Learn how to use a drawing tablet to improve Blender’s sculpting and texturing workflow
Drawing tablets are incredible tools. They enable you to adapt a pencil-on-paper like workflow to your digital art production process. There are many tablets available on the market and they come in many different sizes and subsequent price ranges. The most common tablets are Wacom brand. However, there are many other brands that also make tablets that will get the job done. Doing a quick Amazon search for “Drawing Tablets” brings up a lot of options.
In this tutorial I’m going to show you how I configure my Wacom Intuos 4 to work in Blender.
Almost bought a 22 inch Cintiq but then I decided to look for a more affordable option. After a lot of research and thought to what I wanted for features and size I decided to go with a Bosto 19ma.
It has a scroll for the zoom and brush size and the buttons I wanted to free me from the keyboard.
There are other brands but they were either…
1 to small (old eye’s),
2 to heavy (like to have my feet up and treat it like a scetch pad on my lap) Cintiq is like 18lbs. Try cuddling that for a couple of hours.
3 they did not have the scroll wheel and programable buttons.
It’s about $650 compared to the $2,000 Cintiq is asking. I will upload a video with a critiq in a week or so. still getting used to it. Love it so far.
Hey Verticies,
Would like to hear you view about Boston 19ma
. I am too considering to get one for me but is confused between the boston or Yiynova MSP 19U.
I bought the bamboo for a starter pad. It works great for me, and the price isn’t crazy. Yes, I would rather have a cintiq, but the bamboo gets the job done. I’ll try to upload a head I just sculpted using it. One question for the cgcookie community: what is a good mouse to get for working in blender? Right now I’m using the magic mouse, which I love for everything else on a Mac, but have found it hindering with having to emulate a 3 button mouse. Selecting multiple edge loops for one becomes a chore without being able to use alt-shift right click for anything but scrolling through my scene…
I just bought the wacom bamboo splash (usb) 5.8 x 3.6 active area $80 dollars works fine its going to take me time to get use to sculpting! the only issue i have is that when i enable the tablet my usb head set (plantronics) w/a mic gets distorted and i am unable to listen to anything they must share same somthing computer wise,tryed loading one then other checked sound card vol.etc 4 now its one or the other.probably will get /try different headset.just wondering if anyone else ran into this?
I have that same promblem with another wacom tablet, My understanding is that basically the Power supply cannot get enough power to each of the the usb ports becuase tablets require alot of power. I never cared enough to try but somebody suggested buying a USB hub that requires an external plug.
Can I use a Hitachi LINK-EZ StarBoardLink ans Starboard software with Blender? If I can, how?
Jonathan, thank you for the tutorial. I follow all the tips.
I set the upper button on the pen as middle click.
When I am in Object Mode or Edit Mode I am able to rotate pressing my upper button, but when i’m in Sculpt Mode (or Vertex Paint or Texture Paint or Weight Paint) when I press my upper button, nothing happen.
If I open the Wacom Properties Setting windows and I move my pen from this windows to Blender sculpt mode, my upper button is able to rotate for 10 seconds. This is crazy! What could be the solution?
I have a Wacom Intuos 4.
I went with the Wacom Bamboo. I figured what’s the use of shelling out tons of money if I don’t know if I’ll like it or not. You said it takes some getting used to. I guess I’m just not used to it yet. I was just got comfortable with the mouse and hot keys and this switch seems to have reset my learning curve.
Do you feel this is more for sculpting and painting than modeling?
Thanks for the tips
I have a Wacom Intuos 4 –
I have tried setting the bottom3 buttons to Grab/Rotate/Scale (G,R,S) but I find I’m jumping back between the tablet and the keyboard anyway.
What do other people set their buttons to do? To make a better workflow?
I actually don’t use any of the buttons on my tablet. I just keep one hand on my keyboard.
Hi, i r new here. First poste!
Just discovered blender weeks ago loved it and would like to improve so i r considering learning how to use a tablet.
But first i need some advice, I’ve never seem anyone working with a tablet with my own eyes before so i don’t understand how can u draw on a blank plate while fixing at ur screen plus I sux at coordinating my hands while looking at the screen which is why i sux at fps games but if u give me paintball gun i kickass, a video on how to switch from mouse to tablet would be nice I r pretty sure lots people are like me hesitating to move on tablet. N thx peeps for d awesome tutorials Williamson yar my hiro i got addicted to blender because of you.