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Doing Digital Art When You Can't Use Your Hand?
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?"
Is his other hand functional? It would be cheaper to work on being ambidextrous, and that may pay off in the future sometime as well. But if he's not worried about price, then finding a techy solution is definitely the way to go.
Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
I'm not trying to be insensitive, but isn't this the ideal condition to develop some ambidextrous skill?
I don't think there are general tools since every injury is fairly unique. In the movie My Left Foot, the severely handicapped youth learned to paint with his left foot - the only part he could really control. For your friend, perhaps a standard graphic tablet and pen (suitably tailored/attached) using whatever appendage would work, or fancier there are some eye tracking devices in maker.com or gizmodo.
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.
Let go of your diddle
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.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
The problem here is that you can't replace precise, experienced control with anything except more of the same. You can do art pixel by pixel using the off-hand and get precision by throwing massive quantities of time at it - and you can do this using the exact same tool set as before. Experience will increase the off-hand precision.
It may be worth making now the time to experiment with new media - you'd be starting from more or less the same point regardless of the injury, so the awkwardness of off-hand manipulation will be less of a factor. It may also be less depressing than facing something you could previously do well, and finding that you no longer can.
What kind of answer are you looking for? Tape a stylus to the bandages. An injury is an injury. Take the time off. It's like asking "I recently broke my leg severely, but would like to continue my marathon running. What type of shoes would you recommend?.
Depending on the severity of the injury, your friend might be happier with a fleshlight.
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penis. what? your's isn't prehensile?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
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.
My postings are informational and does not constitute legal advice. Act on it at your risk.
if it's good enough for David Hockney...
ambidexterity?
Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand. The body is a marvelous tool - it will adapt if you put new demands on it.
He can use his other hand; it will be frustrating but I bet in the long run it will make him a better artist.
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
Having used a Wacom tablet quite a bit to draw with, perhaps there are some form of grip available that he could wear to hold the stylus? Or perhaps he could grip the stylus with his working hand, and guide it with his burned hand?
Kind of off topic, but I thought I would mention that after watching a guy in class with no arms work in Maya (a 3D application made by the same folks who make 3dsmax) I will never complain about any software package being hard to use ever again. As hard as it is to learn Maya, I just can't imagine working with it using only my feet.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Perhaps not as precise as tablet/stylus/mouse work, but it might be a nice sketchbook that he could use with his non-dominant hand, or perhaps explore some other styles and modes of work.
Some of the art I've seen stories about people producing with an iPad and their fingers has been pretty impressive, I'm sure there's similar programs (or soon will be) for the Galaxy tab as well.
When I broke my hand I learned to use my off hand. Never worked as well but it got the job done until I got my cast off.
Tea and kung-fu. Life is good. Rising Phoenix
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/
Bring back the old days where to draw a dot or line you could type in a command. That with speech recognition...
Seriously now, Emotiv Epoc is a brain machine interface. It probably would be painfully slow (like learning to be ambdextrious) but it's what I would switch to for input should I ever lose the function of my hands. http://www.emotiv.com/
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.
I dabble in digital art and I have found the more people rely on certain tools that deemphasize precision the worse their artwork becomes (myself included).
A great example of this is available on television almost every day, you can see any number of cartoons created using basic shape templates and Bézier curves. They all look starkly similar, follow no rules of form or design and are generally awful.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's much more artistically valuable to see what your friend can do with, say, his feet than some algorithm can do with limited input.
Also, yes, I am aware of the irony that my hobby is artwork and I am legally blind...
crazy dynamite monkey
instead of just another mice, use just another human.
There are many of them they're cheap, although they talk a lot
A friend of my became quite adept training himself to control his mouse with his foot. Just turn the sensitivity way down and take advantage of the grater range of movement and you can get quite a lot of precision. Plus you don't have to move your arms around to switch between UI control and typing.
a good ol' fashioned trackball?
Wait, wasn't this a Queer as Folk plot arc?
http://www.vocaljoystick.org/
in a text editor.
This may or may not be his thing, depending on what kind of a person he is, but try to get him into graphics coding. Introduce him to Processing for example, or one of the many similar projects. (It's certainly no replacement for someone who wants to do "hands on" art, but it's a suggestion that fits your requirement of enabling graphic arts without requiring input precision.)
Have a good friend, Russell who broke both his arms. This might help give a new perspective on the issue.
I don't know if they still promote it for handicapped people, but they did at one time.
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."
http://www.instructables.com/id/The-EyeWriter/ This might work, but i do not believe he is full paralyzed but i guess if he loses control of his other appendages for some reason...
he could try something like an Emotiv headset.
http://www.emotiv.com/
It would replace keyboard and mouse. I presume it offers HID class interface, so that it works with most applications? (would be pretty useless as an interface device if it didnt.)
Might have a steep learning curve though.
Don't fight against your inability to use your hand.
Use it as an opportunity to liberate yourself from rigidity in art.
You've got options, don't forget that.
http://www.callahanonline.com/index.php
Just maybe a bit of inspiration for your friend.
this is a guy I met on a music related board a while ago. He recently played his first solo gig.
Point is: there's always a way, the trick is avoiding discouragement.
---
"I can't complain, but sometimes still do..." Joe Walsh
I got some strange...thing in my hands that makes moving them very painful, mostly the fingers. Drawing became difficult since then, and I can't really use my left hand (same condition) or anything...it's a massive delay in my projects.
Since this started I lost more and more interest on doing anything, since it's just painful and unrewarding.
"The EyeWriter is a low-cost eye-tracking apparatus & custom software that allows graffiti writers and artists with paralysis resulting from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to draw using only their eyes."
http://www.eyewriter.org/
I say, try photography for creative expression?
Probably is not the answer you are looking for, but photography puts the same skills (composition, color theory) around most of the same aesthetic concepts, without requiring the same physical requirements on the hand of your friend, especially in case of studio photography, where the camera could be even physically mounted over a tripod.
I also am.. have a um friend who often has his dominant hand er busy, and would like to use his free hand to switch imag.. do digital art as well.
http://the-gadgeteer.com/2000/08/30/cat_eye_finring_review/
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/08/genius-ring-mouse-slips-around-your-finger-cues-up-beyonce-jams/
These guys offer various alternative pointing device solutions:
http://www.adapt-it.org.uk/browse_category.asp?id=40&item=Mice
And there are solutions like these out there too:
http://www.fentek-ind.com/nh-mouse.htm
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
There is a hardware controller called the Jamboxx that is basically a breath controller on a 2d slider. With that you can paint / control the computer mouse handsfree.
http://www.jamboxx.com/ is the website, and a video demonstrating how the painting works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vCAqNXanSA
Perhaps overkill, but EyeWriter uses eye tracking to control a stylus.
Some programs will allow you to use the keyboard for input. Arrow keys can sometimes be used for fine work while your friend could use the other hand for course mouse work.
http://www.eyewriter.org/videos/
"What expressive art tools are available that deemphasize precision work with your coordinated hand?"
Precisely none.
And what kind of a question is that anyhow? "My friend is used to doing precision work, what can I replace that precision work with?". The answer is trivially simple and should be blindingly obvious - you can't replace precision work with anything but precision work. You can retrain the non coordinated hand, eventually, but that's down to the person - the usual Slashdot "t3chn0l0gy ub3r all3s!" answers need not apply.
If he doesn't want to use the other hand or if he would like to explore other artistic entry methods, he should try Opengazer
I don't think the OP understands exactly how 'precision work with your coordinated hand' affects art. I myself am a digital artist and I do not think there is any technical aide that will properly compensate. Our hands are not just output peripherals. Artists spend YEARS developing highly specialized muscle memory that have a direct impact on the work they produce both technically and stylistically. Sure he still has all the technical knowledge, but he's either going to have to wait it out and heal up or train for his off hand. There are no short term substitutes, any suitable substitute will take time and effort to train and master.
Maybe your friend could try rigging a harness of some sort on or around his hand/wrist and secure a stylus that way?
Or use another extremity. Handedness has a counterpart in the lower extremities, called footedness. If he is dexterous enough with his feet (and they weren't damaged too), he might be able to do as well.
"Lame" - Galaxar
Pain killers. Lots and lots of pain killers. He won't even know if he was in a fire, or if this is real life.
It's just not the same using you other hand is it? I find the solution is to get someone else do it. It's much better than either hand. Failing that maybe sit on your other hand till it goes numb. Than it's kinda like someone else doing it.
That's a bit of a stretch. Sort of like calling NASCAR a sport. It's pretty fucking easy when the machine is doing all the hard work for you...
Your friends main problems will be first swelling in the hand and secondly nerve damage. I did a pretty good number on my hand, second degree burns and 3 day stay at the regonal burn center, my MD was surprised that I could feel anything on my thumb and fingers, I think I had about 50% sensation, but was lucky and it all most all came back over time. With 3rd degree burns he'll probably have permanent loss and need skin grafting, I just missed needing skin grafts. He probably will not be affected as much as you are assuming, most of the dexterity comes from the wrist and arm, I'm a dental technician and was able to write after a week, and work which involved intricate carving wax 6 weeks after the accident. while I was off work I was knitting chain maille to pass the time. As soon as they get him into a compression garment he'll know what he can and can't do any more.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
Depends on how bad his hand is. I understand that he cant grip a stylus but does he need to rest it a lot? If not you can somehow find a way to attach a stylus to his hand rigidly and he can continue to use his right arm by moivng across the pad. Ive also noticed a lot of artists dont use a lot of wrist action while drawing with a stylus. Either way using the left hand will probably not give him any tangible benefit in the long term unless his right arm is permanently disabled. So it is perhaps best that he use his left arm to experiment with new software or styles instead of trying to improve his drawing itself.
how disappointing. The most famous tech-forum in the world and all you have to suggest is use the other hand?
I guess somebody has to ask this question again in 10 years from now.
It gave me a weird, detached feeling like it wasn't even *my* hand. Must be like having a girlfriend!
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
It might be an interesting time to explore algorithmic art. There are many authoring environments such as Processing which have a rich array of methods to create using algorithmic techniques. Your friend could perhaps learn a chording keyboard with the other hand, or simply use a QWERTY keyboard one handed to work in such an authoring environment.
I remember some time ago, Dave Mustaine (from Megadeth) had a hand injury which they said would prevent him from playing guitar...
Fortunately after a lot of recovery he came back to play (and is still good).
Thus, although I would recommend try to use the other hand, people should also not leave out the possibility of recovering.
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
Many things spring to mind.
a. A monkey with a satellite dish implanted in its skull; satellite uplink to the artist's AI in orbit, back to the computer through cellular phone cradled in acoustic coupler; inevitable ICBMs release spray paints from passing, low-flying trajectories.
b. Use "good hand" to pay fashion models to pose as prostitutes for reality TV show; approach and pay them again to use their finely functioning, perfect and precise bodies as cybernetic extensions of artist's abilities.
c. Look up arcane, ancient method of problemsolving called "ambidexterity", attempt humanity's first-ever successful usage of unexpected "other" hand to accomplish task previously thought only possible for "real" hand; bewarned, if the conjurer is not powerful enough, the summoned sinister one from the other side of everything will take over, attempt to choke the life out of more popular hand that shows up to take the credit when recovery is complete.
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
I didn't have burns, I have recurring bouts of tendonitis which makes it impossible to work a mouse or grasp a stylus.
So I switched hands. The first few days really pissed me off! I was so slow! But it got better fairly rapidly, and now I tend to switch off a few times a week to give the dominant hand a rest and keep the other hand in practice.
The non-dominant hand will never be as fast as the dominant hand, but if I have a choice between nothing and 70-80% ... I'll take what I can get.
Having to learn new equipment and/or software as well as new dexterity would have been much harder. Switching hands left the domain knowledge usable, and all I had to do was train some muscles.
If we're talking miniature figurine painting I would probably agree with you however computers are flexible things.
MOUSE: Use a mouse in the other hand on a big surface (laser mouse requires no mousepad). *Adjust the mouse accelleration* and use big movements to capture detail - that way a big circle movement will translate to a precise small circle being drawn. Little to no training needed. As a bonus the precision in the other hand *will* improve with this technique so adjust the mouse accelleration little by little accordingly.
WACOM: Same technique applies here as with the mouse. But, I think that the only way to get a Wacom to translate big movements into smaller ones would be to buy a large Wacom pad (this could be rather costly unfortunately).
Here in Argentina there are people who paint with their mouth. They hold the pencil and brushes with it. Their works is amazing. If you want to watch their work search images in google with pintores sin manos.
There are lots of examples of people working with their mouths.
I don't know if this helps or isn't applicable at all, but http://www.gizmag.com/axsotic-3d-spheric-mouse-precision-digital-object-manipulation/16832/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=2e0cc2ef16-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email#comments
Didn't really have the time to argue how he should give up art and take up fishing or horse riding or something, or how this accident could really be an opportunity for him to explore new art-forms and techniques and such.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
It works for the members of MY family with limited manual ability. :-)
More seriously, though, WHY does it work well? (aside from being fun) 2 strong points:
1. The simplicity allows everything to be oversized, making for easier targets
2. It's easy to undo accidents
Lowering mouse (or other controller) resolution so that it takes larger, but less precise, movements, helps prevent those "pointer moved half-way across the screen when I clicked" moments. A combination of changing your technique and choosing the right software (I can't help there) can make for shorter, simpler operations that aren't so painful to undo/redo.
As an artist myself (and one who has be unable to use her right hand in the past and dealt with some* of the frustration your friend has), I'll suggest a couple things.
One is off-handed use of the tablet, if the non-dominant hand can still be used.
Another would be some sort of touch interface, especially if at least one fingertip of the dominant hand is still usable.
And the last would be honesty: no matter what you try, it's going to take time. He's had all his life to perfect his art with his dominant hand; it'll take a long time to train any other body part to do the same thing. Probably the best that can be hoped for is a tool that will allow him to take down his ideas in rough form so that they can be revisited after he's healed.
*I emphasize "some". It's possible to work through intense wrist and finger pain if you're desperate and inspired enough. Burns are a different story, and carry huge psychological weights as well.
I'm a she-slashdotter... but I make up for it by living with my folks.