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iFlipBook turns your world into a choppy, beautiful bit of nostalgia
We all played with flip books as kids, and while they may not be as popular now as they were back then, we certainly haven't forgotten about them. iFlipBook from HyperSense Software attempts to recreate this age-old form of entertainment with help from your iPhone, and for the most part it succeeds in its mission. iFlipBook allows you to construct videos with an ultra-low frame rate, offering the appearance of pages being flipped. There are two ways to create these clips using the app: You can either building the videos frame-by-frame using individual photos stored on your phone, or shoot your work using the app's built-in video recorder. When shooting video with the app, you can set the frame rate to your choosing, from 1 to 10 frames per second. The lower the frame rate, the more choppy and slow the video will appear. This feature works rather splendidly, but as the app's description notes, it's best to allow the device to remain stationary and record movement within the boundaries of the frame. If you choose to move your phone around as you're recording, the chance for blurry frames tends to degrade the final product. Piecing together your flip book from individual pictures takes much longer, but allows for different techniques to be used, such as stop-motion animation. You can also dissect your videos and delete frames that didn't turn out right, which is a rather powerful tool. After you've created the clip itself, you can choose to apply over 25 different filters that change the look and feel of your digital flip book. Unfortunately, several of these -- including some of the most interesting ones, such as a hand-drawn sketchbook filter -- require separate in-app purchases. Each additional filter is US$0.99. Overall, iFlipBook is a fun and capable tool that can be used to create some impressive and unique moving artwork. The nostalgia factor is great, and with a price of $0.99 for the app itself (as I mentioned above, extra filters cost more), you'll get way more than your money's worth out of it.
