Adobe's Project Mighty & Napoleon

I was very kindly given an I pad by my wife and have been using it to very poorly sketch landscapes in the field and then come back home and digitally finish it. I have been using Sketch Book Pro both on the pad and desktop and on the pad Adobe Ideas. Both are great apps on the pad but it takes great care to get the lines precisely where you want them so it is with much interest I saw Project Mighty & Napoleon which would make this type of sketching mush easier. Have a look here and see what you think: http://www.geek.com/tablets/adobe-an...ruler-1554321/

From the introduction of Wacom's Inkling to P/Shop on the I pad and with Adobe Ideas which relates to Illustrator the time for using paper then scanning into desktop is finished. With the development taking place in the "Clouds" I am beginning to think the desktop is finished and most work will be done on tablets.

The problem is always size. It is more convenient to work large. For example, if you are working on a full page ad or spread, you can only work on a section at a time.

Adobe issued some "Touch" apps that tie in with their Creative Suite that were introduced first for Android devices and then some time later made available for the iPad. IOW they made the Apple users wait, even though most design professionals use Apple products.

For Adobe to compete with Apple in the hardware field makes perfect sense since the two companies have been engaged in a pissing contest almost since day one. And Apple drove the spike through the heart of Flash (a product acquired from Macromedia) for mobile devices which prevented Adobe from profiting from the proliferation of mobile devices.

Apple drove the spike through the heart of Flash

Very succinct!

Generally speaking the design of tablet software is still in it's infancy. The early products on tablets are companies finding their feet. For the moment tablet sizes are too small to compete with the desktop, but that may change.

My prediction is that a company may produce a large tablet once the cost of manufacture (and weight) makes it viable for the market. It would be very useful for a lot of things.

@albacore -- can you tell me why you would prefer drawing on a tablet, as opposed to pencil, or pen, on paper? Unless I'm wrong, you get FAR more control with a pencil, and it's easy enough to take a photo of the sketch and import it.

I have the basic Bamboo tablet, and it works very well. But it is nowhere-near as convenient as pencil and paper. I guess I'm missing something here. But it seems like trying drawing on a computer is like trying to stuff a cruise missile engine into a Model T Ford. A bad use of technology?

Although I guess if the sketching program yielded intelligent vector artwork, like a building sketch where the software would generete a bill-of-materials, or an electrical and plumbing schematic... like if you drew a bathtub, it would put in all the pipes. Or if you sketched a car, then picked an engine/transmission package off a list, it would start generating CAD drawings and make suggestions like, 'Sorry, that BMW V-12 isn't going to fit in your 90"-wheelbase design.'

Anyway, I'd like to hear more about why you -- and others -- prefer drawing on a tablet more than drawing on paper...

Jon I live in Scotland on the coast and they say the weather here changes very quickly so getting a pencil/pen and pad out can be slightly tricky. Normally it is the wind that causes most problems not the rain although the actual area is the 3rd wettest area in the UK so the pad in a binder works. I use a stylus which is not the usual rounded point thing where you don't have any control this has a sharper point which is better. Now I must be clear here I would prefer to use a charcoal pencil or roller ball pen and then use the traditional way to get it into PS/AI to finish it off digitally as my skills do not include watercolour or oils.

I have tried many times to use a wacom with my desktop programmes like you say it never really works but outside the I Pad is nearly like using a pencil. It is because it's so thin that you can twist and turn it about just like I would use a paper pad. I am not the type who can draw a landscape with the page held in one orientation like you see when an artist uses an easel. I tried the Wacom Inkling for about 4 hours, as I liked the idea of it, using paper and pencil which transfers automatically into AI/PS but it suffers from the same problem. I nearly ended up standing on my head using it as you have to keep the transfer head clipped onto the paper in the same place which restricted your hand movement.

You should try SketchBook Pro 6! as it has all the tools that you need for a raster package. It has templates with all the perspective grids that you need or want. I start drawing very crudely but I think quickly then using layers start to refine the drawing just working with lines with just a bit of shading, more like a pen & ink drawing and then stop. I take a few pictures of it through Apples sh_ te camera and I always feel silly here holding up, what looks like a personal folder, into the air to take the pictures. At home then I use Kuler to generate a restricted palette to use in PS.

When I first posted here at start of thread, like the big eejit (idiot) I am I posted it in the Gallery instead of the "chat" so I better look out one of my better ones and upload it.

Sketchbook Pro 6 looks like quite a program! For me though... just like with video... I think I'm going to draw a line and not cross it... here, just sticking with pen, pencil, paper. BTW, I use the dirt-cheap Bic Cristal black ballpoint pens (fairly waterproof) see http://www.bicworld.com/en/products/details/7/ ... and the Sharpie Pen fine point, black, http://www.sharpie.com/enus/pages/fine-point-pen.aspx ... really waterproof. Gel pens are no good. The Sharpie draws really 'fast'... less paper friction than the Bic. So you can do light-line low-pressure shading and cross-hatching with the Bic, but with the Sharpie, think solid black lines, however thin. Like an old technical Rapidograph pen, but the Sharpie never clogs up!

Am thinking of you in the wind and rain with that iPad... it's an Apple ad! But keep it dry... one of my stepsons had an iPhone and it got wet and Apple wouldn't fix it because some little telltale thing turned white and voided the warranty. I guess the warranty didn't cover it if it got really wet.

But it is still a good visual for an ad... artist on stormswept headland, the sea, the howling wind and spitting rain.

As an aside, they are cranking up the America's Cup now, up in San Francisco. A new 72' catamaran class, 50 mph, dangerous. I grew up in San Fran, sailed now and then, but not really seriously. The Bay can be tough when the tide is coming in along with the wind. This Cup will be really good on TV, exciting.