ZBrushCentral

Anyone using the Cintiq 12wx

I was thinking about getting one of these for sketching and painting. To get an idea of what it would be like I made a photoshop doc that was the physical dimensions of the screen area, and then pasted in and scaled 1280x800 screenshots to fit… Anyway, ZBrush didn’t look half bad.

Anyone using the 12wx with ZBrush? Or any other app? If so, how is it?

Thanks for any input :slight_smile:
–chris

Here is one user’s Cintiq Review on another forum that is pretty thorough - the application he uses it with is Bauhaus Mirage - a 2D drawing and animation package, but much of what he says would probably apply to ZBrush and other apps as well.

Sven

That was a great review, Sven. I hadn’t seen that one. Thanks :cool:

I have been reading comments from users that vary GREATLY. Some say it is shakey and not as good as their Intuos. Others say they could no longer live without it. Not sure what to think :rolleyes:

I figure if it’s precise and steady enough to work with ZB at that size/resolution, it must be good enough to work with most any app. I’m just wondering if it’s only good for painting, and not so much for working with buttons, panels and such :confused:

From what i understand, the 21ux is awesome with ZB. I guess I just really need to hear how ZB is with it to make me place my order from one.

Anyone at all have 1st (or even 2nd) hand info on this?

Thanks!
–chris

Just got my cintiq 12wx up and running this morning and have tried it with Zbrush 2 on my mac and first impressions are the niggles of jittery corners are there but nowhere enar as bad as I was expecting. In fact nothing that I would say gets in the way of working with it.

Bear in mind I have only used it for a couple of hours but I am liking it very much in Zbrush and Photoshop and Painter. I cant wait to get it running with Zbrush 3 at the end of the month if everthing reported pans out.

Was there anything in particular that you wanted to know regarding the 12wx? Just give me a shout.

Cheers

Mike R

Thanks Mike =)
I actually went ahead and bought one too. Haven’t had it long, but my reaction has been the same as yours for the most part… I have noticed that the shakiness along the edges is sometimes more severe (on mine anyway). I haven’t figured out what causes it to get more shakey. I think it could have to do with the postion of my cables(??) When it started last night, i moved the tablet away from my machine, and it got better. Then i moved it back to the computer and it was still better. The only thing that changed was the position of the cable connected to the cintiq. So it could be picking up some interference through the cable as well as my other hardware(?)

I don't regret the purchase at all. I do hope that the next one i buy will have some of these quirks worked out though. --chris

I have noticed the shakyness more now at the edge or corners however to minimise that I found that hold the pen straight helps. I think its the angle checking it does that seems to through it off. Thats how I get around that anyway.

Yesterday I fired up painter and as the sun was streaming in through the window, the light in the room counteracted the electronic look of the page on screen. It really gave me a feeling of a sheet of paper sitting there as I lay down a splash of watercolour and watched it bloom on the page. Fantastic stuff and just feels more natural to work on it.

Cheers

Mike R

Hey Chris & Mike R,

3 Questoins for you both:

  1. Do you all hold it in you arms or Lap? This is a selling point for me.

  2. Do like the performance (Frame Rate or lag) using it with zBrush?

  3. Has the shakyness been fix yet with driver updates?

Thanks
-=Jesse=-

Hey Jesse–

  1. It’s comfortable to work with in your lap. I sometimes use it that way with my feet propted up. Leaving the support bar out works really well for this… Normally I work with it on my desk so that I can more easily work with my other monitors. Keep in mind that you will need to re-calibrate whenever you change positions in relation to the cintiq.

  2. I haven’t noticed any lag or anything like that. I have no complaints at all about the display.

  3. The shakiness is due to hardware issues. I don’t think there is any way for a driver to compensate for it, unfortunately. I really don’t notice it much at all using zbrush. Actually, the only time I notice it is when trying to adjust sliders to get a specific number. like for a specific textrue size. Not noticeable adjusting stuff like brush size or geometry levels.

I highly recommend it for ZBrush. I use it a good bit with stuff like Photoshop, but always use it for ZBrush work… I would like to say that I’m sure you will love it just as much as I do. But opinions on the 12wx vary so widely… Guess the only way to be sure you dig it is to test drive one =/

Hope that helps some =)
–chris

I own one myself and using ZBrush and Photoshop with it everydays. No problems so far and honnestly, I can’t use anymore my Intuos 3 A5!
Don’t forget to setup all the buttons and touch strip (undo/redo and level of SubD for me) and you will work ten thousand faster :wink:

I’m in the market for this unit and the reports of the shakiness issue have made me hold off.

But re-reading the various threads, including this one on the CGTalk Painter forum;
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=112&t=622785

has reminded me of a similar issue with my Intuos 12x18.
I noticed that whenever I had the tablet too close to a monitor (or anything that generated a magnetic field) the cursor would jitter a bit when the pen got closer.
I moved the tablet away from the monitor and the shakiness stopped.
I now use a flat screen so the interference is no longer an issue.

Question; anybody try this with the 12" Cintiq? Is it possible that some magnetic field is contributing to the problem? (CRT, powered hub, Laptop, CPU, Power Brick, etc…)

If the jitter occurs when the tablet is well away from the Laptop, Power Brick, Speakers, or Monitor then it’s definitely a Wacom issue, and I’ll wait for “revision B” to hit the streets.

Thanks
:slight_smile:

FWIW there’s a price drop at amazon, not much but $50 off the $999 retail.

Still need an answer to my post above, though. :wink:

i’m loving it, i scaled the menu to go over both screens and hat the alternative doc view on, so i can work on both screens without having to switch or clone, that’s great.

@acmepixel: the jittering is there, but only an optical issue as far as i’ve tested it, doesn’t have any impact on my work.
happens from time to time and appears to be more from my shakey hand, when i’m drawing it’s totally gone

Thanks Neox, that’s good news. I plan on teaming one up with a MacBookPro. The 2.5Ghz’s are also on sale this weekend, at Amazon.

just got one of these as a gift and am having huge problems specifically with Zbrush. For instance, when I hold ctrl to paint a mask, nothing happens. If I just open a ztool and start sculpting with the standard brush, though it says it’s set to zAdd, it’s actually subtracting… other weird things happen too… but if I send Zbrush back to my main monitor, it works fine there. Any clues?

For making photoshop Illustrations its OK except of making clipping paths because of lower resolutions of display but for Illustrator maybe only with paintbrush tool but you must define you own variable paintbrush for it if you preferred freehand work and after that you have expanding this brushes to get Filled objects instead of organic ghoustly line which is not readable from other vector programs if they are not defined like Fills. For precise an exact drawings mouse is better.
In both of cases you must very good skills with left hand shortcuts if you are right handed or vice verse.

I have the 12wx and it’s nice but very small. I use it with my laptop. It does have a resolution problem especially with large multiple monitors. The solutions are; 1- buy the Intuos Pro Large, you will love it. Or, 2- add a switch for the Wacom detail function.
When you get near the edge of the 12wx screen, the pointer begins to jiggle. Invoke the detail feature and the jitter goes away. Make sure you have the latest Cintiq driver; 6.3.11-3a

Which one of those interest you the most? The Cintiq will work for either, but if you’re planning on doing animation you’ll need a program on your PC/Mac to animate all the drawings.