Using a Wacom... huh?

mygrimmbrother · 16 October, 2009, 06:15:28 PM

I have recently been experimenting with a wacom bamboo for the first time, using it to manipulate colour in photoshop. I'd like to use it for inking in illustrator, but i can't seem to work out how to do the pressure-sensitive thing. So far, I'm just selecting a brush and then using the wacom as a substitute for the mouse, but it ain't pressure sensitive. what am i doing wrong guys?

i have to admit that i'm new to illustrator too, and i've borrowed the wacom off a colleague, so i'm not sure what model it is, just a basic bamboo i guess (it has a nib sort of like a ballpoint pen if that helps...)

Any suggestions chaps?

Mike Gloady · 16 October, 2009, 07:13:31 PM

Not able to help myself, but am in the market for one as a christmas pressie to myself.

Oddly I only looked at this thread because, I pooh you not, I misread it as "Using a woman... huh?" which is something I'm SURE I could have helped you with (yeah, right!)

mygrimmbrother · 16 October, 2009, 07:19:15 PM

Frankly Mike, I'll take advice on either!

uncle fester · 16 October, 2009, 07:47:14 PM

Hey Grimm. The pressure sensitive thing only kicks in in Photoshop as far as I know. Illustrator deals in vectors and paths and other such witchcraft, not pixel manipulation.

I only use Illustrator for panel framing and lettering - everything else in PS. Maybe Jim or Bolt (or PJ??) could confirm. Pressure sensitivity is as much as you want it to be in Photoshop, particularly with the airbrush brushes selected), and that really does make a massive difference in plain black and white pictures.

Oddly there is a bit of a quirk if you leave PS open and go off for your tea or something, as when you leave it for long periods, the sensitivity switches off and you may as well be in Illustrator (Save, switch it off and switch it on again works at this point!)

Hope this helps.

mygrimmbrother · 16 October, 2009, 07:49:46 PM

Hmmm, thanks for that Fester, but I tried it in photoshop first - got the same thing, select your brush tool and the marks made are not pressure sensitive, the wacom is effectively just a substitute for the mouse. Got me wondering whether it has to be enabled somehwere first..?

chris_askham · 16 October, 2009, 08:00:36 PM

Are you using pc or mac, mygrimmbrother?

I have an old wacom graphire something or other, and on pc I have a wacom folder/button/icon in control panel that lets me alter the sensitivity.

Chris.

uncle fester · 16 October, 2009, 08:02:11 PM

Hmmm. Odd. Other than reinstalling the driver disc, I'm not sure what to do there. I've had a look in the help section on mine and there's no real options to change settings. It's more plug and play (although mine is ten years old). I recently transferred it when I bought a new computer but other than putting the disc in to get the two things to talk to each other, it didn't require any special set-up.

Umm...Perhaps ask your mate if there was anything procedure-wise he had to follow on installation?

Sorry I can't be of any more help.

uncle fester · 16 October, 2009, 08:07:16 PM

On reflection, some of the brush presets don't react to sensitivity... Airbrush is one that does. That might be it?

mygrimmbrother · 16 October, 2009, 08:14:13 PM

Cheers dudes. I'm on a pc (since my old imac G3 died - sniff!), but i must confess I don't have a disc, just plugged it in. I'll have a look in the control panel though and see how I get on.

Thanks again.

pauljholden · 16 October, 2009, 08:15:34 PM

IIRC all the wacom tablets are pressure sensative, and various tools (certainly in photoshop) can be selected to do different things with that sensitivity (you might, for example, set the pressure to select the opacity of the colouring rather than the width of the brush). I tend to use the pen tool in photoshop which is with a wacom sapphire - all works fine for me. I've never used illustrator for much, though, so have no idea if it does the same stuff in there.

-pj

uncle fester · 16 October, 2009, 08:21:43 PM

Quote from: pauljholden on 16 October, 2009, 08:15:34 PM
(you might, for example, set the pressure to select the opacity of the colouring rather than the width of the brush)

-pj

You learn something new every day!

Drivers are downloadable from here too(if you didn't know already)

http://www.wacom.com/downloads/drivers.php

Professor Bear · 16 October, 2009, 08:43:40 PM

I have this problem on and off, but it usually isn't a problem nowadays if I make sure that the tablet is plugged in before I run photoshop, or just restart the program. Vista has tablet drivers as standard as far as I'm aware (the little handwriting recognition window that wouldn't go away from the desktop used to bug the shit out of me), but specific makes may need a driver download, and I recall back in the day that XP was temperamental about tablets in general. Check your OS' toolbar for something like Pen Flicks, or anything that might conceivably be related to the tablet - there's usually something there.
And it probably isn't this, but make sure that 'shape dynamics' is ticked in the 'brushes' pull-down menu in PS.

chris_askham · 16 October, 2009, 09:07:47 PM

If you follow the link below there's some stuff on setting pen sensitivity, which may or may not help.

http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Photoshop/10.0/help.html?content=WS7EE7587B-452F-4271-8252-898FCA43C27C.html

SuperSurfer · 17 October, 2009, 12:18:42 PM

I'm a Mac man, mygrim', but if I would also suggest you download the most suitable drivers from the Wacom website. Wacom seem to be very good with updating all that and they have older software depending on your system available for download. On a Mac the settings are in system preferences but not sure what the equivalent is on a PC. Brushes in Illustrator are pressure sensitive (see doodle attached). Not familiar with a Bamboo as I have an old Intuos 2 which, other than the bit of odd misbehaving now and then is a fine tool.

JohnnyBoyB · 20 October, 2009, 10:37:49 AM

I've read in some previous replies that all Wacoms are pressure sensitive. I'm not sure if it's true. Mine is a Cintiq, a long way from a Bamboo. But I'm almost 100% certain the Bamboo should be able to do that as well.

I know that the only things done on a frequent basis in Illustrator for comics is lettering and the lettering ballons. Everything else digitally done is essentially done in Photoshop - or Painter.

Open up the brush setting window and see if you've got shape dynamics checked. You probably haven't. If you uncheck it, the brush will always have the same width, regardless of how much pressure you apply to the pen.

Hope that helped.