Flipbook: A Fliptastic Deal, A Fliptastic Contest
By 
I recently had a chance to download and play with FlipBook a bit. Flipbook is a neat little app for using the iPhone or iPod Touch to make frame by frame animations. It uses a set of well-designed drawing tools to create the work which, once completed, you can share them on the flipbook.tv sharing site.
The tools make it easy to paint, color, erase mistakes etc. Undo and redo support means you can experiment to your heart’s delight without concern for ruining your work. And I particularly enjoy having the ability to import camera roll images and then use a variety of tools to customize them. What is particularly nice is the fact that you can use all the tools to do some sophisticated tweaks OR use none of them and take the simple approach. Either way it is a whole lot of fun.
To overcome some of the limitations that emerge from trying to do all this on an iPhone the developer has created an easy-to-use, touch-based interface. While my ability to use this interface is still quite rudimentary, it is good enough for me to recognize how powerful it can be in the right hands.
Finally, when your work is ready, the app plays the animation using the familiar QuickTime controls and you can upload them to the flipbook.tv site.
As you might notice, I really like this app. At $9.99 it does fit in with the bargain-basement expectations so common today, but this isn’t a bargain-basement app. Get it and you won’t be sorry. Get it and it might pay for itself many times over. Get it between December 29 and January 1st for just $4.99. And…
From December 25, 2008 to February 8, 2009 (www.flipbook.tv) is running a BestFlipbook contest. Enter your creation and you could win. The best movie will receive $500(USD), 2nd place will receive $250, 3rd place will receive $100, and there will be 2 Honorable Mentions, receiving a $25 iTunes gift certificate. Upload your movie to flipbook.tv, and you’ll be automatically entered. See more details at: https://www.flipbook.tv/contest/
