Gday everybody!
There is such a massive varietty of cartooning styles and methods of creation here on DD.
What is the computer set-up you use?
And what would be your ideal set-up if money was no object?

I use a G5 Quad with a Wacom Cintiq 21UX as an extra screen/worktable.
I do have a new Macbook Pro, 17" ...but have found it much slower than my almost-two-year-old G5 when it comes to rendering in my 3D program (Carrara 5, this program runs natively on a G5 but not the new intel chips on Apples newer computers).

This is my ideal set-up too. The G5 runs like lightning!

The Wacom screen was by far the best investment I have ever made. I rarely use paper anymore, doing all drawing directly on the screen.

Oh, yeah, and without starting an endless debate on Mac Vs PC, how many of you guys and gals are using Macs for your comics?

http://www.sgi.com/products/remarketed/prism/

and one of these->
http://www.evl.uic.edu/pape/CAVE/ [evl.uic.edu]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_Automatic_Virtual_Environment [en.wikipedia.org]

and for the operating system this->
http://www.arsc.edu/science/blui.html [arsc.edu]

A Wacom screen sounds awesomer than a Wacom tablet! How much did it cost you?

mlai
A Wacom screen sounds awesomer than a Wacom tablet!

I agree. I'll trade you for a kidney. No? First born child? She's a good worker. Doesn't eat much. ;D

I would kill for a Wacom screen.

But, my personal set up:

1. Pen and paper
2. PC and scanner
3. GIMP.


...

that's it.

To make penis, I need three things:

Flash 5
a mouse
anger

Um...lessee...

Pencil? Check.
Paper? Check.
Sharpies? Check.
Scanner?
Wacom tablet for the occassional coloring? Check.
"Liberated" copy of Photoshop ("pirated" is such a harsh word)? Check.

I don't really use computers for anything more than lettering and levelling up the blacks. Unless I'm coloring something...these days I tend to color with the Wacom.

When I graduate from high school and get into a good art college I really want to start buckling down with my comicing. Srsly. And by that time I really want to look into getting the latest iMac. I have a MacBook Pro laptop at the moment, and it's been great so far. But if I really want to start building up a huge archive of strips I'm gonna need one big mutha of a computer. I'm talkin' a 24-inch glossy screen, up to 1TB of storage and a 2.8GHz dual-core Intel processor, all of which the iMac has to offer.

But aside from that, I'd want a big ol' high-quality scanner, a good drawing table (my rickety old IKEA desk just won't cut it), and an arsenal of top-quality art supplies. If I had that set-up I'd be off to the races. Ch'yeah. 8D

P.S. As you can tell, I use a Mac for my comicing. Now I don't want to spark a whole debate here, but I really think Macs are better suited to the whole artistic aspect of technology. Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, all suite Macs perfectly. Don't get me wrong, those programs work great on PCs too.

Beaums, I think you will have "sparked a debate" but I must agree.
A stable, virtually virus-free OS is vital.
I must admit... I am impressed with some of Fuzzy Modem's ideal set-ups.
And yes, I cannot live without my Wacom screen.
Being able to work directly on screen with any type of brush is brilliant.
I could never use a tablet... the hand-eye difference is too great. I admire anyone who can draw that way.
I thought I would misss the feel of 2b pencil on nice paper... but no... the ability to erase, loop, etc,etc,etc with the interaction of a pen drawing right on screen.... sigh ...
I dreamt of being able to do this one day and now the technology today makes it and so much more possible.

If you can ever afford it get one. It'll pay for itself in efficiency very quickly. I was lucky to have been able to set myself up. It cost about $4000 australian.

The problem with getting one second hand is that people who have one will only ever get rid of one when they are upgrading, which is rare because the initial outlay is more than most towers.

Oh and working in 3D with a pen on screen is beautiful.

Fuzzy Modem

mlai
A Wacom screen sounds awesomer than a Wacom tablet!

I agree. I'll trade you for a kidney. No? First born child? She's a good worker. Doesn't eat much. ;D

Sorry, Fuzzy Modem, your soul wouldn't be enough.

Miai, go try one out somewhere, if you need it bad enough you'll create one.

You'll see one in the background at the start of my show, "The Cartoon Art Show" in the tutorials. The drawing you see me doing is me working directly on the screen with the pen.

actually my ideal set up is what I have right now:


2 wide screen monitors, high resolution
quad processors, 8800 gtx card, 2gb ram
waccom
scanner

btw i prefer a pc because i can do more than just draw with my computer. besides i hate apple products... technology fascist is what they are.

I start off with my notebook with all my preliminary sketches, my super nifty penabled Wacom tablet laptop, and a magnifying glass to read my handwriting. And more will and concentration that can fit in my house.

My mind and hands also help, too.

I'm a PC user, not really familiar with macs, but I do agree that for graphic design etc, you're better off with a mac.

My ideal set-up is pretty much what I've got now, but upgraded. All I use is Photoshop Cs and the internet. Internet to look for the sprites, Photoshop to fling it all together...so basically all I need is a PC with photoshop and an internet connection.

I wouldn't mind having a quad-core with something like a 24" flatty though. But I'm happy enough with my oncoming lappy for now.

PC = Manual transmission
MAC = Automatic transmission

subcultured
actually my ideal set up is what I have right now:

Whoa. subcultured, I think I have the same scanner as you. Dopesauce.

Fuzzy Modem
PC = Manual transmission
MAC = Automatic transmission

Well said.
I just like things easy... You don't seem to have to be as 'techy' when you drive a Mac

subcultured
actually my ideal set up is what I have right now:


2 wide screen monitors, high resolution
quad processors, 8800 gtx card, 2gb ram
waccom
scanner

btw i prefer a pc because i can do more than just draw with my computer. besides i hate apple products... technology fascist is what they are.

Nice set-up,
But what do you mean by, "technology fascist?"

I'd call them technology capitalists, not fascists.

I can't think of a better set up for myself either.
I guess I could add more ram... But for the 2 programs I use, Photoshop and Manga Studio, my computer runs great and fast! I need more music actually that I can play while drawing =P

My computer setup is
Windows XP
AMD Athlon 64X2 Dual Core 2.4 GHZ
2 Gigs of Ram

I have the dual monitor setup with my primary drawing monitor being the Wacom Cintiq 21UX as well.

Like you I rarely draw on paper anymore. That thing is so revolutionary. A bit hefty on price but not as bad as I expected actually. $2,500.00 USD

I can't really think of anything else I would want.

Durn kids with all their fancy watchamacallit doohickeys...

Seriously though, I'd love to get my mits on one of those wacom things...so pretty...

Okay I'm gonna give you the big pic and the rundown. I won't have subcultured out dooing me after that drug debate. Still waiting for you to answer those straight forward questions sub :p



text removed by the author for modesty reasons.

I use wall mounts for most of it so it doesn't take up near as much space and I can sort of scoot into it all.

The best part? I got all this stuff and (4 pallets more) for $80! when ARSC [arsc.edu] did their last Vis lab upgrade and subsiquent auction. No one ever seems to know when and where these auctions are going to be, but a friend of mine works for the campus tech center and gave me the heads up. They got rid of a WAREHOUSE full of stuff, but four pallets was all I could fit in my truck :( Most of it is still in the garage. Eventually I'll sell it all on ebay :p

Downside? The kilowatt power supply I need to run all this stuff cost $400 and $70 in electric each month.

text removed by the author for modesty reasons.

I also have a media center machine up on the top left. More pedestrian. Just holds my music and movies. A snazzy little program called synergy lets me control both machines with the same extended interface without the need for a KVM :)

Yet with all this stuff I still have no tablet :( My girlfriend got a $1600 bribe from the oil companies [en.wikipedia.org] this year though, so I'm hoping she'll buy me one. If not I'll be getting my own bribe this time next year.

Are you God? No seriously, are you?

Rutger
Are you God? No seriously, are you?

No, I just have a very small penis.




... no seriously it's regular size... really it is! I swear!

My desk top pc is set up for business endeavors not art production. But what that really means is that I can't justify investing money in top of the line applications or hardware decorated with wish-list bells and whistles. Fortunately my cartooning style is basic enough that the pencil against paper approach works just fine. Aside from that all I need is a scanner and a ruidimentary software application that will allow me to tweak the art work a little here and a bit there before calling it quits and uploading the results.

Now what I would like is a top of the line pc with enough ram and computing power to allow me to run any application with impunity. But then, hey, who wouldn't want something like that?

The irony is that it would be wasted on me because I am comfortable with my cartooning style and wouldn't put all that extra computing capacity to any productive use anyway. Hell, I don't even play games with a pc anymore.

Want and need and can-make-do-with are three separate issues. I enviously admire the artists able to afford and knowledgeable and skilled enough to utilize the top of the line stuff, but as I'm one of the can-make-do-with crowd, I'm content to watch my betters from the sidelines, cheer them on, and admire the fruit of their labors.

Fuzzy Modem
Downside? The kilowatt power supply I need to run all this stuff cost $400 and $70 in electric each month.

That's exactly one of my biggest concerns. :(
I like to be fairly "green". I know my set up as it is currently doesn't use too much electricity, and that's one of my problems when I'm thinking about upgrading, which I'd like to do again now.

What I wanted to do was get a top of the line PC with a big HD TV LCD as a large display monitor (90cm maybe 100cm?), along with a couple of big wide screen LCD monitors. But then I looked into the power usage and realised I had to rule all that out. :(

Now I just want to get a reasonably high-end setup, and make sure that none of it goes too crazy with the power...

Warning: this post is made by someone who is technologically handicapped. Techno-babble is right out.

Now:

1.Pencil and paper
2.PC and scanner (one of those cheap flatbed ones)
3. Wacom Cintiq 21UX (it cost me my legs, which is why I never leave my computer. :p)

No, seriousy. The 21UX is CRAZY EXPENSIVE, but it's so totally worth it. It's so much easier to work with than a regular tablet, it's fantastic from an ergonomical perspective, the only flaw it has is that the colour-balance is different than on my regular monitor, and I don't know which one is correct (an issue that will be fixed, one of these days), and, and, and....

.... if my Cintiq was human, I'd have it's babies. :)

Now that's something I'd like to get, one of the big Cintiqs... I've had a big 12x12 Wacom for years now and it works still beautifully, no troubles with the drawing on the tablet/looking at the monitor thing at all.

Heh, the Cintiqs only just caught up with the Intuos in pressure levels a year or two ago: previously they only had half the sensitivity, that was one of the biggest reasons I held of from buying one, the other was the price; they are simply overpriced for what they are. Until they come right down I'm not seeing any advantage in getting one.- since my own tablet has exactly the same sensitivity and I'm expert at using it.

So that's something I'd like to know: real advantages!
For instance, do you find it makes the rough sketch stage easier for you?
How well does it function as a second monitor?
What are the actual dimensions? (not diagonal)
-I don't want to know about the drawing on the screen aspect and whether that's easier for some people or not, it's not an issue in my case, it's other other benefits that I'm interested in... Because those will make me think harder about getting one :)

ozoneocean
Now that's something I'd like to get, one of the big Cintiqs... I've had a big 12x12 Wacom for years now and it works still beautifully, no troubles with the drawing on the tablet/looking at the monitor thing at all.

Heh, the Cintiqs only just caught up with the Intuos in pressure levels a year or two ago: previously they only had half the sensitivity, that was one of the biggest reasons I held of from buying one, the other was the price; they are simply overpriced for what they are. Until they come right down I'm not seeing any advantage in getting one.- since my own tablet has exactly the same sensitivity and I'm expert at using it.

So that's something I'd like to know: real advantages!
For instance, do you find it makes the rough sketch stage easier for you?
How well does it function as a second monitor?
What are the actual dimensions? (not diagonal)
-I don't want to know about the drawing on the screen aspect and whether that's easier for some people or not, it's not an issue in my case, it's other other benefits that I'm interested in... Because those will make me think harder about getting one :)

My choice to spring for a cintiq was motivated both by sheer, extatic omgsoshinyness and because my old tablet was slowly but surely breaking down - the pressure-sensitivity was going down the toilet, sometimes it just wouldn't respond, blah, blah, blah.

Now, for your questions:

1. The rough sketch stage depends, really, on what it is I'm drawing. I am the messiest sketcher I know, and so my canvas(es) tend to be covered in little lines left and right and center before I'm finished, regardless of whether I'm sketching directly on my cintiq or not. So perhaps I'm not the best person to answer your question (I prefer sketching on paper first, regardless of whether I use a regular tablet or a cintiq, since it affords me a greater control). I would say that the tools react a little faster and with a bit more precision on the cintiq than any regular tablet I've used.

2. Pretty well. Mine was a bit of a bitch to set up, but it worked out alright in the end. Haven't done much more than use Painter/Photoshop on it, however, so I can't say how well it functions for non-art programs. It's pretty dark, though - a lot darker than my regular monitor - and I've yet to plough through the instruction manual to be able to fix it.

3. My unit is 55 centimeters wide by 42-ish centimeters tall (with the podium-thing added to the height, it's about 47 cms.) The actual screen is 41cm x 37cm. It takes up quite a lot of space on your desk, to put it mildly.

Hope that helped! :D

Yep, that helped. :)
So it's really quite big, and functions quite well as a monitor?
I'm pleased to learn about the reaction time, since I had heard that it had some very slight delay... I was a bit doubtful about that though, I'm more inclined to beleive that it's faster than slower. ^_^

As to your darkness problem, you could possibly fix that through your video card properties? The monitor colour profile settings? It sounds to me like you need to increase the "gamma levels" as well.

ozoneocean
Yep, that helped. :)
So it's really quite big, and functions quite well as a monitor?
I'm pleased to learn about the reaction time, since I had heard that it had some very slight delay... I was a bit doubtful about that though, I'm more inclined to beleive that it's faster than slower. ^_^

As to your darkness problem, you could possibly fix that through your video card properties? The monitor colour profile settings? It sounds to me like you need to increase the "gamma levels" as well.

Glad to help!

Re: the darkness problems. Yes, I probably could. Only, I'm technologically illiterate, so most of my computer-modifications consist of me going "PLEASE help me? Pretty please?" to my more computer-literate brother. I'll see what I can do, and, when in doubt, ask my brother for help. ;)