Hawg wild!

[kinetica]

Hello Frances

I just went to your website and I would like to congratulate you on the very professional and indeed funny Sunshine PDFs you create. They certainly raised a giggle here

(I like the "Sports Illustrated" one - I can relate to it!!!)

[a4hire]

This has been brought up before in the Xtreme forums if you hold down the esc key with some sort of weight it is easier to draw with a tablet. I use a small beach rock.

You place a rock on it ? And then ? I dont understand it at the moment. I guess I am going to have to try it. But it really is easier in illustrator.

[handrawn]

Bruce - if you keep the escape key held down then everything remains unselected and no lines join up when you don't want them to

[handrawn]

dang that accidental keystroke that submits the post too soon - bane of my life

tablet work is easier in illustrator IMO

nice drawing Bruce

[jonnycross]

Thank you Morphonius
yes there is a bit of a learning curve with the tablet, I am still learning, I just need to use it more and become comfortable with it as you have said.

I found that using the pen all the time (instead of the mouse,) makes things easier to get used to.

regards jonnycross

[morphonius_821]

I found that using the pen all the time (instead of the mouse,) makes things easier to get used to.
regards jonnycross

Hey Jonny,
I like your signature quote....
I have one which I have often thought to myself (but never really vocalized) which is simply a personal belief of mine which is very similar to this...

"To know someone is to love that someone.".

If you read this without thinking on more than a superficial level then i can understand why most people would be thinking: WTF?.

Its slightly esoteric. But I really believe it to be a fact on a fundamental level and to understand this you would obviously have to work on your definition of the word "know" hence the italics.

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(P.S people that are bored by long posts get off here)
Anyway.....
The pen... yeah I'm fairly comfortable with using it, but i have to admit i would never sacrifice my mouse or pretend the pen could ever be a serious contender to replace it either.

I have thought long and hard about the pen vs mouse thing and one of my conclusions relates to the mechanics of the hand position on the mouse during operation...
i.e with the palm on the table and the thumb and 3rd finger squeezing inward at an angle on both sides.
This reminds me of the setup they have for rotating the turret of a large telescope where they have 2 motors working in opposition to completely remove the slack from the gearing and to buffer the movement etc making it very smooth

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the pen promises unparalelled precision as the effective resolution is 3 or 4 times higher...
To test this simply hold a pen in your hand and put a peice of paper under your mouse and see how big your screen maps onto your mouse pad...then do the same on your wacom pen...
Depending on what size you have.... anyway the pad has much more real estate and this factor alone is quite telling...(or so it would seem superficially)

But I would argue that during operation, the pen itself can often be perched above the pad during use (moving from place to place) and has to be moved/tapped down during operation (to left click).... which is not a big problem in itself as it does work well enough BUT...

The rock solid nature of the hand position on the mouse coupled with the superior mechanical action of apposing forces in balance etc.. makes up for its smaller "Map" and then some....i.e it is so rock solid that moving it with extreme accuracy is easy...
Furthermore as your hand is "all over it" and resting on the table on the sides and back....clicking without adversely effecting the pointer position is a breeze.

The pen is quicker for a reasonable level of accuracy but i think if you really wanted to max out your resolution/quality then your would have to keep the pen anchored to the mat permanently and use pedals for the mouse buttons...
i.e eliminate the need to have to effect your pointer position slightly when using the buttons on the pen itself as this is also a factor which works against its accuracy.
(Especially if the button on the pen is pressed when it is in mid air as this can move the pen significantly and when in the process of descending downward as part of a tap down action this can be enough to move the pointer out by a few pixels....)

Not a biggie but annoying as you don't realize these things when you first buy one. I think if you understand the limitations and advantages of both you will find a balance and use each appropriately.

[handrawn]

disable buttons on pen
do not click with pen - click with mouse in other hand
sorted

[morphonius_821]

Part of the reason some people get pen input devices is the promise of increased speed. (This was a major factor for me.)

Tying up both hands to operate what effectively adds up to one mouse and in the process eliminating the availability of all ones "spare hand" for keyboard shorts...more than eliminates (by a long shot) any gains in input speed one could otherwise achieve by using the pen instead of the mouse.

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[about using mouse and pen at the same time...]

P.S.

Believe me when I when i first got my wacom i exhaustively examined this and many other issues from multiple angles as it failed to meet my lofty expectations...and of course this idea did come up...

I even taped over the optical sensor on my mouse at one point so as to trial such a system...
It was a little bit annoying as the Wacom driver would not allow one to disable the nib of the pen... so one would still have to carefully place the first point when placing the pen down and then take care to keep it in contact with the pad for the whole input ETC (not a big ask but still a factor that meant more care to get this scheme working for a device that was purchased to make my input experience easier and more fun.) Plus as i already said the matter of the keyboard shorts which as it turned out anyway was the deal breaker....

Just for your information when i purchased my Wacom tablet the tap down action could not be used to do right clicks so it was necessary to do right clicks via the button on the shaft of the pen.
(i.e as right clicks are essential for inputting in the embroidery app i use).
This resulted in a loss of quality and much frustration as with my mouse I have no problem getting pixel perfect allignments for various things that became hit and miss with the pen.

- - - - - - - - - -
[about mouse button swappers...]

So in the end i got my brother to write a mouse button swapper.
Why....? because all of 6 or 7 mouse button swappers i downloaded from the internet at the time (which were designed for mice) failed to work properly and/or reliably with the Wacom tablet. (Which interfered with all of them in strange ways...)
So in the end my brother told me he had to do some really "hard core shit" (His words) to get it to work in conjunction with the Wacom pad.
At the same time i contacted the design team for Wacom and got them to fix this...and they did....you can now use one of the pen buttons as a hot key to change the nib to a right mouse....(But it did take a year or two for this to eventually happen and in the mean time when i did use the pen i utilized this button swapper to do the same.)
This made a bit of a difference as i have learned to live with the tap down action for right and left clicks...but i still yearn for the promise of somehow taking full advantage of the pen's insane resolution by eliminating the tap down all together (with-out sacrificing my left hand) and also by disabling the nib......(which is still not possible...maybe i should hassle them again for this....)

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[a bit of fun...]

P.P.S i can think of a couple of really whacky ways this (No hands mouse clicking) could be achieved (if you feel like a laugh read on):
1) audio prompts...(ie wear a head set and use software to interpret sound to trigger Left or Right clicks... perhaps by making clicking sounds with the tongue. Hey what could be cooler!)
2) pedals (Don't laugh, you heard of Deep Vein Thrombosis? LOL)...
3) Individual and deliberate blinking of the right or left eye independantly. (Alot of work is going into gesture for controlling the UI so this is not so far fetched although... But I guess you could get into a nasty habit and start looking like you were insane!)
4) Dermal Trigger sensors (Sounds wild but you can get ittle suction cup sensors... you could attach them to a muscle group of your choice and twitch that to effect your "clicks"...right and left calves perhaps.....?)
please feel free to add in some of your own LOL.

[handrawn]

so: keep the pen in your hand at all times [over thumb under index over 2nd finger as you use the mouse - index for left and middle buttons third finger for right] leaving the other hand free...

thats what I do myself

[morphonius_821]

Sorry i was busy editing and adding to my post and missed you there:
yeah....I kinda do use a hotch potch now and im not even sure what i do to be honest, i just do it....