What Kind of Tablet Should I Buy?

What Kind of Tablet Should our Students Buy? This is a question we often get asked at Escape Studios, for those students looking to work from home. 

Nowadays there are many different kinds of tablets available, and cheaper versions than the traditional Wacom brand. 

Wacom Intuos Pro (Medium)

Avoid the mouse - get a tablet

However, the tablet we recommend is the Wacom Intuos Pro (Medium); these are ones we have in the classrooms at Escape Studios. The Wacom Intuos Pro (Medium) retails for around £370, but you can buy used ones on eBay for around £100.  And, unlike a lot of tech, Wacom tablets have a long life; buying a used tablet from a trusted seller (with a decent number of positive ratings) can be a good economical choice. 

Wacom -v- Mouse

The Wacom Intuos Pro Medium is a good size for animation. It works well, much better than using a mouse, which can cause long-term damage to wrists and arms if over-used. To see why a tablet is better than a mouse, see this blog post on how to set up your workstation. 

What kind of Laptop to Buy

To find out what kind of laptop we recommend buying for animation in Autodesk Maya, read this blog post.

Hardware & Software at Escape Studios

Oculus VR at Escape Studios

Of course, for all our students at Escape Studios, we have all the hardware and software you will need. To find out more, follow these links:

• Laptop Purchase Guidelines
• Escape Studios Classroom Hardware
• How (and why) to Back Up Your Data
• Which is Better for Animation - PC or Mac?
• Escape Studios "Houdini Certified"
• "Storyboarder" - Free Software
• Shotgrid at Escape Studios
• Students - Download Your Free Maya License

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To find out more about our BA/MArt, now recruiting for September 2023, follow this link.   To apply, visit the official page here.