Like to create flipbooks?

[TimothyB]

I was hoping that if I bought any sketch type app for the iPhone that I'd find one that could animate. It just seemed no matter what, drawings on the iPhone are going to be rough and quick, so it seemed like it would be fun if at least you could do rough animations, then work on it when you have more time later.

So, an app like that has finally come out:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=286348957&mt=8

Onion skinning feature so you can see ghosts of your previous frames. Layer system so you can keep backgrounds and static elements the same while you draw a new part. Maybe even move static layers. Only a simple brush, variable size, color slide, eyedropper, eraser, undo, zoom. Can use photos.

Price is high, but looks like the app is made well with a nice slick look.

Video tour: http://www.flipbook.tv/tour/

[carve]

Sweet app. Not worth $10 at all

[TimothyB]

Sweet app. Not worth $10 at all

Yeah, only reason I haven't bought it yet. $6.99 or $7.99 would look more attractive.

One thing I'm not sure off, as it's not made clear, is if you can work on an animation, then save it, and continue it again later. If it isn't editable, then I'd find it waste.

[SlapMonkey]

How are you guys saying that the price is too high!? At only $10!? Come on, some of these developers are putting quite a bit of work into some of these apps (unlike the silly flashlight apps.)

I just picked up this app and considering that it has the ability to have layers (no other Sketch app on the iPhone has this yet) and onion skinning as well as frame by frame drawing, then the ability to upload those frames as an animated movie, I'm surprised this app isn't $20!

Man you people are cheap here...

[Telp]

This looks like a great app. For $10 though, I do think this is a bit high. I am all for developers pricing there apps based on time spent on their apps, but honostly, for something that i would play around with a couple times and thats it, its not worth it to me. If it's worth it for you, then $10 might be a great price. All in all that, its a great idea. Glad to see developers with creativity out there.

[spyker3292]

There are so many great features in this app that I really do agree with the price. But in the end I think it should lower the price to compete with other applications. It's one of those prices that I think is good considering the quality, but too high for me to buy it. Like Beatmaker...

[TimothyB]

If it was $5-$7, I'd buy it right now. While the price of $10 is not bad considering, but after all my purchases this first month with the iPhone, I have to put it off until I used what I already bought a bit more, that's all

Is there any way to create a wish list for apps in iTunes? I guess I'll open up notepad instead to keep track of what I'm considering.

[wronski]

http://flipbookapp.com/

Here's another one that's been in development for a while. I'm told it will be better and cheaper.

[SlapMonkey]

http://flipbookapp.com/

Here's another one that's been in development for a while. I'm told it will be better and cheaper.

Interesting. Named the same as well. How would you know if it will be better and cheaper? (unless you are the developer ;) ) I hope so as competition is good to push these apps forward.

Doing some research on the developer of the Flipbook app that's already out, pretty impressive. The guy who created it not only an award winning nature photographer, he's a technical director and coder at Pixar! So the guy has got some talent (he also coded the Lightbox program for Macs.)

[spyker3292]

Doing some research on the developer of the Flipbook app that's already out, pretty impressive. The guy who created it not only an award winning nature photographer, he's a technical director and coder at Pixar! So the guy has got some talent (he also coded the Lightbox program for Macs.)

Hmmm...... pretty impressive.

[wronski]

Not me. Just someone I know. ;-)

[spyker3292]

Not me. Just someone I know. ;-)

If this... person... has any other info I'd like to know ASAP. Before I just end up buying this ;). Will it have layering and ghosting effects? What's the price? When could it be out? And what makes it better? Care to share a screen?

I doubt he will answer many, if any, of these questions. But I might as well try ;).

PM me if you want...

[wronski]

Sorry, I really shouldn't say more than the better and cheaper bit. If it's any consolation there's a high resolution icon on this page: http://olliewagner.com/


:p

[joshanon]

Hi there,
I'm the developer of FlipBook (the one you can buy). First off, let me say that it's always great to get feedback for what people want, and I certainly have a to-do list already of things to make FlipBook even better. However, I've already seen some really amazing things come out of people's fingertips on flipbook.tv.

Next, let me take a minute and comment about the price. FlipBook is one of the most sophisticated content-creation tools for the iPhone. It's not a port from another platform--it's built from the ground up to make it easy to create great movies with your fingertips. People who animate for a living contributed to its development. Some of its features are even patent-pending. You can also use it to draw on top of photos or make stop-motion movies.

It isn't easy to write a sophisticated app designed for a computer that fits in your hand. Not to mention that the price of the app supports hosting our community site, flipbook.tv, where you can upload and share your movies. I'm guessing that if you are someone saying this software isn't worth $10, you have never tried it, and you have no idea why someone would want onion skinning or layered drawing. And if you have tried it and feel that way, please use the feedback forum at flipbook.tv to describe why.

Furthermore, look at the other drawing tools on the app store. Sketches was originally priced around $7 (they've lowered the price after being in the top paid apps list for the past couple of weeks). FlipBook's drawing tools are more sophisticated--it's the only app with layer-based drawing--and we go one step further by letting you animate. Plus we host your movies on flipbook.tv. There is far more in FlipBook for just a few dollars more. That's less than a gallon of gas.

If you want to purchase the Arnold Schwarzenegger Total Body Workout music album from iTunes, you'll pay $10.89 and get bored after one listen. If you decide to buy dinner at Chipotle, a burrito, chips, and drink will cost you over $10 and last maybe 20 minutes. If you go see a movie, it'll cost you over $10, and you'll get bombarded with ads before the movie starts. And how much did you pay for coffee at Starbucks this morning?

I know that a lot of the low-cost utility apps have created the expectation of a very low price point for iPhone apps. But if people are willing to pay $2.99 to show a picture of a glass of beer on your screen, I find it astonishing that people object to $9.99 for a powerful content-creation application.

Best,
Josh

[TimothyB]

Well, I just bought it.

I know I'll have fun with it. Back in Junior High, 1994-1995, I had a digital pocket assistant. Qwerty keyboard and opened up to a really wide screen that only showed 10 lines of text. But, this gadget could flip fast through notes, like a flipbook, and when bored, I created animations using text characters, and no copy functions for each page.

[olliewagner]

Hi, developer of Flipbook here (the other one).

I'm really glad to see an interest in the type of app so far, and was amazed to see that someone else was coming out with one at the same time. Our version has been submitted, and should be out as soon as tomorrow (whenever the iTunes team approves it).

Our version, named "Flipbook Touch", focuses on simplicity in creating flipbooks, and lets you do so with ease. We use some very clever techniques to keep our animations smooth as butter (it was quite a challenge with the limited memory available on the iPhone).

We strongly believe that simplicity will be key for this type of app, as it is on the iPhone, and you'll want to get satisfying results very quickly. Flipbook Touch will show you an underlay of the previous frame ("onion skinning") so it is easy to create the next one, and our colors "build up" so you can shade your objects without having to fuss with color selection. Playback can be done in a single run or loop mode (double touch "play" to loop), and we have an innovative slider control for scrubbing through frames.

Other features include undo and erasing abilities (just shake like an etch-a-sketch!). We can't wait to hear what you all think!

Flipbook will be available shortly for $4.99

http://flipbookapp.com/screenshot.png

[TimothyB]

Some quick thoughts for future additions to the first Flipbook app:

1: Fill Bucket tool. I noticed double tapping the brush icon fills, but only the entire screen. Maybe while drawing, double tap will fill?

2: Option to hide layers like in photoshop. But, since you can rearrange the layers, a work around is to drag one you don't need to the bottom under other layers.

3: Transparent layers controls. Could be useful for certain effects like clouds, water, smoke, glows.

4: Would be nice if you can reorder the frames. Say you change the entire scene for a while, but then want to go back to a scene from before. You could try to copy and paste each layer, great feature by the way, but it would be nice when duplicating an earlier frame to place it where you need it.

5. Rotate and scale. Already cool that you got a move layers feature. But an option to rotate and scale a shape would also be really cool for animation. Tough though, with two fingers already dedicated to zoom.

6. Maybe a burn and dodge tool, to add extra shading when you need it. Possibly with slider for hardness, size, strength, and even if the stroke will auto fade strength to simulate pressure. Seeing how this only done to painted areas, it won't create partial transparent areas.

7. Layer transparency lock. Say you created a ball, now you want to shade one side, but you have to follow the edges or you go outside the ball. It would be nice to lock the layer transparency so all new drawing only appears in areas that have been painted, like using a mask.

8. For some reason, I prefer CMYK sliders. Just seems more natural to get the color I want, and the black slider is nice to quickly adjust the shade of a color. Any change of that showing up? Or maybe brightness, hue, and saturation controls along with the RGB sliders.

I better stop there, you might be laughing your head off at these type of features for the price of $9.99 app and limitations of the iPhone. Like you are probably thinking, "yeah, all that, and why not a magic wand tool tool, motion blur, how about a complete Photoshop while I'm at it" :)

[joshanon]

Hi Timothy,
I tend not to comment on my exact plans, but some of those items are on my to-do list. I'm not laughing my head off at all, because I've tried to set the bar very high with FlipBook's initial toolset and am excited you're asking for things like a dodge and burn tool instead of what I would consider basic tools that other, less-expensive programs lack.

Ollie, it's nice to see the shot of your app, and I look forward to seeing it live. From what I can tell, here are some of the differences that make FlipBook different from your app (it actually includes the basics you mention, including a slider to scrub through frames).

* FlipBook lets you draw on the entire screen, critical because the iPhone's screen is so small.
* FlipBook has a customizable brush and eraser, because one brush or eraser doesn't fit them all.
* FlipBook has layered drawing.
* FlipBook lets you onion skin the next frame.
* FlipBook has redo in addition to undo.
* FlipBook has copy and paste.
* FlipBook has a move tool.
* FlipBook lets you load images from a camera.
* FlipBook lets you easily get an h264-encoded .mov to keep on your computer or share on flipbook.tv. The whole point of a movie-making app is to get a movie file when you're done.

To me, those extra features are worth the extra $5. Perhaps some of you feel differently.

[iPhone3G]

Wow, great app Josh Anon. I only hope the good customer support continues and updates are implemented to improve the app even further.

Flipbook = An exceptional app with room to easily become a revolutionary example of what the iPhone is capable of.

Looking forward to see what updates you have in store for us.

[spyker3292]

Installing :). I actually think I might just get both. You know, compare and contrast ;).

[genshi]

I edited my post to make my point simpler (I had written a long diatribe on the market, developers under valuing their apps because of some uninformed reviews, etc.)

I just want to say, I bought Flipbook when it came out and created an account at Flipbook.tv. I'm pretty impressed with it and feel the price is more than fair. I'll probably also buy the Flipbook Touch app just to compare the two.

I just hope that developers don't start to under-value their apps just because a few people always whine about and are always wanting everything cheaper.

[plumbingandtech]

I just hope that developers don't start to under-value their apps just because a few people always whine about and are always wanting everything cheaper.

Amen.

There will always be people that complain about prices. If you have a better product that has more (in your opinion.) developers, say it with the price.

[spyker3292]

I've had some fun with Flipbook so far. How do I actually view the flipbooks on Flipbook.tv? They are all just jpgs. Hm, works fine on my iPhone :).

[joshanon]

Spyker, those jpgs are a QuickTime feature called poster images, and we use them so that you see a preview of the movie on your iPhone. If you click on the image, QuickTime will load and play the full movie.

[olliewagner]

Ollie, it's nice to see the shot of your app, and I look forward to seeing it live. From what I can tell, here are some of the differences that make FlipBook different from your app (it actually includes the basics you mention, including a slider to scrub through frames).

* FlipBook lets you draw on the entire screen, critical because the iPhone's screen is so small.
* FlipBook has a customizable brush and eraser, because one brush or eraser doesn't fit them all.
* FlipBook has layered drawing.
* FlipBook lets you onion skin the next frame.
* FlipBook has redo in addition to undo.
* FlipBook has copy and paste.
* FlipBook has a move tool.
* FlipBook lets you load images from a camera.
* FlipBook lets you easily get an h264-encoded .mov to keep on your computer or share on flipbook.tv. The whole point of a movie-making app is to get a movie file when you're done.

Hey Josh – First off I just want to say I love to see the creativity and effort you put into your app.

And that said, I'd also like to point out the unique qualities of my Flipbook.

* Flipbook Touch has very smooth playback. It's been buttery smooth even at monumental frame counts (we've gotten up to 650-something so far)

* We do not include things such as stop motion from the camera, moving, layering, etc... by design. Because we wanted to make something that was for the iPhone, it was therefore intentional that Flipbook Touch would not be a full featured animation program. It just lets you have fun and make smooth flipbooks quickly as you would on a pad of sticky notes.

And you're right about things like brush size and exporting. While we couldn't make these in for our 1.0 deadline, these are things we have been working on for a while. And also, this is just 1.0. Without adding bloat, we will also be integrating more unique niceties that make creating animations even more fun.

[Rojo]

It's refreshing to see two competing developers get along so nicely! :D

It looks like both apps will have their different uses for different needs. Josh's app sounds like it may have a few more features, but you're also paying more for them too. Depending on how much you want to use such an app (just to play around with, or get more serious with) may decide on which one you buy. To be honest, I haven't decided which one I want yet. I'm leaning towards getting the one out now, but may wait for Ollie's and some reviews to make a final decision. Or heck, I may just get both! ;)

[TimothyB]

Quick tip I noticed with Flipbook, might be a side effect or on purpose.

If you start drawing a line, or erasing, and you already know you need to undo it, before lifting the drawing finger, tap the screen with another finger, the recent changes disappear. Though, the moment you let go it will bring up the tool box. Still. It might be quicker than the fast menu for undo, which often I accidentally draw a dot getting to.

Though in the pop up menu with undo, after selecting undo, tapping again real quick will do two undos, and so on.

I really like the zoom on this. I'll draw thick strokes, then use the eraser, while zoomed in, to thin and shape the stroke. And the edges of your lines are smoothed.

[TimothyB]

I hope they get the other Flipbook app out soon, sometimes it can take over a week for approval.


Here's my first try with the first Flipbook app:
http://www.flipbook.tv/view/7F4A2075-37EC-481A-B219-99F7FF4A2D2A/

I got in over my head. I first did 12 rough frames, then planned to draw on a new layer to refine it. Which you see for the first half of the animation, then the rough drawing for the last bit.

Sadly, I added too much detail for what was suppose to be a quick rough animation. My left hand would go numb at times holding the iPhone. Thus, for time reasons, I stopped. But not before I duplicated the first frame many times to add an eye blink and waving hair.

I also used the export image feature to grab the drawings and use them in photoshop to reverse the animation for a loop with no rough drawings: http://other.toonguru.com/hugo/Rita_iPhone3.gif

That's one feature I would like. Moving frames so I can reverse it and so on. Also note, the app has a 4 layer limit. You can change the order, but I think it changes that layer's order for all frames.

To color, I kept the black lines on the top layer. Then I colored on a second layer below it, making it real quick without risk of messing up the lines. And my background a 4th layer, which using copy and paste, I was able to put it in all frames.

It only crashed once when I first started coloring the toon character. I often just quit the app to make sure my last few minutes of work is not lost. Sometimes the pause when you advance a frame for the onion skinning can scare you.

I'm please with the $9.99 price and can't wait for future updates.

[fastbite]

[QUOTE=TimothyB;5958967]I hope they get the other Flipbook app out soon, sometimes it can take over a week for approval.


Here's my first try with the first Flipbook app:
http://www.flipbook.tv/view/7F4A2075-37EC-481A-B219-99F7FF4A2D2A/

Brilliant! It's really good! I wish i could draw like that.

[joshanon]

Timothy, I am amazed! What might help you is a Pogo Stylus. I've been talking with them about a finer-tipped version that's better for drawing, and they're aware of the need. There are also some stands for the iPhone so that you don't have to hold it.

I'm not sure if there's a way for you to get me a crash log (take a look in ~/Library/MobileDevice or ~/Library/Logs and if you see something, please email it to support at flipbook.tv). What I suspect was happening is that you were running low on memory (hence the sluggish frame changes). FlipBook tries hard to throw things out of memory when the device tells it that it's running low, but if we can't throw enough out, the system actually kills the app. If you notice things running slowly, try restarting your device to clear out cruft. Also, just going back to the home screen will save everything in your document--no need to completely quit.

You are limited to 4 layers, but that's only to try to keep a handle on memory usage (it's actually just a pre-defined constant in the app that can be changed at any time) and to keep performance reasonable. They are more like tracks in that every frame will have the same set of layers; it'd be mentally confusing otherwise (we tried it initially).

And I hear you about rearranging frames. It's certainly a logical next step.

Best,
Josh

[Surely]

I'm guessing that if you are someone saying this software isn't worth $10, you have never tried it, and you have no idea why someone would want onion skinning or layered drawing. And if you have tried it and feel that way, please use the feedback forum at flipbook.tv to describe why.


Let me preface my comment by stating that I don't particularly have any problem with your price-point, and I believe that developers should most definitely be compensated for their hard work. Some of the Apps that have been released are simply amazing, and are making my iPhone experience even better than it was prior to the 2.0 release.

That being said, I wanted to question you on one part of your above comment. You state that people who are questioning the $10 price-point haven't tried Flipbook yet, so they could not appreciate how complex and amazing it is. My question is, how can we try it before we purchase it? Is there a trial version, or a lite version that you have released? If we buy it to try it, and we don't like it, do we get a refund (Um, no)?

I just don't feel that this was a fair argument against the people who are pointing out that they feel it is a high price-point. To make that argument, a trial version should be made available.

Besides that, keep up the great work! :)

[joshanon]

I've thought about a trial version, but I haven't figured out what the best way to limit it would be. The obvious bit is limiting the number of movies, frames, and layers. There are more subtle questions to think about, though, especially with regards to our website. We're already planning on improving its functionality (including what you can get to via the app), and if a trial version took full advantage of it and was free, our server fees could quickly go through the roof. Thanks for the feedback, though. Keep it coming!

[megatron0069]

Me and my lil girl love the app. I did some animations and a stop motion iphone being attacked by a charger. http://flipbook.tv/view/8E362FAD-684F-402D-870F-4E67BF3422C8/

looking forward to create more animations on my bus rides!

[TimothyB]

To all that are watching this thread, the other app is out, Flickbook

The creator started a thread here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=537169

[TimothyB]

Thanks. Yeah, some kind of stylus would be great for the iPhone. This better not get me thinking about that Wacom Cintiq again.

Can a stylus work with this type of touch screen anyway? Or an option could be done that offsets the drawing just enough to be seen above your finger. Some issues would occur around the edges of the screen I guess.

Meanwhile maybe to compensate for clumsy finger drawing is a faster undo. Right now, it takes a little while to get that quick menu, and sometimes I create a dot trying to get to it. Maybe shaking the phone like some apps do would work as an undo. Heck, maybe an up and down shake undos, left and right redos, or changes between erase and and brush.

I'm on a PC, Vista, and I looked everywhere and couldn't find those crash logs. I know iTunes must be sending them because it asked the very first time and showed a preview, but don't know how to get that back. I did have Flipbook app on launch cause an instant restart. Though, I did run ReQall just before that happened and I feel some how that app was the cause.

One thing I found difficult was quickly going back and forth between frames like that animator thing to see how it's working out. The arrows at the bottom are good for that, but with a few flaws. Sometimes sluggish with onion skin on and it counts as your undos. So several flips you suddenly have no undos for what you were possibly checking. Maybe a feature where if you hold on one of those arrows, instead of tap, it will auto flip between the last frame and your current until you let go, plus auto turns off onion skin for that preview, and vice verse with the other arrow.

I understand about the layers. I wonder, is there any way to merge layers. So if you you finished one thing, and decide you don't need them separate, you could merge them down and gain the use of the free layer. I tried copy and paste, but that replaces the entire layer, not pasting on top of.

One last thing comes to mind with that. Can we duplicate entire flipbooks? There's sort of a work around now, and merges the animation at the same. Using the export feature as photos to your camera roll, you then create a new flipbook and reload each still from your photos.

Again, these are not demands, or even suggestions that I expect to be done, but just thoughts and I'm glad enough you are listening.

Timothy, I am amazed! What might help you is a Pogo Stylus. I've been talking with them about a finer-tipped version that's better for drawing, and they're aware of the need. There are also some stands for the iPhone so that you don't have to hold it.

I'm not sure if there's a way for you to get me a crash log (take a look in ~/Library/MobileDevice or ~/Library/Logs and if you see something, please email it to support at flipbook.tv). What I suspect was happening is that you were running low on memory (hence the sluggish frame changes). FlipBook tries hard to throw things out of memory when the device tells it that it's running low, but if we can't throw enough out, the system actually kills the app. If you notice things running slowly, try restarting your device to clear out cruft. Also, just going back to the home screen will save everything in your document--no need to completely quit.

You are limited to 4 layers, but that's only to try to keep a handle on memory usage (it's actually just a pre-defined constant in the app that can be changed at any time) and to keep performance reasonable. They are more like tracks in that every frame will have the same set of layers; it'd be mentally confusing otherwise (we tried it initially).

And I hear you about rearranging frames. It's certainly a logical next step.

Best,
Josh

[joshanon]

The current Pogo Stylus actually works remarkably well, it just takes some getting used to the fat tip.

I don't want to say much about when you sometimes get a dot when bringing up the quick command bar (long story short, it's related to the settings we ended up picking after some tweaking to deal with how the iPhone sends touch events to an application), but try not to roll your finger (that'll mess things up and give you a dot). The bar is set to come up after just under .5 seconds.

Sorry to hear that you can't get the crash report. I suspect I've found a bug in the autosave and will be fixing that in a 1.0.1 release, so that even if you do crash, you'll have your work. Out of curiosity, would it bug you if FlipBook were to sometimes pop up an alert that said "FlipBook has detected that it's not running as well as it should be. Try restarting your device."

With the page flipping, what's happening is that nearly everything in the app is undoable (not just brush strokes), including changing frames. To keep our memory usage down, though, the undo stack has to be relatively short. So yes, if you flip a lot, you might end up clearing the undo brush command.

There is definitely a performance hit with onion skinning. Unfortunately the iPhone isn't robust as a desktop with a full GPU, and compositing (which we do a lot of) isn't cheap. However, we are looking at some optimizations for a future release, and this will only get better.

Merging layers is an interesting one, and we've been thinking about it. Honestly the hardest part is the user experience, since a layer is really like a track in that it spans the whole movie. But yes, this certainly would be a logical thing to have in the future :)

For those of you still reading, we've figured out a great way to provide a lite edition and will be submitting it to the AppStore as a free download this week. That'll give you a chance to try before you buy, in case $9.99 is hard to find in your budget.

[Rojo]

For those of you still reading, we've figured out a great way to provide a lite edition and will be submitting it to the AppStore as a free download this week. That'll give you a chance to try before you buy, in case $9.99 is hard to find in your budget.

That's great news!
Thanks for doing this. :)

[spyker3292]

Great app, I've don't about 10 animations already. It would be great if you could find a way to fox the sluggish frames but currently it's still amazing. I really love the tool quick select. It's also great to see all your replies here! :)

[spyker3292]

Oh! Just another feature I would love. Maybe an export as .mov or .gif to comp instead of exporting a bunch of pictures to the library. But I love the flipbook.tv upload ;). And maybe a checkmatk next to each of the export features after I export stuff. So I know what's on flipbook.tv ;)

[rittchard]

Ironically it was seeing the other flipbook app that brought me to this thread, and after watching the info on the site I decided to go ahead and purchase this one (apologies to the other guy!). Some of the drawing and layer features look amazing. I don't expect I'll be very good at making content, but like Beatmaker it's just such an incredible tool I feel the need to experiment with it.

One thing I'd like to see on the flipbook.tv site is a "Top Flipbooks" or maybe a rating system, something like Youtube. Presently there is such a huge mix, and some of them are clearly just experimental or ummm, not the best quality so to speak. I'd like to be able to see some of the best stuff immediately, and also think it would help sell the App if the higher quality ones were featured more prominently.


P.S. Side note, equally impressive to the software, I checked out Josh Anon's photography website. Wow, there's some simply amazing images in there. Highly recommended if you like nature photography.

[joshanon]

Spyker, thanks for the feedback. For right now, if you know FlipBook running slowly, restart your phone. FlipBook uses all the memory it can get, and if other apps have left cruft behind, it slows down (that's why you sometimes don't get true 12fps playback). We're working on another form of export for 1.1 that'll make a lot of people happy.

rittchard, thanks for the nice words! If it makes you feel any better, the reason I'm a photographer is that I don't draw very well :) As for flipbook.tv, we are improving it literally each day. For instance, as of last night, you can click a user's name to see all the movies a user's made. The nice thing about the website is that there's no submission/approval process. A ratings and comments system is high on our priority list.

[spyker3292]

The website seems to be growing very quickly! And I'm looking forward to 1.1 ;) just with this review process that could be a while :D

[Rojo]

OK!
So I was going to wait around and test out the free lite version of Flipbook, but I decided to just go ahead and buy the full version anyway, and I'm having lots of fun with it!

Most of my suggestions have already been suggested by TimothyB, so I'll comment on his:

Some quick thoughts for future additions to the first Flipbook app:

1: Fill Bucket tool. I noticed double tapping the brush icon fills, but only the entire screen. Maybe while drawing, double tap will fill?

I definitely think a regular "fill bucket" tool is necessary, and is more useful than something that fills the whole page. I feel like filling the whole page is something that you would only ever do in the beginning -- and there's already a way to set that on the main page, when you edit a flipbook's name. If someone REALLY needed to fill the screen after that, they could always just set the brush to its largest size and draw over the screen pretty quickly. (What would be REALLY cool is if you fill the whole screen with one color, then draw on top of it, and then you can go back and "reset" that initial full screen color while keeping all the changes you've made -- and that color could maybe change globally over all your frames).

2: Option to hide layers like in photoshop. But, since you can rearrange the layers, a work around is to drag one you don't need to the bottom under other layers.

Layers are still super-tricky for me. I'm finding it requires a LOT of forethought to create certain animations -- because you have to think about what's going to be a fixed background layer first, and then figure out how many frames will have that bg layer and create them all first, and THEN play with the other layers on top of it. It gets complicated when you realize you might need to add another frame, and then suddenly you need to go back and copy that bg layer again. It seems like the only way to do that is to go to your layers, click on edit, move that layer to the top temporarily, copy it, then move it to the back again, and THEN you can paste it on another frame. If there was a faster way to copy a single layer, without having to move it to the front each time, that would be wonderful.

Unless I'm mistaken, and I'm just doing something wrong, I've noticed that whenever you have any color OTHER than white as your background, that color becomes part of the layer -- so if you copy and paste a single layer in a new frame, it will completely cover up anything else in that frame with the bg color? Basically, here's what happened when I was playing around: I created a new flipbook with a white background, and drew a fixed bg layer of a house in black to be in each frame. I then drew a red stick figure on another layer, which I copied and pasted in each frame and moved around -- and the house could be seen in the background each time. However, I then did the same exact thing, but this time with a black background, and drawing the house in white. When I tried to copy the red stick figure layer into a new frame, it would completely cover the bg layer of the white house to where you couldn't see it at all. Is there a way to make new layers that become ONLY what you actually draw, and NOT the background color too? That would be quite helpful in most cases...

Also, I noticed that if you delete a layer, it gets deleted in ALL the frames? Is there any way to delete a layer in just a single frame, but keep it in others?

EDIT: I noticed when you MOVE layers it changes in ALL the frames too. That kinds sucks. What if you want layer 1 to be on top of layer 2 in one frame, but on the bottom of layer 2 in the next frame? Looks like you can't do that?? Yeah -- if there was a way to keep layer changes to JUST the frame you're currently working in, that would be amazing!

3: Transparent layers controls. Could be useful for certain effects like clouds, water, smoke, glows.

DEFINITELY!

4: Would be nice if you can reorder the frames. Say you change the entire scene for a while, but then want to go back to a scene from before. You could try to copy and paste each layer, great feature by the way, but it would be nice when duplicating an earlier frame to place it where you need it.

This would be my number one request. Can't tell you how many time I wanted to do this. Perhaps when you're in "Pages" mode, there could be a way to press and hold on a page, and then drag it to someplace else?

5. Rotate and scale. Already cool that you got a move layers feature. But an option to rotate and scale a shape would also be really cool for animation. Tough though, with two fingers already dedicated to zoom.

God yes!! But yeah, I can see how it might be difficult.

6. Maybe a burn and dodge tool, to add extra shading when you need it. Possibly with slider for hardness, size, strength, and even if the stroke will auto fade strength to simulate pressure. Seeing how this only done to painted areas, it won't create partial transparent areas.

I don't even know what burning and dodging is, so too advanced for me to want - LOL! :D

7. Layer transparency lock. Say you created a ball, now you want to shade one side, but you have to follow the edges or you go outside the ball. It would be nice to lock the layer transparency so all new drawing only appears in areas that have been painted, like using a mask.

Sounds pretty advanced -- but if it could be done, would be very cool.

8. For some reason, I prefer CMYK sliders. Just seems more natural to get the color I want, and the black slider is nice to quickly adjust the shade of a color. Any change of that showing up? Or maybe brightness, hue, and saturation controls along with the RGB sliders.

Too many color sliders could get confusing, though.

One other feature that would be quite nice, that doesn't directly have anything to do with editing your own animations, but would be still be very useful: Some kind of built-in-the-app "viewer" for all of the flipbook.tv animations. Sure, we could just go to flipbook.tv in Safari -- but it's a pain to have to quit the Flipbook app, load Safari, find the page, and then do the required zooming around to navigate the site. It would be sooooo much cooler if there was a direct way to easily navigate and view the animations within the Flipbook app itself. But maybe not until a tags or ratings system is incorporated into the site. That way we could search/navigate by rating, tag, name, or whatever. I find it's REALLY helpful to be able to look at what others have done, in order to see what is possible.

And finally, a not-that-important-but-would-still-be-cool request that I mentioned in another thread: The ability to add music or sounds. I realize this might be too impossible, or would tax the memory to its limit. But even if it was something you could only do once you lock an animation as "finished," it would still be a nice addition. Just throwing it out there...

Looking forward to the other export options that are coming too. Some of my animations I don't want to to upload to flipbook.tv, but I still want to get off my iPhone.

[joshanon]

Glad to hear you ended up purchasing FlipBook and are enjoying it! With color, the way it works (or at least is supposed to work ;) ) is that you can change the background color at any time, and it's not part of any layer. If you copy the background layer, you don't pick up the background color. You just pick up whatever you drew over it.

With layers, it does take some thought, but it's nice to have them sometimes (and you don't have to use them if you don't want to). What might help you is the duplicate frame button (under the Frame control), or in the app prefs, you can set FlipBook to copy the previous frame when adding a new one, instead of giving you a blank frame.

Copy will copy the active layer, and paste will paste it into the active layer--no need to reorder. If that isn't working properly, could you use the contact form on flipbook.tv to file a bug? I just tried what you described below, and everything worked as designed (it didn't copy the bkg color, and I could easily copy from one layer to another on a different frame).

Layers are really more like tracks. After a lot of thought, we decided it would be too confusing if each frame could have different layers.

Your other requests are reasonable, and I think you'll like what we have planned. Just FYI, I don't believe there is a way to access your iTunes library from a 3rd party app, but we are thinking about sound.

Lastly, did you know that when you upload a movie to flipbook.tv, you can mark it private? That means that no one else can see it, but you can login to the site and download it to your computer.

[TimothyB]

Just wanted to mention a confusing thing with interface as you upload to Flipbook.tv

It's how you choose between portrait or landscape mode before uploading.

It's not clear if the highlighted button is the one selected, or if it's the dark button that is the the selection. I tried clicking one button, like portrait, twice, to be sure it stays on it, but it just alternates so you still can't figure out for sure with is the one selected.

With my first upload I got it wrong, but was glad you can change it online.

When I get home I'll have to read these recent posts.

[Rojo]

Josh - thanks for the response! Clearly I'm doing something wrong regarding layers, and just need to play around with them some more, I guess.

Glad to hear some of the suggestions might be coming a reality! Looking forward to future updates. And thanks for the uploading as "private" tip -- I'll do that for now!

[joshanon]

Just wanted to mention a confusing thing with interface as you upload to Flipbook.tv

It's how you choose between portrait or landscape mode before uploading.

It's not clear if the highlighted button is the one selected, or if it's the dark button that is the the selection.

I know. The darker one is the selected control. That's actually a standard, Apple-provided control. It works pretty well if you have 3-4+ items, but it is a bit confusing for just 2. Something will change to make that less confusing :)

[Rojo]

I know. The darker one is the selected control. That's actually a standard, Apple-provided control. It works pretty well if you have 3-4+ items, but it is a bit confusing for just 2. Something will change to make that less confusing :)

Thanks, because I had the same problem. I kept selecting the wrong one, and had to always go back.

[Rojo]

Just downloaded an update from the phone's App Store! But it didn't say what's new -- and I can't tell if there IS anything new. And now when I look up Flipbook on iTunes, it says version 1.0.0?? So was there an actual update or not? :confused: :confused:

[joshanon]

Just downloaded an update from the phone's App Store! But it didn't say what's new -- and I can't tell if there IS anything new. And now when I look up Flipbook on iTunes, it says version 1.0.0?? So was there an actual update or not? :confused: :confused:

I don't think Apple's updated the info on iTunes yet. Take a look at the settings pane--we put the version number at the bottom. Here are the release notes that will be up soon:

This version improves playback performance and fixes an autosave bug, as well as other minor bugs.

There's also a new note in the app description--a little present for the next time you upload a movie to flipbook.tv:

For a limited time only, upload a movie to flipbook.tv, and you'll receive a coupon for 25% off a Pogo Stylus!

-Josh

[Eric Isaacson]

I don't think Apple's updated the info on iTunes yet. Take a look at the settings pane--we put the version number at the bottom. Here are the release notes that will be up soon:

This version improves playback performance and fixes an autosave bug, as well as other minor bugs.

There's also a new note in the app description--a little present for the next time you upload a movie to flipbook.tv:

For a limited time only, upload a movie to flipbook.tv, and you'll receive a coupon for 25% off a Pogo Stylus!

-Josh

Love your App and I hope to be uploading something to flipbook.tv soon. Not near as good as some, but it was fun to make.


I also really appreciate your contributions to this thread
Eric

[joshanon]

Love your App and I hope to be uploading something to flipbook.tv soon. Not near as good as some, but it was fun to make.


I also really appreciate your contributions to this thread
Eric

Glad to hear it! You don't have to be a great artist to have fun animating--like I've said before, there's a reason I'm a photographer :) If you get a minute, my team loves reading good reviews on iTunes.

[beate]

For a limited time only, upload a movie to flipbook.tv, and you'll receive a coupon for 25% off a Pogo Stylus!

-Josh

Ah Man! I bought your program a couple of days ago...was reading this thread last night. After seeing a reference for the Pogo Stylus, went and bought it.

Yeah - like I jumped and bought it without finishing the thread. ::slap to the head::