When it comes to 3d art you are likely going to constantly be looking for ways to improve or do things better, especially when it comes to programs such as Blender. A common question you are likely to ask is will a drawing tablet assist you and is it necessary? From personal experience I can conclude the following.
It is not a necessity to use a Drawing Tablet in Blender and it is possible to only use a mouse. However a drawing tablet is useful for tasks that require precision, or that can utilize a tablet’s pressure sensitivity. It is for this reason a tablet is particularly useful in Blender when it comes to sculpting and texturing models.
In this article we will go into further depth how exactly a Drawing tablet is best used in Blender, so you can decide if it will actually be a worthwhile investment.
What Is A Drawing Tablet
A drawing tablet is best described as an oversized trackpad similar to that of what you would find with a Laptop, but with two major differences. The size and the ability to use a specially designed pen. This allows you to interact with the computer as if it were pen and paper.
There are 2 components to a drawing tablet. The tablet itself which comes in many sizes and can be a pretty handy piece of technology when it comes to 3d.
The pen or sometimes referred to as the stylus serve which serves many purposes. The primary being it allows the ability to detect how hard you are pressing, which can be really handy particularly in Blender.
How Is A Drawing Tablet Used in Blender
A drawing tablet can be used as a full replacement to a mouse in Blender, however in most cases it adds no advantage and is up to personal preference.
While it’s not a necessity a Drawing Tablet can really come in handy is when you are Sculpting and Texturing in Blender.
This is usually more beneficial than a mouse for 2 reasons. It gives an extra degree of precision and it gives you the ability to use the pens pressure sensitivity to affect the way you can Sculpt and Texture.
Extra Precision
If you have ever tried writing with a mouse you will quickly learn just how hard it is. Having the ability to use a pen enables the possibility you to interact with more precision than a mouse.
While sculpting you can make accurate straight strokes that would be difficult to do with a mouse. Which in turn can greatly improve productivity as you are not constantly having to fix your work.
The same goes for painting it allows you to add those final details or intricate patterns that are really difficult with a mouse.
Pressure Sensitivity
Pressure Sensitivity is probably where using a drawing table is the most useful in Blender. This gives you the ability to adjust the strength or brush size simply by pressing a little harder.
This adjustment isn’t a sudden change, the pens have several thousand levels of pressure sensitivity giving it a really organic sculpting feel.
If you have ever tried sculpting with a mouse in Blender you are likely to find yourself constantly having to adjust strength or brush size, however with a drawing tablet you can do it on the fly.
It is really hard to explain but below is a demonstration of what is meant by this. On the left a mouse has been used and on the right is a drawing tablet. As you can see the mouse on the left has a constant stroke strength. On the right the stroke is variable depending how hard I pushed with the pen.
What Tasks Do Not Benefit From a Drawing Tablet
Most tasks besides Sculpting and Texturing in Blender won’t directly benefit from a drawing tablet. If you find that you spend a lot of time on tasks such as Animating, Box Modelling or Composition a drawing tablet in my opinion may not be a worthwhile investment.
This is not to say a drawing tablet is unusable. It has buttons on the pen which can be mapped to left and right click and hotkeys that can be used as shortcut buttons. Some people use a drawing tablet over a mouse or some use a hybrid approach.
Recommendations
Personally I would recommend if you are doing any texturing or sculpting in Blender to look at purchasing a drawing tablet. The good news is there are plenty of solid brands and tablets on the market at very reasonable prices.
I have written a Guide to Buying a Drawing Tablet for Blender so please check it out if you are confused about what specifications are important for a drawing table in Blender.
If I have convinced you and you are in the market to purchase one I would recommend a medium sized tablet. They about the size of a A4 piece of paper for reference. I’ve found larger tablets are just to big and smaller tablets don’t give you enough room.
To make it easy I would recommend the following tablets.
My Personal Favourite
The Wacom Intuos Pro Medium is the best tablet on the market in my opinion but also the most expensive. This is what I personally use and its been going strong for years. While costly it is a worthwhile quality investment.
A Mid Range Contender
The XP-Pen Deco Pro Medium is a really cool tablet and in my opinion really does have the best design as it advertises. It is half the price of a Wacom Intuos Pro but still very solid.
On A Budget
The Huion Inspiroy H1161 is a great tablet if you are on a budget. It is a very solid medium sized tablet capable of doing everything its competitors do.
Conclusion
Hopefully you now have some idea if a drawing tablet will be suitable for you and your needs in Blender. They certainly are not required but they are really useful when it comes to sculpting and texturing. Not to mention they actually are a lot of fun to use. There is something to be said about being able to interact with you computer as if it was a pen and paper.
What ever your choice have fun and good luck with your Blender projects.