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[OT] Digital Art hardware/software tips & tricks mega thread! Newbs and Pros welcome

S

Shogmaster

Member
We already have an art tablet/2in1 deals thread going for the last year or so, but that thread is getting too hard to see the deal posts due to general art tablet discussion. So I want to move that general discussion to this thread, along with posts for discussing tips and tricks for hardware and software.

I encourage everyone interested to contribute, whether you are a pro or new to the whole digital art thing. More the merrier. Basically anything digital art related. And hopefully we can keep that Deal thread for hardware and software deals so that ppl aren't likely to miss some killer deals.
 
Z

Zaru

Member
Shogmaster's way is probably more portable and cheaper but I've had some joy mapping countless shortcuts to a Logitech G13.

Ed80RH7.png


Specifically, mapping multi-key shortcuts like undo/redo to dedicated keys is wonderful, and your hand barely needs to move.
 
S

Shogmaster

Member
Zaru said:
Shogmaster's way is probably more portable and cheaper but I've had some joy mapping countless shortcuts to a Logitech G13.

Ed80RH7.png


Specifically, mapping multi-key shortcuts like undo/redo to dedicated keys is wonderful, and your hand barely needs to move.
Click to expand...

I think those are great for desktop/Cintiq situations. My cheap BT remote is better for on the go situations.

Any details on how the experience is with that thing? Price and such would be great as well.
 
D

DarthWoo

I'm glad Grandpa porked a Chinese Muslim
This seems like a welcome thread. I'm hopelessly rusty at this point. The last digital painting I devoted any effort to was more than half a decade ago now, and while I could throw money at frivolous things back then, I can't really afford new tools, even when they're as inexpensive as some of the things in that other thread. I'm stuck with an obsolete Intuos 3. The newest thing I do have is Clip Studio Paint that I got when the deal was posted about it last year. I have been skimming through http://www.clipstudio.net/en/howto to try to get some tips, but I just never really get around to trying to jump back into this.

Back when I still did this stuff regularly, I kind of cheated a lot by using Poser to create reference models for shading purposes. That by itself might not have been so bad, but often I would just end up shoving the image I exported from Poser into a bottom layer and repeatedly switching back and forth to tell where my shadows were supposed to go. Even with that aid I was very inefficient. A full painting could take a dozen hours or more.
 
S

Shogmaster

Member
DarthWoo said:
This seems like a welcome thread. I'm hopelessly rusty at this point. The last digital painting I devoted any effort to was more than half a decade ago now, and while I could throw money at frivolous things back then, I can't really afford new tools, even when they're as inexpensive as some of the things in that other thread. I'm stuck with an obsolete Intuos 3. The newest thing I do have is Clip Studio Paint that I got when the deal was posted about it last year. I have been skimming through http://www.clipstudio.net/en/howto to try to get some tips, but I just never really get around to trying to jump back into this.

Back when I still did this stuff regularly, I kind of cheated a lot by using Poser to create reference models for shading purposes. That by itself might not have been so bad, but often I would just end up shoving the image I exported from Poser into a bottom layer and repeatedly switching back and forth to tell where my shadows were supposed to go. Even with that aid I was very inefficient. A full painting could take a dozen hours or more.
Click to expand...
Intuos 3 is far from obsolete. I still use 21UX based on Intuos 3 (DTZ-2100). As long as that thing still works, it's great.

I'll try to post more videos on how I use Clip Studio Paint, but it will be for sketching not painting. If you find great tutorials, please post in this thread.
 
D

Doc Holliday

SPOILER: Columbus finds America
Still rocking the Intuos 3 when I'm not on the cintiq. Word of caution, latest drivers do not work with windows 10, right now I'm using windows 8 drivers.

I have a 22HD but I still prefer the 21 UX because it doesn't have the shitty Anti glare coating. So if you can find a decent 21UX, go for that instead of getting a 22hd.

SHog, any word on the AG coating situation on the the new cintiqs?

Back when I still did this stuff regularly, I kind of cheated a lot by using Poser to create reference models for shading purposes. That by itself might not have been so bad, but often I would just end up shoving the image I exported from Poser into a bottom layer and repeatedly switching back and forth to tell where my shadows were supposed to go. Even with that aid I was very inefficient. A full painting could take a dozen hours or more.
Click to expand...

Welcome to modern concept art ;)

Fun little tools I use....

http://www.taron.de/forum/ Free paint app that uses GPU fluid sim to emulate paint

https://www.pureref.com/ Awesome mood/reference image viewer, not free but worth it imo

http://www.makehuman.org/ - free poser like app, easier to use
 
S

Shogmaster

Member
Doc Holliday said:
Still rocking the Intuos 3 when I'm not on the cintiq. Word of caution, latest drivers do not work with windows 10, right now I'm using windows 8 drivers.
Click to expand...

That's a great pro tip. NEVER delete your old Wacom drivers lol. I have drivers going back to like 2005 on my SSD. :D

I have a 22HD but I still prefer the 21 UX because it doesn't have the shitty Anti glare coating. So if you can find a decent 21UX, go for that instead of getting a 22hd.

SHog, any word on the AG coating situation on the the new cintiqs?
Click to expand...

I have no idea what they are planning with the next large Cintiq. I have been cut off completely... :(

Welcome to modern concept art ;)

Fun little tools I use....

http://www.taron.de/forum/ Free paint app that uses GPU fluid sim to emulate paint

https://www.pureref.com/ Awesome mood/reference image viewer, not free but worth it imo

http://www.makehuman.org/ - free poser like app, easier to use
Click to expand...

These are great! Muchas grassy ass.
 
D

Doc Holliday

SPOILER: Columbus finds America
Shogmaster said:
That's a great pro tip. NEVER delete your old Wacom drivers lol. I have drivers going back to like 2005 on my SSD. :D



I have no idea what they are planning with the next large Cintiq. I have been cut off completely... :(
Click to expand...


I was talking about the 13 " and 16 " models they just released. I was wondering if they went back to the plastic screens.
 
S

Shogmaster

Member
Doc Holliday said:
I was talking about the 13 " and 16 " models they just released. I was wondering if they went back to the plastic screens.
Click to expand...

Those I'm sure are bonded glass. But IIRC they have slight texture.

But I would hold off on the Cintiq Pro 13 and 16. The Wacom Link situation is complete shit show from what I can tell.
 
S

Shaanyboi

Banned
Any tips or online tutorials for painting in Photoshop? I'm trying to work with color alot more but some new lessons are always helpful.
 
4

4 is a cutie

Banned
I'm getting tired of using my no-screen tablet; what's considered the best Cintiq alternative? I was thinking about this but it seems like it lacks stuff like buttons and a eraser
 
base shagohod

base shagohod

Member
Definitely subbing. I have a Monoprice 19-inch tablet (monitor) that I finally got up and running on Windows 10 last week. Monoprice currently doesn't even have my tablet on their site, so I had to get drivers from a similar Huion tablet.. was a huge pain in the ass.

If anyone is having trouble hunting down the right drivers to use for a non-Wacom tablet, let me know. It took me a good two weeks of off-and-on hunting to track mine down lol.

I'll be back later to post a few of the Photoshop plugins I use and this really legit brush pack. Thanks for starting this thread!
 
L

Loona

Member
Is there anything resembling a comfortable/reasonable position for using a drawing tablet with a laptop?
The screen feels pretty distant if I have the keyboard between the screen and the tablet, as if the disconnect from the visible drawing and the drawing surface wasn't enough, but if I have them side-by-side the misalignment feels as weird or weirder...
 
B

Bad_Boy

time to take my meds
Anybody recommend a good travel case for a surface book? I plan on putting my SB in my bookbag a lot and i dont want it getting all scratched up in my travels. Even better if they have a matching keyboard/mouse case.
 
chekhonte

chekhonte

Member
Just noticed that my Surface pro 3 just got a firmware update, presumably the one that updates the digitizer for the new pen. I'm seriously champing at the bit for that thing and 8 more days is just too long to wait.
 
M

Mailbox

Member
A part of me wants to just buy a switch joycon to use as a bluetooth one-handed controller,
But getting a single joycon + charge station is like $100 total in canada :(

kabel said:
Everyone is buying some drawing software just to try digital painting while this thing exists: https://krita.org/en/
Click to expand...

tbh, i tried Krita for a bit and really disliked it (i think i had issues how the lines had horrible anti-aliasing) I found Fire Alpaca/ Medibang to be a great starting point.
 
D

Divvy

Canadians burned my passport
Nice thread.

I just wanted to add that I purchased a new XP-Pen Artist 22E recently since my Cintiq was dying and it's been amazing considering it's only 1/3 of the price of the 22 inch cintiq. Anyone looking for a cheap alternative should look into it.
 
R

Rootbeer

Banned
Thanks for the videos Shog. It's been interesting so far. Watching second one now.

Curious if anyone has experience with custom brushes for CSP. Particularly the ones from DAUB or Frenden? Please suggest your own sets if you know of any others, and if they were worth the price for the ones that cost.

I also notice some people are starting to praise Krita for its brush system as well. Thoughts on it?
 
S

Shogmaster

Member
Zulithe said:
Thanks for the videos Shog. It's been interesting so far. Watching second one now.

Curious if anyone has experience with custom brushes for CSP. Particularly the ones from DAUB or Frenden? Please suggest your own sets if you know of any others, and if they were worth the price for the ones that cost.

I also notice some people are starting to praise Krita for its brush system as well. Thoughts on it?
Click to expand...
I think I'll eventually end up doing the entire 15 week course breakdown in videos. This was my intro to vehicle drawing class basically.

As for custom brushes in CSP, I don't really bother. Probably out of laziness. I just slightly tweak default brushes to my liking. And as I try more and more apps, I just keep coming back to CSP. It's still the best IMO.
 
S

Shogmaster

Member
Useless but nevertheless true protip: If you put a projected capacitive multi-touch pen tablet on top of an EMR Ciniq, the EMR interference will hamper the static touch and pen operations of the tablet. My Miix 700's multi touch and pen stopped working and I thought it broke ad I was bummed. It turns out using it on top of my Cintiq 21UX was cockblocking it's touch and pen operations...
 
L

LouisaFerre

Member
So I got my yoga 14 and active pen the other day. When trying out paint tool sai , a lot of the time the seems to be an issue where lifting the pen too far off the screen triggers a maximum pressure click. Is this a driver issue?
 
U

UltraJay

Member
I haven't painted or drawn since high school and haven't really dealt with digital art except for cutting out figures and shapes then cleaning the edges to have surrounding transparency + using the clone tool to clean scanned imperfections on cards from games.

I've had a Surface Pro 1 since release and have never really used it for art. What I'm wondering is what people think of using tablets and drawing directly on the screen versus using a Intuos with a keyboard for shortcuts and a larger monitor. Is that Surface studio dial accessory a great addition for a tablet? Maybe there is a way to use a table like a Surface and duplicate it to a larger screen for viewing so the Surface becomes almost like a Intuos with a screen?

I also was buying cert course during the Udemy sale and also bought some drawing tutorials by Jaysen Batchelor here and here as well as a complete Blender crash course. Hopefully they can get me started. I know there are plenty of free online tutorials but I like the setup of Udemy plus I didn't pay that much. I can still use tutorials posted here as well, of course.
 
S

Shogmaster

Member
LouisaFerre said:
So I got my yoga 14 and active pen the other day. When trying out paint tool sai , a lot of the time the seems to be an issue where lifting the pen too far off the screen triggers a maximum pressure click. Is this a driver issue?
Click to expand...

Does it do it with both the silo pen and the second pen you bought? Does it do it with other software? Try downloading Clip Studio Paint trial and try with both pens to see if it has the same issue.
 
S

Shogmaster

Member
UltraJay said:
I haven't painted or drawn since high school and haven't really dealt with digital art except for cutting out figures and shapes then cleaning the edges to have surrounding transparency + using the clone tool to clean scanned imperfections on cards from games.

I've had a Surface Pro 1 since release and have never really used it for art. What I'm wondering is what people think of using tablets and drawing directly on the screen versus using a Intuos with a keyboard for shortcuts and a larger monitor. Is that Surface studio dial accessory a great addition for a tablet? Maybe there is a way to use a table like a Surface and duplicate it to a larger screen for viewing so the Surface becomes almost like a Intuos with a screen?

I also was buying cert course during the Udemy sale and also bought some drawing tutorials by Jaysen Batchelor here and here as well as a complete Blender crash course. Hopefully they can get me started. I know there are plenty of free online tutorials but I like the setup of Udemy plus I didn't pay that much. I can still use tutorials posted here as well, of course.
Click to expand...
Most ppl find drawing directly on the screen much easier than drawing on an Intuos looking away from your hands.

Surface Dial IMO is a gimmick. Not a necessity by any stretch.

You can attach a second monitor to your Surface Pro 1 and use the SP1 screen only for drawing and have the rest of the UI on the second large monitor.

Paid tutorials should be a great motivator for you to start since you actually spent money on them. :)
 
F

Fancolors

Member
Zulithe said:
Curious if anyone has experience with custom brushes for CSP. Particularly the ones from DAUB or Frenden? Please suggest your own sets if you know of any others, and if they were worth the price for the ones that cost.
Click to expand...

I own both brush sets. They are really good if you are looking for rough textures sets. I'm particularly fond of the DAUB watercolors/pigments and Frenden's dry media.

You could probably make similar brushes if you fiddle enough with the CSP's materials, but I like how convenient it is to have a big collection of brushes at my disposal.
 
L

LouisaFerre

Member
Shogmaster said:
Does it do it with both the silo pen and the second pen you bought? Does it do it with other software? Try downloading Clip Studio Paint trial and try with both pens to see if it has the same issue.
Click to expand...

Either I'm blind, or mine doesn't appear to have a Pen Silo on the case. Is this something that only came with certain models? The active pen I brought is the only stylus I have. Currently downloading Clip Studio, btw. Will return with results later.
 
S

Shogmaster

Member
LouisaFerre said:
Either I'm blind, or mine doesn't appear to have a Pen Silo on the case. Is this something that only came with certain models? The active pen I brought is the only stylus I have. Currently downloading Clip Studio, btw. Will return with results later.
Click to expand...
You are not blind. I forgot that you bought a 20DM model. 20FY model has silo pen. Sorry about that.

Lets rule out a faulty pen. Also make sure that the nib is well seated in the tip.
 
D

DarthWoo

I'm glad Grandpa porked a Chinese Muslim
Just thought I'd ask this here: are there any free equivalents to Poser? I don't need the full range of features that Poser has; all I really need is something with which I can fiddle with poses to create a reference for proper kinematic limits and shading. Basically a digital version of one of those little articulated mannequins without all the bells and whistles of Poser.
 
R

Rootbeer

Banned
New CSP 1.6.6 (Japanese only, for now) released! Support for new Surface products.

https://www.clip-studio.com/clip_site/mypage/newsdetail?publish=201706&f=2017061501

Anyone else disappointed by how slow the English version of CSP gets updated? We are still on 1.6.2 which is lacking a lot of improvements.

Fancolors said:
I own both brush sets. They are really good if you are looking for rough textures sets. I'm particularly fond of the DAUB watercolors/pigments and Frenden's dry media.

You could probably make similar brushes if you fiddle enough with the CSP's materials, but I like how convenient it is to have a big collection of brushes at my disposal.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your thoughts. I'm gonna have to take a dive and see what I think I guess.
 
chekhonte

chekhonte

Member
What paint/drawing program on windows have brush tilt function? Googling is proving impossible because of google tilt brush vr.
 
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