Digital Painting/Texturing Tablet Suggestion?

First and foremost, heyo, I'm new here. ^-^ I've been messing with CG modelling and digital painting for several years now, but only very on and off, never really took any courses or watched tutorials and just self-taught myself everything.

I'm now finally giving in, and starting some courses here, and I've finally convinced myself that I do really need to practice a lot more digital painting if I'm wanting to work on some 3D models that aren't all made of photorealistic, computer generated textures (namely from Substance).

Now, because of this, I've started wondering what tablet would be best for both creative workflows (painting and model texturing). I currently have a Wacom Intuos Draw, though I've always had difficulties getting used to the need for heavy hand-to-eye coordination. I have finished one (1!) art piece a while back, though it took a while to get used to the tablet (and I still haven't...), so I'm wondering if it would be particularly worth saving up for a Cintiq, for example?

A few years back I had a Huion pen display, though it turned out to be a relatively poor decision as it slowly developed a multitude of dead pixels and eventually stopped working; but I did have a much easier time drawing with it. I feel like pen displays might also really facilitate 3D texturing directly on the models, perhaps?


Basically, my question is just: should I save up for a Cintiq (~$650) even though I haven't practiced digital painting or texturing much at all, though really want to push myself to work on it? Would it make my workflow much easier?
  • Ingrid Frank(Fide) replied

    Welcome to CG Cookie! 

    I had lots of problems with hand eye coordination while drawing with an Intuos and so I saved for a screen monitor. I bought an Ugee 1950B, which is cheaper (~400$) and bigger than the Cintiq you are aiming for - Cintiq 16 I assume? I bought it 2 years ago and still am more than satisfied. No dead pixels so far, perfect pressure sensitivity. I only have issues after Windows updates, but I heard there are some problems after the update with Cintiqs as well.

    Buying a display tablet made my workflow faster and easier and also less frustrating which led me to painting more. 

    I would recommend buying a display tablet if you think your main problem is hand eye coordination. You really don´t need to aim for a Cintiq though. One of my friends bought one just a short time before I bought the Ugee tablet and she has dead pixels already.


    I hope this helps :)