James, Pior, and Michael:

Thanks for encouraging me to try a Cintiq. I've got a loaner and it works flawlessly with MoI. I sent a bug report to Huion so that hopefully they'll fix their driver.

- Peer

Very nice :)

If anything I would also suggest to try a regular Wacom tablet (without a display) - because since CAD software is mostly based on a point and click input paradigm, the hand/eye disconnect usually caused by regular drawing tablets is barely noticeable. Unless you need actual freehand sketching of course.

Also, I need to ask : where did you manage to rent a Cintiq ? Through a rental company for photography gear perhaps ?

Hi Pior,

The reason I have a pen display is because I do freehand vector graphics stuff. But, I don't have any experience with the non-display type of tablets. Are there advantages aside from cost?

I got the Cintiq from lensrentals.com

- Peer

Personally nothing else comes close to a Cintiq, I use one in my office at work, one at home and a little A5 bluetooth Wacom tablet when I'm out and about. I find modelling a lot more fun and faster with what you are working on directly under the pen! Personal preference I guess

Hello -
It will highly depend on personal preferences ... but it absolutely cannot be decided without trying both.

I would also agree that for hand gestures/stroke control, the Cintiq is of course the most accurate ; but it's nowhere as simple as that.
For instance, my setup consists of a Cintiq (21UX) and a regular tablet (Intuos4 Medium) plugged at the same time, as well as a mouse of course - and depending on the task I constantly switch between all 3, even just for MOI. I've tried going Cintiq-only and tablet-only in the past, and neither suit me without the other to complement it. Here are some thoughts in no particular order :

- The most skilled illustrator I've worked with stuck to a regular tablet. I felt like it allowed him to do things a Cintiq can't, like exploiting the scale difference between input (tablet) and output (screen) for a dynamic look to his strokes. I noticed him redoing his lines a bit more than one would on paper or Cintiq, but the results were still extremely fast and great looking.

- But in opposition to that, I absolutely can't freehand with a regular tablet myself - I just find it too unpleasant, which goes against my principle of always enjoying the process itself. Whereas some people are fine with "fighting the process" all the way through.

- The biggest downside of the Cintiq is that it forces one to work bigger (more zoomed in) than the equivalent strokes on paper, and with once face quite close to the screen, and that's detrimental especially when doing illustration work. But of course this doesn't matter if the nature of the work doesn't require to have a broad view of the overall composition.

Anyways - as said, my advice would 100% be to try both *at the same time*, without getting stuck with the idea of having pick one or the other (after all, if your budget allows for a tablet display ... then it also allows for the addition of a regular tablet).

(Thanks for the reference for gear rentals btw)

Hi Pior,

Thanks for sharing your insights! I hadn't thought about it before, but you're right: with a pen display I'm usually zoomed in really far. I'll give a regular tablet a try.

- Peer

Hi there, I use Moi3d with a 15.6 Xp pen graphics tablet with screen. It works really well. But I personally always have a micro mouse sitting next to my tablet on the right, and external mini keyboard on the left. Running into a 36 inch flat screen tv.
For me the mouse is the most accurate and precise and fastest way of using Moi. Many tasks I will use my tablet. But certain functions the mouse is way faster and efficient.
Also there is so many different ways to set up all your hot keys and even the way the pen works. I was testing out the functions as I read your message.

On my tablet when you are using the quick animated selections at the bottom of the screen. If you just stay in that area going between zoom, pan, rotate. It works very well. But jumping back up to the main screen I need to trigger the right click that I have set to the pens button settings. I can actually right click my pen and hover it over the screen and rotate. But so much better just grabbing your mouse.

These graphics tablets are so amazing to use. And Moi3D is such a wonderful program.

P.s. Always have to mention this. Try out that porcelain lighting. You can find all those amazing lighting options and some really top notch tutorials. At Michael A. Maynard K4ICY. Find it in the Moi wiki under resources. In the tutorials click on any of the images. There is massive amounts of info. in there.
Moi is pure inspiration. Have fun.

Another last thought. I also have many paint and sculpting programs and in many of those programs the rotate works exactly like you were questioning. You can be on the sculpt then just move off the model into free space to rotate. Always peek at Pilou's repository. He has so many awesome programs listed in there. Its like a mini Bible of 3d modeling. Check out the Rebelle paint program. I found it in there. Absolutely amazing what it can do. You can make the paint run. he he.

So many thoughts in my brain... You have to try this sometime. Use your graphics tablet with Rocket 3f. then save as Obj. and load them into Moi3D. You can create some incredible creations. Rocket is a little tricky. But once you get it and with a pen tablet it works so well. Also try Wings 3d. And of course Blender. Then send em over to Moi. There is some really cool matcaps in Rocket. Peace out.

@ Specktech Glad you find my little site some useful! :)

Hi Specktech,

Thanks for sharing that an XP pen tablet works with MoI and about your tablet + keyboard + mouse setup. I think I'm going to get a smaller keyboard to try that out.

- Peer