Penny Arcade's Gabe bails on the Surface Pro 3; UPDATE: Maybe just Photoshop

Penny Arcade artist Mike Krahulik (Gabe) has been an important early adopter of the Surface Pro and has publicly sung its praises. But earlier today, he posted a very distressing note. He's not going to draw any more comics on the Surface Pro 3 and is going back to the Surface Pro 2.

Quoting Charlton Heston in Planet of the Apes, he writes (presumably to Microsoft):  “You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!”

The post claims that today's comic took Krahulik three times longer to draw in Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 and "I'm not happy with the results at all."

Check it out for yourself here: http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2014/07/07/surface-pro-31

I wrote Gabe via the Penny Arcade submission form to suggest that perhaps his blame is misplaced.

I don't doubt that he's seeing the issue. Every Adobe CC 2014 product I've tested misses occasional pen strokes or is otherwise buggy on the Surface Pro 3.

But there are other tools available that work perfectly well on the device. I sound like a broken record, but cartoonists like Krahulik should do themselves a big favor and try Manga Studio 5 / Clip Studio Paint. The software's tools are specifically designed for comics, its brush engine is unrivaled and it offers fine pen curve and stabilization settings that can overcome current N-Trig limitations.

Gabe and Penny Arcade have a big audience and I expect his frustrated article will find its way into the hands of other tech pundits who will parrot it ad nauseum. More anti-Microsoft fodder.

Every artist should be free to work with the tool they know best. But it's unreasonable to dismiss a new device only a month after its release because one specific application is being buggy.

What's your take?

UPDATE I heard from Gabe and he wrote, "yeah I draw in MS5. It doesn't work very well at all for me on the Surface Pro 3. It was so bad that I decided to try PS."

Now I'm stumped. Defective hardware?

UPDATE 2: I was right. Gabe was using an older version of Manga Studio.  He'll be drawing another strip on the SP3 next week. I can't wait to read his verdict. http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2014/07/07/update-to-my-surface-post

The Panda City: In Praise of Great Customer Service

Anyone who’s ever made an online purchase from a vendor without a physical store has likely faced this doubt: how to trust the entity on the other side of the transaction? Add to that the risk of purchasing relatively expensive but little-known hardware imported directly from China by an internet reseller. Are your Spider senses tingling yet?

That was certainly how I felt last year, as I plunked down a cool $1K to purchase the Yiynova MVP22U (v2) tablet monitor from their U.S. distributor The Panda City.

At the very least, I was able to take comfort in the fact that The Panda City has an Amazon storefront so worst case I could get a refund from Jeff Bezos if the product failed to show up or work as advertised.

My fears were certainly justified when the first unit I received started acting up within days of the unboxing.

But only a couple of hours after submitting an RMA request, The Panda City’s customer service person Vicki (I wonder if that’s her real name or a catch-all Americanized name for their support team?) arranged to send out a replacement. When it arrived at my door a week later, I just boxed up the defective unit and attached the pre-paid return label.

Fast forward seven months and the second Yiynova monitor developed a similar problem (image flashing on and off).

I gritted my teeth as I completed the RMA request form found on The Panda City website. Surely this time I’d have to send the monitor in for them to diagnose the issue and either fix or replace it.

But within an hour of pressing send on my email, there was a response back from Vicki. She apologized profusely for the problem and told me a new monitor would be shipped via Fedex the following morning.

And a week later, the new unit (sporting updated firmware) arrived at my doorstep. To top it off, inside were a pair of Yiynova artist’s gloves and a new pen as an apology for the down time.

I guess I could be upset that two monitors have failed on me, but that’s an issue with Yiynova. Have any of you experienced similar issues with their products? Let us know in the comments section below.

In the meantime, I choose to focus on the laudatory customer service I received from The Panda City. They and Vicki could have given me a hard time or expected me to send my monitor in first. Instead, they just took my word for it, expedited delivery and sent me a valuable bonus as well. 

(Cynics among you may wonder whether they merely offered me special treatment because of my blog’s reach. I don’t think that’s the case. I didn’t identify myself as SurfaceProArtist when I submitted the RMA request and this site’s reach was a tenth of its current size during the first incident late last year).

Needless to say, The Panda City has earned a happy customer who looks forward to shopping from them again. Just imagine how much better our tech lives would be if most major vendors took such proactive care of their clientele?

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Sound off on Adobe's new announcements

I'll be posting my thoughts on today's new Adobe announcements after the presentation, but as news has started to leak, it's obvious that Adobe is showing iOS users a lot of love while hoping Windows users will be satisfied with the new desktop offerings.

What do you think of this strategy?

Post your reactions below!

UPDATE: Photoshop touch features didn't get any love that I heard. Guess we'll have to see once the download is available later today. Here are some videos with some new features:

Check out the latest advancements in Photoshop CC for design and photography including Spin and Path Blurs in Blur Gallery, new typographic controls including Font Search and Typekit integration, enhancements to Smart Objects, Smart Guides, and Layer Comps, improved Content-Aware technologies, new Focus Mask, and workflow timesavers.

Check out some of the top features for designers in the 2014 Release of Photoshop CC. Get Photoshop CC: http://adobe.ly/10ekpOA Follow Photoshop: https://www.facebook.com/Photoshop https://twitter.com/photoshop https://plus.google.com/+Photoshop

SurfaceProArtist on Surfacegeeks podcast

I'm no on-camera talent and my video setup and connection were really weak, but the conversation with the Surfacegeeks guys was fun and we got to cover a lot of territory.

Surface Pro 3 for Artists on Surface Geeks 68

Surface Pro 3 hands-on impressions; will you buy one?

The Surface Pro 3 went on sale this morning and I dutifully pre-ordered a lower end unit. I was planning to buy the entry level i3 $799 model but the Microsoft Store reports that it won't be available until August 31.

So I bought the next size up, the $999 i5/128 GB. That device ships on June 20.

This purchase feels unusual for me because I usually buy the "sweet spot" model, just under the highest end version available.  But in the case of the Surface Pro 3, I'm just not sure that the premium is warranted for the added storage of the $1299 model or the Core i7 in the $1549 or (gasp) $1949 versions.

To be clear, I think the average consumer is going to love the Surface Pro 3 as it addresses nearly every concern I've had with the first two generations. For that theoretical individual, I'd recommend spending the extra $300 for the i5/256.

I got into New York just in time yesterday to attend the last hour of a tech pundit tweetup hosted by Mary Jo Foley. It was a thrill to meet her and my favorite Windows-centric journalists Paul Thurrott and Ed Bott.

Foley and Thurrott were showing off the Surface Pro 3 review units they were given (loaned?) by Microsoft following the morning press conference.

The new SP3 looks a lot like the Surface 2, with its silver vapor mag finish. It is significantly thinner and lighter than the SP2 and the 3:2 aspect ratio is much better balanced and easier to hold in portrait mode.

The 2160x1440 display is crisp and beautiful. Of course it will make software that doesn't handle UI scaling even harder to use. I wasn't able to see the new Photoshop, but it looks like Adobe software won't be an issue.

I'd expected the odd aspect ratio to be exactly like 8.5x11 paper, but it's a bit taller (equivalent to 8x12?). But it's still much preferable to 16:9 in portrait mode and feels less squashed in landscape.

The new pen is a significant improvement over the standard SP pen. I didn't compare them side by side, but it seemed larger and heftier, though not quite as heavy as the Wacom Bamboo Feel. It has two buttons and the large click tip that functions as a remote control to wake the SP3 directly into OneNote.

It's impossible to accurately evaluate the pen's performance or improvements over other N-Trig devices like the Sony Active Pen with the pre-installed software. OneNote was responsive and silky, Fresh Paint was too but my knuckles left the occasional stray marks. I don't fault N-Trig for that, based on my experience with Clip Studio Paint/Manga Studio, it's very possible for developers to deliver perfect palm rejection with N-Trig devices. I'm very curious to test if Adobe gets it right.

The new kickstand design is very interesting, offering no pre-set angles like the first two models. It seems very stable, though I imagine it will always want to slide to its lowest position if you rest your hand on the screen while drawing. Time will tell on that one.

So why did I end up ordering the lower end device?

Lack of backward compatibility with wintab software means I won't need as much storage to install older applications. Without discrete graphics, I won't be doing much 3d or gaming work. Until Pixologic and Autodesk update their applications, ZBrush and Mudbox are out of the question (both require wintab for pen pressure).

So if nothing else, the Surface Pro 3 will be a fine Manga Studio/Photoshop/comics reading tablet. But the limited pressure and software restrictions mean it's not the ultimate pro tool we were all hoping for/expecting. And it means there is still an opening for another manufacturer (Wacom, Samsung, Apple?) to  develop a device that addresses all the needs of the pickiest creative users.

Up to now, I've had no reservations recommending the Surface Pro to all graphics artists. Yes, 2048 pressure levels and tilt sensitivity are very nice and the screen could be larger, but the SP 1 and 2 offered great performance for the price. Now, the recommendation will have to be prefaced by "It depends..."

XP is dead, long live XP!

As someone who has upgraded every single version of every single OS he has ever known on the day and date of its release, I've been watching the consternation surrounding the retirement of Windows XP with some bemusement.

To me, tech is all about progress and moving forward, not about clinging desperately to workflows just because they were the first you learned or the ones with which you're comfortable. But, having hung around the Amiga diehard community for decades, I don't doubt that there will be XP machines in use long into the future. 

Coincidentally, new Surface Pro 2 user and professional artist Mike Moreu sent me the comic below last night.  I think it does a great job summing up the lengths to which some enthusiasts will go to preserve their preferred operating systems.  Enjoy!

More artists weigh in on Surface Pro

I'm always on the lookout for talented artists' opinions about the Surface Pro and its pluses and minuses.

After using it for over a year and comparing it to many other tablet pc's and pen displays, I'm happy to say that Microsoft's expensive toy still holds up very well compared to the competition. But reading how other artists are coming along and understanding their concerns is very instructive for me as I look to review future products.

I've also come to appreciate how personal the drawing experience is and recognize that each artist prioritizes a different set of features. Hopefully this selection of reviews will be helpful if you're still sitting on the fence.

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Image by Ben Towle, inked on the Surface Pro 2 in Manga Studio.

First up is a review published today by Ben Towle (@ben_towle) a three time Eisner-nominated cartoonist whose current comics project is the webcomic Oyster War.

Find Ben's review here: http://www.benzilla.com/?p=5021

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Example panels from Infectious web comic, by Eric Merced

Eric Merced (@eric_merced) is a professional Illustrator who has worked for companies like Zondervan Publishing, Upper Deck, Marvel, Archie’s, IDW and DC Entertainment. He purchased his Surface Pro 2 last month. http://www.ericmerced.com/surfacepro2-review/index.html

A common dilemma facing potential buyers is whether to purchase a relatively expensive Wacom Cintiq device or "settle" for the Surface Pro. Below are two write-ups by artists who came to very different conclusions.

Illustrations by Jonathan Hill, side by side on the Surface Pro 2 and the Wacom Cintiq Companion.

Jonathan Hill teaches comics and illustration classes at the Oregon College of Art and Craft and is a Writer in Residency through Literary Arts' Writers in the Schools program. His first graphic novel, Americus, which he illustrated and was written by MK Reed, was published by First Second Books. Late last year, he explained why he decided on the Surface Pro 2 after testing it alongside the Wacom Cintiq Companion. http://blog.oneofthejohns.com/2013/11/07/surface-pro-2-vs-cintiq-companion/

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Last Minute Shopping by Scott R. Kurtz

Scott Kurtz is an Eisner and Harvey award-winning cartoonist who helped pioneer webcomics with his daily feature, PvP which debuted in May of 1998. Since then Scott has co-authored a book on making webcomics, co-created and produced several animated web-series and launched a second ongoing webcomic, Table Titans. His most recent blog post details why he chose a Wacom Cintiq 13HD over the Surface Pro: http://www.pvponline.com/

Whether you agree or disagree with their conclusions, you'll definitely find food for thought.

Two amazing examples of tech, taken far too soon

I've been known to back a few of the wrong horses when it comes to tech. 

When some folks chose the Apple II, I chose the Commodore 64.

When the Macintosh and then the IBM PC were released in the mid 80's, I chose to think different and began my love affair with the Amiga.

Over its seven year lifespan, I bought every new model and pushed the boundaries of the Amiga's graphics and video capabilities. But while most 3d artists fell in love with the Newtek Video Toaster and Lightwave, I just had to be an individual and chose to master Impulse's Imagine3d and its little-known 24-bit framebuffer called the Firecracker.

And when I returned to 3d graphics in 2004 after a decade-long absence, I tried to learn to love industry leading 3DS Max and Maya, but instead I became infatuated with Softimage.

Today, Autodesk announced that the upcoming 2015 release of Softimage will be the last and that the program will be forever retired in 2016.

I've been in mourning ever since the news was confirmed and, to mark my grief, I remembered this photo I took a while back of an Amiga 500 I modeled in Softimage last year, region rendered on a Surface Pro.

I meant the image to represent the computing power of the tablet, but instead it's a snapshot of two under-appreciated technological marvels done in by consumer indifference and corporate mismanagement.

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The Amiga 500, modeled and region rendered in Softimage 2014 on the Surface Pro. Mental Ray, full anti-aliasing, two lights, 27,000 triangles, 110 objects, 95 textures and the Surface Pro didn't even break a sweat.

Given my track record, I also admit that I'm worried that the Surface Pro might someday join that sad roster consigned to footnotes in tech history.

Q&A: Manga Studio guru and recent Surface Pro convert Doug Hills

If you've added Manga Studio to your toolkit within the last couple of years, you've no doubt come across the fine educational materials created by Doug Hills (@DNHills), author of Manga Studio for Dummies and the Manga Studio Field Guide series.

Doug's easy to follow video tutorials were the principal reason I became interested in learning Manga Studio when I first bought my Surface Pro. (You can find those videos here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLynyD-7entJ2Im0iFLlN3cLkA2eoq4oEb)

I'd like to believe that my constant Twitter badgering had something to do with his recent decision to purchase a Surface Pro 2. And I'm delighted that Doug consented to do this interview. Enjoy!

Surface Pro Artist: Where are you based? Tell us a little about your personal life. 
Doug Hills: I currently live in Upstate NY. I was born and raised in this area, but only recently came back. I had spent about ten years in Utah, (where my wife got a job teaching at Utah State University). It was a great experience to live someplace new, but we decided it was time to come back to the Capital Region. 

I used to be a computer programmer (it’s what I went to college for), but was pretty much miserable there. The company I worked for was great, but the insane hours were getting to me. My wife (Stacey) suggested that I quit, and just focus on making comics. So, I took a chance and did just that. I’m not nearly making the money I was making in programming, but my psyche has been thanking me ever since.

Stacey and I have been married for almost 14 years now, and we have a soon-to-be 10 year old daughter.

I'm 90% sure these were all done with the Surface Pro 2. The Donatello and Iron Fletcher ones, definitely. The CM Punk and Miles Morales ones we at least a hybrid of the SP and Mac. I had used the Wacom Bamboo Feel Stylus with the drawings, with my modified Hard Felt tip. (The one above) was a gift for a friend, who is a big Murder She Wrote fan. I wanted to do something fun, and for some reason making an homage of Iron Man's first appearance seemed to work. :)

How long have you been drawing comics and manga? How did you get your start? 
I've been drawing since high school (waaaay back in 1993), but that was mostly sketches of superheroes or my own creations. I didn’t start creating sequential art on a regular basis until 2001, when I created my first webcomic, PLACE NAME HERE. This was followed by CHIBI CHEERLEADERS FROM OUTER SPACE (created by Stacey and me), which we worked on for about six years.

I got my start by just starting my own comic. Once I found out that people were making their own comics and putting them on the web, I knew that was what I wanted to do. So, I did. 

What are some of your past credits? What projects are you working on at the moment? 
Aside from Place Name Here and Chibi Cheerleaders, I've done a few guest pages on some of my friends’ webcomics over the years. More renectly, I’ve been working on some comics with my friend Josh Flanagan. We did a short story for Top Shelf Comics called King Pete. We then started working on a story called Dixon’s Notch, and we were recently asked to do a short story for the soon-to-be-released book, SCAMThology. I have a few additional projects that are still in the development stage, but will hopefully be released soon.

Currently, I’m best known for my tutorial videos and guide books for Manga Studio.  I had written Manga Studio For Dummies in 2008, and am in the process of writing a series of new guide books that cover Manga Studio 5, as well as new tutorial videos.

Another gift for a friend, who asked for a drawing of Donatello from TMNT. I try to find something different when working on a sketch (instead of the usual fighting/action sketch), so I went with him doing some coding while watching Attack on Titan.

When did you begin using Manga Studio?  What attracted you to it vs. other digital art tools? 
I started using Manga Studio around 2006. I had heard about Comic Studio (as it is known in Japan) around 2004-2005, but I wasn’t able to check it out until eFrontier (now Smith Micro) got the rights to distribute the program outside of Japan. 

I was attracted to Manga Studio when I saw how natural the pencils and inks felt and looked compared to Photoshop. And, I was blown away when I saw the virtual rulers. That gave me the ability to do with my digital work what I was doing with pen and paper.

I had used many different art programs over the years, and while they were all very good, I could not get comfortable working with them. Manga Studio was the first one I really felt the closest to working with pencil and paper (with a few time-saving features that I couldn’t reproduce in the analog world :) ).

How many completed pages do you create per year? How does your digital output rate compare to traditional methods? 
Hmm. I don’t have a consistent gig (the joys of working freelance), it’s hard to say how many pages I get done in a year. I guess the cop-out answer is “as many as I needed to get done for a project.”

What matters to me is, “can I hit the deadline I’ve been asked to make?” And for the most part, I’ve hit my deadlines.

Since I’m almost exclusively digital, it’s hard to say what my digital-to-analog output rate is. Again, what matters is if I hit my deadlines. With that in mind, it won’t really matter what medium I use to accomplish that. So I guess the answer is: “they’re the same.” :)

This was a warm-up sketch. I wanted to change things up from drawing comic book characters, so I spent a couple of days drawing professional wrestlers. This one is of CM Punk.

What hardware and software do you use?  
Aside from the (recently purchased) Surface Pro 2, I use a 2011 MacBook Air, and an Wacom Intuos 4 Medium Tablet. I used to own a 1st Generation Cintiq, but eventually sold it. 

Software-wise, I use Manga Studio 5 and Sketchbook Pro. I like SBP for thoe times when I need to make a quick sketch that I can then port over to Manga Studio to finish up.

What attracted you to the Surface Pro?
Portability, first and foremost. I love my MBA and Intuos, but if I wanted to just pick up and go, it could get a little clumsy with cords and all that. The Surface Pro is great because it’s pretty much the tablet and a power cord. So, I can just put it in a small bag, head over to a coffee shop, and get right to work.

How does the Surface Pro compare to any of the other Wacom solutions you’ve tried? 
I’ve played with various Tablet PCs over the year. The Surface Pro is pretty much like those, with two major exceptions:

1) It’s much lighter than the other Tablet PCs, with much better battery life, and

2) The Surface Pro has a higher level of pressure sensitvity (1,024) versus the other tablets I’ve used (256). This is important to me because the increased sensitivity means I don’t instinctively press harder on the screen to register the pen strokes. This results in less hand strain than what I experienced when working with the older TPCs.

Regarding other Wacom products, I’d say they’re about the same. I’ve worked with Intuos-style tablets for 14 years, so I’m very comfortable with that kind of setup. Sometimes I even prefer sketching with the Intuos, as it keeps my lines (and therefore my gesture drawings) loose. That said, it’s nice to be able to draw directly on the screen, especially when I’m inking.

How are you using the Surface Pro? Has it altered your approach to digital comics? 
I’m primarily using it as an art machine. I purchased the 128 GB version, so there’s not a lot of space to put too many programs on it. That’s actually a good thing, as it reduces virtual clutter, and keeps the distractions low.

It hasn’t really altered my approach to making comics, outside of the ability to move, rotate, and zoom the page with my fingers (a nice feature in Manga Studio 5). That’s been very nice.

How difficult was the transition to Windows 8? 
Not difficult at all. I’ve been generally a Windows user (heck, my MBA was dual-booting Mac and Windows for a while). Aside from Metro (which didn’t take too long to adapt to), I was able to transition to 8 pretty easily.

What else are you doing with your Surface Pro? 
Answering interviews like this one. :)

Actually, I’m going to start experimenting with things like Livestreaming. That way I can do live Manga Studio Q&As while drawing. Beyond that, I’ve used it to check email and social media.

Any top tips for potential Surface Pro artists? 
I guess I would say try the Surface Pro for a few days before passing judgement on whether it will work for you or not, especially if you’re transitioning from a different type of hardware. Initially, I wasn’t sure if I was liking it; it took about three or four days before I warmed up to it, and adjusted to how it worked.

It’s very easy to have a knee-jerk reaction to things like computer hardware. Sometimes it takes more than an hour to see whether it right for you and your workflow. 

Another warm-up sketch. I had never drawn Miles Morales before, so I thought I'd take a shot at him.

What would you change about the Surface Pro and/or Windows? 
Honestly, I don’t really think there’s much to change on either front. Hardware-wise, the Surface Pro about as minimalist as one can make it, and I personally like that. If I need a keyboard or joystick for additional keys, I can attach them. But, so far I’ve only needed the Surface itself.

As far as Windows, it does exactly what I need it to do: run Manga Studio and Sketchbook Pro. So long as it continues to do that, I’m happy.

Have you hit any walls with the hardware or software? 
I can (usually) adapt to whatever a computer and/or software provides me. Generally, if anything trips me up, it will be me. Then, it becomes real easy to blame the tools I’m using. It’s not the tools, it’s usually the person using them that’s creating the wall. :)

Are you eyeing any new hardware and/or software to add to your toolkit? 
I may check out the Cintiq Companion at some point, as I’d like to compare it to the Surface Pro.

Hope you enjoyed this conversation with Doug Hills. If you'd like to be featured in a future post, please drop me a line via the Contact Us page.