TIGAER-DESIGN.COM_.v5

Trouble with your Wacom driver not booting properly on windows? For the longest time I had problems with my Wacom tablet being ready to work once Windows finished booting. When I picked up the pen it just didn’t move. When I tried to open the Wacom Tablet Properties I got the message that the driver did not load or something. Only way to resolve this was to reboot the machine. Not via ‘restart’ no… a complete shutdown was necessary. Very annoying when your Windows takes a while to boot. Mine surely does.

Recently I had enough and started to look for a solution (for the 10th time or so). With the difference that I seem to have found one now. Don’t bother with the Wacom forums. As far as I can see they don’t have much of a solution. But anyways. What can you do to solve the issue? Well, time to share some wisdom. Here we go:

1. Click the Windows button and type Services into the quick search
2. Click the icon on top of the upcoming list
3. Look for a service called Wacom Professional Service (that goes at least for the Intuos 5)
4. Double click that service and set the Startup type to Manual
5. Apply and OK it

What we did here was to deactivate the Wacom driver to load at the start of Windows. Somehow the Wacom driver doesn’t like to be treated like all other drivers and wants to be loaded separately. I don’t know why. Wacom should be able to find a solution to this problem but obviously fails. Since I had a similar problem even with my Intuos 3.

Now what you can do is to start that service manually by hand when Windows finished booting. Just open the Services, find that Wacom Professional Service and press the Start button. That’s faster than restarting over and over again until the driver decides to be ready. Or you can create a shortcut for your desktop. Here is how you can do that:

1. Right click on your desktop and create a new text document

2. Copy the following part into it:

net start "WTabletServicePro"

3. Save the file on your Desktop and give it a name of your choice. Important here it to use a .bat extension instead of .txt – For example: startwacom.bat

4. Next time you start Windows just wait for it to calm down with the boot process and just right click startwacom.bat, Run as administrator and the service should be started. Your pen and tablet should work perfectly fine now. No need to go into the Services anymore each time after Windows booted.

That at least works with my Intuos 5. Other tablet versions may not work and may also have services with different names. But anyway… I’m just happy I found a solution for my annoyingly stupid problem. Maybe it helps someone else too.

Here we go again! “Adventure” is the 20th and therefor a milestone Exhibit release by The Luminarium Artgroup. #20′s topic “Adventure” pretty much allows a wide range of interpretation – which the artists used very well. Again this release is filled with all kinds of different artworks in the traditional, digital and even musical way, that will inspire you for sure! So go now! Check it out!

The Luminarium: Website – Deviantart – Shadowness

Regards

Hey Folks,

This year was and interesting one. Ups and downs here and there. Business as usual I guess? We even survived the apocalypse a few days ago! Guess we’re all lucky! Overall it was a good one and I cannot believe how fast it went by. For now I wish you guys a merry christmas and a very happy new year! I hope your 2013 will be one of your best and successful years! Keep it up and thanks a lot for all your support through 2012! Hope to see you again next year!

Regards

Unexpectedly I managed to make it into the final selection of E-On Software’s ’3D Environment Competition 2012′. Due to the rules of the contest I did not release the picture on any site but will do once the contest is over. That includes Wallpapers of course. All the finalists have some really nice work and surely deliver a hard competition. If you’re interested to take a peek… just follow the link. Winners will be announced on January 10th. Wish me luck! And of course a good luck from me to all finalists!

3D Environment Competition 2012: Finalists

Regards

(for english please scroll down)

Anfang 2012 wurde ich von Galileo Press kontaktiert und gefragt ob ich denn Interesse hätte an einer Workshop DVD mitzuarbeiten. Anfangs hatte ich meine zweifel, ob sich meine Arbeitsweise wirklich gut erklären lassen würde, da meine Techniken doch ein ziemliches Chaos sind. Nach einigen Überlegungen und Gesprächen mit Projektbetreuer Hendrik Wevers, habe ich dann doch ein paar Details heraus filtern können, welche durchaus ein Workshop-Kapitel ergeben könnten. Mitte des Jahres habe ich dem Studio einen Besuch abgestattet, um die Aufnahmen zu tätigen. Das Umfeld war super und sehr hilfsbereit. Gerade wenn man solche Aufnahmen das erste mal macht, ist eine helfende und geduldige Hand sehr hilfreich. Konzentriert habe ich mich, für meine beiden Kapitel, auf das verbessern von 3d Landschafts-Rendern, Texturierung und Optische Effekte in Photoshop. Auch bei diesem Projekt konnte ich wieder einiges lernen.

Für die Aufnahmen sind zwei Bilder entstanden, an denen ich einige interessante Techniken erklären konnte.

Galileo Press – Die Tricks Der Photoshop-Profis 3

Amazon.de – Die Tricks Der Photoshop-Profis 3

Even if the DVD is produced in German language, I want to give some info in English anyway. So it came that I got mail from Galileo Press, early 2012. Well known for its software training books and dvds, they asked me if I’d be interested to do two chapters for a new release. I hesitated at first, asking myself if there is anything I could fluidly explain. Since, to be honest, my working process is a real messy thing. After talking to project manager Hendrik Wevers, I came up with a few ideas. A lot of planning and preparations went into the setup of the chapters. At the Galileo Press studio I had the chance to record all my chapters. Thanks to the very helpful staff, that was always there if questions or problems came up. For my part I’m explaining how to detail out 3d landscape renders. Texturing and the creation of optical effects in Photoshop. For the DVD I created two pictures that helped me explaining how to get certain details. All in all it was an interesting experience. And again I can say that I learned a lot.

Yet again I have to announce something that makes me proud. For the past year I sat down and created a neat little art book. This book contains 9 of my personal portfolio favourites on a very high quality 30×30 cm / 12×12 inches paper. All of them on two-page spreads. So basically 60cm wide. That gives some amazing detail! Additionally it’s packaged in a very well produced and manufactured binding. For details feel free to check this page. There you can find all necessary info about the book as well as detailed photos.

Check The Preview – Here

Buy The Book – Here

Regards

Good question! The last couple of weeks I was really busy with all sorts of things. That left me a little hanging when it comes to new pictures or personal projects. Soon will be the next ‘The Luminarium’ artpack release and that’s when I can present something new too. I can also say that there will be more than only that. Until then I have some more boring movie reviews. If you have any feedback to whatever you see on the site… just shoot! Very appreciated!

So yeah… stay tuned… check in from time to time…! New stuff, inspiration and wallpapers soon! Promised!

Regards

Hello Folks,

I can’t tell the last time I was that excited about a pic I’m working on. The first big one in 2012. It’s in its final stages and will hopefully be released soon. Again there goes a little extra attention to detail into this one. But yeah, hope these little previews give a little impression and get you people a little stoked to see it… as I’m curious about feedback. If that stuff here is anyone reading at all. =D But anyway… as I said, I hope to release it soon. Along with some nice wallpapers of course.

Regards

Hey Folks,

I wish you guys a merry christmas and a very happy new year! I hope your 2012 will be one of the best years evarrrr! Keep it up and thanks a lot for all your support through 2011! Hope to see you again next year! With some nice new worlds and inspirations!

Regards

A few weeks ago I got asked to write a short tutorial on how to insert/replace sky elements in pictures. No matter if photo or painting. It was on rather short notice and a tight deadline. Especially when there were other things planned already. Nonetheless I sat down and tried myself on it. I used the render plate I had from my “Hadley’s Hope” project. So it ultimately became sort of an alternative take on my original project. I worked pretty rough though since there wasn’t much time for a too detailed approach. Anyways… the short tutorial in the magazine covers how to place a nice sky, that complements the cityscape, into the scene. It’s partly manipulated with photos and partly painted. I had a more photo manipulated approach at first but the magazine requested more painted parts. I hope I managed to cover the basics about it. At this point I also have to thank Adam Smith who had the bad luck to edit my gibberish. =D He was quite a help.

Advanced Photoshop Issue #90 is available now! Check it out!

Regards