How to use a tablet

[Dan Monro]

So, sure.

A tablet is no different than a mouse. Or a trackball. Its a matter of speed, I think. I use the pen in my right hand (with the click and double click assigned to the buttons) and the keyboard (in) my left – with my left? You get the idea. It only speeds things up if your brain works faster with it – mine does, because my hand (pen) follows my eye more intuitively than my mouse. Its not a LOT faster, just more comfortable. In fact, I miss my Kensington trackball, which weighed in at 7 pounds. Talk about speed…

It comes down to what’s comfortable. The bottom line is that you need to be able to edit/design/compose with both hands. That’s what makes you fast. What you hold in those hands is entirely a matter of personal preference….

See what works.

Cheers,
D

Dan Monro
FCP, Avid, AfterFX, Atlanta
MacBook Pro 2.53 GHz Intel Core i5 4 GB ram
Mac OS X 10.6.4
NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M
Final Cut Pro 7 Quicktime 7.6.6
– OR –
2 x 3.2 Quad Xeon; 16 GB ram
Mac OS X 10.6.4
NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 Final Cut Pro 7.0.2 Quicktime 7.6.6

[Michael Sacci]

for me, the time it takes me to find the pen negates any speed I might pick up using it. 🙂

[Mark Suszko]

What I like to do is park the stylus (pen) of the tablet between the main two fingers of my right hand, and this way I can type commands, then with a slight wiggle of the fingers, the pen is in writing/mousing position.

Where I find the tablet most useful in FCP is playing with audo waveforms and in drawing masks, also in Motion. In photoshop it is pretty much a requirement for not going insane.

Though I have to say, I am also really liking the standard Apple mouse with the teeny tiny trackball on top for FCP editing: I like the way I can do mouse movements to edit with, plus make the timeline shoot left and right, up and down, or scale a setting up and down just from the trackball, simultaneously, but separate from the mosue cursor, and also, when selecting a parameter to change, the tiny trackball will increment up or down on the fly, all with minimal arm and hand movement. This mouse has reduced my use of the tablet a bit.

The downside to the Apple mouse is that tiny trackball gets gummed-up easily. I think it comes from skin oils. I keep a bottle of isopropyl alcohol around, wet my finger tip with it once in a while and roll the trackball, to clear those clogs when they happen.

[Walter Biscardi]

Been using WACOM tablets since 1996. They great speed up your workflow because of the relative position of the cursor vs. the drag from current position of the mouse.

takes about a week to really get comfortable with the tablet, but what I really like is that my entire desktop, always two computer screens, is laid out on the one tablet so I can very easily jump from screen to screen and move things around.

Also, no carpel tunnel of the wrist.

Drawing masks in FCP, Color, Resolve, AE, Photoshop, Motion, etc.. very easy.

I use the Erase button on the mouse as my Middle Click button in Color.

All the buttons on the side of the tablet and on the pen itself are programmable by application or universal making it very handy as you switch through apps.

A tablet is just a much easier version of the mouse with more precise control if you purchased the right tablet. The cheaper bamboo series is not nearly as precise as the Intuos and higher tablets. I tried the bamboo once and it was too “plastic” and not as sensitive as it needed to be. We run all Intuos 3’s here now and I’ll upgrade everything to Intuos 4’s in the near future.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” featuring Sigourney Weaver coming soon.

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[Mark Suszko]

Remember Calcomp tablets? It was cool to have a tablet with the Lockheed logo on it. Waacom took over the marketplace eventually.

[Mark Welch]

I’ve been using a pen/tablet to edit for about 7 years now. I would never, ever go back to a mouse for any computing. Creating video is an art. I consider holding the pen akin to drawing and creating the way an artist would with a canvas. It makes me feel more like an artist sketching ideas rather than a computer geek absorbed by the technology. Just a little mental game but it works for me.

The next step is to stand at my editing station rather than sit. This is a technique Hollywood editor Walter Murch uses. Laugh if you choose, but ergonomics changes the way we create and think, IMHO.

Mark

[Michael Sacci]

Question to you tablet users, do you use only a tablet, no mouse, or a combo of the 2.

The losing the pen is a real issue with me. For some reason I buy a dozen pens and within a couple weeks they are all gone. And I don’t even need to leave the room.

[Todd Gillespie]

Hi Mike,

I laughed when you mentioned losing the pen so fast. I don’t keep the cleanest editing desk, but I don’t seem to have a problem losing my pen? I keep the pen holder right next to the pad and my pen doesn’t walk away. After using it for over 7 years, its just a habit to grab for the pen when I need it and put it right back in the holder when I don’t. I know some people have a tendency to walk around with pens in their hands, so maybe that’s your issue?
For ergonomics reasons alone, it’s better to use a tablet and pen. I wrote an article years ago about the bad habits of mouse work. Up until I wrote that article, I never experience ‘carpal tunnel’ in my wrist, but believe me, you don’t want to.
https://www.eventdv.net/Articles/News/Feature/Editing-Ergonomics-37802.htm

Setting aside the ergonomics of the tablet, it’s still a MUCH faster way to edit and work on the computer. Sometimes I will still use the Wacom mouse that comes with the tablet, but usually after a couple minutes of working with it, I’ll think to myself “why am I working so slow?”, then I’ll remember and grab my pen. Also, on each side of the tablet there are 3 buttons and a touch strip-all programable. So, I’ve setup the buttons to do many different things; In & Outs, zooms, filter favorite, ‘enter’ command, etc. Once you start getting that going along with the tablet, you become a speed demon. 🙂 Granted, most of the time speed is not the problem in editing, but there are those occasional projects that you need to do a lot of repetition editing and thats when it becomes more helpful.

FWIW,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production