ZBrushCentral

asus EP121

Community
#14

this is one of the best zbrush tools i have ever come across,I am not usually a fan-boy of products but this thing rocks, I can easily sculpt with over a million polys.What I have been using it for is to get the basic idea of the sculpt down, all the forms and relationships,

Performance

here is a quick snapshot, I have been working on it with nearly 2 million polys with no slowdown at all can work with all the sub tools visible. In the snapshot I divided the head again and did some detailing to show that it can run with a lot more polys, when I put the scales and the stitch marks there was still very little slow down. didn’t like undo very much but that was still only a couple of seconds lag.

preview.jpg
preview.jpg1245×737 142 KB

Battery,

Its no Ipad but it still does ok. Here is an example of zbrushing stats over a 1 hour period, this was just a solo test, will post more if I can get some time. This was modelling for the whole time.

Brightness 5, btooth on wifi off

Balanced perfomance power setting

sing the model in the snapshot

start batt % 90

finish batt % 59

I have a 2 hour train ride home, and i will usually model a bit, play in max or maya a bit, look at some magazines, sketch a bit in artrage, which is free with it and is awesome, and maybe watch a little video and I never flatten the battery.

Cons
The screen is tough gorilla glass but is glossy, very glossy and slippery, so I have to use a felt tip in the pen and I can run through one of those in less than a week, that could just be me though.
I am also having a little bit of colour bleeding on the right hand side, don’t know if i am going to get that seen or not yet.
Running zbrush without a keyboard takes a bit of getting used to and changing your workflow a bit, the supplied bluetooth keyboard is awesome but you get a little cramped using it in a confied space like a train or plane.
The pen provided doesn’t have the extra 2 buttons which are essential for zb but you can pick one up for around 30 dollars.
Battery is not removable, real pain.

will post more stuff about it soon

@KonginChains
I have seen people mod it to do that, have not done it myself, will try to find the link
@ambient-whisper
wacom have updated the firmware, you can dl from the site, shouldn’t do it anymore, i have been having the issue but am too lazy to fix it atm, doesn’t really bother me much.
@lil sister
Like i said, I am becoming a bit of a fanboy of this thing now, you do have to change your workflow a bit but it is well worth it

#15

Does anyone know how to get the pen pressure working for this thing? I made a thread about it earlier? I got the latest Wacom driver and finally PS works no problems although now, art rage doesnt work. I still cant get pen pressure in Zbrush, any ideas?

#16

i hope you don’t mean the pressure sensitivity. check this guy out sculpting in zbrush with a bit of pressure, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfB8_fL9mIc&feature=share

What is that link you’re trying to find to show about?

#17

I’m also considering purchasing one of these, and I’d be interested to know from any users how you get around not having access to the Shift, Alt and Ctrl keys when a penabled wacom stylus only has two buttons?

Your feedback would be appreciated

#18

the slate comes with a bluetooth enabled mini keyboard, apart from this you can also use a keypad like the nostromo

#19

Thanks for getting back to me KonginChains but I’m thinking of buying the tablet to use on my commute, and both the bluetooth keyboard and nostromo keypad would be too cumbersome and impractical. I’m wondering what the solution is if you want to use only the tablet. I guess you could bind the Shift key to one of the stylus buttons and just not do any masking!

Any other ideas or suggestions?

#20

look for solutions like these.

http://docbug.com/blog/archives/000241.html

or… if you want to get your feet involved. this could work. on the train I could see this working ok if its not too busy, and you got leg room.

http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/fs-savant-elite.htm

and this

http://www.fentek-ind.com/gen_keypads.htm#kpp6u

http://theperegrine.com/

you could just get a regular numerical pad and reconfigure those keys?! or the smaller nostromos?

I know that I would like an answer to this as well, and theres a ton of options, but nothing that I could see myself using.

#21

Hey Everyone

I decided to make a video series to show the performance of the asus slate (tablet pc). There is 2 vids I might do a 3rd focusing on DX shaders. I did this for people considering the purchase of the slate, its alot of cash so the more info people have the better. I still love mine and have had it for about 3 months now. The first video focuses on 3d studio max, the second will focus on zbrush. I will post the 2nd tonight when I get home and let everyone know… I hope this helps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGDkia7wUiI

#22

thanks for those videos. i’m having trouble getting pressure sensitivity on the wacom digitizer pen that the tablet pc comes with. Under the preferences of zbrush 4, doesnt recognize that there is a tablet there and therefore i can’t activate the tablet settings in zbrush. I could use my intous tablet but i prefer to draw on screen for this one.

#23

did you install the latest wacom drivers?

#24

the pen works so i thought i didn’t need to install any more drivers. there is a bit of pressure sensitivity in art rage studio program that came with the tablet pc. It’s just that there is not pressure sensitivity inside zbrush since it doesn’t recognize that i’m using a tablet instead of a mouse. I’ll try and look for the most up to date driver of the pen and try that out

#25

I have posted part2 of the asus slate demo, this one focuses on zbrush. Hope it helps

KonginChains: Yes I did but not from wacom I went to this forum and used these drivers. Its a good idea to read through the thread to get an idea of whats going on, but this is the specific page to read to find the link to the driver
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/ep121-slate/40666-wacom-enhanced-driver-penable-device-6.html. Look for the post from CF77, he links the asus download site and tells you which files to grab.

Its also worth noting that the pen has 2 sets fo drivers, Microsoft drivers (i believe) which art rage, and sketchbook pro uses, and the wacom driver which photoshop, zbrush etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biVSeNyW-2M

#26

thanks for that link. i installed those drivers and now my wacom pen is recognized in zbrush and has more pressure sensitivity than i would expect.

#27

Been using “RawinputControllTest” with my ep121 and Zbrush, it creates a virtual keyboard on the side of the screen.

Has Ctrl, Shift, Alt, Space, undo and redo, just what u need to have for ZB. The nifty thing is also if u need to use a funktion that the “keyboard” covers you just go over there with the pen and it hides it and when you done it comes back.

Look here
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/ep121-slate/44844-found-you-great-tool-your-ep121-must-see.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzWWMhv71s0

Install instructions:

  1. Download and install Autohotkey (Download the Unicode Autohotkey_L)
    http://www.autohotkey.com/download/

  2. Download and extract RawInputControllTest where you want to have it (english version, top of page)
    http://39kasen.sakura.ne.jp/rawinputcontroltest/

  3. execute RawInputControlTest.ahk

/cheers !

#28

Having recently bought my Eee Slate can I just attest to awesomeness of the app linked to by jukka_t above. It’s incredibly useful and pretty easy to edit so that you can shape it to fit your own workflow. I’m currently in the process of customizing it with my preferred shortcuts for ZBrush.

Great link jukka_t, many thanks!

#29

Has anyone acquired this two button stylus yet? Where does it come from I wonder… and who makes it?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Stylus-Pen-ASUS-Eee-Slate-EP121-Tablet-w-Tips-/250948158771?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a6dad0533

Seems a bit pricey but that’s Ebay for you.

Sven

#30

I would also be interested! does it really has 2 buttons?

#31

thanks so much for that it’s perfect for zbrush ! it works great!

#32

I ended up buying one of these…

http://uk.shop.wacom.eu/Spare-parts-and-accessories/-PL-521-PL-720-PL-900/PL-900-Pen-spare-pen?c=9044&fb_source=message

It cost me about £45 (about $70) from Amazon. Very pricey but having two buttons on the pen is essential as far as I’m concerned. I have my custom pop-up menu on one button and Alt on the other. I’d also recommend switching the plastic nib out for the felt one as it has a mich nicer feel on glass.

#33

This looks awesome, downloading it right now, could be exactly what I am after

Originally Posted by jukka_t
Been using “RawinputControllTest” with my ep121 and Zbrush, it creates a virtual keyboard on the side of the screen.

Has Ctrl, Shift, Alt, Space, undo and redo, just what u need to have for ZB. The nifty thing is also if u need to use a funktion that the “keyboard” covers you just go over there with the pen and it hides it and when you done it comes back.

Look here
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/ep12…-must-see.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzWWMhv71s0

Install instructions:

  1. Download and install Autohotkey (Download the Unicode Autohotkey_L)
    http://www.autohotkey.com/download/

  2. Download and extract RawInputControllTest where you want to have it (english version, top of page)
    http://39kasen.sakura.ne.jp/rawinputcontroltest/

  3. execute RawInputControlTest.ahk

/cheers !