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04/02/2012 10:12:07 PM · #1 |
Alright, it's been a couple of weeks and I'm going to give a review from a noobish standpoint:
First, I decided to get the medium/wired tablet. The store sold me this, but without the touch features. This wasn't what I ordered so I went back and got the right product...only to come home and find a wireless kit inside. I paid 30USD extra...which makes no sense (I think they undercharged me). I went back (Without the tablet) and they said that according to their records that was the correct price...so I'm not arguing with them.
In the end, the touch features would be 'meh'...but more on that in a bit.
Setting things up: Once installed (Which is easy), the first thing that happened was some kind of clash between my tablet and headphone (USB gaming headphones) and the tablet. It basically turned off the features on my headphones. I'm waiting for a response from both companies for a solution.
There are endless ways you can setup your tablet to work the way you want. The side has 4 top buttons and 4 lower buttons. Between them is a radial dial. The pen has 2 buttons. Now, the hardest part was trying to figure out how to set up the layout. I asked around as to how others had set things up that were useful for them. In the end, this is how I set up the 8 side buttons from top to bottom:
Open tablet settings
Open file
Duplicate layer
Flatten layer
Undo
Redo
Delete
Shift
The radial dial that sits between these buttons I left at default settings, although the "Cycle through layers" option is something I want to change. The other 3 are zoom in/out, rotate, brush size.
On the pen, the first button I have set to switch between background and foreground colors making it easy to mask things out. The second button brings up my radial menu. This is where it gets interesting.
The radial menu: When the radial menu pops up, it's divided into a pie chart. Each piece of the pie can perform an action. Each piece of the pie can also be a group for sub-directories. An example of this is I have one piece of the pie set to "Actions" which brings up another pie chart with my favorite actions. Because there isn't enough room for all my favorite actions, I then divide that chart into different sub-directories: "Black and White" "Vintage" "Film" etc...
It took a while to figure out how to assign actions a 'keyboard shortcut' because this is what the tablet needs in order to perform the action. Two examples: In my radial dial I have my Nik Color Efex 4 as a selectable option. However, NE4 doesn't have a shortcut in Photoshop, so I have to make one. I believe it is done in preferences (A quick Google search and you'll know...or PM me if you can't find it). I created a weird shortcut that I knew wasn't being used by Photoshop and then entered that in. GREAT!! Example 2 has to do with Actions. In order to create a shortcut for your actions, you need to open the actions panel and edit it. It took me a while to get it all setup, but now I'm familiar with where all my options are.
Of course, once Photoshop is closed, the tablet goes back to it's default settings (Unless you've changed them). They are all application specific. So when I opened up Lightroom and used my tablet, I had to set things up differently. So the task of going through that was a bit daunting. Overall, I'm about 90 percent happy with my button/radial dial setup. I'm still working out what should be removed/added.
The touch features: Not all that impressed. It's not as sensitive as I would like it to be. There is an option to change the sensitivity. I think Wacom's definition of sensitivity and mine are a bit different. As an example, there is a zoom in/out feature much like we have on our smartphones. However, it zooms in very large increments. I believe the sensitivity has more to do with how hard you have to press in order to activate the feature that how fast/slow it goes. The same applies to the rotation.
Most of the finger swipes/touches are per-designated for an action that works across all your applications. There is a second menu which is for 3 and 4 finger actions that is customizable. I set these up as 'save' and 'save for web'. Or if Photoshop isn't open, my default for 3 finger tap is 'Open Photoshop'. Still, it would be faster to just click your desktop shortcut or use the pen really...I'm wondering if any future updates will be made to allow more control. As for web-surfing, I still prefer a mouse/keyboard. I spent a week with just the tablet for EVERYTHING to get used to it. Now my tablet sits nicely to the side (Unconnected) and comes out when I start editing.
I still need my keyboard (Something I thought I would not need) while editing photos in Photoshop. Not so much in Lightroom. I plan on making use of the tablet in my video editing software as well to see how well/fast my video work flow improves. I haven't done a shoot since purchasing the tablet so I can't say 'I'm a faster editor' just yet. I've been having a go at it with older files.
In the end, I think it was money well spent. I haven't had the opportunity to install and use the wireless kit. I don't know that I will anytime soon. I 'feel' that I'm getting faster and having all those options without going through long lists makes things easier and faster (So far) which leaves me more time to do an actual shoot (Or at least plan for one). I tried editing with my mouse the other day and felt like I was dragging a large paint brush you'd use repaint your house on a small piece of artwork...unnatural and a mess. So, it was money well spent IMO.
I did try doodling with it...works well. I like to doodle but I don't think it will replace my notebook and pencils. Still, it's a nice option to have.
Well, that's it, from a noobish point of view. Hope this helps some. |
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04/02/2012 11:16:46 PM · #2 |
Nice review!
Do you find the medium to be larger than you need? or just right? I'm still not sure if the small will be large enough or if I should go for the medium. |
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04/03/2012 12:36:58 AM · #3 |
That's a great review Jason! I've had my Intuous 4 quite a bit longer than you've your tablet and haven't gotten around to setting up anything from the defaults- I feel like a lazy bum now :P
Glad it is working out for you :) |
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04/03/2012 12:58:45 AM · #4 |
I'm a fan of Joel Grimes, of course Scott Kelby etc. I haven't had time to see if the Intuos 4 and Intuos 5 tablet settings are compatible, but if you go to this link you can download the settings that Grimes, Kelby and Nancy Stahl use on their Intous 4 tablets. There are also videos of some of their work flow and how they use the tablets.
Dave |
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04/03/2012 01:38:00 AM · #5 |
Originally posted by bhuge:
Nice review!
Do you find the medium to be larger than you need? or just right? I'm still not sure if the small will be large enough or if I should go for the medium. |
Almost...it certainly does take some getting use to. I am so use to a mouse and pad, with the pad being so small. Now I'm going from one end of the screen to another by going from one end of the medium sized tablet to the other. At first, a bit weird and often moments of 'uh, oh...uh...OK I get it...' But once you've done it over the course of a week, it becomes second nature.
The other thing about the size is that I have a smallish desk. I would like to be able to have the tablet to the side, plugged in, ready to use and just move the keyboard over and the tablet into place. But since I have other crap taking up space, I have to unplug it and set it to the side. I'm not sure if leaving it plugged in is a good idea...not sure though. I wish there was an on/off switch because then I would leave it plugged in and out of the way.
I think the large is too big, at least for me. The small might feel nice at first but you might soon feel the need for something a bit larger. I can't say from experience, maybe others can. |
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04/03/2012 02:09:56 AM · #6 |
| I wouldn't worry about leaving them plugged in and turned on. I worked at an animation studio that had at least 100 Intuos 3's and Cintiqs. They were left on day and night for years and I don't recall any of them having troubles. I actually used one of the Intuos mediums for quite awhile but it's hard to compare to home use. At work the medium felt the right size but it was for twin 21" monitors doing software development. Quite a bit different than Photoshop at home on a single monitor. |
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