Hack together a Cintiq...

Illusions

Ok. So I got bored recently, and went "I wonder what would happen if I stuck my Intuos 3 behind my laptop monitor?", so I did. And it worked...somewhat. What kept it from working perfectly is that my monitor is 15", and the Intuos is a 6"x8", or the equivalent of a 10" monitor. So, I did some math, and found it would take a 9"x12" Intous to fit a 15" monitor. Then I started thinking some more...would it be possible to hack together a Cintiq, for less than the cost of the Cintiq itself? Would it even be worth the effort? I'm going to study the matter further...but I thought it'd be an interesting question, or idea.

PfhorRunner

wow, that's very MacGyver of you... Sounds like a pretty sweet idea though!

EarthQuake

i think the only main problem you would have would be lining it up perfectly, but you could probablly use the remaping stuff to fix that..... posibly

Tulkamir

Wow, that's a great idea.

It doesn't wreck your monitor to be using the stylus on it at all? And how does the pen pressure work?

hawken

pen pressure is monitored from the pen, not the tablet*

*guess

adam

Man! Great idea... wouldn't the price of a decent enough laptop with a thin enough monitor and a 9x12 tablet be the same or more than a Cintiq?

Rwolf

Tablet 9x12 $500 LCD monitor $500 = 1000 VS Cintiq 17 $1800

You could use a thin piece of pexiglass so you don't scratch/damage the actual monitor. Or a custom cut piece of glass.

Defintily would need to fabricate a new case for the labtop if you were tote it around :P

ScoobyDoofus

I have a Cintiq 21UX(2500$) and its not even a built in computer (like a laptop would be). To be honest, Im not quite sure I like it. I got a unit with a couple minor defects, so I'll be sending it back for an exchange but still... its a little odd and the screen quality isnt as good as one would hope. (sorta poor viewing angle & color accuracy)

Steve Schulze

Yeah, one of the other artists at work has one. After playing around with it, I don't see any real advantage to drawing on a screen and you do have to be pretty much directly above it otherwise the colours distort which is annoying and can lead to a sore back and neck if you haven't found an ideal position to place your tablet. I'd say Unless you really can't get your head around looking at your monitor while drawing on a tablet, its not worth the cost.

Now if it was a tablet PC that you could play with Photoshop and ZBrush on the train with, that'd be a different story.

doc rob

I've had one at work for the last few months. I wasn't sure I liked it at first but it turned out I just needed to practice. It's way better than a normal tablet. It's hard to go back to the intuos when I'm scribbling something at home.

LAGtheNoggin

Blimey, that's ambitious! If you can do it you'll be a God amongst hackers.

I tried researching these tablets myself, Wikipedia told me they were powered by pixies...

- Good luck!

Illusions

[ QUOTE ]
Wow, that's a great idea.

It doesn't wreck your monitor to be using the stylus on it at all? And how does the pen pressure work?

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually...it does. Which is why I'm still sticking to the ole pen on tablet way of working for now. But yeah I won't be throwing one together personally anytime soon, since I'm a student and all without a full time job . Just wondering about the possibilities of it. I'm pretty sure you could get one really ugly looking Cintiq like contraption put together, and it would probably function just as well as the Cintiq.