Tablets and Glitches

Getting back into animating stuff hasn't been easy lately.  I like 2D animation; it looks nice regardless of how rough it is and computers are generally more willing to work for you.

That being said, I've been low-tech lately because my graphics tablet went obsolete.  My tablet is a blue Wacom CTE-640, which was gifted to me when my dad bought it on clearance back in 2007 (or round-about that time).  Buying it cheap was practical because I'd never used a tablet in my life and there was no guarantee that I'd like it.

To my dad's relief I took to the tablet like a bird to flight; a little awkward at first but raring for more.  Though I often claim that my first digital drawings look like my 7th-grade self drew them, the novelty of having Ctrl + Z and no eraser lines kept me coming back.  I still prefer line drawing with paper, but I love digital painting.

My little Wacom tablet survived my senior year of high-school, 4 years of college animation classes, being stuffed into book-bags, being dropped on the floor, and having the USB cord replaced.  It has scratches, sticky notes, and sparkly smiley-face stickers stuck all over it.  The pen tip has never worn out, and neither have the buttons or the eraser bit on the end.

A month or two ago I plugged my tablet into my desktop computer...

...and the computer did nothing.  It was clear my tablet was working, but the computer had forgotten what a graphics tablet was.

I went online to download updates, because that usually fixes weird things like that, but there were no more updates for the CTE-640.

Here lies my first tablet, brought to death by software obsolescence.

For a time I borrowed a Monoprice TWA60 from a friend, but that model doesn't have an eraser, which bugs me.  It also developed this quirk where it would start drawing at a point as much as 2 inches away from where I intended to draw, so I'd get done coloring a character's belly, and then have to erase all these unwanted freckles from their backs and tails.  When it stopped registering pressure differences (essential for my calligraphic lines) I decided to return the TWA60 to its owner rather than download the software updates.  The tablet design overall didn't thrill me.

I'm planning to get a brand new, professional-grade tablet this time.  My aim is for longevity as well as quality.  I need something that I can get comfortable with and then keep for the next 6 years or more.  I've had my eye on an Intuos5 Touch.  It has an eraser :) .

Earworm of the Day: Fortune Days by The Glitch Mob
.  On a related note, I recently started using Pandora.  What took me so long!?