That's not actually his best friend, they hate each other

Five years in the making, Flat Black Films' animation software Inchworm Animation is finally approved and penned with a release date.

A hot contender to Flipnote Studio's reputation as the premier animation application available at the DSi Shop, Inchworm Animation certainly packs a punch in the functionality department, supplying users with a large proverbial canvas on which they can create their masterpiece.

The external camera can be used to create stop-motion pieces and users can experiment with rotoscoping techniques, the art of tracing individual frames from live-action footage. Flat Black Films has been involved with two Richard Linklater films, providing rotoscoping animation for Waking Life, and A Scanner Darkly.

Here's a list of features the application will allow the artist in you to utilise when it launches in North America on 25th April at the delicious price of 500 points:

  • create multi-layer flipbook animations
  • variable-thickness antialiased brushes
  • use the camera for stop-motion & time lapse
  • rotoscope by tracing on top of camera footage
  • different layers can have different frame lengths
  • circles, rectangles and polygons (w/ border)
  • translucent color and pattern fill
  • custom palette storage
  • pattern editor
  • individual animation frame timing
  • onionskin
  • 6 levels of zoom
  • export to SD card (SWF, BMP sequence)
  • work on images up to 9999 x 9999 pixels
  • cut/paste to clipboard
  • rescale clipboard images
  • flip and 90-degree rotate
  • undo

Twelve animations have been added to the gallery section over at the official Inchworm Animation website and the trailer below should give you an idea if this upcoming release is for you or not.

Thank you to all the readers that sent this in.

[source inchwormanimation.com]