"Inkling"A nice Wacom Addition to the toolbox

[Judith Tramayne]

I rather carry my Asus Tablet and use my stylus to paint in ArtRage or draw in Xara. Then again after a couple of hours, I better have electricity. (smile) Even my iPad would work.

[SLowmo75]

Hi Cranach, do you have Sketchbook Pro, or even Express? If so, then you can open the WPI files directly from the Inkling drive without the need to export - the really cool thing is that Sketchbook will use whichever brush settings you had previously selected! So you can drastically change the look of your drawing with ease - select a fat, green charcoal, open the WPI, and your biro drawing is now in fat, green charcoal!

Crabfu told me all about it on Youtube!....

wwwDOTyoutubeDOTcom/watch?v=qA6KQ-eIPLA

...he pretty much says that without Sketchbook Pro, the Inkling is of limited use, but with Sketchbook Pro, it's pretty amazing! I'm inclined to agree, but only got mine a couple of days ago, so haven't explored enough yet. Also, I'm reluctant to spent 40 quid on SBPro - Express does enable you to choose a brush then import from the inkling, but it looks like Pro gives you much more options in brushes. I'm equally reluctant to stop using Artrage and go and learn SB! Perhaps we can talk the devs here into including the same functionality in Artrage!?!
Yeah, so, if you've got neither, I'd suggest getting Sketchbook Express first to try it out, but I will say that this has definitely given the best results so far on an Inkling import, and I will be using this as my first port of call when working with Inkling drawings...at least to get them in to the computer! I'm thinking I'd like to bring them in via SBExpress, then port them over to Artrage somehow.
Also of interest is the Sketchbook Copic Edition, which is also free. I imported quickly into there, just for a test, but again, the results looked very promising. So, don't worry about the fact that the horrible Wacom software doesn't export the drawings very well, because Sketchbook (strangely) does!
Sorry to Ambient for plugging Autodesk so much! As I said, I'd really rather not - in truth I don't particularly like their interface that everyone else seems to rave about, I much prefer Artrage's. So, please look at the Inkling and see if you can't allow us some clever and useful opening of WPI files!? Please?
Thanks!
Wayne

[Nickillus]

Yep, I can't justify the exense of an Ipad, but have bought one of these. Got it about a week ago for £150 (UK) from Amazon. It's a stylish bit of kit and the pen is lovely to use , which was my main worry before purchase.

I've not had time to play at all really but the limited minutes I have spent with it point at the software being the pitfall. Brief experimenting has produced problems accessing the sketches loaded to the dedicated folder with it, even though I can see they are there on the drive. That said I do have Sketchbook Pro 2012 in any case so have an out.

It may well be me doing something stupid - like that ever happens - cough. The drawing experience with the pen is very encouraging to continue with it whatever. Hopefully the software will catch up with subsequent patches from Wacom to match how good that is.

I'll keep you posted.

[Steve B]

That video is very cool, and encouraging. I've read a number of reviews of the Inkling in various thread, such as on CGHub and whatnot, and the concensus was that it was a cool idea that was largely unusable because
a) it wasn't very accurate with the linework when you imported it, and
b) the software was cr*p

If importing this directly to SBP, without using the Inkling interface at all, solves that issue, then it makes it much more interesting.

Nickullus, it would be very cool to get a more in depth review from a real user on this board who we all know. If you get the chance to open up SBP and import the file directly through the SBP interface, as in the video, it would be very useful to know if you think the product had value and if you could think of uses of it in a normal work flow.

[screenpainter]

Nifty, but looking at the technical specifications, I'd say best try before you buy.

My main concern is with the accuracy which is +/- 2.5mm in the centre area and +/- 5.0mm at the edges. Depending on the type of artwork you are doing 1/4 to 1/2 a centimeter off could be a hard pill to swallow.

The device will only support paper sizes up to A4 (about letter size for those in the US) which may be important to some.

For the price it would probably make more sense to get a flatbed scanner which gives the option of using any prefered sketching medium, (not just biro), use of an eraser (if using pencil) and extract an extremely accurate representation of a sketch. You can even scan found objects (eg/ leaves, branches) on many of them. You can still work with a portable sketchbook on the go and then scan when you get back to the studio. With selection tools and tracing options of most software its not difficult to separate artwork to different layers.

It is something to keep an eye on though, i'm sure better versions will be available before long.

Good points Juz. thank you for keepin' it real. I love technology, but sometimes you can't beat the old standard tools like pencil on paper.

[narf]

Interesting idea. It seems to work in the way, the motion capture works. The digital pen's movement will be instantly scanned and saved on the receiver, which can be mounted at any sketch block or similar. It can be quite useful not only for artists, but ...I'm wondering how much spare pen ink cartridges will cost. I assume you must buy them in wacom store of course.

I wonder how much the ink will cost? As much as printer ink?

Pencil would be nice.

Addition: I read some user reviews on Amazon and they say the product is not
fully developed yet. Lines are misplaced and the driver fucks up other installed Wacom drivers and Windows itself.

[narf]

There is something called
Apen A2 Smart Pen



Maybe you should do some research on that.

[Jono]

QUOTE: I wonder how much the ink will cost? As much as printer ink?

It uses standard mini ballpoint refills. (see my previous post #7)

QUOTE: I read some user reviews on Amazon and they say the product is not fully developed yet.

I don't know about you but I've recently become more wary of relying on consumer reviews on places like amazon. The feedback is often confusing and polarized between people who give ratings of 5 stars or just 1 star. I read somewhere (I think in relation to iPad app reviews) there are people who are now paid to write reviews to influence potential customers away from certain products in favour of others.

I thought the following quote from an interview with Wacom's global product manager Glenn Tsunekawa in January's Wired magazine, might help with some people's expectations about the Inkling. (I don't actually own one, but that's due to lack of funds more anything else).

"Under normal working conditions we want the product to be accurate to within plus or minus 2.5mm. This product is best for rough sketching and brainstorming - if you're looking for a solution that you can take straight to print or CAD, you probably wouldn't have a satisfactory experience."

Nickillus/cranach09: Coming to any conclusions yet?

[narf]

QUOTE: I wonder how much the ink will cost? As much as printer ink?

>It uses standard mini ballpoint refills. (see my previous post #7)

OK, thanks for the info.

QUOTE: I read some user reviews on Amazon and they say the product is not fully developed yet.

>I don't know about you but I've recently become more wary of relying on consumer reviews on places like
>amazon. The feedback is often confusing and polarized between people who give ratings of 5 stars or just 1
>star. I read somewhere (I think in relation to iPad app reviews) there are people who are now paid to write
>reviews to influence potential customers away from certain products in favour of others.

The user reviews looked quite reliable to me. It exactly mentioned the problems of the product as they
occured at these users.

And unfortunatly I have the experience too, that not all Wacom products are great. I do own an
expensive Intuos 3 which is really great, but recently I bought a cheap Bamboo Pen&Touch and
this is really bad. Touch does not work properly and after using the pen for some hours the surface
is full of scratches and the drawing feeling is bad compared with the Intuos. By the way - the pens
are incompatible between Intuos and Bamboo P&T
Years ago I had a Artpad 2 which was crappy too. So I did not buy any Wacom products for a
decade untill I decided to give the Intuos a try. I think only the very expensive products of Wacom
are good.

So I trust the expertise of the Amazon reviewers in this case.


>I thought the following quote from an interview with Wacom's global product manager Glenn Tsunekawa in >January's Wired magazine, might help with some people's expectations about the Inkling. (I don't actually own >one, but that's due to lack of funds more anything else).

>"Under normal working conditions we want the product to be accurate to within plus or minus 2.5mm. This >product is best for rough sketching and brainstorming - if you're looking for a solution that you can take >straight to print or CAD, you probably wouldn't have a satisfactory experience."

>Nickillus/cranach09: Coming to any conclusions yet?

Well 2.5mm is quite (too) far away. The reviews mentioned problems with multiple lines crossing
on one point.

Regards.

[Dreagthe]

Hey cranach09

I saw these Inkliings the other day on the wacom site and was intrigued.

You say it can be used with photoshop. Does that mean it makes PSD files you might be able to load into Artrage or Painter?

Kind regards

Brett