[Ghost of Spookie]

For those of you who aren't comfortable using your computer draw programs to plan out your haunt layout, if you have a tablet here's something you might consider.

I thought I would share a few very rough initial layouts that I did the other night from something I sketched out on my iPad with Penultimate, a free app (now part of the Evernote family). It's really a note taking app but has a lot of versatility to do more. I did these sketches freehand with my Apple Pencil on "blank paper" but you can just as easily set the paper choice to "grid" and get graph paper for more precise placement. You can do your planning on graph paper and then easily switch the paper choice to plain for a less cuttered look, where you can annotate better. Quite a bit of flexibility. I'll be using Penultimate to do my handwritten To Do and Shopping Lists, and plan to set up a Prop List for which I'll import photos of the props I might use or still want to pick up. I like having the visual of them in front of me when thinking through ideas (and sometimes have forgotten what I have to use so it serves as a reminder). The app also has a calendar page paper choice for monthly reminders.

I've always drawn my layout ideas on regular paper and this year transferring that task to my tablet has been so easy. I've only been using the app for a few days and it's pretty easy to work with. I like that you can bring in and scale down photos from iPhotos for placement on your design. For me this type of work is just faster to do by hand drawing than working in a draw program.

 

[Ghost of Spookie]

OK, Here's a few of my rough sketches. The theme was inspired by Attic Hatch's gigantic Infestation 2015 haunt (which I'm sure many have seen his thread, should look up if you haven't yet), and in particular I loved his Praying Mantis. So starting out with what I hope might be my version of the Mantis, I came up with the rest of this for a "Live" Monster Drive In/Theater theme to see how I feel about the idea in general. Not sure if this is what I will go with this year but laying it all out by just drawing and importing in the app is so easy.

 

[DaveintheGrave]

Thanks for the information, Spookie! I've not heard of that app before. Will it work on a Kindle Fire?

Great idea on a haunt theme, too. I hope you can pull it off successfully.

 

[Ghost of Spookie]

I've only used Macs so not the best person to comment on other platforms. I know Evernote bought Penultimate a few years back desiring to bring Penultimate's tools to the Evernote world which is cross-platform. Does Kindle run on Android? I had the impression that the Kindle was only a reading platform, not a full functioning internet tablet.

The Penultimate app currently is a standalone app in the Apple App store right now and works with the Evernote Mac app for additional productivity activities. I'm sure Evernote wants to bring all the Mac sketching capabilities to its software so all tablets can do the sketching. Not sure how far along they are. I know Evernote sells a pressure sensitive pen, but for basic sketching and note taking a stylus may work just fine for something like what I did above. In any event chances are there are other companies that have apps with similar capabilities to do what Penultimate can do. With all of our members here I'm sure someone here can provide more info. If you find something for your Kindle, feel free to mention it here. Sure it will help out other Kindle users. Same goes for Android table users.

 

[DaveintheGrave]

I think maybe the first Kindle as just a reader, but the Kindle Fire models that have been out for several years now, are full functioning internet tablets. Kind of like a poor man's iPad.
I love mine. I use it a lot more than our laptop.

 

[Trex]

Thanks GoS, I use my iPad more than our Mac now as well, I can see how handy this App could be!!