Photo Amie

Photo Amie App for iPhone
     All alone in that photo?  Need a friend?  A girlfriend, perhaps?  Photo Amie is here to be of assistance   Just slap a character on any photo you have already stored on your device.  Show off your cartoon friendship to the world with Photo Amie.  A free application for iOS.
     You will see the launch screen to the right when you start up the application.  The whole process of using this app is actually quite simple.  However, I shall elaborate, nonetheless.
     There is no sound for this application.  The graphic of one of the characters in that particular pose and outfit is the only free graphic available to use.  Using additional outfits or poses will cost money, and may be purchased through the application.
     There are 4 buttons at the bottom of the app screen.  The plus and X should be faded upon load up.  You may press the camera function to choose a photo from your gallery to use.  Alternatively you may press the gear cog icon to  access the settings.
     You may notice right away that this application can access the files in your device storage, however does not have access to your camera.  This is not a problem, don't fret.  If you go into the settings option you can have the application access your camera, rather than the storage.  I will explain later.
     Once you have selected a photo from your storage, it will load on the screen with this pink haired girl stuck onto the center of the photo by default.  You will also see a rather unattractive blue time/date stamp in the lower right corner of said photo.
     Using the pinch and drag methods you can resize and drag her around the photo to place her where you wish.  You can not flip or tilt the character.
     You may notice that the plus sign and X icon are now available for use.  The plus sign will save your project to your device as it when you press it.  The X will trash the project.  Both will immediately relocate you to the title screen.
     Other than moving the single character around the photo, there are no options in edit mode.  Rather disappointing, to be honest.
     Let's cover the settings menu now.  This is of course back at the main screen.  You can see the initial settings menu in the screen shot to the right.
     This is a list of characters available to place in your photos.  There are 9 characters in all.  The free one is actually named Ai, and not Amie.  Which I found a bit confusing.  There 'is' a character named "Ami" with braids but she is not free to use.
     Despite the fact that you can not use them in the application without paying, you 'can' view the characters and their available costumes and facial expressions.  Simply click the name of the character you wish to see.  You will then see the screen to the left of this part of this blog entry.  The top selections are costumes, the bottom, expressions.  Some characters share outfits, others have more original looks.
     It is difficult to see the emotions because the images are so faded before you pay.  Each character has 6 different emotions.
     Even though Ai is free for the free application, you only have one available costume and expression.  Though you can view her additional looks in the options, here.
     If you have already purchased more characters, you can choose which one to use here.  Though I would prefer being able to do that in the photo edit mode function.
     The graphics are very nice.  I especially like that the characters have shadows.
     Back on the character select part of the options menu, scroll down, below the character list.  You will see another option."Misc, Purchases".
     From this part of the options you are able to toggle the "Background".  This is where you decide whether the app should use photos from your storage to place the character over, or access your camera to allow you to take a photo specifically to use with this application.
     You can also toggle the "Mirror Picture" which will turn the character the other direction.  If she faces left usually, she will now face right.  I do wish this were an option within the edit mode, and not from the main screen's settings function.  Seems terribly inconvenient, doesn't it?
     Remember that ugly blue time stamp?  You can turn that off from here as well.  Or, if it's already off, you may wish to turn it on.  Though I don't know why.  It looks awful.
     Lastly, you may purchase images from this part of the application.  The images being the additional characters and costumes.  Fortunately they come all in one lump sum, rather than being sold individually.  I am very glad for that.  For one payment of 1.99USD you can unlock all of the extra characters, costumes & expressions.
     I like the concept of the application.  It reminds me a bit of the My Girl's Camera series of applications.  Though they allowed more free content than this does.  Still, it's a nice application.  If you enjoy adding cartoon characters to your photos this could be a great application for you.  However, if you want more variety, there are better free applications that do the same thing (It just wont have the same characters).
Rating: 2.8/5

• Free
• Category: Photo & Video
• Updated: Mar 26, 2012
• Version: 1.02
• Size: 8.3 MB
• Languages: English, Japanese
• Seller: Toshiyuki Nakamura
• © 2012 IRLAB

Rated 4+