Animation/drawing tablet

[runwithme]

We have bought DS12 an ipad and we are scratching our heads for DS9. He loves, loves loves drawing so we bought him some markers for his birthday. I don't want to spend more money on more markers but I have seen these drawing tablets and I am wondering if this is suitable for him.

What do they do, exactly? Do I need to connect it to a computer or is it enough on it's own? If he wanted to print something, how would he do it? Is it just another version of Paint? Any recommendations, around £40-£80?
Thanks!

Do you mean a graphics tablet? Like a Wacom? AFAIK there is no such thing as a stand alone graphics tablet/digital art device that doesn't plug into a computer or other device unfortunately. It's definitely a product that people want and ask about but no-one has invented yet. Does he have a regular tablet?

I think quite a few of the Wacom Bamboo range are in that price bracket.
I'd personally go for the biggest 'screen' you can as the screen on the tablet will be mapped to the screen on your computer so the closer they are to 1:1 the better (just my opinion) but plenty of very talented kids turn out amazing work with tiny tablets.
Smaller is also more transportable but remember, the graphics tablet by itself is useless, you need the laptop/pc/mac with the paint software on it to plug it into.
If he travels a fair bit & brings his laptop with him then smaller might be what you want.
They plug into your computer & you use a paint program on your laptop/pc/mac so it's basically a pen version of a mouse.
It means you can draw as if on paper by moving the pen across the board, but the image is displayed as an image file in the paint software you are using on your computer.
You print the same way you would print any image stored on your computer.
It takes a bit to get into using them but graphics tablets really open up using a computer for digital art.
If you don't already have a (better than the thing that comes with Windows) paint program Gimp is free, has been going for 25 years & has a lot of features.

If you want a tablet which displays the image on it, you need to add a 0 to the end of your budget or go up in price from there.

Animation on a pc can be learned free with programs like Blender, you don't need a graphics tablet to use them as they will work with a mouse too.

Sorry that's a terrible explanation but it's late & I'm tired.

Thanks both, for your replies. OK, so that clears it up for me. He has a tablet but it doesn't have loads of memory on it and its taken up with a zillion games so I don't think this will work. I also don't think he will have the patience. He loves actual drawing so I am not sure if this will be a hit with him

Back to the drawing board, so to speak!

Wacom

If he likes drawing, does he have a set of proper colouring pencils? Something like Polychromos? Or a set of watercolour pencils- Caran D'ache do some good ones. There are also some very good fineliner drawing pens which will complement his markers- sakura do some, or pilot have a good set too, variying thicknesses and also varying shades of black/ grey/ sepia for outlining beyond using the markers for his outlines.
Maybe a drawing board like a desk easel that he can set up nd have his work 'up' in front of him, or a lightbox that he can use to trace his art works through so he can develop his style. If he likes physical drawing he may not appreciate the digital drawing style as it's a very different action, and not as tactile in my opinion.

Most graphic tablets don't work with 'tablets' - they need a pc or mac.

• you also need to buy drawing software - there is a reasonable learning curve for drawing on a tablet/graphic tablet but there are plenty of U-Tube tutorials - certainly not beyond a 9yr old.

Simplest starter would be to buy software for his tablet and a suitable pencil/drawing pen - but decent memory and tablet speed would be needed - sorry.

Our dd loves to draw to so her grandparents have bought a smart sketcher projector and posca pens