hi
i’ve been using a laltop and wacom pen for a while with zbrush and was wondering how zbrush would run using a tablet pc…
anyone creating with zbrush on a tablet pc?
currently looking at the HP Pavilion TX2130EA
as it’s so well priced and ships with 2 batteries and 2 gig ram as standard.
ram is important, also most tabletpcs do not have the same levels of pressure sensitivity as a wacom tablet.
Even ones that use Wacom tech don’t have much pressure sensitivity. A lot of them also have a lag, which is annoying as an artist if you want to work fast at all with speedy brush strokes.
it has 2gig ram so that looks okay and has a max of 4 gig ram
re pressure sensing…i’ve watched a few youtube reviews on it this evening and it looks pretty good from what i’ve seen so far…i’m not expecting perfection from it as such…it’s a cheap tablet, but more like usablilty
for zbrushing whilst on the move out n about and back home etc.
back home i use a el cheapo wacom bamboo a5 and a wacom a6 blue slate
both of which are budget usb pen’s and which i quite like…so if it’s in the same ball par as those i’d be pretty happy…but with the advantage of
atually drawing on the image screen rather than remotley as you do with a usb pen and which might be better when i also put tvpaint to use as ui won’t need to rotate my canvas around so much on a tablet pc i think…
i’m almost ‘there’…nr buying!
It will probably feel very similar to a Wacom Bamboo. They have lag and have low pressure sensitivity, unlike an Intuos3 or Cintiq (which you should also look into if you like to draw and Zbrush, the Intuos3 I use is a significant step up from a Bamboo, but not too expensive). I used to draw on a tablet pc with zero pressure sensitivity and a ton of lag. It was still really fun and very portable.
well ordered it… it’s on it’s way!
i’ll let you al now if it’s cool or ‘not’ when it arrives!
thanks for the feedback on this.
I agree your better off getting a tablet monitor you can draw on and its designed for wear from the pen.
for the amount of drawing youll be doing plus you have a great desktop machine quad core etc.The only thing its processing is the actual image.
Plus its far less glitchy.
i’ll let you know how the HP tablet pc works with zbrush and tv paint once it arrrives
Yes, one of our instructorsh as a tablet faced pc, and its not that great. He still uses his wacom tablet. The only time i see him using it is for texture painting, which of course doesn’t rely on pressure sensitivity, so yeah better off getting a better tablet… where I am (Canada) those tablet laptops go for $1200-1500, just get an sensitive like $200 intuos =)
the HP tablet pc arrived today…just getting rid of the bloatware on it and uninstalling nortons and microsoft office and the games…
had a play with the pen…seems pretty good so far…it’s a wacom enabled pen/screen and has the wacom logo on the laptop…
i’ll throw zbrush on in a bit and let you know if it’s going to be cool or crap!
I was looking at these the other day, they’ve gotten good response. Is yours the new tx2500z with the Echo label on it? I don’t recall a tx2130ea, but I just took a glance. It seems nice having a touch screen and a wacom tablet combined. I wasn’t a fan of the glossy screen though. Let us know what you think!
okay got Zbrush installed on it [7day eveluation for now…to see if i want it on there perm or not]
now…
bottom line is it any good for z brush?
…yes…i like it. there are some things to note though…
the pen.…only the hp pen works…my bamboo and blue slate pen do not work so don’t think your intuos pen will either…i’m guessing the hp pen has some different way to communicate even though it’s a wacom tech screen
tablet mode 100%
when you use zbrush in 100% tablet mode ie you have the screen folded ontop of the keyboard your obviously left with just the pen functions and the zbrush U.I
now here’s a weird thing…you’d expect that having your hand ‘on the screen’ would be not as good as using a off screen tablet as it will constantly obsqure parts of your model by being there but i actually get a great feeling that i’m somehow ‘more connected’ to my model…it feels more tactile to me as though you actually have a model ‘there’ under your hands…now that doesn’t make me be able to make BETTER models but the feeling does make me want to use and play in zbrush more…so more time should mean better at modeling!..like i said …weird!
in 100% tablet mode downsides>>[landscape]
so…how do you hide parts of a mesh and reveal them…you can’t…or i havn’t found the equivalent ‘u.i. button’ as yet…maybe there’s a way to add a button…any ideas?
same with painting a mask…no u.i button to take you into that mode.
the esaure end of the pen sculpts into you model whilst the nib pushes out when using z add…as you’d expect
the button on the pen is pretty crappy…doesn’t feel easy to use yet…mind you i’ve never got on with buttons on any pens really well as yet so that maybe just me…
the screen size is fine…screen res is 1200 x 800 on the 12.1" screen btw.
tablet 50/50% mode… [landscape]
now you can spin the screen round and NOT fold the screen onto the keys…
this saves space…your sreen is tilted at around 30 to 45 degrees…in this mode you can have access to the keyboard though you can’t ‘see’ the keys it’s not hard at all to put your other hand resting on the shift and cntrl keys so masking and hiding/revealing polys is simple again…
getting to the alt key is not so easy but with practice you could learn where it was without looking i reckon.
100% laptop mode [landscape]
just like a normal laptop you have access to all the keys on the keyboard and the trackpad plus you can use the screen to draw/sculpt on…this is the lowest learning curve way to get on and if you have room where your sat then it’s works really well
say on a train/plane/bus/small car
flipping the screen around
now you can run the screen in 4 ways…
1.landscape with the bottom of the viewport where the hinge is
2…landscape with the bottom of the viewport where the top of the screen is
3.portrait where the hinge is to the right of your screen
4.portrait where the hinge is to the left of your screen
now…in portrait mode [4] zbrush flips the pen so everything is reversed…up is down and left is right…so not working well!..i’d guess you could recallibrate the screen to make it work but then i’d also guess the other 3 modes would then be flipped out…maybe…!
now this is down to zbrush…windows is fine in ANY mode and i just checked with 3dsmax…it works okay in all 4 modes…
maybe a bug fix will solve that from pixologic.
re pressure sensativity
it’s as good or better than my wacom bamboo medium…i’ve also not set anything up…this is the factory settings out the box…works really well so far.
re heat from the laptop
as it’s a tablet pc there will be lots of times you’ll have this actually ‘on your lap’ and not your typical ‘laptop on a desk’ so heat is going to be important aspect…
the main vent on the HP is on the back right corner so you’ll need to keep that clear and not have your hand hold that corner as hot air is blow out when the fan runs…which is not all the time btw.
i’ll post more later
Hey, thanks for the info. I was really wondering how this would work out for you with ZBrush, even though I use Macs mainly. I’ve always had my eye on tablet pc’s because the only Mac tablet is the Modbook. It looks nice, and I would buy one now, but there’s a long waiting line that runs to the end of August. Add that with the fact that it’s not a MBPro and they’ve run into bluetooth and cursor issues. Suddenly, it becomes hard to get excited with that high of a markup in price.
My solid prediction is that Pixologic is VERY close to releasing a dual platform update. Maybe you’ll get lucky with your new purchase and they’ll add some tablet interface options for you. Anyways, have fun ZBrushing portable tablet style!