Aiptek cheap/big tablets + Maya?

[zqw]

Aiptek has these cheap/huge tablets.
12inch = $150, 8inch = $90, 6inch = $40

All reviews on the web look good.

But, does anyone have experience using these in Maya NT/2000? Particularily the artisan tools and paintFX.

I also saw a reivew that said "for right-handed people.", but no explanation.
I'm left-handed why would it matter? button placement?

[hella356]

I got the 8" model for a designer who was using DesignStudio. He liked it and it worked fine. I don't know exacty what he was doing within the program but he was pretty happy with it. AFAIK DesignStudio is based on the same kernel as Maya, most things that work with one should work with the other.

[1000101-]

I just ran out and bought one for photoshop. Its decent; I wouldn't do anything that has lots of different values i.e grayscale. But its certainly useful for sketching out reference images and stuff. I'll fiddle with it s'more maybe change some settings.

[j9k-80]

yeah i've been reading about them too...main advantage is they are less than half the cost of same size wacom tablets.

69- have you ever used a wacom before this so you could compare the two?

[1000101-]

I've used an old 4x6 wacom.
The wacom is hands down better; its easier to get more values out of it; especially the newer ones with 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity.
Of course I'm pleased with 512 levels myself.
Things that bug me; the eraser on the pen seems purely for show. I checked the drivers tehres no option to turn it on; it appears to be just for show.
The mouse kinda sucks too; the middle button can't be mapped to do a middle click through any driver settings; so you can't rightly use it in maya or softimage; but I still have my desktop mouse for my mousing needs.
The pen buttons can all be mapped to right mouse; left mouse; or middle mouse; and theres some function keys on the top of the pad you can bind to somethings. haven't figured out how to work that yet; but when I do I imagine it could help make up for its shortcomings.
All and all for 140 bux I think its a great deal anyway because you get a drawing pad that you can comfortably move your arm around on and get decent sketches/painting out of it.
Oh yeah the pressure sensitivity doesn't appear to have much effect with artisan but I haven't been playing with it much.

[joojaa]

Wacom earser a addon, huh... I think its very usefull if you work on painter or deep paint sice you dont need to click on the rase tool just turn the pen around. Especialy usefull when sketching (along with ctrlZ offcourse). Also the eirbrush is cool.

[1000101-]

Yeah I like that about the wacoms. The eraser actually works
oh well
its 140 bux and it works decent enuff.