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Acer TravelMate C310 TMC312XCi Convertible Tablet PC

Over the past 8 months I have had the pleasure of owning an Acer TravelMate tablet laptop. A combination of sketchbook, workstation and entertainment all rolled up into one 6 lb. machine. I am a graduate student at Savannah College of Art and Design. My focus is digital sculpting to create realistic 3d models. The industry is expanding so fast that it is becoming harder to stay ahead of the curve; so I keep my eye out for tools that help with the modeling process. It is my pleasure to pass along one of those tools to you.

 Overview

Traditional sculpture has been around for ages, from the Greeks classical depiction of Gods to bronze statues of Buddha. The ability of the artist to lay his hands on his creation allowed for total control of the medium. With the advent of modeling in the computer, the sculpting techniques started from ground zero. The sculptor lost contact with his artwork, separated by a thin layer of glass. The artist had to make do with a mouse and the art of pulling and pushing points.

                 Programs have started compensating, trying to bring the sculptor closer to the model. Recent ones such as Zbrush have show significant improvement in the process of creating models. With the ability to pull and push the model as you would clay, the art of 3d sculpting has taken a step closer towards traditional. Software advancement is essential, as is human interaction with the computer. Drawing with a mouse is akin to performing brain surgery with an axe. Wacom�s introduction of tablet technology allowed a new level of control. The artist could now draw on a flat tablet with a stylus (an inkless pen that replaces the mouse). Despite the ability to draw with the stylus, the artist still had to keep their eyes on the screen instead of watching where they were drawing. This process requires a constant calibration between where the viewer is drawing, and where they think they are drawing.

                 Tablet laptops next emerged and are new tools that, similarly to the Cintiqes, allow the user to draw directly on the screen. The truth is the tablet acts very similar to the Cintiq in terms of creating art. When you buy a Cintiq you are buying a very nice monitor. When you buy a tablet PC, you are purchasing a whole computer that you can take anywhere. There are a few brands that rise above the rest in the tablet market. Of these, I found two that impressed me the most were Acer and Toshiba. I purchased the Acer, so my review will mainly be geared around that tablet. A friend of mine recently purchased a Toshiba and assures me his laptop is very comparable to mine.

                 There are three forms of tablet computers: 1) convertible tablets are laptops that convert into tablets 2) hybrids slates that plug into keyboards and 3) finally there are just slates. A slate is just a tablet screen with the computer built into the back-side. While the slates weigh significantly less they don�t have the computing power of the tablet computer.