Since I was focusing on the Sketchbook Pro/Wacom tag-team review, I threw my keyboard aside and moved on. After launching Sketchbook Pro, I hit my first hurdle. For some reason, the software cannot handle dualview. When you make a mark, the mark is drawn many inches away from the actual stroke that you created. I read some online help and found that I can shut off dual view and the software will work fine. This is unfortunate since many digital artists use two monitors in a dualview setup.

Alias Sketchbook Pro is so incredibly lightweight that it launches in just a few seconds. Once everything was installed, the app was open and the tablet was ready the magic started.

Using the Two Tools as a Pair
These two tools are fantastic together. Alias Sketchbook Pro is incredibly easy to use and it took me about two minutes to become totally proficient at the new gesture based interface (read below). In seconds I was sketching using a realistic pencil tool, spinning the tablet around to make quality marks, moving the tablet closer to me and zooming in to do some inking with the marker tools. It was amazing.

The realistic pencil tool is a big bonus for Cintiq 18sx. © Wacom.

The Cintiq’s pressure sensitivity is top notch and the drawing surface feels very natural. Early tablets were too slippery but every new generation of Wacoms bring a more tactile, paper-like drawing surface. The biggest bang with the Wacom is, of course, the ability to look at the same surface that you are drawing on. This is enormous! No more disconnection between looking at your monitor and drawing two feet away on a tablet on your desk. The only improvement that I can imagine regarding the drawing surface is that, currently, you draw at what appears to be a millimeter off the “digital paper.” When these two surfaces meet, it will be perfect. Finally artists can draw and paint like they are supposed to! I really cannot over exaggerate this point. This is a big moment in art/tech.

Alias Sketchbook Pro is nothing to scoff at either. This incredibly intuitive program does just one thing and does it amazingly well. The drawing tools are excellent and the traditional-tools style of implementing layers is great. In fact, reviewing Alias Sketchbook Pro is difficult because it is simply an amazing simulation of sketchbook drawing. It feels just like normal drawing (especially if used in conjunction with the Cintiq). Pencils feel like pencils, markers like markers, airbrushes like airbrushes, etc.

The one issue that I had with Alias Sketchbook Pro is that there seems to be a bug where some tools cannot smoothly transition from sub-one-pixel thick strokes to thick strokes without an obvious jump. (Picture 1). I tried many computers and even multiple Wacoms (Cintiq, intuos and graphire), but could not solve the problem. Hopefully this bug will be addressed soon.

Alias implemented a gesture-based tool picking system… a trend that is becoming increasingly popular (Firefox, Maya, Opera, 3ds max). The tools can be placed on the bottom right or left for artists of both preferences. (Picture 2) While the pen-flicks are very easy to pick up, it would be great for Alias to use the middle click button on the tablet stylus as a hotbox of some sort. That way you don’t even need to go to the toolbox to switch tools.

The layers are a breeze to use. Each layer has a context sensitive gesture system affiliated with it, so that by flicking while over a layer (in the toolbox) you can hide, show, add, delete and merge layers. In fact, one really fun thing is that the layers are labeled with your handwriting. When you choose to name a new layer, it opens a box. Just scribble what the layer is and it shows it to you in the toolbox. You could even do iconographic shorthand instead of text… it is up to you. (Picture 3)

While drawing, keeping the tablet up on the stand is a real pleasure, but trying to draw with it in your lap is not really an option. As I mentioned earlier, the tablet is quite large and the cable is cumbersome. In a few years when LCD tablet technology is paper-thin and wireless… these will be great for lap drawing, but right now the 18" Cintiq is not quite there. (Note: I have never used the tablet PCs or the smaller model of the Wacom, but I imagine these are quite a bit easier to use as lap-tools.)

From sketching to more detailed work, the Cintiq 18sx and Sketchbook may change the way digital art is created forever. Images Courtesy of Alias.

Conclusion
Will these tools change the way digital art is created forever? Yes, I believe so. Alias Sketchbook Pro is a sleek, inexpensive application that is near flawless as a drawing tool. Industrial designers, concept artists, fine artists and more will find this a refreshing change from the now bandaged-up, archaic Photoshop and the way-too-complex and hard-to-use Painter and Deep Paint.

The Cintiq, while not perfect, is pretty close. It is a dream come true for digital artists. While the price tag of $2,499 (recently reduced from $3,499) is still quite steep, it is an investment that some digital artists will find more than worth it. I have found that the Cintiq has really revolutionized the way that digital artists create their work. Some day these will be as affordable as a standard Wacom Intuos and that is the day when digital art will really blossom.

Ryan Lesser teaches animation at his alma mater the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). His animation company (Mammoth Studios) has worked on projects for Phish, Sony, MTV, De La Soul, Madison Square Garden and others. Since 1999, Ryan has served as art director and game designer at Harmonix, a Playstation2 game developer. Here he has helped produce award-winning games like Frequency, Amplitude and the Karaoke Revolution series. Ryan also maintains a Providence, RI-only underground music site.