Remember what photographs looked like in all of those Harry Potter movies? You know, the ones that moved? Well, fantasy is about to become reality thanks to a new iPhone app. Flixel is the latest iPhone photo app going, and this app will make any photo you snap move. To be fair, animated gifs existed before Happy Potter did, but the samples photos from Flixel really remind one of those wizard films.
Wizards and muggles aside, if you want to snap some photos that aren’t the still kind, you will need an iPhone and the Flixel app (no word yet on other platforms). Once downloaded, here’s what you can expect to do with Fixel:
Using Flixel
After the initial (free) download, you will see a small stream appear on your Flixel homepage. This stream features some of the best Flixel photographs around and you can even look at Flixel photos that others in your neighborhood have taken (give the app awhile to catch on, since it just launched). If you want to create your own Flixel, simply click on the small circular camera icon at the bottom of the screen and snap away. It takes a few moments to process a photo, but once that’s done you can choose how you want to make your picture move.
By using the small arrow that will appear on your screen, you can move the arrow around in any direction. The direction that you move the arrow will indicate how the photograph you’ve snapped will move. You can edit and erase photos too. After that, you can choose to share your animated photo on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or via Email. You can also set location information or add a caption to your photos. Photographs that you take with Flixel can also be added to your photo stream if you want to add them, but you don’t have to include the new Flixel photo in your camera roll (up to you).
Flixel Photo Results
The results of the Flixel photo app are interesting and fun. I’m guessing that this app works best if you use it to snap a photo of moving traffic, a moving train or any other moving object. If you take a photo of a still object and create movement, the outcome can be somewhat strange (though this could be a good thing). I didn’t get a chance to see how the app works when you upload it to Facebook, but I’m guessing that your Facebook friends will have to click on a link in order to view the animation part of this photo-taking process.
Flixel has great potential if used by companies wishing to animate photographs (I can envision soda bubbling or burgers frying with this app). Flixel is also a lot of fun if you just want to mess around with a few photos or trying something other than Instagram. Keep in mind that Flixel is a new startup that’s just launched, so the app might not be very popular quite yet – of course, you can help this startup gain lots of downloads if you spread the word! If you have an iPhone, go ahead and download Flixel. The download process is painless and quick, the app is free, and making your photographs move is really a lot of fun to do – and you don’t even have to be a wizard to do it!