Live Portrait Maker: Guys

Live Portrait Maker: Guys
   This is the male counterpart to the original Live Portrait Maker app that specialises in female faces.  Both apps work exactly the same and only include different features and accessories, based on the gender.  So though this review is on the male version, I have played with both versions and the rating and views of features hold true to both.

     The game usage is fairly basic and it is essentially used for creating avatars or characters for role playing purposes.  Double tap the character to open the customisation screen, from there click through the options (Hair, Brow, Node, etc).  You will see the available options for that category appear like in the screen shot to the right.  This screen shot shows the nose choices.  You will then get a few basic customising options for the one you choose, such as colour, size and position on the face.  The nose options give you a way to increase or decrease the size and one that makes it higher or lower on the face.  When you are happy with the selection tap the green tick mark and it takes you back to the avatar with the change you made.  Just double tap again to return to the menu to change another feature.

     Once you have finished creating your character you can save the image by either screen capturing or clicking the camera icon at the top of the menu that appears when you double tap.  You can save as a GIF file or a photo file.

     You can also save avatars you have made (Clicking the diskette icon from the menu) within the app itself by assigning a name and notes to them.  You can then pull these characters back up later if you want to say, change the outfit or hair.  This can come in handy if they are a role playing character you have created.

     Also at the top of the menu is a circle made of two arrows.  This creates a random avatar.  Do not click this mid customising unless you wish to start all over.

     If you are having trouble with the app the question mark icon takes you to the help/about and options menu.  There are no in game sounds so the options are just whether or not you want motion (The character looks up and down & side to side when you tap a direction) or not, and the language choice for the menus).

     The app is very basic which is both good and bad.  It is easy to use but the variety is limited.  I could definitely see more hair and wardrobe options being wanted by users.  The customising menu display is a little off putting with it just showing part of an image overlaying the avatar.  This is especially awkward in customise menus such as Eyes (Where some of the images are just smudges), Lips (Where some images meant to be lip shine just looks like a weird pixel mess) and Effects. The menus could absolutely use an improvement as for as visuals go.  It is often unclear what something is until you tap it.

     That being said, the ads in this free app stay at the bottom and are non-intrusive.  The art itself is visually beautiful and the app does what it is intended to do, which is always a plus.  So though it has its limitations and imperfections, it is still a good app.

     Below you can see a video for the female version of this app from the artist Angela He/zephyo's YouTube channel.  They also have some really great art videos there to check out.



Rating: 3.5/5

• Free
• Seller: Angela He
• Category: Games
• Size: 212.7 MB
• Languages: English, French, Japanese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Thai
• Copyright: © Angela He

Rated 9+ for the following: Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence

Face Your Manga Avatar Creator Free

FaceYourManga Avatar Creator Free App for iPhone
     This is a basic avatar creating application.  It makes a version of you (Or your friends/family/favourite celebrity/original character) that is in "manga style" (sort of).
     Mind you, the free version doesn't work quite as well as the full version.  but that goes without saying.  I'll explain the differences later.
     I actually remember when this came out years ago as a website, far before it was an app.  people used it to make forum avatars.  Now you can use the app to make avatars to use for your contacts or to upload to your Facebook or other social networking website.
     You start out by selecting the gender preference for your base.  No bearded ladies here!
     Now you have a basic avatar to start with.  Nothing fancy.  You go through the various 'parts' by swiping the top bar.  The options for that feature are on the bar below.  Swipe this to choose the one you wish to use.  Below is the colour option bar.  Swipe this to choose a different colour for the item you have selected.
     There are many features to choose from.  Some of the features, such as clothing, don't have many different pieces to choose from.  Sadly the paid version does not seem to give you any more content as far as customization goes.
     You can swipe up or down over the character to adjust the element you have selected.  For example, if you have just selected a set of eye brows, swiping up or down will raise or lower the position of the brows on the face.
     You may also have noticed from the screen shots that there are ad banners at the top.  Nothing inappropriate though.  So this application is perfectly safe for a younger audience as well.
     Once you are content with your avatar you may wish to save it... However, you may notice the lack of a save button... There is none.  There is no way (Besides screen shots) to save this image to your device or upload it to a website or email.  If you wish to save your piece you'll have to get the full version of the application, which will run you 1.99USD.  Which seems odd to me.  You'd think maybe 99 cents, right?
     Remember when I mentioned I would explain the paid features?  Well that moment is now.  In the full version you can save your avatar to an internal gallery that exists within the application as well as to your device.  You can also 'share' your creation online through the app.  You can choose a random avatar with a "shake" feature as well.  Lastly, the paid application allows you to associate the image with a particular contact on your address book.  This allows you to see the avatar you made when that individual calls you.
     Now you can always go to their website and create an avatar there.  The website has far more options available for customization.  Saving is far easier and free.  I think the application is fun, but it's far more limited than the online version is.
     In closing I think it's a fun application.  The art is smooth and clean.  It's a bit 'boxy' for my taste, but that's just a personal preference.  Everyone has their own styles they like.  The art is still really well put together.  I like the variety they have on the app, but I would like to see more.  Also, paying for a full version just to be able to save the avatars seems a bit much.  I think they should either make the paid version 99 cents, or add more features to the paid version to make it worth the buy.
     This version works for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.  I believe there's another version they have that is specific to just the iPad though.
Rating: 3.5/5

• Free
• Category: Social Networking
• Released: Jul 26, 2011
• Version: 1.0
• Size: 12.5 MB
• Language: English
• Seller: To Up S.R.L.
• © 2011 ToUp Srl

Rated 4+

How To Make Origami

How To Make Origami App for iPhone
     This is a cute application that teaches you to create your own folded paper creations, called origami.  There are many categories and within each category, many different designs to choose from.
     When you first download and open the application, there are only a couple of origami designs available to try.  However, you can download more designs through the application, for free.  This way you only have designs for things you actually want to make.  This is a great idea, I feel... Because it doesn't take up unneeded storage for designs you'll never want to use.
     To the right, you can see some of the designs you can download.  Just click the plus buttons to add them to your collection.  It even shows you how many steps each design takes.  The more steps, the more difficult the origami will likely be to create.  Start with the easier ones and work your way up.
     When you have your designs downloaded you can choose a category to go to, to choose which piece you want to create.  To the left you can see my list of bird type designs.  This list shows the difficulty level of each design, and what the finished piece should look like.
     You can click on the design you intend to begin making.  Get your paper ready. To the right you can see I've chosen a T-shirt design.  Click the begin button and the application will take you through the process, step by step.
     Each step will have a picture of what the paper should look like at that point.  It will also show a short animation so you know how to fold it, in case the instructions written below the image are puzzling or too confusing to understand.  Clicking the middle button below the design will show the animation sequence over again.  Sometimes watching it a few times will better give you an understanding of what you are supposed to be doing.  The back button takes you back a step and the forward arrow, to the next step.  These can come in handy if you realize you misperformed a step or didn't do something you should have.  You can back track and see where you went wrong.
     I made several of the designs in the application to see how easy the process was and how easy the steps were to understand.  Also some of the origami is a bit odd to me, since it involves cutting, most of them do not.  Personally, I don't consider it origami if you have to cut the paper at some point.  I made the T-shirt (Which most people make from a dollar bill and leave as a tip.  This is because the initial shape is that of a long rectangle and not a square, as traditional origami is), the giraffe (Which requires cutting for the legs), the star (Which requires cutting and in the end is just a flat piece of paper in the shape of a star, and not a folded star shape), and the duck.  You can see some of my creations to the right.  I made them from pieces of magazine paper, so they aren't the most visually appealing origami creations.  They are the giraffe, the T-shirt and the duck.
     Overall I believe this is a very useful and fun application.  It has pieces easy enough for a small child (Around 5-7) to follow along with and ones more complicated that someone older may want to preform.  Best of all, each of the designs are free to download and use.  I love that it has animation to help guide you, and that you can replay the animation when you need to.  I really enjoyed this application and I think you will too.
Rating: 5/5

• Free
• Category: Education
• Updated: Sep 07, 2012
• Version: 1.0.10
• Size: 12.0 MB
• Language: English
• Seller: Sergey Burlakov
• © 2011 Mobilicos

Rated 4+

Cecile-Fumetto

Cecile - Fumetto App for iPhone
     This is a lovely story told in pictures (Comic book style).  It features an artist who learns the ups and downs of falling in love.
     Though this story is entirely in Italian (Which is funny since the app information claims it's in English), you can still enjoy it and follow along without reading (I'd imagine).  Many of the frames don't have any text.  Of course knowing at least a little Italian is useful to get the full details of the story.
     I really enjoyed the art style of this book.  I enjoyed the way it was coloured.  how some bits were shaded, and others in colour.   The characters were also very interesting.  Especially the artist, himself.  Always sketching.
     Below I'll post some of the frames of the story.  This will give you a basic idea on how it looks, so you can decide for yourself if it's something you would be interested in.  At least from a visual aspect.

 
 
     The story is told in days as stages, that act as chapters for the stories.  It's almost like reading through a journal or diary of the main character.  But the character drew everything rather than just writing what happened.  I really enjoyed this aspect of the application/book.
     I found this to be very enjoyable.  Though the ending might surprise you.  I suggest giving it a read.  It's a really good story and really nice artwork.  My only unhappiness would be that this was not translated to English, when posted in the US marketplace.
Rating: 4.5/5

• Free
• Category: Books
• Updated: Aug 15, 2012
• Version: 1.1
• Size: 81.0 MB
• Language: English
• Seller: Severine Lambour
• © PJPL

Rated 12+ for the following:

• Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content or Nudity

21 Girls

21 Girls App for iPhone
     No this isn't a bad porno game... This is an art portfolio for J.R. Tessier.  A book of drawings to show off the artist's skills.
     This application can be viewed in both French and English.
     There are 2 parts to this book.  One part has your basic art pieces.  They are drawn and coloured in a lovely style.  All complete works.  Including an option that shows you the process.  It starts as a sketch, adding colour, more colour, and the finished result.
     The second part is a sort of short story in images (Like a comic).  But it's also interactive, which is interesting.  Try clicking around and see what happens.
     Because this is an art portfolio, the best way to let you know what the application has to offer, is to show you some screens.

     The style is very beautiful.  Large pouty lips and rounded faces.  I really enjoy the artist's works.

     I enjoyed this application and I think you will too.  I like how it's more than just a generic collection of drawings.

 Rating: 5/5

• Free
• Category: Books
• Released: Jul 29, 2012
• Version: 1.0
• Size: 135 MB
• Language: English
• Seller: Emedion
• © 2012 Emedion

Rated 12+ for the following:

• Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References

It's YOU!

It's YOU! App for iPhone
     This is a simple application that takes a game that was originally played with paper, and made it into a digital game you can play over and over without killing any trees.
     First select the gender of the person you are playing the game with.  Is your friend a male or female?  From here on, your friend will make the choices.  But all of their choices will be made blindly.  Will the outcome be good?  Or something gruesome?
     You are taken through a series of facial features. Head shape, hair, eyes, nose and so on.  You do not show the screen to your friend!  Let them know when you begin.  Then start swiping your finger back and forth across the screen.  When they say "Stop", you stop your finger wherever it happened to be at that moment and remove it from the screen.  That facial feature has been chosen.  You will move on to the next feature.  this continues until the entire face has been pieced together.  Show them the result.  It's them!  Does it look like them?

     You can keep the setting on random and it will always select 4 random versions of each feature.  If you turn it off, you can select 4 features to play with manually.

     This is a really cute and fun two person game.  It reminds me of rides to school on the bus.  So much time to waste, you'd always spend time playing paper games with the person sitting next to you.  M.A.S.H., Cootie Catcher, and games like this! 

Rating: 5/5

• Free
• Category: Entertainment
• Size: 6.9 MB
• Languages: English, Korean
• Seller: Juhee Cho
• © 2012 MINTWOOBI

YKR's Pocket

YKR's Pocket App for iPhone
     This is a small art gallery of Yukari Tanaka.  She makes really beautiful pieces.  With this application you can view some of these pieces and even set them as your cell phone's wallpaper, should you choose to.
     Yukari Tanaka was born in 1981 and graduated from Tama Art Graphic Design.  She now does artwork for video games.
     This application has 20 different art pieces.  Should you like a piece you can click the middle center button to save it to your device's album.  Once there you can use it as a wallpaper or lock screen by choosing that image from your device's settings menu.
     There is also a "profile" button that gives you a small amount of information about the artist.  However, it is entirely in Japanese.  I will translate it for you, below.


----------------
Tanaka Yukari
Born in 1981
Tama Art University
Graduated from Department of Graphic Design
Makes Book Covers, Illustrations, Character Design, etc.
----------------

     I really enjoyed the drawings available through this application.  Though I shan't be making them my wallpaper (Because I do so love the one I have already) I really enjoy browsing through them.  They are very detailed and beautifully done.  You can tell that a lot of thought and love goes into each creation.  I especially enjoy the Alice in Wonderland themed artwork.
     I would recommend any art lover download this and take a look.  It's free and you could find a piece that you love enough to make your wallpaper, or inspires you to draw something yourself!  it's an all around pleasant application.
Rating: 5/5

• Free
• Category: Photo & Video
• Size: 13.6 MB
• Languages: English, Japanese
• Seller: Hiroaki Tanaka
• © 2011 EternalSoftware