Algoriddim's vjay for iPhone puts video mixing in the palm of your hand
With the ridiculous number of photo manipulation apps available for the iPhone, it's sometimes easy to forget that Apple's smartphone can actually be a powerful video editing platform as well. Developer Algoriddim aims to prove this by bringing its popular iPad video mashup app, vjay, to the iPhone, along with all of the bells and whistles of its bigger brother.
If you didn't catch our original vjay review for the tablet, let me give you a refresher: The app's marquee feature is the ability to mix multiple videos together into mashups. While the app records your work, you can use real-time transition effects to swap between whatever two clips you happen to be using.
You can loop sections of video or music, manipulate colors and tweak the audio of your work on the fly. You can also set up multiple cue points to make sure your video matches exactly what you had in mind. The number of options vjay presents to you is somewhat staggering at first, and it actually takes a fair bit of time to get a handle on just what the app is capable of.
You can use the included music videos and montage clips in your work, grab your own video clips from your camera roll or even snag licensed videos from the iTunes store right from within the app itself. In short, you have a ridiculous number of options and starting points with which to craft something great.
With the comparatively small screens size of the iPhone, compared to tablet, the tools you have to work with do feel considerably more compact on the screen. Thankfully, the app is laid out in such a way that you'll always know what tools are at your disposal.
In portait mode, the app will switch back and forth between each of the source video clips in the source window depending on which is being used the most. When you flip your iPhone on its side, the app displays both source clips in the background with your work up front.
The best thing about vjay is that it's almost impossible to fail at creating something cool. As you fade one video out and the other dominates the screen, with the pixelated visual touch you previously added, and your favorite song playing over it all, you'll feel like you created a masterpiece. In reality, it's the app that's doing the hard work, but we won't tell anyone if you don't.
Once your mashup is complete, you can share it via YouTube and Facebook, or even toss it up on the big screen using an output cable, or wirelessly through Apple TV.
As you might imagine, vjay demands a lot from your device, and as such it is currently only supported on iPhone 4S and 5. The pint-sized version of the app is currently on sale on the App Store for US$4.99, but only for a limited time, so video junkies be warned!
