This year, Intel released Ivy Bridge. This offered fans of Toon Boom animation improved graphics performance.
The big issue for Toon Boom Animate Pro and Harmony is video graphics. If your video card is inadequate, the programs will run badly or not at all, meaning they crash.
This creates problems. Windows Tablet PC’s all tend to offer only integrated graphics, except for some models of the HP tm2 (now obsolete) and Fujitsu T901 (also soon disappearing). This created challenges for those who wanted a portable animation platform.
Enter Ivy Bridge with its higher end HD 4000 graphics and promises of OpenGL support in an integrated graphics laptop. Anandtech.com has a good review of the graphics capabilities. I was impressed enough to get a Lenovo X230T tablet, running Windows 7.
Verdict: Harmony runs well on this machine. I am finding no problems!
Is this as good as a laptop with a dedicated graphics card? Of course not…. But you get a portable animation machine!
Key things to look for in a tablet PC:
- Wacom Digitizing Hardware
- Intel Corei5 or Corei7 processor
-
HD 4000 Graphics (NOT HD 3000!!!)
I am aware of only three tablets meeting these criteria. One each from Lenovo, Fujitsu, and Samsung can be found at this time.
Good luck!
Steven Mussey, MD
Toon Boom Studio seems to be far more tolerant of lower end hardware.