Whatup guys my name is Merkury and i am a pivot animator. I know you guys may not like pivot for its simplicity but that was all that i had when i first got into animating. Anyways, I joined stickpage in hopes of learning from the greatest and become a flash animator. Soon I am going to get a new laptop and perhaps a drawing tablet. Before I do so i wanted to introduce myself and ask you guys a few questions. They are; if I SHOULD get a tablet, and if so which one/type? Also, I was going to by an HP Pavilion for about $475, but there is a smaller version for only $375. Its basically the same except the size which is 15" instead of 17" and the amount of memory space, 500gb hard drive instead of 750gb. Should i get the bigger one because of the size and memory space or just go with the small one and save the $100 for the tablet. OR should i get the big one and not regret anything, and just keep saving up for the tablet. (im going to get a job soon so i can probably do this pretty quick) so what do you guys think? I would appreciate the advice and hope to be alot more active in stickpage.

Hey bud, welcome to SP forums! If I were you I'd really give a shot at animating without a tablet at first. There are a lot of things that you can learn starting out without one just as effectively. You may find out that you might want to take your creative inspiration in a different direction. For instance, many animators you prefer line actually find it easier to animate line with their mouse vs their tablet.

However, if you are going to get a tablet i highly suggest a wacom bamboo.

http://www.amazon.com/Wacom-CTL460-Bamboo-Pen-Tablet/dp/B002OOWC3I
Cheap, effective and long lasting. You wont regret that purchase.

Whatever you get, i do suggest amazon. If you buy straight from the supplier you WILL pay more for the exact same product. Down to the box it comes in and all.

ahh that makes sense, thank you stone. I'll try animating with my mouse first and see how i like it.

Sup merkury! Welcome to SP, make friends and stay active, the forums are quite funny sometimes. I recommend you to read this short Forum Guide wich will give you a short description of each section in this forum, and make sure to read The Official Forum Rules.

Have fun!.

Welcome to SP merkury enjoy your stay here :]

Hey there Merkury! Welcome to Stickpage. Hope you enjoy your stay here! :D

I prefer you to buy the smaller HP Pavillion, it's 500 gb and you don't really need to download tons of big programs, but if you're going to fill up your computer with tons of movies, games and some things that you really want, you should buy the bigger one. Anyways welcome to SP and I hope you have fun here! You may call me Leths or Lethz or Lethal if you want c: have fun!

Welcome Merkury, glad to have you with us. Don't worry about being a pivot animator, especially if you are going to flash. A lot of really good animators started with pivot, as it is simpler, it at least gives you a working knowledge of some animation techniques.