One of the things prevalent in today’s animation industry is the ramant digital takeover. It’s everywhere and only a short-sighted artist can dodge it. Pencils, paper and erasers have given way to digital screens and styli. Many in our industry do not like it and yet, we really have no choice but to either embrace it or get out of the way for those who do. If you read this site’s posts with any regularity, one thing stands out more than the rest; in the fact that while many of us artists work on money making juggernauts of humor and fun, not many of us make a lot of money doing it. Most artists are not rich and shelling out over two grand for a piece of equipment is not easy.
Well, I came across a post by an talented artist named Luc Latulippe who brought my attention to an new device called the Yiynova MSP19U Tablet Monitor
This in turn was from another Tumblr site of another talented artist named Ray Frenden who bought one and reviews it. Apparently he loves it even tohugh it does not have the extra buttons on the Cintiq. Whatever, for around $500 bucks it’s a steal and you really can’t beat it.
Ray has an Amazon store set up where you can buy the Yiynova but it seems to be out of stock now. I’m sure that’s because his site has gotten 35,000+ hits since he posted. It’ll come back. If you buy one let us know!
http://www.yiynova.com/en/proddetails.php?proid=1&clsid=1&fid=1
There’s also this project on Kickstarter wich is really interesting to this case
Wich allows you to work on your imac screen or in some other screens (attending to some specifications)
iPen 2 (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ipen/ipen-2-for-ipad-imac-and-more?ref=live)
Or just search for ipen2 on Kickstarter.
Thanks for this! I just did a post about this very thing. It looks like a worthy project to fund.
You’re welcome.
It really seemed like something worth sharing and funding.
Thank you for it as well
It might be worth emphasizing that this is the MSP19U and not the earlier MSP19 model. The model without the “U” has an inferior digitizing approach and is apparently not very good, so don’t buy it by mistake.
As a side note, it looks like the Animator Letter Project may be defunct. The link from your sidebar goes to some kind of general marketing site now.
Good advice!
Looks cool, but you’ve got to figure if you’re going to go all out for a tablet, you may as well do it right and stick with Wacom. If enough good reviews come out for this it’ll be worth a look. But I’d hate to make a $500 dollar mistake. Saving for the Cintiq now. I’m about halfway there!
I suppose, but $500 is a LOOOONG way away from $2000. Everything is returnable and if you don’t like it you’ll know within a few days easily. It seems like a worthy gamble to save $1500.
Well, I’m out of the business now, due to multiple sclerosis – but like to read the posts for nostalgic reasons. If I was still drawing though, I think I’d be looking for another line of work, because my main source of enjoyment as a board artist was the feeling of pencil on paper, the use of an eraser, the dirty, analogue reality of it all. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Mac and I love photoshop – but my first loves will always be my 4B pencil, my eraser, and my sharpener.
I agree, there was a tactile feel to it but for me the Cintiq and digital in general allow me to do a superior final product. All of the analog drawing was somewhat limiting as if you made a mistake you had to start over. Now you undo. A layout doesn’t work? You lasso it and move it around or resize it or even flip it. There no Xerox machine, and there’s no white out. It is much more cleaner and allows you to make a much more detailed product as well because you can zoom in on an area and finesse at a much tinier level than ever before. I would say that at the end of the day it’s a business and whatever tools allow you to do that job more efficiently is a tool you’ve got to have. I will say though that digital drawing has brought more expectations from an artist as well. You’ve really got to up your game to stay relevant and therefore with exactly the example I gave before, but you HAVE to zoom in and put detail where you never needed to before. It is a much harder job than it once was.
David, would you like to do an interview?
So, after review, I’ve decided to take a chance on this. Looking at various reviews and demonstrations around the web helped me come to this conclusion. I still want the Wacom tablet but I have a number of projects that could look a dozen times better if the art is completed on a big tablet and I don’t want to wait another six months to make it happen.
The bad thing is, this thing is still on backorder. I’m ready to purchase today! Will let you all know how it is when I get it…
Cool! Maybe you could do an official view with pics and we’ll post it here. Been thinking about doing a Technology page anyway.
Did you get it yet?
The tablet is on its way Mike! I’ll be sure to do a thorough and articulate review. It’d be incredibly cool to have it posted on this site!
Cool! I look forward to hearing more. I just checked the Amazon site and they are out of stock again. Is that where you purchased it?
Hi Mike, It is still sold out on Amazon. I didnt obtain the tablet via Amazon. I’ve read that as soon as they stock the tablet, it sells out within a few hours…!
Ah ok… So where did you find it in stock? I know a guy who might want to buy a bunch of them.
OK got the shipment today! Amazon had one on there today but its already gone. I actually preordered mine through the distributor.
Awesome! Looking forward to hearing more about it!
The tablet is on its way Mike! I’ll be sure to do a thorough and articulate review. It’d be incredibly cool to have it posted on this site!
Just got the confirmation that the tablet shipped out today! I should have it by Tuesday of next week.
Very much looking forward to getting to work on this!
Ok, so far so good but there is a major dealbreaker here for me. I can not get this thing to work properly in Animate Pro 2.
Thats the major reason I bought this thing. I recently made the upgrade to Toon Boom. I’m hoping support can provide a fix because I’ve read of people using this with Animate/Harmony.
Works great in flash/photoshop though.
Amazon will have some of these in stock tomorrow.
Oh man that sucks. Why what is it not doing correctly?
I’m not too sure what it is because it works great on everything else. I’ve got an idea on how I may be able to fix it. If I can get it to work on Toon Boom this thing will get five stars easy.
I’ve got a nice little review written up but I want to get it to work with Toon Boom before I give it the final verdict!
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Update:
I finally found out how to get Animate Pro to work with this tablet. With that said, this tablets value has increased exponentially. Great purchase and beautiful line art with this tablet.
I still want a Cintiq, but this is an excellent start.
Mike, would you still be up to have a review posted on this? I’ve had ample time to work with this tablet.. Thanks!
-Kreedos
Absolutely. We’ll do it as as The Bosto Kingtee: Out in the field.
Perfect, I’ll get on it right away…!
Hi Kreedos,
what was the solution?? it sounds like i have the same problem you did. i’m working in TBAP2 on a macbook pro with the msp19u and have no pressure sensitivity.
thanks!