Digital Inking:

[Kittywolf13]

What program do you recomend for digital inking? i've always wanted to try and digitally ink some of my pictures. i like the clean smooth effect you can get from it.

but i dont know if its because i use a small wacom (4x6), or because i sometimes have a shaky hand, but i can never ever get a smooth solid line. are there programs that are better meant for this? special techniques within the guidelines of program to get out the jitters in your inking?? or is it all a matter of simply being good at inking?

i know it sounds like a newbish question. its just even inking by hand leaves me with much to be disired. so i figured id ask and see what people would tell me. :) other then practice, practice, practice.

[jock13]

convert to vector, in photo or corel

[Ostrander]

Hi Kittywolf13,
Painter is great for inking. the scratchboard tool is my weapon of choice when inking digitally. I think regardless of whether its digital or traditional you will need a level of steadiness with your hand. If you're looking for very smooth and controlled lines, using a vector program like illustrator, corel draw or flash might be a better choice for you. I think if you try the scratchboard tool from painter though you'll see that it can mimic a traditional crow quill quite nicely. good luck!

[Fireflights]

Illustrator, I'd say. Or, if you'd like, you could use Photoshop, and use the pen tool...but just know if you plan on printing it out from Photoshop, make sure your image has got a high resolution. Photoshop is based on pixels, Illustrator on mathematics - i.e. vectors...and it will print a smooth line whether our image is 2 inches high or 200 feet high. Photoshop, on the other hand, would pixellate everything if you print out too low a res.

[figure2]

What program do you recomend for digital inking? i've always wanted to try and digitally ink some of my pictures. i like the clean smooth effect you can get from it. There is some really good advice in this tut (http://www.itchy-animation.co.uk/tutorials/lines/linework.htm).

[Kittywolf13]

thanks for the advice...i'll look into this.

does haveing a larger wacom help with line work?

[Ostrander]

It's really all in what you're comfortable with. Are you more comfortable using your wrist more when you draw or your elbow? Try taking a large piece of paper and then mark off an area thats 9x12 and another thats 6x8 or even 4x5. Then try drawing in each box and see which of the 3 you feel you will best benifit from. This is just to give you an idea of the working are of each tablet, theres a couple inches added on each side with the real deal. I have a 9x12 which suits me fine, but I think I could also be comfortable at 6x8 as well. 4x5 in my opinion is too small to be comfortable with. Also consider your budget too, these things get expensive real quick.

[dbclemons]

Some programs now have the rotate-canvas feature that Painter has had for years. It's a bitch trying to do line work in a program that doesn't have it. In the end, for me, pen and paper work better than a tablet. I get smoother lines.

[Pixeldragoon]

I don't recommend tablets for drawing things. Inking over pencils maybe, but if you are just drawing with lines, the pencil is much better than the wacom.

Err, you were talking about inking... I think if you have 6x8 it should be big enough.

[egerie]

I have a 4x5 at home that I never use anymore. It SUCKS to ink or for anything else. Yes a bigger tablet will make your lines cleaner in the end but you don't need to have the gigantor one. Like Pixeldragoon said, a 6x8 should be enough. I have a 9x12 at work and luv it. As it was said before, the lack of rotating canvas in photoshop is hurtful to your lines. Having been used to use the "power lines" that the use of animation disk offers, it feel like inking with the whole arm in a cast... The closest thing is binding a rotate 90 degrees action to a key on the keyboard.

[Sirithduriel]

Keep in mind that inking digitally looks smooth and cool, it just EATS away time. At least that's my experience.. (If you come across a fast and easy way, let me know :))

In the tabletdepartment: I have a A5 size (I guess that's 4x5..), and for painting it's cool, but not for inking. Others said bigger might be better, so you might go for something bigger. But yeah, those are more expensive (and € 100 is expensive enough for me :))