I am curious to know what others use as a "drawing tool?!" For the past few months I've been fairly satisfied with my Microsoft Optical Trackball. It seems to have good response, and accuracy. I can usually create just about anything without fussing to get just the right pixel, shape, whatever. But I must confess I've been a bit nostalgic for my SummaGraphics SummaSketch III. SummaGraphics has been considered a great company and provider of graphics tablets for Graphic Artists, CAD People, etc. The only gripe I had was that it was really awkward to use as a mouse.. The graphics tablet is 12x12", and you need to move all around the entire tablet to do most of your work, inlcuding surfing if the tablet replaces the mouse. Of course graphics tablets offer more features, such as sensitivity... You can vary the pressure on the tablet to achieve effects using the right software, etc. I guess. To tell you the truth I got the graphics tablet before I rediscovered Poser, and had not used it much at all lately. I reconnected the graphics tablet, and can still use the trackball now, since it is a PS/2 trackball. That leaves my only serial connection free for the SummaGraphics tablet. It seems there are not many programs that are specifically designed to take advantage of a graphics tablet, unless you count AutoCad. (That's way beyond me means or desires.) I think most of us agree that a regular mouse just isn't good for drawing... You can't get the accuracy or ease of use. So what do you use? What are the good points and bad points? I doubt many people will want to run out and buy the SummaGraphics SummaSketch at $200. But I tell you it is nice to have a large area for drawing. I am a big man, and my hand fills up most small surfaces.

Heh, I use a crappy Microsoft wheel mouse, and the keyboard when neccessary.

Wow, is that an optical mouse, or just a regular one with the ball? If it is, you might at least want to get ahold of a good Microsoft Optical Trackball... I got two in my house for about $45 apiece, on sale I think.

I use a 4x5 tablet I picked up for 40 bucks because my hand is too shaky to use an optical trackball.

me,I use a normal DEXXA,no more than 30 $. Because the problem for me is not wich drawing tool to use but wich approach with the digital design. To draw on paper the best tool is a pencil. On a computer is a mouse.

A mouse? Have you ever gone nuts trying to get just the right spot, make the right line, etc... A mouse is like putting mittens on, then trying to pick up a dime.

Problem with optical mice - On old, crappy systems like mine, they slow EVERYTHING down horribly...

OOh, a great artist like yourself has an old crappy system? What do you have? I am not totally satisfied with my system, but it is all I can afford, and it seems like others aren't as lucky as me: 1.) Intel Celeron 533mhz 2.) 320MB RAM 3.) On-board AGP Intel video chip (uses 1MB RAM I guess) 4.) 30GB hard drive for operating system/programs 5.) 20GB hard drive for data (mostly Poser!) 6.) Hewlett Packard 7500+ Series CD burner (real life saver) 7.) "Hand me down" Off brand Natural keyboard. 8.) Magnavox 15" "Extended VGA" monitor (pretty crappy resolutions..too dark, and I can't adjust to make it better) 9.) Microsoft Optical Trackball 10.) SummaGraphics SummaSketch III 11.) Hewlett Packard 672C printer (ancient, but still half-decent...I don't print my pictures any more.) 12.) Networked using onboard network card... to my wife's computer 13.) Cable modem with Linksys router so we can share the Internet.

If you have a USB (or serial) port handy, an excellent solution is to go get the Wacom Graphire pen plus mouse combo. It's the size of a mouse pad, has a tracing layer, a wheel mouse that just works on the tablet, and a pen with thumb-switches and an eraser. All for about $170. i have one of the medium sized Wacom tablets here at work, and my little ol' Graphire works just as well, for hundreds of dollars less! For selection, such as used in surfing the web or in text programs, use the mouse. For drawing and painting in Photoshop (etc.) use the tablet. There's no substitute.

WEll, in my case, I have the SummaGraphics SummaSketch III. It has a 4-button stylus, and is about 12X12". I got it for about $200, but "I knew someone with connections" at the time.

Heheheh... I have the following: 1.) AMD K6-366mhz 2.) 64 MB RAM 3.) Onboard AGP graphics that "steals" 4MB of my RAM 4.) 4 gb hard drive for primary drive 5.) 2 gb hard drive with nothing but Poser 6.) Ordinary keyboard, basic analog wheel mouse 7.) KDS 15" monitor (max 1280 x 1024) 8.) Lexxmark z11 printer (currently out of ink) 9.) CanoScan FB620U slimline scanner 10.) Dial-up modem Not exactly a powerhouse graphics machine... I guess it's a good thing I have patience.

you guys are nuts. how in the DIP do you draw with a trackball???! i'm with kai on this one, drawing with a mouse is like drawing with a bar of soap. i have a wacom artpad ii. i love it. i do use the mouse when web surfing (so i dont have to hold the pen), and i can use the mouse with like poser (for turning dials, although the pen is quicker), but drawing???? no way, man. :)

get rid of that stupid mouse on a ball for one thing! optical is the way to go i dont know why they even sell those ball mouses with computers anyway in jasc i can go pixel to pixel with out even zooming in very much the only time i use my ball mose is when im reverting my hard drive or something you cant draw with opticals but you can just about do everything else 64 mb's of ram is bad,invest in a little more ram i got a catalog from tigerdirect.com the other day and they got ram "128 mb's" for $15.99,512mbs for $56.99 so there is no reason to be running at 64MB graphics cards starting at $39.99 as far as your hard drive space,get a burner $69.99 and i bought 100 blanks at best buy for about $30.00 with 700mb a piece so thats 700,000MB of space for files!!!!!!!!i think,but its alot anyway you look at it! if all else fails get a new computer but evn just a little after market products will help your system,and dont let anyone but you put your ram in,its so easy you'll wonder why you havent done it before!

My optical trackball is setup so I move the ball with my thumb and use my fingers for the mouse buttons. Just rest your hand on top of it, and you don't need to move your hand at all. This thing has amazing accuracy, and works with anything I've used so far. The other thing I like is the wheel which allows me to easily move up and down any screen.... I don't have that on my SummaGraphics Graphics tablet. CD burners are great for storing files....But there is still no substitute for a larger hard drive. You need to have room to install your programs, to add all those files to Poser, and to save your renders. Then you can copy them to CD. It can get tricky bringing stuff from CD to Poser. You need to remember to uncheck the read only on many files, etc. I'm all for getting as much memory and hard drive space as possible. That's why I have a 20GB and 30GB. I also use the CD burner for storage. I've downloaded about every freebie file from Renderosity, and they're all saved to CD's. I will figure them out later. You may as well grab all the freebies ASAP, since some are taken down, retired, etc. It doesn't matter when or where you buy computer stuff. You look tomorrow and someone will sell more for less. I noticed with 320MB of RAM, my renders go really quickly if I use the default settings. I can boost things up a bit, and I may have to wait a few minutes for a render to complete...Not terribly bad. Oh, Valandar, my onboard AGP video chip uses 1MB of system RAM. You can see it listed when you right-click on my computer, and choose properties. The amount of reported RAM is always 1MB less than what is really there.

Well, I'm on what most graphic artists would call a crap system: 128 meg RAM, a piddling 4 GB HD. Oh, and it's a Mac, so very few of the freebies/cheap stuff are usable to me (and NO, I will NOT give up the Mac; you couldn't pay me to!). One thing that Mac really did right-- and complain all you like about the round mouse-- it is a joy to use. It handles so well, so smoothly, I found I could draw freehand with it. I was delighted. Then the mouse wore out (after 3 years), and I had the tough choice of the Labtec three-button cordless, or the Wacom Graphire, on sale for 8 more. I went for the Graphire. I am not a professional artist, but I must say that the difference that even this entry-level graphics tablet made to me was phenomenal. Unless you really like struggling, I believe that a graphics tablet-- even an entry-level one (and the Graphire is nice)-- is a very valuable investment. So many routine tasks, like selecting, become so much easier, and you will be amazed what you come up with to do with it once you have it. But if you have dogs, keep the pen in a safe place... :)

Well I have two graphic's tablet's and a mouse, I learned to draw with a mouse back when tablets were rare prizes...got my tablets, a really big one, and a smaller waccom, and guess what I use still to this day?...yup my good ol'trusty mouse...course now I got a new optical mouse, havent tried it out yet...I had more trouble with tablets can barelly use a pencil or pen on paper any more...bet I could draw on paper now with a bar of soap I'll have to give that a try hehe... Incidentlly my old mouse was a simple two button logitech, and it got the job done nicelly enough I think :)

I took Computer Art & Animation in 1990. We used programs that most of us will not buy ourselves in our own lifetime (Ever hear of Tips, Topaz and Rio?!) One of those packages cost $20,000 at the time, and it was the one we used the most. At any rate we had graphics tablets then, with "pucks". (That's what I call the cursor which is like a mouse. We got to try the pens for a time. I didn't like it because I had to keep picking it up and putting it down. Too much hassle for me. I stuck with the "puck." That's why I have the 4-button cursor with my SummaGraphics tablet.