HP TM2 and Palm Rest while Sketching

When I sketch, I tend to rest my palm on the surface, either it’s paper, sketchbook, or my HP TM2.

I read that it’s a problem on iPad. You can’t rest you palm on the screen since it will detect you palm as input and you’ll get unwanted line or gestures. There are some techniques to deal with this problem such as putting a thin foam under your palm or wearing a fingerless glove.

Luckily, the good thing about HP TM2 that it has palm detection or rejection. You can rest you palm on the screen while using the pen. TM2 is smart enough to turn off the touch sensor if you use pen.

I really love this device. Combine with Logitech Notebook Riser and …. voila!! Feels like working on Wacom Cintiq :-D

HP TM2 sketching

Of course, the pen only supports 256 pressure sensitive, no tilt sensor, and the screen is not that sharp compare to iPad, but hey, it’s affordable and you get a fully-working mobile computer ;-) If you really want to do sketching professionally, maybe it’s better to buy Wacom Cintiq anyway (my dream device… drooling…)

Note: There is a software solution on Ipad (http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2010/07/demo-pressure-sensitive-sketching-on-ipad.html)

2010
09/04
POSTED BY
abiyasa
CATEGORY
Sketches
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Flash Player 10.1, Multi Touch, and HP TM2

Yesterday, I was excited because of 2 things: The world cup 2010 has begun, and Adobe finally release Flash player 10.1. The first thing I wanted to do was to try Flash multi touch feature on my HP TM2 :-)

There is a good tutorial video at gotoandlearn on how to drag object using raw multitouch points using Actionscript 3 (http://gotoandlearn.com/play.php?id=122). I tried that example. HP TM2 only support maximum 2 touch points. The touch pressure is not detected but you can get the size of touch area. Dragging using touch feels rather slow but it was quite good!

You can try the demo here. Make sure your browser have Flash Player 10.1 installed.

However, I couldn’t find easy tutorial on how to setup the development for Flash player 10.1, unless you’re using Adobe Flash CS5 or Flash Builder 4. I am using FlashDevelop 3.2.1 and the free Flex 4 SDK (release version) and these are some steps that work for me and might also work for you.

  1. Before you start, make sure that you have installed Flash player 10.1 plugins. You can also get the debugger version too.
  2. Download playergolbal.swc from http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10.html#additional.
    EDIT (26 June): Adobe has remove playerglobal.swc from that page. You can download Flex SDK 4.1 and use it to develop for Flash player 10.1. Thanks michael ;-)
  3. Create a new project on FlashDevelop. I picked AS3 Project
  4. Go to Project properties, and change the Target to Flash Player 10.1
    Targeting Flash player 10.1 on FlashDevelop
  5. Just immediately compile the project. You will get and error: “C:\dev\flex_sdk_4\frameworks\flex-config.xml(53): Error: unable to open ‘libs/player/10.1/playerglobal.swc’”

    6. Edit: If you’re using Flex SDK 4.1, you might not get this problem since it support development for Flash Player 10.1. You can skip all points below as well.

  6. Create folder C:\dev\flex_sdk_4\frameworks\libs\player\10.1 (replace c:\dev\flex4_sdk4 with the folder of your Flex 4 SDK)
  7. Put the playergolbal.swc into that folder.
  8. Now you can compile and the auto completion should work too.
  9. Try to add a line to import class flash.ui.Multitouch and compile. If auto code completion is not working or project cannot compile, just restart the FlashDevelop.
  10. Enjoy and celebrate the world cup by blowing vuvuzela ;-)

As a bonus, you can download the source code here

2010
06/12
POSTED BY
abiyasa
CATEGORY
Flash
Technical Works
5 comments

Vertex Animation with Away3D 3.5.0

Away3D 3.5.0 has been released! Unfortunately, the animator class has gone and has been changed to newer vertex animation system. There is no available example so far, so I try to figure out by myself. Hopefully, I am doing it right ;-)

For a demo, click the picture below

run abi run

On previous post, I animated the MQO models using the old animator class. The code was based on one example from Away3D blog page. Now, I am using the new VertexAnimator class which I think is much better than the old one.

Click ‘read more’ for more the code details. This time, source code is available, including the latest Metasequoia loader for Away3D 3.5.0 ;-)

Read more

2010
05/20
POSTED BY
abiyasa
CATEGORY
Flash
Technical Works
1 comment

My New Laptop TM2: Part 2

Some tips or things that I experienced while playing around with my new toy: HP TouchSmart TM2:

  • I give up German windows. Fortunately, you can install English language without having to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate Edition. I used a hack tool Vistalizator and I didn’t get any problem installing English language to my German Windows 7. The UI changes, the folder name, everything without having to re-install! Just be careful and use it at your own risk.
  • The pen has only one button and weight much lighter that any Wacom pen that I ever had (Graphire 2 and Bamboo). and it feels cheap :-(
  • The pressure sensitive is only 256 levels, compare to 512 levels on small Bamboo tablet. If you really paint professionally, this limitation might bother you. For me, this is just fine. I just adjust the pen to lighter pressure.
  • ArtRage 2.5 works pretty well including the pressure sensitive!
  • Sketching on the screen is much better than using the Tablet (well, except the Wacom Intuos :-D )
  • The Corel Paint It! Touch (bundled software) is nice. You can paint using your finger or the pen.
  • The keyboard is really nice. It does not have this cheap-plastic feeling ;-) but it does not have backlight
  • The screen can detect pen or touch mode, but only one can active at a time. So your palm will not be detected even if it touch the screen, as long as you are still using the pen (at least still hovering the pen tip on the screen). This is useful when you use the laptop as a tablet (with folded keyboard and only using the pen)

bonus: here’s my quick megaman sketch using ArtRage2.5

2010
04/26
POSTED BY
abiyasa
CATEGORY
Sketches
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My New Laptop: HP TouchSmart TM2

My old Acer Aspire 2000 laptop is old. It’s almost 6 years old, with 1.6GHz Pentium M and 768MB memory. It has a big crack near the screen lid which causing the delete button stuck sometimes and cannot close the monitor. and I had 5 times harddisk failures. It’s time to get a new computer :-)

New HP TM2

meet my new HP TM2

My options were between Sony Vaio VPC-EB1Z1E and HP TouchSmart TM2. Why did I pick TM2?

  • Saw it on Project Runway! I was immediately sold when I saw the designers were sketching using HP TM2. “That’s what I want!”
  • Beautiful laptop. I always complain how uncreative laptop manufacturers with their texture/color. HP TM2 is different although its floral pattern might not suitable for everyone.
  • I love to sketch! Tablet PC or Wacom Cintiq have always been on my dream gadget list. Unfortunately, they are quite expensive. HP TM2 is quite affordable tablet (899 EUR) and its screen supports pressure sensitve pen and multi-touch too!

It wasn’t easy to get this laptop since I want the English version. I called HP office Germany. The guy on the phone couldn’t speak English and he said that you can only get German version. I checked the UK website for HP and found out that they cannot send the laptop outside UK.

Generally, it’s quite hard to get English laptop in Germany. I went to Sony and other laptop stores and they recommend me to buy from Internet and have it sent from UK. German laptop means QWERTZ keyboard and German Windows 7. Unless you pay extra 150 EUR for an upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate, you cannot change the Windows language to English.

After long time browsing around, I gave up and decided just to buy the German laptop. From the Internet, I found out that the laptop was available at CyberPort store Berlin. For me, it’s always nice to buy directly from a real shop.

The pen works really fine, it has pressure sensitive although not as good as my Wacom Bamboo. The touch screen works really good. The monitor has glare but it’s unnoticeable when I’m too busy reading, writing, coding, or even sketching. I also don’t have any problem with its small screen. I’m still having problem understanding the German Windows but it’s really fun to sketch and playing around using the pen.

Stay tuned for more review ;-)

2010
04/23
POSTED BY
abiyasa
CATEGORY
Uncategorized
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