Doing Digital Art When You Can't Use Your Hand? 131
Sludge writes "A good friend of mine who is a digital artist was recently involved in a house fire in which he suffered third degree burns to his 'art hand' which have made him unable to handle a mouse or a stylus for the coming months. If you or anyone near you has lost the ability to do something you love due to a physical injury, you know how painful and frustrating it can be. I need help discovering alternative software and input devices he can use while he recovers the ability to use his hand. The programs he uses most are 3dsmax, Z-Brush and Photoshop and he is used to working with a Wacom stylus. What expressive art tools are available that deemphasize precision work with your coordinated hand?"
Umm... (Score:5, Informative)
His other hand?
Once he gets that trained and is used to using it, won't it probably be better than trying to use his normal hand with lack of precision? That's what I did anyway when I injured my right hand; I just switched to my left.
Re:What About the Other Hand? (Score:3, Informative)
When my wrist starting giving me trouble after mousing at home and at work, I forced myself to mouse with my left hand (and then stuck with left at work, right at home). It took about a week or two to get comfortable, but now I can use either one just fine.
It is also nice when working on a computer that belongs to somebody else, to know that I can just use the mouse no matter which side it is on.
Mice (Score:4, Informative)
Ouch! I'm sorry about your friend's situation. I've often found that mice are pretty good for mitigating clumsy hands. For example, when I do really really detailed graphical work in GIMP, I often zoom down to really high levels and work on it a little bit at a time, which gives you a lot of leeway and control. Plus, a lot of programs have ways of mitigating shaky or clumsy hands - bezier tools, for instance, are a godsend to a guy like me whose hands shake constantly (probably due to the 3 Monster drinks I just had).
As far as 3D stuff goes, does your friend know about Sculptris? It's a simple 3D sculpting tool that is able to export to Zbrush (and in fact was just purchased by Zbrush's parent company, Pixologic). It has an option for smoothing out your mouse inputs so that it allows you to make smoother lines and objects in it.
Learn to use the other hand (Score:5, Informative)
I had a similar issue. I never thought I could switch hands, but I was desperate. It was awkward for a long time, but it worked. The bonus is that a couple of years later, when my "art hand" had fully recovered, I found that I had two art hands, which has been wonderful
For modeling try Sculptris (Score:1, Informative)
It's a more organic solution than Zbrush and it's being added to Zbrush so the skills will translate to there eventually. You can easily use it without keyboard shortcuts so he won't need two hands. It may be a bit frustrating adapting to left handed work but it can be done. Frank Frazetta managed to teach himself to draw left handed after a stroke. Be patient it's mostly in the eye and not the hand. I used to sculpt with both hands at the same time and would work on both sides of a piece at once so it can be done.
http://www.sculptris.com/
Can he still use a tablet? (Score:2, Informative)
Everything you've listed except 3dsmax can be easily used with a tablet. When I was struggling with pain in my wrist I wrote TabletMax so that I could model without having to use a mouse. Set the selection type to "lasso" and you'll discover that it's much easier than working with the a tethered brick.
http://3dfolio.com/tools-tabletmax.php
This program was written several years ago and was mainly used with max 7. I think it worked with max 9 last time I checked. It may need to be tweaked to work with newer versions. The source code is included.
what about (Score:1, Informative)
a good ol' fashioned trackball?
NaturalPoint TrackIR (Score:4, Informative)
It's an infrared head tracker that a lot of people use for flying and driving games. I'm sure other things as well.
They used to have a whole section of their website devoted to handicapped applications.
From their website:
"Eye Control Technologies, Inc. (dba NaturalPoint) was founded in 1997 to develop computer control devices for people with disabilities. Founders Jim Richardson and Birch Zimmer were initially inspired to develop affordable motion tracking technology after Jim’s cousin was completely paralyzed in an accident and could communicate only by moving his eyes."
"During the last several years, engineering breakthroughs have made it possible to introduce ordinary users to the same revolutionary technology that enables people with disabilities to communicate and effectively use their computers. Capitalizing on these breakthroughs, company leaders decided to launch the NaturalPoint SmartNav in order to provide the general public with an affordable alternative to the traditional mouse."
Re:NaturalPoint TrackIR (Score:3, Informative)
Eyewriter (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Expression is precision. (Score:3, Informative)
What about doing abstract art in something like MetaPost? It's mostly geared towards generating figures, but there's no reason it couldn't be used for vector art. You only have to have enough muscle control to enter ASCII, let the computer do the drawing for you.
Re:What About the Other Hand? (Score:3, Informative)
Learning to paint is one thing. Once you lose the ability of your dominant hand (in my case of a severe shoulder separation, and thus my whole arm) doing something like art should be least of your concern.
Just wait until you have to take a poo. Writing and drawing can be done, though ugly. Wiping with your off-hand will just get shit all over the place. (pro tip: poop before you shower)
Re:No hands (Score:5, Informative)
I worked with a fairly well known illustrator (concept painter) on a movie a few years ago that had an 18" tablet. I didn't even know they went past 12! I asked him why he got one so large and explained to me that his friends injured their wrists by working on fine detail, so he got the extra large tablet so he could use his whole arm to draw. He said it took some getting used to but that his wrists have held up just fine.
Re:What About the Other Hand? (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.orbitouch.com/ [orbitouch.com]
http://www.orbitouch.com/videos [orbitouch.com]
What these guys do is incredible
- Dan.
Re:Use feet, elbow... (Score:3, Informative)
Plug in two mice, castrate a ball mouse to use for clicking with one hand while moving the second mouse with whatever part of his "art arm" still works.
Correction: A mouse and a tablet.
I have carpal tunnel syndrome in my right hand. Using a mouse exclusively is agonising. So, I set up a Wacom tablet in one hand and use a mouse in the other. The mouse is useful when I need to position something and the tablet for gestures. I can spend an entire day working in Lightroom/Photoshop/Inkscape/etc. without experiencing too much pain.
It seems to me that the burned hand should still be able to perform gestures. Heck, I believe it was Cézanne who actually tied brushes to his hands when arthritis caught up with him. It's the niggling stuff that would be difficult, but a mouse will do in a pinch for that kind of work.