Using the Ugee 2150 for Work - Part 2 of 5
A review of the UGEE 2150 21-inch digital display
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| Character studies for Doorkeeper Anthology |
Setting Up the UGEE 2150
If you thought Wacom
had fickle drivers---you won’t be surprised with the UGEE 2150. It’s very fickle. Most people just zip
through the manual and don’t bother doing the research when it comes to
technical stuff. I’m not that technical
either but I am patient.
That being said, I still zipped through the manual and didn’t
bother reading the FAQs (like many artists usually do). So, after installing the software, things
were a bit wonky. My biggest problem was
that the pen would stop responding after a few minutes of use. I checked online and sent a message to the
technical staff (who were pretty
responsive...good job Ugee!). I was
asked to follow specific steps and download the latest driver from the official
UGEE website.
The most important directions I got were the ff:
1.)
Uninstall old tablet drivers (I unistalled my
Wacom completely ---to avoid conflicts)
2.)
Make sure to download the latest driver from the
UGEE website
3.)
Turn off antivirus when installing driver
4.)
Restart your computer after installation
A Little Patience Pays Off
You’re saving tons of money by purchasing the UGEE 2150--so,
you should be at least be ready to exercise
a bit more patience when addressing the little bugs that you encounter at the very
start. I got mine working just right
after a few days. There are still some
minor bugs but UGEE should be fixing them
with newer driver updates later on.
The Drawing Experience
The first thing that really surprised me was the pen
pressure sensitivity and the initial point of activation. Ugee and UC-Logic did a good job with that,
for sure. The 21.5-inch IPS HD display
delivers very crisp images but the color accuracy is far from perfect. For making comics this isn’t much of an issue,
not for me anyway. But for those who work with photography where color
accuracy is a high requirement---there is always a work around. If you have a pro quality screen on your
laptop you’ll just need to check the colors on that monitor to proof your work.
Or, if you can afford it, get a nice color-accurate monitor (it would still be cheaper than getting
a Cintiq). Other more technical
reviewers have discovered that the color gamut on the 2150 is pretty good but
the contrast , not so much. Again, the
images are still nice because it’s an HD screen. Just don’t expect Cintiq Pro 4K quality. J
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| Character Studies |
A Matter of Perspective
A few of those online reviewers who tested the UGEE 2150
have had a longer experience working on Cintiqs. So their reviews come from an entirely
different perspective from someone like me who has been using a traditional Wacom
tablet for the past few years.
From my perspective, working directly on an image (on
screen) will always be a hundred times better than working on a traditional
tablet--- where you scribble on the tablet while you look at your computer
monitor. Transitioning to the UGEE 2150
has made me realize that.
No Shortcut Keys Shall be the Rage
The only buttons you’ll find on the Ugee 2150 are at the
bottom right. These are basic monitor
controls (contrast, brightness, etc.). Many Chinese brands, if not most, don’t
have shortcut\keys on their larger pen display units. The absence of shortcut keys do have their
drawbacks. You’ll have to use your keyboard, which is a bit of a hassle.
Even the newer Cintiqs have recently gotten rid of their
built-in shortcut keys.
I searched online and found a
solution for my shortcut key problem---worth around Php1800. Got it
from Amazon.
Getting Shortcut Keys
for my Ugee 2150
XP-Pen is an entirely different chinese brand but its remote
shortcut keys is compatible with Ugee.
Actually it’s compatible with anything because the XP-Pen Remote
Shortcut Key’s driver works in conjunction with your keyboard shortcuts. So, it has nothing to do with the Pen Display
program.
Now, my Ugee 2150 has shortcut keys! Why is the XP-pen so affordable? You can customize the keys but it only saves
one set of shortcuts. So if I customize
the keys with Manga Studio EX shortcuts, the unit will only work with Manga
Studio or any other program that has similar shortcuts as Manga Studio (like
Photoshop). I only work with Manga
Studio most of the time so the XP-Pen Remote is just perfect.
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| XP-Pen Remote Shortcut keys |
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| Back of the XP-Pen Remote Shortcut Keys |
First Challenge Encountered
I was working on some page breakdowns for an Anthology
(check previous post) for a week but one day, for some reason, all those page
breakdowns got erased from my computer.
Some terrible glitch. It took me just
two and a half days (worth of work hours) to redo 19 pages of breakdowns. So, the pen display definitely helped speed
up the process. On a regular tablet that
would have taken me four to five days.
Check out the creative process in part 3 of this review next
week.
