer to you question Thinner and lighter are much more important to me and I am guessing a slate or one with a removable keyboard would be the best option. Programs like modo and zbrush dont need that much power to model with and I will be using my desktop computer to render with so really it just needs to be powerful enough to paint in 2d and sketch in 3d.

1 gig of ram is a must.

A decent graphics card would be nice but I guess with something thin and light it is not going to be possible but I can live with that.

[Whirlwind123]

Just for an update I looked at the Fujitsu ST5111

10.4 " screen and good reviews from artists. It looks great just too pricy. Its perfect I just need something cheaper (less powerful). But still perfect for an artist.

hellllllp my head hurts from all this research :(

[Steve S]

<<...Its perfect I just need something cheaper (less powerful)...>>

...Then I'm going to again suggest the ST502x. Same form factor, just a little older and hence less expensive.

PS:

<<...it seems to have been abandoned...>>

...Whirl, you're talking about a thread that was just updated a day ago! Have a little patience. Sometimes it takes a day or two for folks to think of the next thing to say...

[Whirlwind123]

Sorry when I say 'it seems to have been abandoned' I mean by me as well :P

From your recomendation I found this
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fujitsu-Stylistic-ST5020D-ST5020-Tablet-w-Dock-1-1GHz_W0QQitemZ260277752128QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item 260277752128&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177

It seems good. If I have got my figures right its 1lb lighter than my m200 and about half the width. Id rather it be closer to 10" moniter (im know i am being unreasonably picky here hehe) but I might have a prob with resolutions with something too small.

Could anyone tell me how it compares to the m200 and tc1100 in poformance and especially in digital painting.

I know this seems like a late and ridiculas question to be asking but is there any chance I would be better learning digital painting with a wacom intuos3? I know I said I wanted to be portable but I just wanted to know if tablets in this range are viable for wanting to be seriouse about learning digital painting.

I greatly appriciate the help from this forum as there is no one I know who knows anything about tablet pc.

[Steve S]

<<...would be better learning digital painting with a wacom intuos3...>>

...Nope. As someone who has actually compared the direct visual feedback of a tabletPC with the indirect visual feedback of a monitor and peripheral tablet, I can tell you that the inking (or in your case, painting) experience is completely different. The monitor and peripheral tablet suffer by comparison because , unlike the tabletPC, you can't really see both the position of your hand and the resulting paint stroke simultaneously... the effect is similar to, but not as severe as, trying to write on a piece of paper while looking at the paper in a mirror. (Try that some time.) This is the reason that Wacom makes the Cintiq... and why professional artists use it...

[Whirlwind123]

thanks :) more confident now.

.. and how about the ST5020D for artists. How does it stand agains the m200 and the tc1100? I dont want to end up getting something worse than the m200 I have now.

[Whirlwind123]

Sorry If I am being a pain but I have found a couple of other options from your recomendations.

The Motion LS800 £300
Motion LE1600 £539.25

I am desperate for the LS800 to be the right one because its just a great size. I am worried about its terrible resolution of 800 x 600. Is this managable for using photoshop for painting or 3d software effectivly?

The LE1600 looks just about the same as the fujitsu in tearms of specs although it has a dedicated graphics card which is an advantage (I cant for the life of me found out which one though). Which is the better one of these two for an artist?

[WNewquay]

Hi Whirlwind,

I really like the LS800 and lived with one for several weeks awhile back. The reason that I do not own one is that I could not live within the 800 x 600 screen. This was a challenge whenever I wanted to do anything remotely like sketching. The other place it was an issue: any program that uses toolbars or control panels, like photoshop.

For me, the minimum usable resolution is 1024 x 768, and that's tight.

[Whirlwind123]

Yeah I guessed that :(

Oh well. I prefer the design of the motion ones so now I am trying to decide between the 1600 or whether its worth saving a bit more for the 1700 even though it isnt going to be replacing my quad core desktop.