Welcome to TVPaint Community forums !

idragosani wrote:

Kathleen wrote:I do - thanks for your interest - I'd love to show you some - how do I do that? I've scanned in or photographed some of my recent work, but the files are big and in all different formats. What are the steps to get the images here?

What a lot of us have done is create our own thread under viewforum.php?f=18 (Digital Paintings, Drawings and user gallery), using your own name as the title "Kathleen's Drawings" and uploading images from there ("Upload Attachment", down below the edit window).

Ok, I'll give it a try - We shall see ! ( I may be right back here, shortly)

idragosani wrote:

Kathleen wrote:I do - thanks for your interest - I'd love to show you some - how do I do that? I've scanned in or photographed some of my recent work, but the files are big and in all different formats. What are the steps to get the images here?

What a lot of us have done is create our own thread under viewforum.php?f=18 (Digital Paintings, Drawings and user gallery), using your own name as the title "Kathleen's Drawings" and uploading images from there ("Upload Attachment", down below the edit window).

I just held my breath, closed my eyes, and clicked the "submit" button in Drawings and user gallery
Why is it just a tad scary to put work out there??
Have a great weekend, everybody - I'm going to go and look at some of your work, now.
K

Soom wrote:Of course it's also a lot about how you are used to work, and in the end - what is the result you wanna get and the feeling you wanna feel and the software you intend to work with. Like Paul said, think well of your long term intentions. Cintiq is not a cheap investment and is not suited for everyone. I know people who learned to do wonders with a regular tablet and they wouldn't even look at Cintiq's. Coming from a regular tablet to Cintiq also requires quite some relearning and getting used to new ways of working, so your intentions need to be quite dedicated.
Personally, if you intend to work on TVPaint or draw a lot, I do recommend Cintiq over the tablet.
If you have the chance, try finding somebody with a Cintiq in your area, and play around with it...
Or well, you can always sell it - prices for used Cintiqs in good condition are so high, that you wouldn't loose much

I acquired a used 12wx Cintiq this week (was using an Intuos3 9x12) and I have to say that I love it! The drawing space is smaller which required a little bit of adjustment but it feels more natural drawing this way, and it's small enough to hold like a sketchbook. Not exactly mobile like a tablet PC would be, but the cable is long enough to give me some flexibility.

Idragosani, I am encouraged by your experience. It seems to me that the tools that allow and enhance the most natural drawing experience are going to make the drawing-intensive act of creating animation more intuitive. I have been looking for a used Cintiq 12Wx, but even ebay has only new. Spending lots of money is scary, but I hope to have it pay for itself, at some point! and since I have tried and experimented with Pshop and iMovie, Flash, DigiCell, Pencil and looked at ToonBoom - the more costly TVPaint comes up a winner every time, so I think spending the more money here makes sense, too..
The fact that you liked your tablet and now are very happy with the Cintiq, mirrors what my LeapFrog designer friend says - the Cintiq is much more natural - don't have to look up!

Kathleen wrote:The fact that you liked your tablet and now are very happy with the Cintiq, mirrors what my LeapFrog designer friend says - the Cintiq is much more natural - don't have to look up!

Like I said before, if you have issues with shoulders and neck from crouching over artwork, using the tablet may work better for you, as you can sit up straight looking ahead at the monitor instead of watching your hand. If we were closer I'd let you test drive mine but we have the entire state of Pennsylvania separating us

PS. I did get mine on eBay, it was still pretty pricey but much less than a brand new one.

idragosani wrote:

Kathleen wrote:The fact that you liked your tablet and now are very happy with the Cintiq, mirrors what my LeapFrog designer friend says - the Cintiq is much more natural - don't have to look up!

Like I said before, if you have issues with shoulders and neck from crouching over artwork, using the tablet may work better for you, as you can sit up straight looking ahead at the monitor instead of watching your hand. If we were closer I'd let you test drive mine but we have the entire state of Pennsylvania separating us

PS. I did get mine on eBay, it was still pretty pricey but much less than a brand new one.

It is a big state!
I've re-tried ebay and am on the hunt/bidding for a 12WX - seems the best size, and I am hoping .... after all, I am more used to looking down, hunching over...

Kathleen wrote: I've re-tried ebay and am on the hunt/bidding for a 12WX - seems the best size, and I am hoping .... after all, I am more used to looking down, hunching over...

Good luck! I did my first animation with the Cintiq today, a silly cartoony bouncing ball exercise, just as an exercise to get familiar with the Cintiq and TVP 10 (actually had to use one of the features, in fact, the drag and drop instancing).

idragosani wrote:

Kathleen wrote: I've re-tried ebay and am on the hunt/bidding for a 12WX - seems the best size, and I am hoping .... after all, I am more used to looking down, hunching over...

Good luck! I did my first animation with the Cintiq today, a silly cartoony bouncing ball exercise, just as an exercise to get familiar with the Cintiq and TVP 10 (actually had to use one of the features, in fact, the drag and drop instancing).

How do you like how the pen drags? My friend ( nephew, actually) at Leapfrog, says it doesn't feel as good as pencil on paper ( like we have duplicated by putting paper on our tablets) but he still loves it. Wonder how to get the drag to feel better - he says there is a special pen tip that helps. I'll ask him.
Have fun! The bouncy ball thing I have yet to get right.

Kathleen wrote:How do you like how the pen drags? My friend ( nephew, actually) at Leapfrog, says it doesn't feel as good as pencil on paper ( like we have duplicated by putting paper on our tablets) but he still loves it. Wonder how to get the drag to feel better - he says there is a special pen tip that helps. I'll ask him.

Doesn't really bother me, at least not yet. I got used to it pretty quickly and didn't even think about it after a few minutes of drawing.

My strongly felt advice: Don't spend the money on a cintiq yet! Get an Intuos tablet 4 for just $300 or $400 and don't put paper on top of the tablet or any other analog-world crutches but spend a full week of concentrated practice drawing with the stylus on the tablet's wonderful slippery surface. It has to be learned like playing on a violin has to be learned (this is much easier). It's a new tool with which you learn to draw in new and better ways.

Give up the pencil feel, look, pleasure or whatever you find attractive about it since you want to join the digital age. Use directly the pen tool in TVP and not any of the pencil simulation plugins. You need to draw with a digital pen to take all the advantages this unique software has to offer.

The pen tool in TVP behaves and looks exactly like a classical dippy pen the masters of drawing skills have used for centuries. The pencil was the unskilled person's substitute for a dippy pen. In the days before computers, we animators yearned for a tool that would free us from drawing with a pencil first and then having to trace the pencil lines with a dippy pen and ink (or brush and ink) on plastic sheets. What the Wacom tablet + TVP offers is the fulfillment of that wish and now every kid wants to know how to make their drawings look like pencil lines.

It'll take you a week at the most to understand this and you'll never look back. Most of us who have been using a tablet for 10 years can't even draw on paper too well anymore -- and we don't need to.

Paul Fierlinger wrote:My strongly felt advice: Don't spend the money on a cintiq yet! Get an Intuos tablet 4 for just $300 or $400 and don't put paper on top of the tablet or any other analog-world crutches but spend a full week of concentrated practice drawing with the stylus on the tablet's wonderful slippery surface. It has to be learned like playing on a violin has to be learned (this is much easier). It's a new tool with which you learn to draw in new and better ways.

I don't mind the slippery feel at all, even on the Cintiq (which seems even more slippery than the Intuos tablet). After a few minutes, I got used to it and wasn't even thinking about it anymore.

The thing about drawing on the tablet is that one can draw with a lighter hand because there is no drag, which means my hand seldom feels tired. I also love the fact that my hand never covers my view of what I am drawing -- on the contrary, the cintiq is worse than drawing on paper in that respect because the stylus is fat and the nib short which blocks one's view of where the nib hits the glass -- and the nib of course never has direct contact with the line because of the thickness of the glass.

Paul Fierlinger wrote:My strongly felt advice: Don't spend the money on a cintiq yet! Get an Intuos tablet 4 for just $300 or $400 and don't put paper on top of the tablet or any other analog-world crutches but spend a full week of concentrated practice drawing with the stylus on the tablet's wonderful slippery surface. It has to be learned like playing on a violin has to be learned (this is much easier). It's a new tool with which you learn to draw in new and better ways.

Give up the pencil feel, look, pleasure or whatever you find attractive about it since you want to join the digital age. Use directly the pen tool in TVP and not any of the pencil simulation plugins. You need to draw with a digital pen to take all the advantages this unique software has to offer.

The pen tool in TVP behaves and looks exactly like a classical dippy pen the masters of drawing skills have used for centuries. The pencil was the unskilled person's substitute for a dippy pen. In the days before computers, we animators yearned for a tool that would free us from drawing with a pencil first and then having to trace the pencil lines with a dippy pen and ink (or brush and ink) on plastic sheets. What the Wacom tablet + TVP offers is the fulfillment of that wish and now every kid wants to know how to make their drawings look like pencil lines.

It'll take you a week at the most to understand this and you'll never look back. Most of us who have been using a tablet for 10 years can't even draw on paper too well anymore -- and we don't need to.

This is good advice. I have a 9X12 intuos 3 for the big iMac, and a 4X6 intuos 4 for the MacBook pro. I will take your advice and go forward. I will do this for a week and post a drawing - this is a very interesting idea to me : to look at the "slippery" as another aspect,feature, attribute of a type of drawing. So far, in my short history of digital attempts, I do like my iPhone drawings a bit more than my work on paper.
thanks again, Paul,
Kathleen

Paul Fierlinger wrote:My strongly felt advice: Don't spend the money on a cintiq yet! Get an Intuos tablet 4 for just $300 or $400 and don't put paper on top of the tablet or any other analog-world crutches but spend a full week of concentrated practice drawing with the stylus on the tablet's wonderful slippery surface. It has to be learned like playing on a violin has to be learned (this is much easier). It's a new tool with which you learn to draw in new and better ways.

Well, you can buy a used Cintiq 12" for 600-700$ on e-bay, and actually sell it for similar price in case you don't like it - there is no risk in that...

Paul Fierlinger wrote:Give up the pencil feel, look, pleasure or whatever you find attractive about it since you want to join the digital age. Use directly the pen tool in TVP and not any of the pencil simulation plugins. You need to draw with a digital pen to take all the advantages this unique software has to offer.

I would agree about changing the idea of the feel, but well, if I need something to look like a pencil for the style of my animation, I would by any means want to achieve that. Of course, the best way is actually to draw on paper, but if there is no technical possibility to do so, I would rather look for any possible way to do it digitally. I don't agree that coming into digital age should limit the style...

Paul Fierlinger wrote:The pen tool in TVP behaves and looks exactly like a classical dippy pen the masters of drawing skills have used for centuries. The pencil was the unskilled person's substitute for a dippy pen. In the days before computers, we animators yearned for a tool that would free us from drawing with a pencil first and then having to trace the pencil lines with a dippy pen and ink (or brush and ink) on plastic sheets. What the Wacom tablet + TVP offers is the fulfillment of that wish and now every kid wants to know how to make their drawings look like pencil lines.

Yes, but it only saves you one step of cleaning-up with a pencil before using a pen. You still need to draw a rough with any rough/pencil tool before cleaning... Actually, after the cells were gone, the clean-up was done on paper and on most productions there was even no need to redraw it with a pen - the pencil clean-up was quite enough, so basically I don't see how TVP saves this particular step...

Paul Fierlinger wrote:It'll take you a week at the most to understand this and you'll never look back. Most of us who have been using a tablet for 10 years can't even draw on paper too well anymore -- and we don't need to.

Well, I'm after 10 years on a tablet but with TVPaint I'm happy now to work on a Cintiq, and most happy that I didn't loose my paper skills, and never would want to...

Paul Fierlinger wrote:I also love the fact that my hand never covers my view of what I am drawing -- on the contrary, the cintiq is worse than drawing on paper in that respect because the stylus is fat and the nib short which blocks one's view of where the nib hits the glass -- and the nib of course never has direct contact with the line because of the thickness of the glass.

Totally agree - this is the only thing in Cintiq that makes me a bit nervous - I don't understand why Wacom couldn't do a thinner stylus, that would look like a normal pencil. Glass thickness bothers me less, but I agree that it's not the same as drawing, but yet comparing to a regular tablet, I think it's much more organic... But it's probably a matter of personal feeling....

But it's probably a matter of personal feeling....

It is also about the courage to change.