The Best Cintiq Alternative - Amazon Fire with apps!

My previous post about a Cintiq alternative was a bit too Rube Goldberg-ish. However with this one, you can't beat ease of use and the price point. If you act now you can get a Amazon Fire tablet this holiday season for only $49.99 and free shipping. Wow!

http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Display-Wi-Fi-GB-Includes/dp/B00TSUGXKE
Beautiful 7" IPS display (171 ppi / 1024 x 600) and fast 1.3 GHz quad-core processor. Rear and front-facing cameras. 8 GB of internal storage. Free unlimited cloud storage for all Amazon content and photos taken with Fire devices. Add a microSD card for up to 128 GB of additional storage.


There are some cool free and low cost art  / drawing apps you can acquire for this device that will do the trick. Here are some with high marks:

                                                                                         

Sketchbook (free)

http://www.amazon.com/Autodesk-Inc-SketchBook-free-drawing/dp/B00P1913DI/ref=pd_sim_405_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=412FKZ7eWvL&dpS

You can't go wrong with an Autodesk product. This is the poor man's version of Sketchbook Pro. This got higher marks than the $4.99 Sketchbook Ink also from Autodesk

Art Flow - Sketch, paint & draw (free)

http://www.amazon.com/ArtFlow-Studio-Sketch-Paint-Draw/dp/B00CX11TG8/ref=pd_sim_405_7?ie=UTF8&dpID=41OwSckXkdL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=06C4C4KDPGKNGWB46PH3#

RoughAnimator - $4.99
http://www.amazon.com/WeirdHat-RoughAnimator/dp/B00OJ9RSYE/ref=pd_sim_405_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=71B5th


Design Creator (Free)
http://www.amazon.com/Tech-BLA-Solutions-Pvt-Ltd/dp/B00QKL0BC0/ref=sr_1_170?s=mobile-apps&ie=UTF8&qid=1449630592&sr=1-170&keywords=drawing#











Sketch Guru - Handy Sketch Pad (free)

http://www.amazon.com/Sketch-Guru-Handy-Pad/dp/B00B7AIZOA/ref=pd_sim_sbs_405_5?ie=UTF8&dpID=7185TzQ-2mL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_
&refRID=0Y0KC4B1Y7H2XXXQVSVS



Animation Desk
(free, but may have ad pop up's)
Cool onion skinning.
http://www.amazon.com/Kdan-Mobile-Software-Ltd-Animation/dp/B00E8HFUW4/ref=sr_1_4?s=mobile-apps&ie=UTF8&qid=1449631606&sr=1-4&keywords=drawing



Lapse It Pro
Professional/dp/B006VIQLXK/ref=pd_sim_405_63?ie=UTF8&dpID=61Xzx73CsFL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=0X2XQY51BDRHH5YXWT05


Can do stop motion and time lapse with this app.
For fine details use a stylus with these programs. Check the specs to see what files types they output. Some allow direct uploading to Dropbox or offloading in PNG / PSD format.
That means cross-platforming folks!!



Android Apps on PC / Mac
Bluestacks software allows you to run Android apps on your PC / Mac and the download is free.
Check it out:   http://www.bluestacks.com/ 







Check out our two prior posts on apps for artists:
http://tripleadude.blogspot.com/2015/03/more-apps-for-artists.html

http://tripleadude.blogspot.com/2015/03/virtual-manikin-apps-for-artists-free.html



Enjoy and Happy Holiday's!

Follow @animotjon Tweet