Getting tablet and other stuff ( questions)

[kunaisa]

I am going to be getting a tablet soon but I have a few questions...

*You don't have to answer all the questions*

• What brand of tablet do you recommend?

• There are some tablets that you can plug into the computer and others that you don't, which one do you recommend?

• Is there a special program for making the lines better  on your adoptable, if so what?

• Is there a special program for coloring in your adoptable in, if so what?

• How do you cert an adoptable?

• Should I make another account on something like photobucket, if so which ones?

*Ill put new questions here:*

• How do you get the adoptable to grow?

[Neocridders]

-Brand, Wacom. Definitely.
-Plug in or wireless? Um, I've got a plug in. I don't see anything wrong with it. I only don't like when I need to be doing photoshop, so I have my flashdrive and my tablet plugged in, and no more usb ports open. But, I don't know if wireless uses usb ports or not.
-I use photoshop. Photoshop is great. I have CS4 extended. It's fantastic. But, there are other good programs I'm sure. I use it for all of my coloring needs. I use it for all of my inking needs. But, well, I don't know if you'd like it for inking. I'm no good with inking in general though.
-I cert an adoptable by having an image (cert), paste the adoptable on top, add in the name and owner and other stuff. But I use photoshop.
-I think you could make a new album in photobucket, or if you want to have a photobucket just for your adopts, that's fine too. I've done both before. I also think tinypic is good, it's fast and easy, but not as organized as photobucket I tihnk.

[jojo]

Brand: Wacom!

Plug in or Wireless:
I'd go with plug-in. Wireless might be nice because you won't have to deal with cords, but I imagine it's less reliable than plug-in (just because it's not directly connected). Other wireless peripherals (like my wireless mouse here) take up USB ports anyway (you stick in a small wireless receiver thing into your computer that talks to your mouse) so might as well get a plug-in. Otherwise, wireless tablets may use Bluetooth (which won't take up a USB port) so that's an option.
I haven't actually ever owned a wireless tablet before, so I can't say anything concrete about how reliable it is -- I'm just giving my opinion based on my experiences with other wireless stuff ^^ I'm sure there's plenty of reviews out there (but you've probably already looked at them).

[YourLoveOnly]

Brand: Wacom. Much more durable than most other brands and if you search a bit you can get it fairly cheap
Plug in or wireless: Plug in is usually easier and cheaper to find. Like jojo said, a lot of wireless ones still use up a USB port so I would just go with plug in, it's just as easy in my opinion.
Lines: I don't ink, so I can't help you with that. I know Sunchaser only has GIMP, which is free software and she does a great job. So no, you do not need photoshop to be good at inking or coloring. Whichever program you pick, you mainly just need a lot of practice.
Coloring: I use GIMP. It has less features than Photoshop but it's free and I find it easier to work with. I know most people do use photoshop though. GIMP and tablets do have a tendency to not immediately work together, so you may have to plug in your tablet several times before it fully responds (usually it's the touch sensitivity that won't work immediately).
Certing: Buy or make a cert. Reserve a place to put your adoptable. I do this by placing a black outline of the pet. This is so all the pets are in exactly the same place. If using Photoshop, save as .psd and if using GIMP save as .xcf or else the text boxes will transfer to normal layers and you can't edit them anymore. Once your done coloring your adoptable save it as a transparent .png and then open that image as layer in your cert. Put it in the right spot, hide the layer with the black outline and edit in name, owner etc
Storing: The new version of photobucket has a tendency to freeze when uploading multiple files at once. But usually when you're updating owner folders you only upload one or two pictures at a time, so that's okay. If you use tinypic you will have to make a thread or website to keep the owner list on, so people can find it. Tinypic also doesn't let you upload multiple files at once, so photobucket is defenitely faster and I would recommend it.

[Leafy]

    * What brand of tablet do you recommend? Wacom all the way

    * There are some tablets that you can plug into the computer and others that you don't, which one do you recommend? Plug in, I don't use anything wireless, batteries bug me and the product life and functionality tend to not be as good

    * Is there a special program for making the lines better  on your adoptable, if so what? For a long time I used the pen tool in photoshop until I could get my hand stead enough to do my own inking.

    * Is there a special program for coloring in your adoptable in, if so what? Photoshop although some people use Gimp, or Sai, and some can even do amazing things with MSPaint

    * How do you cert an adoptable? PSD filetype, I keep the cert as a separate image that I can edit as needed and copypaste the finished adoptable onto

    * Should I make another account on something like photobucket, if so which ones? I like photobucket, never had anything disappear from there.

[kunaisa]

just added another question!!

[YourLoveOnly]

You name the file the same way. So for example you named the baby file 001 then name the adult file 001 as well (if you want to keep both images on your computer just save the adult in a different folder, I have a seperate folder for baby images). Then go to the photobucket where you uploaded the baby, delete the baby's picture and upload the adult. Because the has the same name the baby picture will now be replaced by the adult picture.

The other way is to just upload the adult file and post the link to the grown pet in a thread (so baby would be 001, but adult would be 001A for example).

[Leafy]

Feed them...


I'm being a jerk <_< It depends which fileserver you use, some are easier to update than others, sometimes it's as easy as saving the original image as a PSD and adding a layer for the next finished stage, then saving that in a web appropriate format and uploading it to your image host and replacing the foal image. so that the image you saved as Leafy103 will automatically grow into the adult version of Leafy103 without having to send out a new link to the owner.

Or, if you use Photobucket like I and many others do, it's slightly more difficult because the site is run on cookies, I haven't used it in a while, and I think they're trying to fix it at last check, but its virtually the same thing, original Foal image, Leafy103, delete it, clear your cookies and replace it with the new and improved grown version of Leafy103. And then cross your fingers and hope that the owner doesn't need to clear their cookies too. It's a pain in the butt but it does work eventually. 

[YourLoveOnly]

You don't even need to clear your cookies, it just sometimes takes a little for it to show up (sometimes just a refresh, but it can take up to 24 hours). When you go to the photobucket folder it does show the grown version, but sometimes when you post it it doesn't right away.

[Solistia]

What brand of tablet do you recommend?
Wacom. It's the industry standard, an you can also find nicely priced ones that fit your budget. I recommend finding a "refurbished" tablet, since they're half the price of a new tablet (pretty much it's a tablet where something didn't work, so it got sent back to Wacom, and Wacom fixed it good as new, both of my refurbished tablets have lasted me 4 years or more!). In order of functionality it goes Bamboo, Graphire, Intuos. Bamboo replaced Graphire in WACOM's product list, but it's still slightly lower end than Graphire (so if you can find a refurbished Graphire4 get it!). Intuos is the super high end version, normally cost around $1000, but I've heard talk of a new offshoot that only a few hundered (whereas Bamboo and graphire are usually only around $100 or less, my refurbished 8x6 tablets [fairly large ones] were only $86).
Also size will affect price. You can get small ones easily, but finding refurbished larger sizes is very hard. Also, once you use a bigger tablet, it is very hard to go back to using a small tablet, so choose whichever fits you best (I can never use a small one ;A; )

There are some tablets that you can plug into the computer and others that you don’t, which one do you recommend?
It's a simple fact of Blutooth is more expensive, and you have to make sure your computer is Blutooth compatabile. If neither of those works for you, don't get it. Otherwise if you think you'll be tripping on the cord, or ned to move very far away and still have it work, then get it.

Is there a special program for making the lines better on your adoptable, if so what?
Nothing really makes lines "better" aside from constant practice (my recommendation is to trace pictures from artists whose style you like, to help you learn how anatomy works, along little nuances you might not have realized were there by just using how to draw books. Obviusly never claim this art as your own, it's only for practice, to get you used to what strokes you should use, and how things are shaped. After so much tracing your hand should start naturally remembering the movements and shapes it needs to draw to get the results you want.
However, in my experience, Flash MX, when you use the brush tool, you can change the "smoothing" setting, and it will smooth any lines you draw in it. It doens't help you draw better just makes the line smoother.

Is there a special program for coloring in your adoptable in, if so what?
It really just depends on the adoptable. Some adoptables are built to be used with lower end free programs like GIMP, while others are much more complicated and require such programs as different version of Photoshop. There are some yet that only require programs like Paint. So it just depends on what the adoptable is created in usually as to what you'll want to use to color it. (whenever I take adoptable commissions, I also ask the receive what programs they use so I can make sure the template is compatible).

How do you cert an adoptable?
Generally the cert is a separate file. You open a copy of the pet image (generally a transparent file like PNG) and copy+paste it onto the cert file, place it where other pets are generally placed, then fill out the cert information, such as Name of the adoptable, Name of the owner, Gender if there is one, or even an ID number if your adoptable has them. Sometimes certs include other information important to an adoptable, such as a "Class" for the adoptable, or even a quick "personality". It all depends on what information is important to your adoptable.
Some people also have the templated pet that you color right on the cert teplate, so you just color and cert in one.

Should I make another account on something like photobucket, if so which ones?
In general, when using photobucket, most makers make a separate photobucket form their personal one, or different from other adoptable ones, because a lot of times adoptable runners don't run or color one alone, and the other members of your staff will often need access to it to upload their work. This is far less appealing if they need access to your personal account because that's where you hosted your adoptable.
For me however, since I have my own paid webspace, I simply host my adoptables on there. (I don't recommend using a free website to host adoptable images on, just paid webspace or photobucket, as many free sites do not allow hotlinking of images).

How do you get the adoptable to grow?
Say you have a certed pet for an owner. The filename of this certed creature is 001.png. If you put the grown pet on the cert and save over the first cert (001.png) with the exact same file name, then go to your photobucket, delete the old one, and upload the new one, it will now show the grown pet on file 001.png (it may take a few hours for photobucket to show the new grown image...it's why I like my paid webspace, the update is immediate).

[Winged]

I've never used a tablet, so can't help with those questions but i'll answer a couple others.

Is there a special program for coloring in your adoptable in, if so what?
Well all computers come with paint and some people do use that but it is difficult to use well and has no layer function. I use photoshop elements (an early version, 3 i think) and find it great! I only started using it not that long ago, and had no experience with layers, but you learn pretty quick. I know my colouring is improving all the time.
Other prograns you can use i'm not sure about, i know many people use GIMP. There can be problems with photoshop and GIMP, if you try to open a photoshop file in gimp then there's a problem if you've had layers in folders.
How do you cert an adoptable?
You make a cert, usually a fairly simple shape that has enough space for a name, owner, id, ect. Others have explained this well so i'll just leave you to read those answers.
Should I make another account on something like photobucket, if so which ones?
I would recoment photobucket, it does glitch occasionally and i find that it's slow uploading, but it is free and the folders within folders you can use is usefull for running an adoptable.
How do you get the adoptable to grow?
You can either change the image, as others have suggested, or make a new image. I use the same code but with an a against it for adult. This is because i keep the egg files. Each to your own, just think about what is easiest for you. If you are using photoshop, it may be easier to upload a new file than replacing files, photoshop often takes ages to show the new image when you post the image.