I’m not a big fan of using the Wacom tablet when I do my compositing and art work, I’d much rather have a Cintiq – but alas my funds and the cost of a Cintiq are not compatible at the moment.
However, Wacom has recently announced the pending release of Inkling, that allows you to take your traditional drawing and turn it into bitmapped or vector art without a scanner. Take the jump for a look at Inkling.
The Inkling digital sketch pen captures a digital likeness of your work while you sketch with its ballpoint tip on any sketchbook or standard piece of paper. Designed for rough concepting and creative brainstorming, Inkling is ideal for the front end of the creative process. Later, refine your work on your computer using an Intuos4 tablet or Cintiq interactive pen display.
In addition to capturing your sketch, stroke by stroke, Inkling allows you to create layers in digital files while you sketch on paper. Digital files are transferred to your computer using the Inkling Sketch Manager software, and later, exported to applications such as Adobe® Photoshop® and Illustrator®. Files can also be opened with the included Inkling Sketch Manager software to edit, delete, add layers or change file formats.
It arrives in mid-September and only costs $199!? I’m so getting that!
6 Comments
I saw this pop up on one of my Apple RSS feeds and I’m highly intrigued as well :-)
While I understand why they went with a pen (technical limitations, price, etc), I really hope an upcoming version is a mechanical pencil.
That said, I’m still pretty interested in trying one of these out.
This thing looks extremely useful. I have a hard time doing any drawing directly into AI/Photoshop. My hand eye coordination just seems to require that tactile pen to paper experience. I can’t afford a Cintiq, and even then I’m not sure the tactile experience would be the same. I love to draw with a pen, so there is definitely an attraction to that aspect. I also have a problem in that I don’t have a really confident line, and the ability to smooth out a vector version of my shakier strokes could prove a godsend. This would also be super cool for comics in that you could draw backgrounds or some other element that you like, and they could be saved as independent objects allowing you to build an object library for later mix-and-match use. I realize this is possible now with AI and Photoshop, but the Inkling presents a more organic approach in my opinion. The price point is also very nice. Well within reach of starving artists.
My son loves to draw a lot, it looks easy to use and fun. I know what he is getting for his birthday. I might even draw a few stick guys myself.
Thanks for the post, I have been looking into getting a tablet system from Walcom, but now this would work with my laptop. Plus having the freedom not having to be first connected to a computer to do your artwork until you are ready transfer. Very promising. Thanks again Major Spoilers.
This looks great! I went to the website though and looked around. Only supports paper size up to A4(8.27” x 11.69″). I like to draw larger than this. My Wacom I actually draw fairly small on because you can blow up the picture on the computer.
I guess this is truly intended for sketches, not larger drawings. I’ll probably wait for version 2.