You have finally come to the conclusion that although your mouse works great for Zbrush the allure of the Pen Pressure Sensitivity is too great. This is an inevitable and in this article I will walk you through your drawing tablet purchase for Zbrush and what you need to consider before investing in upgrading your tech.
In this guide I will step you through my personal considerations when I’m looking to buy my next drawing tablet particularly with the perspective of using it heavily for Zbrush.
What is a Drawing Tablet
A Drawing Tablet or sometimes referred to as a Graphic Tablet is basically a large touch pad that utilizes a pen. This tablet can be used to draw or in the case of Zbrush sculpt.
The biggest advantage of having a drawing tablet over a mouse in Zbrush is what is referred to as pressure sensitivity. The harder you push the more effect you have on your sculpting.
While pressure sensitivity is great there are various other advantages of a drawing tablet in Zbrush. I’d recommend you check out this article I wrote here.
Do All Tablets Work With Zbrush
The first consideration you probably need to work out is if your perspective tablet works with Zbrush. Unfortunately in this respect it isn’t always clear. More often than not they do. All of the more well known brands such as Wacom, Huion and XP-Pen do. However it is worth double checking before you purchase to avoid being disappointed.
Drivers in particular can be somewhat troublesome so it’s something to be aware of before making a purchase.
Drawing Space
While it may seem beneficial to get a large tablet I have actually found they are less comfortable. The big motions and reduced room on your desk to work can be difficult. It is also important to note the size of your table does not scale 1 to 1 for your screen. The tablet scales down so you don’t need a large tablet if you have a large screen.
Quite often in Zbrush I find myself using a small portion of the tablet as your usually sculpting fine detail or making small changes at a time. You are not sculpting on a large canvas like you would in Photoshop. Usually the only time you may use large gestures is to navigate the Zbrush menus.
I’ve found a tablet about the size of an A4 piece of paper or usually sized as a medium tablet is perfect for Zbrush. Using a smaller tablet is certainly doable but I find you lose a little precision. I would personally recommend to stay away from large tablets.
Pressure Sensitivity
Most of the newer high end tablets will talk about having 8192 pressure levels and the lower ones 4096. For sculpting purposes in Zbrush it is difficult to tell the difference. While it is a nice thing to have it is not necessary.
Personally I do not believe this is a huge selling point. If you are using a tablet for drawing I could see the benefits, however for sculpting in Zbrush it is not as obvious.
Hotkeys
Hotkey and shortcut keys is where having a tablet for Zbrush can really come in useful. The need for keys to navigate, masking, smoothing and even undoing soon add up.
In my personal opinion the more keys at your disposal the better. You will be grateful when you don’t also have to rely on a keyboard taking up room on your desk. Or when you would rather just chill on the couch and do some sculpting.
The Pen
The pen is one of the biggest factors to consider when purchasing a tablet. It has to be comfortable to hold for extended periods of time. It needs to feel natural and fit in with your workflow.
The pens come in 2 types. Battery-Free Electromagnetic Resonance pens which as the name suggest do not require to be charged and pens with batteries requiring charging. Personally I prefer the battery free pens as they just feel better.
You will also note that a lot of the pens have tilt support. This is irrelevant in Zbrush as it is not supported so don’t be concerned over this function.
Personal Recommendations
I would recommend the following tablets as they tick all the boxes when it comes to the functionality needed for sculpting in Zbrush. You can find them all at Amazon through my affiliate links below.
Wacom Intuos Pro Medium
This is my top pick and my personal driver it ticks all the boxes. Wacom truly is the leading brand when it comes to this technology. Its proven quality driver support and functionality are hard to match. Of course this comes usually at a little bit more of a premium compared to other brands.
The Intuos Pro Medium is the perfect size with plenty of room to work without being to big. It has 8 programmable keys and a wheel that I usually use to scale brush size in Zbrush.
It comes with Wacom’s latest Pro Pen 2 with the 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity. It can also be Bluetooth wireless if you would rather sit on the couch and sculpt.
One addition to this is Wacom have also released additional products that are compatible with the Intuos Pro series. Both of which are great for 3d artist in Zbrush. There is the Express Key Remote which gives you access to another 17 buttons (I love my buttons) and its bluetooth so you can hold it in anywhere that is comfortable.
The second is the Pro Pen 3d. This has all the functionality of the the Pro Pen 2 but the eraser at the top which is usually aimed at drawing is moved to the grip, where you can have access to an additional button. I find this really useful as I never use the eraser in Zbrush.
Huion Inspiroy H1161
The Huion Inspiroy H1161 ticks all the boxes is a considerably cheaper option to the Wacom Intuos Pro. Its the perfect sized medium tablet and has 10 hard press buttons with a further 16 soft press programmable function keys which are really useful.
The pen utilizes battery free technology with 8192 levels or pressure sensitivity.
Huion has a proven record of working great with Zbrush so you shouldn’t have any compatibility issues.
With the introduction of the FY 21 model it now has Android compatibility. While you can’t have ZBrush on a tablet this is great if you also like to draw in programs like Procreate.
Previously my biggest issue with this tablet is while it has a lot of buttons it lacked the wheel type button the Wacoms have. With the new model this seems to have changed with a sensitivity strip. These tablets are now a very close second to Wacom in my opinion for a fraction of the price. The only sacrifice in my opinion is quality.
XP-Pen Deco Pro Medium
The XP-Pen Deco Pro is in the same price range as the Huion H1161 with a few differences.
It has fewer buttons however I think ergonomically it makes more sense. All the buttons are on the side of a raised portion, so you are less likely to accidentally drift and push buttons. Best of all it has not one but 2 WHEELS!! I like this design as you are less likely to accidentally push buttons.
Like the others on this list it has the 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity and tilt support and is battery free.
Like the Huion it has Android support so you can connect it to your tablet or phone.
This is a solid tablet and I love the dials I’m almost tempted to ditch my Wacom for this.
Conclusion
Hopefully now you have some idea what to look for when choosing a tablet for Zbrush.
While most of the requirements are similar to those required for digital 2d art there are a few differences you should consider. If you take anything from this article it’s that bigger isn’t always better. Finally the more programmable buttons the better.
Good luck with your modeling and have fun.