For what it is worth: Digitizing Oversize Artwork
I have been doing a little product research for my friend Mark Kausler. He and his wife Cathy paint with a Plein Air painter`s group and he has been looking for a way to scan their painting into a digital form. The thing is, scanners are not designed for artists.
Cathy Hill portrait of me with my Santa beard - CLICK for her web site.
The reason I am talking about this is that lots of other people in the art world are having this same problem. Scanners are designed for books and legal documents with a standard size of 8 1/2 by 14. This has nothing to do with the sizes that artists work in.
Yes, there are some scanners made that are wider. The problem is that the price quadruples with every half-inch of width you add. Width of course is really more expensive because of the need to add more sensors to the scanning arm, with length there is no need for additional sensors. But the width to cost ratio is way disproportionate to any real equipement production costs.
You can get a reconditioned 8 1/2 by 14 scanner for about $50 (most of them come from discontinued service programs which trade out rebuild scanners for faulty scanners under warranty). I have one that I have used with no problems for the last 6 years. A new 8 1/2 by 14 scanner is going to price out at about $200 to $300 dollars. The lowest price I have seen for a 11 by 17 scanner was $1,700 and heavy change. I have seen them as high at $6,000. I am sure you can find them higher still when you get into professional publishing models.
Time to think outside the box. If you are a traditional animator like Mark, chances are you have a camera stand around the place. A camera stand with a digital camera is the perfect solution to digitizing over sized artwork. The camera stand takes care of the hand held distortion wobble and with a little playing around with lighting and reflectors you can get a very good digital copy of your oversized art.
Cathy Hill portrait of me with my Santa beard - CLICK for her web site.
The reason I am talking about this is that lots of other people in the art world are having this same problem. Scanners are designed for books and legal documents with a standard size of 8 1/2 by 14. This has nothing to do with the sizes that artists work in.
Yes, there are some scanners made that are wider. The problem is that the price quadruples with every half-inch of width you add. Width of course is really more expensive because of the need to add more sensors to the scanning arm, with length there is no need for additional sensors. But the width to cost ratio is way disproportionate to any real equipement production costs.
You can get a reconditioned 8 1/2 by 14 scanner for about $50 (most of them come from discontinued service programs which trade out rebuild scanners for faulty scanners under warranty). I have one that I have used with no problems for the last 6 years. A new 8 1/2 by 14 scanner is going to price out at about $200 to $300 dollars. The lowest price I have seen for a 11 by 17 scanner was $1,700 and heavy change. I have seen them as high at $6,000. I am sure you can find them higher still when you get into professional publishing models.
Time to think outside the box. If you are a traditional animator like Mark, chances are you have a camera stand around the place. A camera stand with a digital camera is the perfect solution to digitizing over sized artwork. The camera stand takes care of the hand held distortion wobble and with a little playing around with lighting and reflectors you can get a very good digital copy of your oversized art.
posted by Larry Loc @ 10:07 AM
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