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Wacom Tablet for Tracing

Trademarks - are they... Corel X7
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Dawgonhawg

Dawgonhawg

member
I am considering purchasing a Wacom tablet. I am not a artist at all. I would like to know if the tablet can be used to trace a image from the computer?
If so does it work well for tracing from the computer. Also I have Corel x5 and Corel Photo Paint. Will these software do everything I need to do or will I need more software? Also how do you smooth lines and curves as I'm sure they want be very good starting out? I see there are many Wacom models so which one will be the best?
Any input will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Dawg
 
I ended up buying the Intuos Pro medium. Spoke to the guys at Wacom here in Oz about what I was using it for as I was undecided between the medium and large. They recomended the medium and they were pretty much spot on.

I'm not one of these kids with fantastic hand/eye coordination from playing computer games so my main reservation was looking at the image on the monitor while moving the stylus around on the tablet in front of me. Seemed odd but then it was pointed out to me that when you use the mouse to draw it's really the same thing. At first I struggled but then I kept remembering what I'd been told numerous times which was to persevere with it, stick with it and you'll never turn back. I'm still not doing car type traces at the same speed I was with the mouse but a lot of other stuff like tracing poor quality images or freehand type stuff where I'm not having to be so particular about exactly following a line I'm a lot quicker on it using either the freehand tool or artistic brush. Mind you I took Gary's advice and also purchased Lazy Nezumi Pro which smooths the drawn lines and really helps. I still find my self using the mouse sometimes when I'm in a hurry, never was real good at self discipline.;)

To help get comfortable a little tip I got was to draw something, a line, a circle, a shape, whatever, it didn't really matter and then go over it and trace it and keep doing it until you could pretty much get it right and also to draw two parallel lines and then draw a line between the two of them, do this at different angles and keep bringing the lines closer together to get your mind in control of your hand. Guess what, it really worked.

I did also think about buying a Cintiq Companion but was a bit worried about the outlay if I couldn't grasp the whole tablet thing, that'll be my next step and maybe in the not too distant future. I'm actually having fun drawing.

I too use CorelDraw X5 and find both work excellent together, only problem I have is that the computer I have mainly used for drawing runs XP Pro which they tell me isn't compatible with Wacom, my laptop runs Windows 7 so that is where I run the Wacom tablet but that is 64 bit so some of my X5 features don't work properly but I still get by.
Murray
 
what Murray said...

I find a small tablet to be comfortable but medium has more room to rest your hand even if you don't use the whole area for drawing.

Cintiq is nice, but it's like a drafting table, you have to be up over it to see and look around your hand while drawing, and I personally can't draw on one in my lap like I can on paper. It's only advantage is it eliminates having to orient the tablet with the screen. The advantage of a tablet is you can use it on any monitor, and with a high resolution monitor vectors are a lot easier to see.

Can't beat the intuos for precision, pressure sensitivity and having more buttons to customize.

It's definitely easier to draw with a tablet, it doesn't replace a mouse, but it does work with all software just like a mouse, just not all software recognizes pen pressure.

It does work with corel draw and photo paint.

And like he said, practice makes perfect, just like he explained it...
 
Murray and Gary thank you for your replies. Is it hard to set up and setup with corel or paint?.

Thanks, Dawg
 
not really, once you plug it in it works like a mouse, and compatible software recognizes pen pressure

it has a control panel to calibrate, adjust, and customize, to configure each tablet, pen, and drawing program (optional)

it will work out of the box with default settings so you don't really have to configure it, but the more you use it the more you will want to configure it

except if you have multiple monitors you would want to configure which monitor(s) it maps to
 
Okay guys its ordered. Thanks for your help. Once I get it (5-8 days) I'm sure this old man will have more questions.

Dawg
 
I bought one & it definitely takes time to get coordinated with it, the eye on screen stylus on pad that is, Still tinkering with it as I have time but time is short at the moment so I am still a long way from mastering it.
 
cozzie said:
I bought one & it definitely takes time to get coordinated with it, the eye on screen stylus on pad that is, Still tinkering with it as I have time but time is short at the moment so I am still a long way from mastering it.
Click to expand...

The main thing you have to get past is letting your mind control you and trying to watch the stylus, eye on the screen is what you do with the mouse, you don't watch the mouse while your drawing or navigating, you watch the monitor.

I was told to treat it like touch typing (which I cant do) and throw away the mouse. As Gary said it doesn't completely replace the mouse but I did restrict it to last resort even when using the computer for other tasks like surfing the net etc. And yes it does take time, I'm still not that flash but I'm a lot better than I was 6 weeks ago.
Murray
 
Well got my tablet. Got it set up and did some tracing last night. Tried sketchbook but was not impressed. Worked well in Corel. The one issue I have is can not
get my express keys to show up on the monitor. Tried pushing the settings button and just touching a key but nothing happens.
The lights on the wheel are not lit either. Corner lights of the working area are working.

Dawg
 
Express Keys are just buttons that run the assigned key strokes or commands when pressed, they don't show up on the screen.

There is a Radial Menu that can appear on screen when activated, and the Touch Ring Button displays an indicator on screen to select 1 of 4 slider controls, and the corresponding light beside the ring should light to indicate which is currently selected. Each of those can be disabled, that might make the light not come on, but mine does display the light on a disabled selection.

Not sure what corner lights of the working area are, mine doesn't show anything like that on screen that I know of, it may have to do with screen mapping, but mine doesn't appear to show the corners on the screen area so I'm not sure about that.

Mine is Intuos 4, if you have a 5 it may be different.

express_keys.jpg
 
I guess I never tried the show-settings command. I notice I do have to hold it down. Just clicking it doesn't do anything.

As for touching a key, according to the video, it does look like it should show the popup. Mine doesn't have touch, so not sure, but it looks like it should show something when a button is touched and held.

Best I can tell, one of the 4 wheel lights should always be on, and should cycle when the wheel button is pushed. If there's no wheel lights, that sounds like it might be a problem. I haven't used an intuos 5 but in the video it appears to work the same as my intuos 4.

So, if the lights don't cycle when the ring button is pushed, that sounds like a problem. However, mine is hooked to two computers through a KVM switch, and one computer doesn't have the tablet software, and on that computer one ring light is on and it does not cycle when the ring button is pushed, so it does depend on the software to cycle the lights.

Have you tested if the ring slider is working at all, or if it actually cycles between different functions, in spite of the light not being on?
 
Dawgonhawg said:
Crap!!! Wacom say I have a defective tablet.
Click to expand...

Dawgon it... that's a bummer, usually they're super reliable,

While waiting on a replacement try this, it sounds odd, but I can't describe how much it has helped me improve my pen control here lately, on paper, draw grids of squares and circles and lines of block letters, with your eyes closed, and try to get them as straight and uniform and perfect as possible. Everything is much easier to draw since I've been doing that, just since I started thinking about trying my tablet.
 
My Wacom is working good now. Painter X3 was a free trial download and it works well with the tablet.. I have tried using it with Corel x5
but I can not get any of the Wacom keys to work . Any ideas what I need to do.?

Thanks, Dawg
 
Dawgonhawg said:
My Wacom is working good now. Painter X3 was a free trial download and it works well with the tablet.. I have tried using it with Corel x5
but I can not get any of the Wacom keys to work . Any ideas what I need to do.?

Thanks, Dawg
Click to expand...

ok, I just tested intuos4 in corel x6 64 bit

it worked, I was able to add an application for corel, but to affect express keys I had to select FUNCTIONS (not the pen) and then add the corel application there (2nd picture)

if I reload the tablet manager it defaults to select the pen, which doesn't show corel as an application (first picture), so I have to reselect FUNCTIONS to see the corel application

if I just add an application for the pen, it doesn't automatically add an application under FUNCTIONS

either way, after I add corel as an application under FUNCTIONS, when corel is the current window, it does load the custom functions (express keys) for corel

but only if I make sure to click on the corel window after I change the express keys for corel, if I merely hover over the corel window to try the new express key assignments, they don't work because the corel window is not the active window until I click on it, then the new keys work

between having to click on functions to affect express keys and having to click on the corel window to test new key assignments, it had me thinking it wasn't working right a couple of times, but once I remembered to click on the corel window before testing my new key assignments, then it worked as expected

another issue I found is I had to set the touch ring to scroll to make it zoom, so zoom and scroll seems backawards (in corel)

wacom1.jpg
wacom2.jpg


I also use a Logitech G13 gamepad coupled with Macro Express macro software to get more buttons and more control with my left hand while using the pen (or mouse) with my right hand.

agaming.logitech.com_assets_47825_g13_gaming_gameboard_images.jpg
 
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Trademarks - are they... Corel X7
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