Vol.
2, Issue 10
February 3, 2000
Painting
on Polygons:
Q&A
by
Rick "Flatness"
Grossenbacher
’ve
been backlogged with quite a few questions so I thought I’d
devote this entire week’s column to just that. I’m not
going to have the time to get any critiques in, so I’ll do
those next week. So, let’s get right at those questions.
QUESTION
by Phil E (evangelion@aol.com)
about drawing tablets:
I was
wondering what computer drawing pad do you use for making textures
such in Photoshop? Is there a good brand to buy?
ANSWER:
I myself
never got much into using a drawing tablet (although I had one
sitting on my desk when I was working at Ion Storm), but many
artists do like them and swear by them. I have always thought
the ones by Wacom were quite nice. The bad news is that if you
want to get a nice one like the ones we used at Ion (and the kind
I see many other artists using at other companies), the Intuos
6x8 Graphics Tablet with Pen, for instance, will set you back
a couple of bucks. That baby costs over $300. CompUSA’s latest
price was $329.00, in fact. Ouch. So, if that is out of your price
range you may want to look around and see if you can find something
cheaper or simply try to find some reviews written up somewhere
on the Internet that give ratings of drawing tablets.
Editor's
Note: I've
used a comparitively teeny 4x5 Wacom tablet for years now, and
while the larger ones are certainly nicer, I still don't think
they're necessarily worth the money. It takes some getting used
to, but the smaller tablets (which are at least half the price
- you can easily find one for under $150) work just as well, especially
if you're just getting into digital art.
QUESTION
by Scoll (scoll@hyperjump.de)
about 3-D Studio MAX:
What kind
of viewmode do you use for editing?
ANSWER:
Generally
I am switching my viewports constantly (between Top, Front, Left,
Perspective/Camera). I have a camera set up in almost every scene
that I do, but I don’t necessarily use it all the time. As
for inside the viewport -- I usually have it set to Smooth + Highlights
and also I quite often have edged faces checked. Sometimes I go
to wireframe, but not very often (it really depends on what I’m
creating). Also, I quite often click the Min/Max Toggle button
to extend the current viewport to large view (it’s the little
button at the bottom right corner of the screen).
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