- [Aaron] How important are pen pressure levels?
Let's find out by comparing four different pens ranging from
1,000 to 8,000 pressure levels.
That's up next.
Thanks for joining me today.
I'm Digital Artist Aaron Rutten and it is my mission
to help artists like you
enjoy digital art and learn some new skills along the way.
Today, we'll be testing pen pressure on four different pens,
the Wacom Intuos Pen and Touch
with around 1,000 pressure levels, the Wacom Pro Pen 1
with around 2,000 pressure levels,
the Wacom Intuos 2018 model
with around 4,000 pressure levels and the Wacom Pro Pen 2
with around 8,000 pressure levels.
Now, I know these are all Wacom pens but this information
will still be applicable to other types of tablets as well.
So before we do any drawing, I want to mention something
that's very important.
The art application that you're using might have a maximum
of how many pressure levels it can support.
Now, I wasn't able to find any information for how many
levels are supported for each application
but if you do look under options
in your Wacom tablet properties, it does imply
that some applications might not support any more
than 1,000 pressure levels.
That's just something to keep in mind.
So now let's do a test with a really, really big brush
and we'll try to taper it off
down to a fine point using pen pressure.
Now, when the brush is this big you're really not going to see
much of a difference in the pen pressure.
So if you use a lot of big brushes, the pen pressure
might not really make much of a difference.
I'll continue using a big brush and I'll just extend
that tapering a little bit longer
and then I'll do some tapered strokes
or I'll attempt to do tapered strokes with a thick brush.
I'm finding it kind of hard to taper my strokes
with the higher pressure levels
but with the lower pressure levels it's a bit easier.
Now, I do want to mention that you can calibrate
your pen pressure to make it easier to draw
for the kind of pressure that you use.
But in these demonstrations,
I'm just using the default pen pressure setting
for all the tablets.
Now I'm going to use a medium-size brush
and do a really long taper
where I let up on the pen pressure.
And as I near the end of the stroke, I'm going to try
to press as lightly as I possibly can.
And what I notice is on the lower pen pressure, it's easier
to get a very sharp taper.
It's hard for me to get that really fine line width
on the higher pen pressure resolutions
but the overall smoothness of the transition
between wide to thin is much smoother
on the higher pen pressure resolutions.
Now, you might notice that on the tablets that don't have
a screen, the lines are a little bit more wobbly.
That's because I'm holding the tablet up
and so it's kind of moving when I press down on it.
I had to do that to keep it within the camera frame.
So just ignore the wobbliness of the lines and just focus
more on how evenly the pressure goes from thick to thin.
Now I'll test pressure with opacity.
I'm controlling the opacity or how thick the paint is
or how transparent it is.
What I'm doing is I'm starting with heavy pressure
and I'm going to very, very light pressure
to get that nice fade.
Now again, what you'll notice is there's that
smoother transition from dark to light
over on the higher pressure levels.
When you look at the lower pressure levels
it's a bit more jumpy.
It jumps quickly from one level to another.
I'm going to draw a similar stroke here.
This time I'll start with light pressure,
go to heavy pressure and then back to light pressure again.
And if you look very carefully, again you can see
with the higher pressure levels that transition
from dark to light back to dark is much smoother.
Next, we'll use pressure to vary the opacity
and blend one color into another.
And just like the previous examples,
the higher pressure resolution is a much smoother transition
whereas the lower resolution is much more jumpy.
So if it's hard for you to see that, try blurring your eyes
and looking at these examples and you'll see that
the transition from yellow to orange to red is more abrupt
with the lower pressure levels and it's much smoother
and even with the higher pressure levels.
Now I'm going to go ahead and use a very fine brush
and I'll try to taper my strokes and get a nice range
from fine to very fine,
something like you'd get if you were sketching
or doing inking.
It feels like in the lower pen pressure resolution
that it's easier to get a very fine point on my line.
It's more difficult with the higher pen pressure levels
but overall the quality of the lines is a lot smoother
with the higher pen pressure levels.
So now that I've done some examples
with my default pen pressure setting, I'm going to go ahead
and calibrate this a bit
so it's softer and firmer and we can see the difference
that that makes.
I'll go ahead and make it quite a bit softer.
And now it feels very difficult to be able to get
a very thin line.
I can get a pretty even middle-sized line but it's hard
to get that nice thin taper.
I'm going to go back and I'm going to calibrate it
the opposite direction toward firm.
Now it's very easy to get that very thin line but it's very
difficult to get a very, very thick line.
The pen that I'm using here is the Wacom Pro Pen 2.
Now, if I make my brush a bit bigger
and I try that same thing where I go from light to heavy
to light and you can see I do get a nice transition.
It's just depending on how you calibrate this, you're going
to be able to get thick lines more easily
or thin lines more easily.
You have to try to find the balance to see what works best
for you.
Now I'm going to try to taper some lines
using that firm setting.
And I can get a pretty good taper, a nice even transition
from thick to thin.
But it's not quite as sharp as I want.
Now, if I go back the other direction a little bit more
towards the middle setting and you can see it's very hard
to get a taper.
I get these very thick bold lines.
Now I'll try just one notch towards firm
and it's getting a bit closer to the kind of pressure
that I like to use when I'm drawing.
So for me, anything under 2,000 levels of pen pressure,
I'll set one notch towards firm.
If it's higher than that, I'll set it two notches
toward firm and that works a lot better for me.
One of the issues I have with the MobileStudio Pro
in regards to pen pressure is it feels like you have
to press really hard in order to reach maximum pressure.
So you might want to just set your own custom pressure curve
to get the absolute best pen pressure setting.
So after comparing these pens side by side,
I've come to the conclusion that higher pressure levels
can eliminate jagged or rough transitions
between brush size and opacity.
Higher pressure levels can also eliminate jumps
between levels.
Higher pressure levels give you more headroom for setting
a custom pressure curve.
Higher pressure levels are more noticeable
depending on the kind of brushes you're using.
It'll make the most difference in fine line art with a lot
of brush size and opacity variation.
It can also be nice for 3D sculpting where you might want to
vary between light and heavy pressure so you don't have
to change your brush size or strength as often.
Don't see much of a difference in any of these examples?
Well, unless you're an experienced artist who has used a lot
of tablets over the years, you probably won't notice
a difference.
And to be honest, I'm quite comfortable using any tablet
regardless of how many pressure levels it has.
I've made some great art with only 1,000 pressure levels.
And anything under 1,000 pressure levels does feel a bit
awkward but above that, I feel just fine at around 1,000
or 2,000 pressure levels.
As I move on up to 4,000 or 8,000 pen pressure levels,
the line feels a bit smoother but it feels a bit
more difficult to get that thin to thick ratio
without creating a custom pressure curve.
So to me, pressure levels are important but they're not
as important as the size of the active drawing area
on the tablet, the comfortability of the pen, the additional
features of the tablet or the overall product quality.
So let pressure levels be a factor in your decision
to buy a tablet, but don't give it too much influence.
If you found this information helpful, take a quick second
to like this video.
And if you're enjoying all these free videos I'm creating
for digital artists, join me on my mission to create
more resources like this at patreon.com/AaronRutten.
And click that subscribe button
if you'd like to see more videos like this.
Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.