Wacom - Weekly Hints and Tips

[Julia]

Wacom is offering 'hints of the week' series for photographers.

Each week over the next two months, they will provide you with a short and useful update that will help users of Intuos4 pen tablets to improve their workflow and take full advantage of their tablets and software.

Throughout the series, we will provide tips for using Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Apple Aperture 3, as well as some useful pointers to help get the most out of the Intuos4 pen tablet driver.

Hint of the week "Adobe Photoshop CS5" (1)

Photoshop CS5 offers a few helpful additions to speed-up the pen based workflow. There are two buttons in the options bar when the regular brush is selected: The first button activates the opacity to be controlled by pen pressure (overriding Brush Panel settings). The second button activates the size to be controlled by pen pressure (overriding BRUSH panel settings).

[Julia]

Re: Wacom - Weekly Hints and Tips



A) Go to the TOOL BAR and click & hold the Brush Tool to see the drop down list of available brushes. Select the new Mixer Brush Tool.
B) Select in the BRUSH PRESETS panel the second Bristle Brush. However only the new Bristle Brushes simulate a real brush and give you a 3D preview. You can use all older brushes with the new Mixer Brush Tool, but if you do the brush will have no 3D preview and only the features of version CS4 or lower.

[Julia]

Re: Wacom - Weekly Hints and Tips



A)
Select the new Mixer Brush Tool, and choose the option Wet, Heavy Mix. These settings are important to specify if you want the brush to pick up paint, to add paint from a selected (loaded) colour or mix loaded and applied paint.
B)
Create two colour shapes on the canvas and then apply a few strokes from one colour shape to the other creating a natural blend of the two colours. Play with the brush using different tilt angles and applying more and less pressure to give it some variation.

[Julia]

Re: Wacom - Weekly Hints and Tips



A)
In the BRUSH PRESETS panel it is also possible to change any bristle attribute to match the needs of the artist. Notice how changing any attribute will instantly show a live 3D preview of the changes made. For instance changing the length or the stiffness of the bristles will have a dramatically different look when painting - just as with a real bristle brush!
B)
It is also possible to toggle the 3D preview on/off when clicking on the little preview icon in the lower right area of the BRUSH panel (marked in red).

[Julia]

Re: Wacom - Weekly Hints and Tips


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A) The first button can be assigned to the right mouse click in the Wacom Tablet Properties.
B) The Zoom function can be assigned to the second button by saving the "Z" key as a "Keystroke" in the Tablet Properties.
C) In this way you can quickly and easily check the sharpness of the image by clicking on the rear Grip Pen button to immediately zoom the image to 100%.

[Julia]

Re: Wacom - Weekly Hints and Tips


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The Touch Ring can be effectively configured in the Wacom Tablet Properties: Since the Touch Ring with its central toggle button is multifunctional, you can assign the Zoom function to the first click, the Scrolling function to the second and the Rotation function to the third. An ideal choice for the fourth click is the "Reapply" function, so you can repeat the work you have just done with a simple twist of the Touch Ring. This means that the most commonly used functions in Aperture are just a few clicks of the toggle button away.

[Ian]

Re: Wacom - Weekly Hints and Tips

I think full marks to Wacom for providing these snippets of information!

Ian

[Julia]

[Julia]

[ash]

Re: Wacom - Weekly Hints and Tips

Just had a play with one of these at focus and I must say I was impressed.
Not cheap for a decent size but if you do alot of photoshopping and no what your doing , unlike me, I can see the appeal!
Ash.

[Julia]

[Julia]

Re: Wacom - Weekly Hints and Tips

Hint of the week "Display Toggle" function

The "Display Toggle" function is a veritable godsend for all Wacom users with multiple screens: The basic pen tablet configuration allows the entire screen to be transferred to the active area of the tablet, i.e. by pushing the pen from left to right across the tablet, you can move the onscreen cursor from the far left-hand side of the monitor to the far right-hand side. (A)

The Display Toggle function is an easy way of regulation of the mapping between the pen tablet and linked screens. This function comes assigned to one of the upper ExpressKeys. (B)

Press this ExpressKey once, and the pen tablet will toggle to the first monitor. Press the key again, and the pen tablet will toggle to the second monitor. Depending on the number of monitors in use, you can scroll through the pen tablet until you're back at the full screen display. (C)

This feature can be very handy if, for instance, you're not actively using the left-hand monitor (because you're using it passively for checking colours) or if you want to utilise the full resolution of the pen tablet for each individual monitor.

[Julia]

Re: Wacom - Weekly Hints and Tips

How to control brush size with the Touch Ring of the Intuos4
The Adjustment Brush already has a pressure-sensitive function: by applying pressure to the Intuos4 pen tip you can intuitively adjust the opacity of an effect, but not the brush size. However, you can easily control the brush size using the Scroll Feature of the Touch Ring.

For this purpose, make sure the Touch Ring is on function level 1 (the first LED should be lit), then you can vary the brush size by moving your finger anticlockwise or clockwise round the Touch Ring.

The Intuos4 Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 bundle: a killer combination

[Julia]

Re: Wacom - Weekly Hints and Tips

How to scroll through the catalogue using the Touch Ring of the Intuos4
In all Lightroom modules the current catalogue is displayed as a so-called Filmstrip at the bottom edge of the screen.
If you now move the cursor over the Filmstrip, you can use the Touch Ring of the Intuos4 to scroll left or right through the catalogue. This feature is particularly practical because all images in the catalogue can also be accessed outside the Library module.

The Intuos4 Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 bundle: a killer combinationThe Intuos4 M or Intuos4 Wireless is available with the Adobe Photoshop

[Julia]

Re: Wacom - Weekly Hints and Tips

How to assign the Intuos4 ExpressKeys for sorting images
The Intuos4 ExpressKeys make using Adobe Lightroom just that much easier: for instance, you can use the application-specific properties to assign the "B" key to an ExpressKey for sorting selected images into the Quick Collection. This is a quick and direct way of sorting photos for final selection.