Hi folks,

 I have a Wacom Bamboo Pen Tablet and I find it very good for my needs.  I have a bit of a problem and was wondering if anyone else here experiences it.

 When I try to draw a smooth line with the Wacom Bamboo I can't get it jitter free.  Even if I go slowly you can still see where my hand is shaking.  When I am drawing on paper I have no problems, just with the Wacom Bamboo.  If I turn the line smoothing option on in ArtRage my lines look a lot nicer. 

 I was wondering, is the practice of using the smoothing option / anti jitter option generally frowned upon and considered cheating?

It's neither frowned upon nor considered cheating but in my experience most don't use or need it. If it works for you then use it.

A tablet can be a bit awkward for drawing lines at first and often the slower you draw the more jittery the lines appear. Quick strokes produce smoother lines but perhaps with more practise the jitters will disappear.

I'm assuming that it's you that's causing the jittery lines and not a hardware/software problem. If Artrage can smooth them out then, yes, it's probably all your fault! Maybe a screen shot would help?

While it's possible that the jittery lines could be from your hand shaking, I suspect that they are more likely the result of one of two other causes....canvas size or lack of drivers. With canvas size it could simply be that you are painting on a small canvas using a low ppi setting....that's easy to change but the driver issue may need more trouble shooting as it could simply be that they need updating or it could be something causing a conflict. That is assuming you actually installed the Wacom drivers for your tablet? Tablets are not plug and play devices so you will need to in order for the Operating System to know how to interpret the input, especially pressure detection.

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Wizard's First Rule

Hi guys,

Thanks for the replies.

 I did install all the drivers for my Wacom tablet.  Everything works fine on it - including pressure detection.

Here is my non-smoothed line and smoothed line:

 

It's not really a huge problem, I probably just need more practice at drawing smooth lines :)

Nothing wrong with using the smoothing option, that's what it's there for. I use a very small amount myself in Artrage and Manga Studio for drawing clean lines. I probably wouldn't go anywhere near as high as 50% like you have though because it starts to change the lines you draw, more around 5% or so.

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Yeah, the smoothing feature on the pen tool is actually my favorite feature in Artrage makes drawing clean line work a breeze. 

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Palacio Illustration
Blog

Cool - I can use smoothing now without worrying that I'm cheating.  :)

Hmmm....interesting, there is definitely a difference there. Have you tried using another painting program such as GIMP or OpenCanvas to see if you get the same results? I guess I'm just having difficulty accepting that this is the result of an unsteady hand. I am also assuming that you are aware that a nearby magnetic field will interfere with the functioning of a Wacom tablet.

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Wizard's First Rule

I'm kind of with Penabled, this looks suspiciously unnatural. It looks similar to the jiggly line that can be caused by the Wacom/Tablet PC Services conflict that sometimes happens in Windows - but are you using Windows?

Penabled:

Hmmm....interesting, there is definitely a difference there. Have you tried using another painting program such as GIMP or OpenCanvas to see if you get the same results? I guess I'm just having difficulty accepting that this is the result of an unsteady hand. I am also assuming that you are aware that a nearby magnetic field will interfere with the functioning of a Wacom tablet.

joeparis:

I'm kind of with Penabled, this looks suspiciously unnatural. It looks similar to the jiggly line that can be caused by the Wacom/Tablet PC Services conflict that sometimes happens in Windows - but are you using Windows?

 Yes I am using Windows 7.  I am using a Wacom Bamboo tablet.  The same thing happens in GIMP. 

Did you use the latest drivers from the website or from a disk in the box? You should be using the latest one from the website. Essentially you need to tell Windows to use the downloaded drivers instead of the built in one. After installing the drivers you need to reboot the computer.

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Wizard's First Rule

Penabled:

Did you use the latest drivers from the website or from a disk in the box? You should be using the latest one from the website. Essentially you need to tell Windows to use the downloaded drivers instead of the built in one. After installing the drivers you need to reboot the computer.

 Well I have installed the latest driver and rebooted and don't see an awful lot of difference to be honest with you.  I guess the tablet is working OK and that's the main thing, right?  I can make do with the line smoothing option and practicing trying to get my lines as steady as possible.  

Like mentioned earlier remember to use quick strokes, as opposed to slow strokes. Quick flicks will give you crisper lines than trying to do the line slowly.

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My Sketchbook thread:

sudafreekan:

Like mentioned earlier remember to use quick strokes, as opposed to slow strokes. Quick flicks will give you crisper lines than trying to do the line slowly.

 Yes I do find the quick strokes are smoother looking, but trying to control them is very difficult.  I guess this comes with practice though, right?

Yes.

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Yian 2012