digital art

  • for any adequate combo of clicks, strokes and keyboard shortcuts you need a desktop jungle of peripherals, and equivalent on screen for tool adjustments.
  • very cluttered visuals, less portable, slows down your processes
  • hence why procreate is very popular now, and even animators could be moving to the ipad’s platform after procreate dreams
  • even laptops require flat surfaces and tablet ergonomics aren’t really ideal unless you’re hunched in an armchair or over a desk
  • but is it powerful enough and is it worth switching all other tools for the sake of procreate? if you’re at all multi-disciplinary (eg dev or 3d) you can’t fully switch from a traditional desktop and many can’t afford a separate device for one part of their workflow. and it adds to the near-monopoly of iPads and Surface tablets - you’re practically and financially locked into an ecosystem and the workflow that it necessitates.
  • on-screen keyboards limit screen space and make you need to context switch
  • often a reliance on external accessories for screen texture correction, hand ignoring, propping up device, etc indicates room for improvement in the hardware design.
  • peripherals:
    • mouse and pen control are especially inadequate for continuous data such as colour values and scrolling/panning the canvas as it is difficult to be precise
      • touch-screen controls are more intuitive for this as scrolling and pinching gestures are now ubiquitous
    • But for the actual mark-making using a tablet pen feels more natural.
    • delineating between tool space and canvas space on the hardware itself allows for more deliberate and natural tactile input that invokes muscle memory and aligns with on-screen tool details
  • I’m interested in innovations in this area
    • very little (public) work in this area, notable exception in Microsoft ‘s Surface Dial, some promising features but wasn’t highly rated and gained little traction
    • how is the world of VR sculpting going?
    • organic peripherals
  • a lot if work in the hobbyist space and from artists, so not widely useable or applicable
  • but very remixable, working collaboratively, eg open source hardware?