Photo Dough - an image warping effects app for iPhone
Just load an image from your album or snap one with the camera, tap a button to select an action, then tap on your image to move pixels around. To start, just tap the info button in the lower right corner of the screen to enter the "Basic Actions" screen.
Watch the slide show below for some examples of what Photo Dough can do.
Get Photo Dough Lite free on the App Store! Or go all out with Photo Dough Pro!
Watch the slide show below for some examples of what Photo Dough can do.
Get Photo Dough Lite free on the App Store! Or go all out with Photo Dough Pro!
The "Basic Actions" Screen
From the top town:
"Done" button -- returns to the main screen. Once you have selected an image to edit, it will be shown on the main screen, where you can apply warping actions.
"Area" slider -- increase (to the right) or decrease (to the left) the image area affected each time you tap on the main screen.
"Strength" buttons -- adjust the power of each tap. Move left to make small changes, right to make larger changes.
Action buttons -- allow you to pick the action applied when you tap. The top row shifts pixels (left, up, down or right). The middle row expands or magnifies -- in all directions, vertically only or horizontally only.
The bottom row shrinks or contracts -- likewise in all directions, vertically or horizontally.
"Revert" button -- marked by a red 'X" in a circle; allows you to un-do all of your warp actions are revert to your original image.
Finally, the button bar:
"Snap" -- use the camera to capture an image
"Load" -- get an image from your photo album
"More" - provides access to additional warp actions (in the "pro" version)
"Save" - save the warp image to your photo album. (The "lite" version saves at screen resolution; the "pro" version maintains the original image resolution).
"Done" button -- returns to the main screen. Once you have selected an image to edit, it will be shown on the main screen, where you can apply warping actions.
"Area" slider -- increase (to the right) or decrease (to the left) the image area affected each time you tap on the main screen.
"Strength" buttons -- adjust the power of each tap. Move left to make small changes, right to make larger changes.
Action buttons -- allow you to pick the action applied when you tap. The top row shifts pixels (left, up, down or right). The middle row expands or magnifies -- in all directions, vertically only or horizontally only.
The bottom row shrinks or contracts -- likewise in all directions, vertically or horizontally.
"Revert" button -- marked by a red 'X" in a circle; allows you to un-do all of your warp actions are revert to your original image.
Finally, the button bar:
"Snap" -- use the camera to capture an image
"Load" -- get an image from your photo album
"More" - provides access to additional warp actions (in the "pro" version)
"Save" - save the warp image to your photo album. (The "lite" version saves at screen resolution; the "pro" version maintains the original image resolution).
Working with the Main Screen
Once you have snapped or loaded an image to work with, tapping the "Done" button takes you back to the main screen, which will now display your image. Before selecting "Done" you may also wish to tap one of the action buttons to select an action other than the default (which is to expand all directions) or adjust the sliders. In the example below, I loaded an image of George Washingtion, chose the "up shift" action, and hit "Done" to display him. The first frame is the original, untouced image. I wanted to make George a little happier, so I tapped the left corner of his mouth, with the result shown in the second frame. I then tried for the right corner, but missed a little, resulting in the sneer shown in the third frame. No problem! Note the "X" button in the bottom left, which appeared when I changed the image. Tapping it will un-do the most recent change, so George will go back to looking as he did in frame two. I tried again to raise the right side of his mouth, as shown in the last frame, which is more acceptable.
Using the undo button, you can back up several steps (as many as three in the "lite" version and up to ten in the "pro" version) to make corrections. If you decide you want to start over fresh, the "info" button with take you to the "Basic Actions" screen where you can use the "Revert" button to remove all your changes.
"More Actions" in "Pro" Version
Tapping the "More" button in the button bar at the bottom of the "Basic Actions" screen brings up this screen. It simply adds fourteen additional warp actions, which are available in the "pro" version. (In the "lite" version, this screen is present but the buttons are disabled). The sliders on the "Basic Actions" screen also affect these actions.
To make these actions more intuitive, it may help to break them down into more basic components. All of the warp actions are derived by applying one of five elemental actions in each of two possible directions (horizontal and vertical). The elemental actions are:
To make these actions more intuitive, it may help to break them down into more basic components. All of the warp actions are derived by applying one of five elemental actions in each of two possible directions (horizontal and vertical). The elemental actions are:
- shift forward
- shift backward
- grow
- shrink
- null (do nothing).
Photo Dough Action Buttons
The table below shows the twenty five different possible combinations of these actions in the two directions and the corresponding button symbols. (Note that in the horizontal direction, we consider "forward" equivalent to "right", backward to "down", and in the vertical direction, "forward" equals "down" and "backward" equals "up").
No button is provided to do nothing in both directions, for obvious reasons!
The "Basic Actions" screen has buttons for the actions in the first row and first column of this table, plus "grow in both directions" and "shrink in both directions" actions. The "More Actions" screen (available in the "pro" version) includes the rest of the possible actions, laid out on the screen as they are in this table.
No button is provided to do nothing in both directions, for obvious reasons!
The "Basic Actions" screen has buttons for the actions in the first row and first column of this table, plus "grow in both directions" and "shrink in both directions" actions. The "More Actions" screen (available in the "pro" version) includes the rest of the possible actions, laid out on the screen as they are in this table.
Null | Right | Left | Grow | Shrink | |
Null | |||||
Down | |||||
Up | |||||
Grow | |||||
Shrink |