loonygames presents: Painting on Polygons - 2D Art and videogames

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##### Vol. 2, Issue 10
February 3, 2000

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Painting on Polygons:

Q&A

by Rick "Flatness" Grossenbacher

’ve been backlogged with quite a few questions so I thought I’d devote this entire week’s column to just that. I’m not going to have the time to get any critiques in, so I’ll do those next week. So, let’s get right at those questions.

QUESTION by Phil E (evangelion@aol.com) about drawing tablets:

I was wondering what computer drawing pad do you use for making textures such in Photoshop? Is there a good brand to buy?

ANSWER:

I myself never got much into using a drawing tablet (although I had one sitting on my desk when I was working at Ion Storm), but many artists do like them and swear by them. I have always thought the ones by Wacom were quite nice. The bad news is that if you want to get a nice one like the ones we used at Ion (and the kind I see many other artists using at other companies), the Intuos 6x8 Graphics Tablet with Pen, for instance, will set you back a couple of bucks. That baby costs over $300. CompUSA’s latest price was $329.00, in fact. Ouch. So, if that is out of your price range you may want to look around and see if you can find something cheaper or simply try to find some reviews written up somewhere on the Internet that give ratings of drawing tablets.

Editor's Note: I've used a comparitively teeny 4x5 Wacom tablet for years now, and while the larger ones are certainly nicer, I still don't think they're necessarily worth the money. It takes some getting used to, but the smaller tablets (which are at least half the price - you can easily find one for under $150) work just as well, especially if you're just getting into digital art.

QUESTION by Scoll (scoll@hyperjump.de) about 3-D Studio MAX:

What kind of viewmode do you use for editing?

ANSWER:

Generally I am switching my viewports constantly (between Top, Front, Left, Perspective/Camera). I have a camera set up in almost every scene that I do, but I don’t necessarily use it all the time. As for inside the viewport -- I usually have it set to Smooth + Highlights and also I quite often have edged faces checked. Sometimes I go to wireframe, but not very often (it really depends on what I’m creating). Also, I quite often click the Min/Max Toggle button to extend the current viewport to large view (it’s the little button at the bottom right corner of the screen).

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Credits: Illustration © 2000 Dan Zalkus. Painting on Polygons is © 2000 Rick Grossenbacher. All other content is © 2000 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited, you cartoonish villian, you.