Wacom Settings In Illustrator
Tips | August 19th, 2008
I have been using a 6×8 Wacom Intuos3 for the past 4 months, and can’t live without it. It has become a important tool in my Illustrator work. Not only is it more natural using the Wacom compared to a mouse, Illustrator has some tool features you can only use with a pen tablet. With some tools you can set how the tool responds to the Pressure, Stylus Wheel, Tilt, Bearing, and Rotation of the pen.
Definitions
Before we get into which tools utilize the Wacom’s pen features, it is useful to know the definition of Illustrator’s options associated with the pen.
- Pressure: The amount of pressure applied to tablet by the pen.
- Stylus Wheel: The location of pressure on the touch strip.
- Tilt: The angle the pen is tilted.
- Bearing: The direction the pen is tilted.
- Rotation: The orientation of the pen around its long axis.
Calligraphic Brush
This is probably my favorite Illustrator tool that utilizes Wacom’s features. You can either create a new calligraphic brush from the Brush Panel or edit an existing one. To create a new calligraphic brush, press the New Brush button at the bottom of the Brush Panel and choose New Calligraphic Brush from the options. This will bring up the Calligraphic Brush Options. You can also access these options of an existing calligraphic brush by double clicking on the brush you want to edit in the Brush Panel.
You can set the Pressure, Stylus Wheel, Tilt, Bearing, and Rotation for the Calligraphic Brush’s Angle, Roundness, and Diameter. This is a great place to experiment with different setting to see what kind of line you can produce. I like setting the diameter to the same point value will using Pressure for the setting. This creates a brush that you can easily create hair, grass and swirls with.
Symbol Sprayer Tool
Within the Symbol Sprayer options you can set the sprayer intensity using the same pen options as the Calligraphic Brush. Double-click on the Symbol Sprayer Tool in the Tools Panel to bring up the Symbolism Tools Options. Changing the Intensity with the pen options will also change the Symbol Shifter, Scruncher, Sizer, Spinner, Stainer, Screener, and Styler Tool. Experiment with the different Symbol Sprayer Tools to get different effects. Using the pen feature will gives a more natural variance in the Symbol Sprayer rather than the static default Intensity. Below is a simple example of using all the Symbol Sprayer Tools.
Eraser Tool
The Eraser Tool uses the same options as the Calligraphic Brush Options. You can create the same kind of line and effects as the Calligraphic Brush, but in reverse. I experiment with the Eraser Tool all the time. It helps train your mind to look at Illustrator elements differently. Below is an simple example.
Liquify Tools
The Liquify Tools (located on the Tools Panel) can utilize pen pressure. The Liquify Tool includes the: Warp, Twirl, Pucker, Bloat, Scallop, Crystallize, and Wrinkle tools. If you double-click on a particular Liquify Tool it will bring up the options for that tool. Under the option you can check the option for using pen pressure.
Get a Wacom
If you don’t have a Wacom yet, maybe some of these features will inspire you to get one. You can also enter a drawing from the folks over at SnapVillage for a Wacom Cintiq 21UX. Entering the drawing is open to anyone in the US, UK, Canada, Germany and France. All you have to do is fill out a short entry form. Good luck!
Great post Rype! I’m dying to get my hands on a new tablet. The one I have is ancient and needs replacement.
I would love to see your settings on the tablet itself
Esben,
My Wacom is pretty much using the default settings. I like the pen pressure right in the middle. I haven’t played with the button functions on the Wacom, I stick to using the keyboard. I need to look at it more, because it would awesome if I could set a button to trigger Actions in Illustrator.
Well I got mine about a month ago, so Im also fairly new to the concept.
So far as I have seen, everything is possible in setting up the bottoms.. if you can find a keyboard shortcut for it that is.
But setting “space bar” and using the strips to zoom, well be very helpful.
Here is my settings: http://esbenthomsen.dk/img/Picture%203.png
wow, thanks for the tips.
always on the lookout to push my wacom abilities.
Okay,
I have a Bamboo (Wacom) and this doesn’t work!
HELP ME!!
A Dude,
I was comparing the specs of the Bamboo vs the Intous on Wacoms site and it looks like the Bamboo doesn’t have “Application-Specific Settings”. That is probably the problem. That sucks!
http://www.wacom.com/bambootablet/compare.cfm
Great subject for a post. I’ve been looking for practical stuff like this. However, I scanned up and down the article and couldn’t tell what hardware or what version of the software you were writing about. You could lock in more readers at the beginning if you re-assure them that this article is going to cover their particular set up.
Marlon,
I should of made it more clear, but in the intro the post I say that I use the “6×8 Wacom Intuos3″. As for the Wacom software, I think I have the Wacom Pen Tablet, Driver Version 6.0.5. Hope that helps.
about the Bamboo, what do you mean by “Application-Specific Settings”?
Does that mean that I can’t do anything with it’s pressure-sensitivity or other settings on Illustrator or other programs?
I’m planning to buy one, but that sounds like a deal-breaker..
John,
I think that is what it means. You might be able to use basic pen-pressure settings, but not the tilt, bearing, etc… I know the Intuos is more expensive, but I think it would be worth it if you are looking to fully utilize the Wacom. You might want to contact Wacom just to be sure.
I have the Intuos3… I highly recommend it.
Nice article, however, I can’t seem to adjust my settings to pressure at all.
I have a Wacom Graphire, 4 x 6. Any recommendations?
Thanks!
@ Rama
I know that the Bamboo series has limited settings and the Graphire doesn’t support tilt, but I thought it had pressure support. What OS are you using? Mac or PC? Does it not let you adjust the settings?
Hi Rype
I’m using a PC (Windows Vista, running Illustrator CS3.)
I’ve tried several times to adjust my settngs to pressure, but they are all greyed out except for fixed and random. Does this necessarily mean that I will have to invest in an Intuos?
PS Love your site and informative tips! It’s a Godsend!
Hi again
I have just successfully enabled all the settings for the calligraphic brush for my Wacom CTE-440 (4 x 6 tablet) in Illustrator CS3.
I went to Wacom.com and downloaded the latest driver for it, restarted my computer and opened Illustrator, and voila! all settings were no longer greyed out. I believe current drivers are available for other tablets. I am currently experimenting with the settings and having a great time seeing the results.
Thanks so much to you all for pointing me in the right direction. Hope this helps!
‘Nulla dea sin linea’
@ Rama
Glad it worked out! Thanks for letting everyone know about the drivers.
Oh my god, I had wanted this, but didn’t know Illustrator recognized the pressure settings! Fantastic, thank you!
Wow… this tip alone just taught me something since I had no idea there even was an eraser tool must be new to my version haha ^.^ thanks alot for that
many many thanks for the tip .. i thought i cant use wacom and illustrator cs4 combo ! XD
Hey man, what about the Wacom Bamboo FUN? ’cause I can`t change the settings (angle, roundness and diameter). I follow all the steps before but the problem still remains, all the options (pressure, stilys, etc) doesn’t apper.
Thank you in advance…
Arcade.
I’m afraid the Bamboo doesn’t support some programs, like all the Adobe products. You will probably have to upgrade you Wacom!
Hey there! I found this article extremely helpful, thank you so much! I’m not sure if you reply to everybody that posts here but if it’s not too much to ask, could you tell me how to make the brush opacity sensitive to pen pressure? I tried everything you said and it works, and it’s awesome!, but I can’t figure out the opacity… in Illustrator…
Like, if I press hard I’d like the opacity to be at 100% and if I don’t press hard 50%.. for example? any help would be greatly appreciated.
Hey Elizabeth,
Unfortunately, in Illustrator, you can’t use pen pressure with Opacity. I don’t know if there is a plug in for something similar, but I will keep an eye out.
Hey,
I found your article very useful. Thankyou very much. I still have a couple of questions, if you can help me, it would be great.
First, I fail to understand what the stylus wheel is. I have an Intous 4, and I tried in all the ways to edit my lines based on the stylus wheel, but the weight of the line seemed to change randomly.
And well.. I would like to know about your usual preferences for your drawings. Your preferred setup for the brush tool.- For now, Ive found the most the variables “useless” except the pressure one. Well.. I dont know… What you think?
Thankyou very much.
Juan
Hey OilyCoyote,
I pretty much just use the Pen Pressure setting myself. When ever I use Pen Pressure, I set the variation the the same amount as the diameter. I am still on a Intous3 so when ever I use the Stylus Wheel Setting, the Stylus Wheel will adjust the thickness of the line instead of the pressure. Again, I really don’t use it.
Hi there,
Great tutorial
I recently bought a Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet and with me it works just fine with all of Adobe CS3’s(Illustrator) pressure settings mentioned in this tutorial. Maybe they have adapted the compatibility in the meantime…
That is good to hear! Does it have the other functions of Tilt, Bearing, etc…?
Man, I really gotta take the time to truly learn illustrator. I’ve had a wacom graphire4 for a while now, but never have the time to learn it well. Great post. I also had download the latest drivers before the pressure options were available. Thanks all.
Great resources. Working brushes isn’t quite so easy if you are transitioning form PS to Illustrtor
Great. Keep goin.
Thanks so much for this tutorial! It’s really helpful.
I’ve used my pen tablet for several months now, but I always thought it was pretty useless in Illustrator. You just showed the opposite!
<3
So nice tutorial, I’ll try it with my new Wacom.
Nice blog by the way
Hi Rype
First of all Happy belated Thanksgiving! Sheesh, it’s been a while since
I’ve posted. Guess it’s that time of year…heh-heh. Anyways, I would like to share a website with the members. It’s called ‘Cartoon Snap.com’
I’m a big fan of the Spongebob cartoon series. Cartoon Snap is hosted by Sherm Cohen, who is a storyboard artist for the Spongebob
cartoon. He generously shares his vast knowledge of inking in several video tutorials, all for free! I found his brush settings to be excellent! I’ve gotten great results with his settings. Give his site a visit, I promise you won’t be sorry!
Thank, just after I sent out the S.O.S. I found your artcile,
and yes I under stand how it works. I know Wacom
realy had photo shop in mind, but it would be cool to
have it set up more vector art : )
Is there a trick to set the pen tool so I could tuch the
pad and not make a large bloob?? Thanks for
your help. John
I just got a Wacom Pen and touch. I am having issues with my Wacom. When I select a brush or create a new one just as you have in your tutorial the option of pressure in the brush menu is not selected. It comes out as grey and I can’t select it. Is there any way I can fix this?
Try downloading the latest Wacom software, I just did and got all the options in my brush prefs
hi, i am planning of buying a tablet but not sure what to get… mainly use photoshop and illustrator for it… not so much high-end but just ease of use.