Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/14320
•••ADVERTORIAL••• Wacom professional tablets free artists at Big Bad Boo to focus on their award-win- ning art and productions. Wacom Intuos and Cintiq tablets feature pressure- and tilt-sensitive Grip Pens, delivering impressive levels of precision, control, and comfort for editing digital images, applying effects and fi lters, sketching, painting, and modeling. “For our pipeline—in which we are creating everything digitally, paperless— the Wacom pen-based workfl ow has really helped us out. It’s a really great way to transition from the old way of doing things, of drawing on paper,” says Chris Muzya, Big Bad Boo Studio’s layout supervisor, who oversees background layouts and a staff of three artists using Cintiqs. Big Bad Boo artists particularly enjoy using the Wacom Cintiq, and the entire com- pany is reaping benefi ts. “That extra real estate on top of the fact that it’s digital is just a double whammy,” Rezaei admits. “It speeds our effi ciency by 40 to 50 percent in terms of the preproduction phase, not to mention the costs and all the frustration saved over the manual process.” The Cintiq family of interactive pen displays—the large-format Cintiq 21UX and low-profi le Cintiq 12WX—enables creative professionals to work naturally and intuitively using Wacom’s patented professional pen technology directly on the surface of an LCD display. Its respon- sive, pen-on-screen performance closely replicates the experience of working with traditional pen and paper, but provides all the benefi ts of a digital workfl ow. “We are all really impressed with how it works and how it makes our job easier,” Muzya says. “It really saves us a lot of time, and our workfl ow is easier because of it. For how they want to produce car- toons, this is the way they have to go and this is the hardware they have to have.” “It really improves the workfl ow, and it raises the level of the artwork being done, because erasing, copying, and re-doing are so much easier,” Rezaei adds. “The artist is now able to focus on the art, and not worry about administrative and annoying things that go around creating art.” The investment in Wacom Cintiq interactive pen displays and Intuos tablets, and in an all-digital workfl ow, is paying off in spades. Big Bad Boo’s latest project, 1001 Nights, was nominated for British Columbia’s prestigious Leo Awards in four out of fi ve animation catego- ries. Neither Big Bad Boo, nor Wacom are resting on their laurels, however; both companies continue to push the boundaries of what is possible. “I see the improvements from one [tablet] generation to the next,” says Rezaei, unable to think of a single area that needs improvement. “I can’t think of anything. What we have right now is just ideal. We use Wacom tablets in every aspect of production and, from what I know and what I can see, it works very nicely. It’s not something we are ever going to remove. In terms of what we do in the future, it is always going to be there; and, because Wacom keeps innovating and coming up with new functionality, new brush styles, new buttons, and better ergonomics, it will always be a better, faster, cleaner, more ergonomically friendly piece of hardware for our artists.” For more information or to purchase Wacom Cintiq or Intuos4 pressure-sensitive tablet and wireless pen and mouse combinations, visit www.wacom.com. Cintiq 21UX Cintiq 12WX Small Medium Large XL Wireless Artists have their choice of two Wacom Cintiq models: 21-inch, color-accurate screen 12-inch-wide screen The Wacom Intuos4 is available in fi ve models: 6x4-inch active area 9x6-inch active area 13x8-inch active area 18x12-inch active area 8x5-inch active area July 2010 $1999 U.S. $999 $229 $349 $469 $789 $399 49