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Scannerless

Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 11:30 pm
by TimberWolf
Anyone have any other ideas to publish without a scanner? My current technique is to do a sketch, then redraw the comic using Flash. Time consuming, but manageable. The biggest problem though is not being able to see everything at once, so then I draw stuff badly out of proportion and start over on a part.

I have no reason to spend the money on a scanner now because in the fall the college is giving us tablet PC's with graphic pens, by adding on another $275 on to our semester costs.

The only thing that I can think of is to take a picture with a digital camera and then readjust the contrast using photoshop.

What I've got can be found here.

http://evilmrkittens.keenspace.com

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 3:25 am
by ShineDog
i do my comic Gateway.keenspace.com entirely on a tablet.

though if you arent able to afford a scanner, i doubt a tablet is an option :P

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 3:28 am
by ShineDog
next time i should read the ENTIRETY of your post


those big tablet PCs tend not to be very sensitive - better for CAD work than art id say

and only 275 extra? o_O

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 4:52 am
by TimberWolf
275 more for 6 semesters, after which we can pay a small fee and buy it for ourselves.

What the college is doing is turning around and integrating the Tablet PC into all of its freshman and sophomore classes for next year. So all of our assignments will be submitted electronically. Also, they tech builiding is getting a retina scanner. Why? I guess because they can.

Here is the college link, in case anybody was curious.

http://www.dsu.edu/

And here is a link for the shiny.

http://www.gateway.com/work/prod/ed_ptb_tabletpc.shtml

The only problem is that we've always had HP's and then Dell's my entire life, so I hope the gateway doesnt mess up to bad.

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 7:34 am
by William G
There's always using a mouse to draw.

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 7:58 am
by Abelman
My college does something similar, only we all get laptops. I enjoy having it, but many complain even though they use them all hours of the day.

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 8:46 am
by Eps
After 3 seconds on you collage website I found this:

----
Where Can I Use a Scanner

There is a Scanner in the Karl Mundt Library. Use of the scanner is free of charge.

-------

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 10:08 am
by ShineDog
also, those tablet PCs, have you seen em in use?

i think they may only have ONE level of sensitivity.

ropey ropey ropey.

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 10:08 am
by ShineDog
also, those tablet PCs, have you seen em in use?

i think they may only have ONE level of sensitivity.

ropey ropey ropey.

totally unsuitable for drawing with if so.

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 4:10 pm
by McDuffies
eps wrote:After 3 seconds on you collage website I found this:

----
Where Can I Use a Scanner

There is a Scanner in the Karl Mundt Library. Use of the scanner is free of charge.

-------
*snicker*
Tablet without pressure sensitivity, well, you can find a use for it, for instance in colouring or if you draw in Illustrator, but for drawing programs, it sucks.

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 8:45 pm
by TimberWolf
eps wrote:After 3 seconds on you collage website I found this:

----
Where Can I Use a Scanner

There is a Scanner in the Karl Mundt Library. Use of the scanner is free of charge.

-------
Yeah, I kinda figured that a technologically inclined college would have a scanner. The thing is that I'm starting in the fall.

In trig class I came up with a new style that should be nice to work with for my presketches onto my pc. Hopefully the style works well.

Re: Scannerless

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 10:32 pm
by Esoterik
TimberWolf wrote:The only thing that I can think of is to take a picture with a digital camera and then readjust the contrast using photoshop.
This doesn't work. I've tried. :(

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2004 12:34 am
by Roxy
Taking a pic with a digital camera instead of scanning??
THE WORST IDEA SINCE VANILLA COKE.

I. THE DUMB IDEA

I'm starting out with my comic, but I've been at it for a year or so now. At the way beginning, I, too, was too miserly to buy a scanner. I thought it would cost, eh, $500 (I don't get out much.) Since I had a webcam, I figured I'd just use it and fix any lost stuff with Adobe Photoshop.


II. THE PRICE

Now, my comic is a forum effort. The characters were submitted and created by forum members, RPG-style. So I painted along, cheerfully posting very distorted pictures. The first showing of the pics on my forum... ... ... was a flop. I figured if at lal people wanted to hate my art (my forum didn't hate it, they just were too polite to tell me in the face it was ****ed up.)


III. SWIFT RECOVERY

Whoever is an artist and say they're not sensetive is a liar. If I do an art job, I do it right. So I bought a scanner for, surprise, $80 online. It's really new, a Visioneer OneTouch 7300. Best investment ever, even the subtle shading on my pics shows now! When I posted the new and improved pics, finally I got the complements I wanted. And even though some folks still didn't like the pics, I knew this time around I was judged fairly, not because of bad-quality scans. The morale? Buy a scanner.

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2004 3:06 am
by DGC
Feeling adventurous? Go the ebay route. Just make sure it'll jive with your OS or that you can get the drivers somewhere else. I just switched to winXP and ended up seeking compatable drivers for a week. Finally got'em at http://www.driverguide.com

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2004 9:53 am
by William G
scanners are cheap as far as PC equipment is concerned. I bout my last scanner (Acer) for $60. When I had a job and I was rolling in the money, I bought one of them nice HP scanners that had the ability to scan photo negatives.

Then I switched to Linux and my HP scanner wasnt supported...

Anyway, you get a scanner on the cheap if you look somewhere that doesnt have the words "Staples / Business depot" or "Futureshop" on the sign


And I like vanilla coke... :(

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2004 10:01 am
by GateCrosser
DGC wrote:Feeling adventurous? Go the ebay route.
I'd have to suggest this sentence as reading "Feeling *VERY* adventurous?" Based on my recent experiences, I would be extremely wary about using eBay to purchase anything that needs to conform to very specific requirements. My wife wanted to surprise me by picking me up a slightly used tablet, and found one that, based on the PICTURE, the DESCRIPTION, and the LINK TO THE SUPPORT PAGE PROVIDED, would be PC compatible. Got it, discovered that it didn't have a serial plug, it used the Mac plug, which the seller of course said that "Everyone" knew was the Apple serial plug.

Everyone except for Wacom, apparently, who made it very clear that the PC version was the Serial version...

(Oh, and the picture was apparently a typo. Odd.)

So, yeah, buyer beware on eBay. Frankly, you'll save more money in the long term just going ahead and getting what you need up front, and scanners are NOT that expensive nowadays. We got a really nice combo scanner/printer for $250, and the same quality standalone printers are $200, so a little looking at shopper.cnet.com would be the best plan... Lexmark, which is pretty good quality, has an all-in-one scanner/printer combo for about $85...

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2004 10:14 am
by Brockway
I bought my scanner, and most of the parts in my computer, off ebay. You just gotta be careful who you buy from. I got my epson perfection 1250 for $20.

Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2004 8:59 pm
by TimberWolf
Yeah, I thought about getting a cheap scanner. But I'm broke. It wouldn't be so bad but I'm 18 and jobless. (I've really tried too, sent applications in all over town for almost 2 years. McDonald's won't even hire me, I put in 4 applications into them.)

So I'm just going to keep working with what I've got until fall.

Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2004 11:22 pm
by Yeahduff
It's fun to exploit the scanner at work when you're broke and scannerless. I also approve of Vanilla Coke.

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 1:30 pm
by Noise Monkey
Vanilla Coke...mm...sorta...

Crystal Pepsi...now THAT was a bad idea.