animations
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'Pokémon Go' developer buys social animation startup Evertoon
Game developer Niantic has become a well-known name since it released Pokémon Go to massive popularity last summer. Unfortunately, the game has recently seen a rather sharp decline in its active user community in the past year and a half. Perhaps that explains the company's recent acquisition of a relatively unknown startup, Evertoon, which makes an app for creating animations with customized avatars. "Today I am excited to announce that we have acquired the Evertoon team," wrote Niantic boss John Hanke, "who bring with them a wealth of talent and experience in mobile products, tools for creativity, and community building."
Google Photos will animate your videos too
The latest AI-powered upgrade for Google Photos brings four tricks. In a blog post today, we learned about four new features for the service, including the simplest one, which autodetects sideways pictures and prompts you to correct them. Two others dig into its talent for facial recognition, as it will detect people in your new photos, and offer to "rediscover old memories" of those same people in older pics, or, it can pop up a highlight reel showcasing the best pictures of a frequent subject.
FlixAPix adds animated transitions to your iOS photos
FlixAPix (free) is an innovative app that lets you take a pair of photos and add an interesting transition between them. In-app purchases offer additional transitions. Photos can be captured live from within the app, or you can import from your camera roll. You can sign up for a free account, but it isn't required. All the rendering is done off your device on a remote server. With an account a space is created with all your animations. Without an account, they are still there but you may have to search among all the other unregistered people creating animations. Your photos remain private and are not viewable to others. I gave the app a try with a couple of scenic shots. All you have to do is select them, and the app does the rest. You can have sound effects or not. The included animation is a zipper, and the zipper is pulled down to reveal your second photo. The rendering was pretty fast, under a minute. My only issue is that each transition beyond the included one cost US$0.99. There should have been a couple samples included rather than just one. If you decide to get all the animations, which total 22, the app would get expensive. Some of the animations are creative and high quality, but the developer should include some multiple transition packs at a low price, rather than price each animation separately. Better still, charge a buck or two for the app and include 4-5 animations. Many of the paid EFX, like water droplets and falling leaves are really quite attractive. The included zipper effect, not so much for my taste. I like the idea behind FlixAPix. Your animation can be saved as a QuickTime movie to your device and freely shared. FlixAPix requres iOS 6 or later. The app is not universal, so it is best suited to the iPhone or iPod touch.
NBA 2K14's next-gen 'Eco-Motion' explained in video form
NBA 2K14 will feature an "Eco-Motion" engine on PS4 and Xbox One that provides more unique animations and facial expressions for basketball stars like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. While it's already available on current-gen systems, the game will launch with the next-gen systems this month.
The physics of iOS 7
As soon as iOS 7 made it into the hands of millions of iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users, we began to hear scattered reports of people becoming physically sick when watching the parallax view and zoom in/out animations. Apple quickly responded with a way to turn off the animations to help those who were getting motion sickness, but the fact remains that the animation was very real to some people. John Herman and Jake Levy at BuzzFeed FWD decided to look into how fast those icons and apps appear to be moving towards or away from you, and their results are quite fascinating. Levy notes that items further away from you appear smaller and calculated that an icon before a zoom appears to be about 5.33 feet away. Timing how long it takes an icon to zoom into a full screen app and vice-versa (0.8 second), Levy was able to calculate that the icon appears to move towards you or away at 6.6 feet per second or about 4.5 mph -- about the speed of a slow jog. Next, Levy looked at icons placed in folders, and determined that they appear to be 24.62 feet away. That means that they "move" about 19.29 virtual feet in the same 0.8 second, or are zooming in or out at a virtual 16.4 miles per hour. iOS developer and brony Steve Streza responded via Twitter to the BuzzFeed post, and noted that, "Those animations are based on spring physics. So it's like you stretched a spring from you to the folder and then let go... Animations pre-iOS 7 were based on sine wave curves. iOS 7 animations have a more gradual decay." With all of this animated movement, it's no wonder that some people seriously want to hurl while they're using their iOS 7-equipped devices. Be sure to take a gander at the BuzzFeed animations that demonstrate exactly what they're talking about. [via The Verge]
WTB generic glyphs
Glyphs have undergone some interesting evolutions since they were introduced in Wrath of the Lich King. From major and minor, to major, minor, and prime, and now back to minor and major, glyphs are, in my opinion, a good way to add both some functionality to your toons as well as give them some flavor. Minor glyphs can do a lot to make your character feel like its yours. And while minor glyphs are rarely necessary for performance, they can sometimes help in certain situations, at least a little bit. One thing that's always been true of glyphs, no matter what their incarnation, is the fact that they're class-specific. I think it would be interesting to see that change, if not for major glyphs, then at least for minor ones. There are certain aspects of the game I would love to have the option to modify, just a little, for quality-of-life reasons. There are also abilities that were once available that no longer are, which could be reintroduced via classless glyphs, useable by all. Here are some generic glyphs I would love to see.
The Daily Grind: Which MMO has the best combat feel?
In my informal survey of comments on Massively, one of the common dealbreakers that I see for MMOs is a combat system that just doesn't feel right for the player. Maybe the animations are off, the sounds are too wimpy, or the pacing is annoying. Whatever the case may be, the art of war isn't enjoyable and that pushes a player away. But what about the flip-side? I'd like us to examine MMOs that get combat right and provide that "feel" that hits a sweet spot in your gaming pleasure center. I love it if weapons sound the way that I think they should, that there are reactive effects when I hit the enemy, and that skills go off more or less right when I activate them. So which MMO has the best combat feel? Let's duke it out! Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Which race has the best animations?
When I was struggling not too long ago over what race to make my new caster, the collected wisdom of Twitter seemed to distill into one simple principle: Choose whatever race you think has the best casting animations. Ultimately, I made my choice based on a corollary, choosing a race whose casting animations carried whiffs of a nostalgically sweet time in my WoW life. Objective achieved: What I see over and over while I play makes me happy. Here's your chance to represent with your favorites. Casting animations, melee animations, resting animations -– cast your vote in multiple polls after the break.
The Daily Grind: Which game has the best character animations?
Character animations seem to be only noticed when they don't come off right. It's often a matter of subjective opinion whether or not these animations are pleasing or jarring, of course, but the fact remains that animations that don't meet players' standards are the target of long, long-winded rants. I try to give credit where credit is due. MMOs that show off fluid, good-looking animations are deserving of praise. For me, the litmus test is whether or not a game can portray jumping in a natural way. That's harder than you'd think; I've seen so many titles that have characters jumping with stiff spines, awkward arm angles, or the grace of a boiled squash. So instead of lambasting games for bad animations, let's focus on those that pull off natural- and good-looking animations today. Seriously, it's going to be tough for some of you to put a lid on the negativity, but I believe in you. Which game has the best character animations? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Nintendo's Flipnote Studio 3D brings extra dimension to 3DS doodled GIFs
Nintendo's Flipnote Studio (aka Moving Memo Pad) brought shareable animated sketches to users when the wildly popular free app first launched for the DSi console many moons ago. Now, Nintendo's brought it up to date for Japanese 3DS users with Flipnote Studio 3D, supporting stereoscopic 3D images with three layers of depth along with six colors. As before, wannabe animators in that country will be able to share their artwork in AVI or GIF formats with friends on the 3DS network at no charge, or post to a larger audience on the Hatena World Flipnote Gallery for a fee. You can check the video after the break for more, but it would help to understand Japanese -- or be able to parse YouTube's inscrutable translation. Update: We've replaced the Japanese YouTube video with a new English version after the break, so all the aforementioned parsing and translating is no longer needed.
Infinity Ward animator talks first-person flourishes
Chance Glasgo, a first-person animator at Infinity Ward, did a Reddit Ask Me Anything thread last weekend, taking on questions about the complicated weapon animations seen in games like Call of Duty and Battlefield. You should read through the whole thread if you're interested, but PC Gamer has kindly grabbed some of the most fascinating insights.Glasgo says that "most serial numbers on guns in CoD have significance" of some kind, whether it's just a reference to his workout gym of choice, or a hint to something in the game's larger mythology.He also explains that while gun aficionados will often tell him he's made some sort of technical mistake in rendering realistic weapons, the choice to do things differently is simply creative. For example, you're never supposed to point a real gun anywhere but forward even while reloading it, but following that rule would make some of these just so ... boring.
Fabricated: Scientists develop method to synthesize the sound of clothing for animations (video)
Developments in CGI and animatronics might be getting alarmingly realistic, but the audio that goes with it often still relies on manual recordings. A pair of associate professors and a graduate student from Cornell University, however, have developed a method for synthesizing the sound of moving fabrics -- such as rustling clothes -- for use in animations, and thus, potentially film. The process, presented at SIGGRAPH, but reported to the public today, involves looking into two components of the natural sound of fabric, cloth moving on cloth, and crumpling. After creating a model for the energy and pattern of these two aspects, an approximation of the sound can be created, which acts as a kind of "road map" for the final audio. The end result is created by breaking the map down into much smaller fragments, which are then matched against a database of similar sections of real field-recorded audio. They even included binaural recordings to give a first-person perspective for headphone wearers. The process is still overseen by a human sound engineer, who selects the appropriate type of fabric and oversees the way that sounds are matched, meaning it's not quite ready for prime time. Understandable really, as this is still a proof of concept, with real-time operations and other improvements penciled in for future iterations. What does a virtual sheet being pulled over an imaginary sofa sound like? Head past the break to hear it in action, along with a presentation of the process.
Scientists create simulation of the universe, reenact 14 billion years in a few months (video)
Are animations of Curiosity's Mars landing not enough to feed your space exploration appetite? Try this on for size: a group of scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies have generated what's billed as a full-fledged simulation of the universe. Arepo, the software behind the sim, took the observed afterglow of the big bang as its only input and sped things up by 14 billion years. The result was a model of the cosmos peppered with realistically depicted galaxies that look like our own and those around us. Previous programs created unseemly blobs of stars instead of the spiral galaxies that were hoped for because they divided space into cubes of fixed size and shape. Arepo's secret to producing accurate visualizations is its geometry; a grid that moves and flexes to mirror the motions of dark energy, dark matter, gasses and stars. Video playback of the celestial recreation clocks in at just over a minute, but it took Harvard's 1,024-core Odyssey super computer months to churn out. Next on the group's docket is tackling larger portions of the universe at a higher resolution. Head past the jump for the video and full press release, or hit the source links below for the nitty-gritty details in the team's trio of scholarly papers.
Put stunning weather info on your iPhone or iPad
We've praised Weather HD many times here at TUAW, and now the folks at Vimov have outdone themselves with Weather HD 2 (US$0.99), making a gorgeous app even prettier. Weather animations have been completely redone, with 3D maps you'll be proud to have just sitting on the screen when your iPad or iPhone isn't doing anything else. You can see the weather in multiple locations at once, and get push alerts (USA & Europe) for severe weather. The weather data comes from Weather Underground. Weather HD 2 adds some social features so you can share your weather with friends or see what's happening in their cities. There is also a multi-paneled display showing animations of all your saved forecast locations on one screen. %Gallery-161541% You can customize detailed info for each location, adding things like dewpoint, sunset and sunrise times to make the information as dense or as simple as you would like. There are nice little touches like animated waves on the coasts and animations that put radar in motion. If you could only choose one consumer based weather app I think this should be the one. Of course, there are a few things to nitpick about. For example, one mode of the display shows weather-based Twitter comments that pop up at random on the map. I personally can't think of a more worthless feature. Happily, it can be turned off, because it's just a distraction. The app also allows you to buy forecasts from additional services like Accuweather and Meteogroup. I really dislike in-app purchases, but fortunately you are not forced to do so, as I think the Weather Underground data is just fine. Weather HD 2 improves upon an already excellent weather app. The price of the app is reasonable considering the wealth of data it contains and the sharp presentation. There's also a free ad-supported version that limits the number of cities and omits push notifications. I'd skip it and invest the buck.
RuneScape general store makes its debut
RuneScape's latest update includes Solomon's General Store, an in-game shop that runs on the purchaseable virtual currency of RuneCoins. But don't start looking for ways to break the game with this store's items -- it sells vanity and aesthetic items like outfits, accessories, animations, and titles, but nothing that will upset the delicate balance of the game. Solomon's store can be accessed through your extras menu or customization interface. Within the store you'll be shown new items, a list of categories of items available, and a handy little button to let you purchase all the RuneCoins you want. Items and animations can be previewed, so you'll be able to see precisely how awesome whatever you're buying is. In order to display these items, titles, and animations, you'll have to go into the customization interface of your equipment panel, where you'll be able to fine-tune details like what item is controlling your stats, what item sets your appearance, what title is on display, what color your outfits are, and more. As a special treat, every RuneScape player can receive a one-time gift of 200 free RuneCoins through the store. [Thanks to David for the tip!]
New MechWarrior Online Q&A focuses on weapons and environments
Piranha Games has answered another round of community questions about MechWarrior Online, and as with previous answer sessions, the new information focuses on some of the fine details of the game's design. Perhaps the most saddening one is the confirmation that 'Mechs will react to destruction simply by collapsing or possibly suffering several small internal explosions rather than the enormous fireballs of death seen in some of the other games in the franchise. There is, however, confirmation that some of the structural aspects of your 'Mech will come into play during battles. 'Mechs with higher-mounted weapons will be able to shoot over certain environmental obstacles that others cannot, while those with higher viewports will be able to see more easily through larger environments. This may come into particular relevance in urban environments, a long-time staple of the MechWarrior franchise -- and it's confirmed that there will be appropriately huge and sprawling cities. Take a look at the full answers for more details as well as some clarifications on the workings of pulse lasers.
Microsoft shows devs the secrets to creating fluid animations in Windows 8 Metro apps
As Microsoft brings its Metro style from the mobile world back to the desktop in Windows 8, it's also focusing on keeping the smooth animated transitions users have gotten used to on certain mobile platforms intact. A new post on the Windows 8 app developer blog breaks down exactly what devs can do to achieve a consistent and fluid style in their apps even when they're using the new look. Unless you're planning on getting your hands dirty with code there's not much to see other than the (incredibly brief) animation sample embedded after the break. Still, Microsoft says following its animation guidelines should be enough to keep GPU-powered animations flowing smoothly whether they're custom built or based on its own presets. Reactions to the new face of Windows have been decidedly mixed since the Consumer Preview launched, we'll see if this work pays off in third party apps that make the transition worthwhile.
Animated video shows Orion spacecraft in orbit
NASA may have pushed back the Orion spacecraft's test flight to 2014, but you can get an early glimpse of the capsule in orbit thanks to this animated video from Full Werks studio. You'll see the capsule circle the planet before touching down in the Pacific -- all with a much better view than you can expect when that actual launch date rolls around. The animation features audio clips from the original Apollo and, as any NASA-related video worth its salt should, includes a vintage voiceover from space sage Carl Sagan.
OS X animations used to make abstract art
Emilio Gomariz is an artist who's used the window animations in OS X to create some pretty amazing abstract art. You can look at the YouTube videos to see just what he's done, but my favorite is the one above, called Twist Choreography. To create it, Gomariz opened up a series of long, thin windows from the dock, spinning them out into an orderly stack. There are others, too, where he uses Expose or other OS X tricks (you can make the window animations go slow like this by holding Shift, in case you hadn't heard that yet) to create beautiful patterns as the windows grow and shrink. It's very impressive work, and it shows not only just how creative Gomariz is in terms of putting these things together, but how beautiful the most basic features in the core interface of OS X is as well. There's a lot of creativity here, both from the artist himself, and from the UI designers who helped put OS X together.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: New female pandaren emotes added
If you watched our last video of the female pandaren emote animations, you may have noticed that some emotes were missing. The latest beta build seems to have added quite a few more, including a second idle animation. We've made a video of the newly added animations for you, including a shot of the secondary idle animation. Be sure to view it in high quality for the best picture. I think my two favorites on this particular roundup are the beg animation, which has a lot of subtle nuances in the face and posture of the model, and the new idle addition. For some reason, her new idle reminds me a lot of Ariel from The Little Mermaid, excitedly exploring. It suits the pandaren, since they've spent thousands of years on the Wandering Isle for the most part and away from the world at large. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
