My daughter is very into Anime and incredibly gifted in drawing her own.
For Christmas I want to get her stuff that will help her create Anime, art supplies or software or whatever. One of her favs is deathnote.
On her drawings I am AMAZED how strongly the emotions of the character she draws seem to leap from the paper. She is 15 and her communication skillset seems to be focused the shoulder shrug or the eyeroll. I want to really surprise her on Christmas. A Happy Surprise, not the surprise she had when I bought her a 22.
The only thing I know about Anime is not to call it a cartoon. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
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I'd recommend a wacom tablet or something similar, but if she prefers to draw on paper then it might not be the best idea.
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Thank you soo much. Knowing my daughter it is the thing she would want but never ask for cause I just looked at the prices. Looks like I will be gaming on my 7850 barefoot allot longer then I planned:)
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Glad I could help :)
I would talk about the purchase with her either before hand, or reveal the plan on Christmas. Either way, she'll end up getting exactly what she wants.
It's kind of a bummer it spoils the surprise or there's no physical present to give her on x-mas, but for me, personally, the benefits would outweigh that. Plus, maybe she would enjoy researching on what she wants, or you can have nice time while shopping together.
EDIT: Also, I would ask around on a specialized digital art forum, such as deviant art, what's their suggestion.
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You could go with a bamboo to start her off on. Toonboom or Manga Studio. Sometimes the Tablets come bundled with them so keep an eye out for that.
On the Paper side prismacolor markers are what many manga artist use. Buy them from a Japanese reseller for best prices.
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The bamboo tablets have a wide price range
from starter to professional and you can pick them up at a local Best Buy or Fry's Electronics excetera
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I'll throw in another graphic software, one I know a lot of manga/anime artists use.
Paint Tool SAI by SYSTEMAX Software
https://www.systemax.jp/en/sai/
It costs 5400JPY, or about $44.00 USD.
I've used it myself a bit and found it super easy to use, it also has the benefit of having a LOT of resources for it.
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I would suggest paying an account on lynda.com, there are TONS of tutorials which could help her get into digital painting and drawing.
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Thank you so much everyone. I really appreciate it. I had no idea about any of this and you have helped tremendously
Clip Studio Paint/Manga Studio is a much better route to go software wise than Paint Tool SAI. You can often find it for 15-40 dollars. The brush selection to start with is a bit underwhelming to say the least but the engine is good. I use this guys super bundle and recommend it (but then again anime style art isn't what I use it for).
There are a lot of options in terms of tablets, tablet displays and tablet computers these days so that stuff depends on what you want to spend.
When I was in college I found lynda.com and digital tutors to be disappointing for pretty much anything other than learning software. Maybe things have changed but back then they were always very software focused and light on theory. The education side of things can be completely overwhelming so Id probably go with setting her up as well as possible then once she is having fun with it talk to her about the education side of things to know if she is even interested or how much so.
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+1 that a Bamboo would be a better starting point (A wacom is likely overkill to begin with).
I've also heard that lynda tutorials focus more on quantity (for sheer consumer base) rather than quality. But maybe that's not so important if they're just going to be a "kickstart" towards professional art.
Also, ctrl paint has some good videos on transitioning from drawing on paper to drawing with a tablet (free videos), so maybe you could mention that at some point too.
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Yep, that it would. Though wacom doesn't really call it the bamboo line anymore. Either the Intous Draw for 70 dollars or Intous Comic for 100 would be the cheap options for getting started in digital art.
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You highlighted she likes drawing. Wacom tablets can get expensive but there are some drawing tablets for less than $100 just not as good. But since she is in high school I recommend you talk to her about any courses or school that encourage drawing. My high school had a photography club where we got access to Mac's with high end wacom's and various programs. So my suggestion is talk to her first about school options (may save you a couple years to buy her a proper tablet and laptop for when she graduates). After the talk if there are school options then the gift I would suggest is tutorials like Lynda.com for Unity or a game maker program. She can practice drawing, programming and learn a skill that she can expand on as a career option. I suggest something like RPG Maker to get her to get some basics, and Blender to make some 'mods'. Or an animating program. I do not have names for those but you can animate in blender. And then if she is really good, setup a patreon account.
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Inspired by this thread, I decided to get my mom a graphics tablet for Christmas. I'm looking around for cheaper options, since she's never done computer graphics, but only oil paintings, so I don't know if it's something she would be using that often. (I'm sure she'll find some use for it in photo editing, which is something she does a lot, even if drawing on computer is not her thing).
The cheaper Wacoms are way too small, I think, considering she's used to painting on rather larger canvas. But I did find some very reasonably priced chinese tablets, mainly from company called Huion, that have been getting good reviews - some even from people who own those 2000+ dollar top-of-the-line Wacom stuff with built-in screens etc. Right now I'm looking at Huion H610 Pro which offers similar specs to Wacoms and relatively big drawing area for very reasonable 70-80 dollar price.
Has anyone got experience with the non-wacom tablets? What maker/model would you recommend?
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So what's your budget?
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"So what's your budget?"
Around $150 at max (perhaps including some drawing software for mac - She already has Photoshop, but that's it). but the cheaper the better. I just want to get her something she can try out. Ideally it would work decently and be large enough that the technical limitations of the tablet aren't the reason she'll not want to do art digitally.
For reference, the 70 dollar Huion has 2048 pressure levels and 5000-something LPI.
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Don't suppose she already has something like a 3DS XL
Also you might want to check out the monoprice drawing tablet, it has buttons
and don't forget the standard crunchy roll membership unless ya already got one
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NVM, I thought you were asking me, and not the OP.
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Well either way, the monoprice one has buttons built in, might be highly useful
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