The DSiWare store was home to some gems, and one example was Inchworm Animation, an impressive app on the portable. It had surprisingly broad tools for creating animations, and now a successor is imminent on the 3DS eShop - Butterfly: Inchworm Animation II.
A 3DS eShop exclusive from Flat Black Films, this new entry supports more complex tools and stereoscopic 3D. Whether animating drawings, stop-motion or a mixture of both, it looks to have smart features; you can even record sound effects. Perhaps most impressively it's going to have online sharing linked to butterflyanimation.com; the following is from the press release.
The original Inchworm was designed for sharing work online, but it just wasn't possible then. Thankfully times have changed, and it's super easy to upload Butterfly animations to the gallery. In addition to featuring user-generated artwork, the website has video tutorials explaining how to get the most out of the program. Like Inchworm, Butterfly is easy to use but not dumbed-down. It's not really a game, and it's not for kids. It's for people who like to be creative in coffee shops.
The trailer below also does a nice job showing this off.
This app is coming out on 27th October in North America and will only be $5; the developer tells us a European release is planned - "hopefully by end of year" - and a publisher will also be bringing it to Japan.
Are any of you creatives planning to give this a try?
Comments 16
Yay sound! Hopefully it's easier to use than the original.
That looks awesome.
It's like they're slapping Nintendo in the face for botching Flipnote 3D like they did. I might pick it up when I have the cash.
Wow, this blows Flipnote away. Actually i don't think you can actually compare the two anymore. Only a diehard Flipnote fanboy would say flipnote is better at this point.
I didn't use much of the original as the DSi's limitations bogged it down. Let's see if the sequel takes off for me.
I was so hyped for Flipnote 3D before it was shot down and crippled. I LOVE creative apps like these so I will likely pick this up.
Looks interesting seems to have some nice features and a really nice price tag .
Looks very promising. I almost bought the original a while back but something made me hold off, can't remember what.
The key question for me at this point is: how many animation frames will it allow in each file?
I was someone who used flipnote studio heavily since 2009, a.k.a when it was first revved up in North America. I started out making simple stick figure doodles and camera animations, I really enjoyed that and it was NO ICE that others did also. Everything changed when I created the Sheldon & Mr. Random series, as time went on, I improved the series and camera animations, which got me what I wanted for so long, a fanbase, but not in the hundreds, it went into the thousands, something that wasn't possible for me to get on YouTube at the time.
I thought that "I'll continue to grow, perhaps I can expand the series into something more with support", but then then everything changed when they shut down flipnote hatena......I basically lost all of my stars, comments, favorite flipnote from others if I didn't save them, but worst of all, a huge chunk of my fanbase and friends (I reunited with dome, but for others I never saw again). They said with flipnote studio 3d, you could've posted a dsi gallery on the world gallery, so I could've just kept having my swell adventures on there, right???....no online, and that is what killed flipnote studio 3D for me.
I understand why they did it, but even still, it broke my leg. After the closing of hatena, Sheldon and Mr. Randoms lived on sorta via movers and some sudomemo flipnote (Mr. Randoms got more life by appearing in Super Smash Clash), but it didn't quite feel like a comeback from a fall from glory.
This looks great! I'm interested. I wonder what the price will be.
Checked the website and sadly the tutorial videos don't seem to work...
Maybe I should stop being a snob who only uses animation software on PC and get this. I had so much fun hobbying away at Inchworm in the past, it would be fun to do it all over again...that said, not sure why the trailer uses a 4:3 aspect ratio...
Also, Flat Black, AMAZING that you have an online gallery! You deserve for this app to be successful. You're doing eerything that Nintendon't!
Woooo, this could be promising! I was so hyped for Flipnote Studio 3D, then after two years of waiting I was sorely disappointed. Most of the animations in this trailer seemed rather generic, though, moving less smoothly than Flipnote, which is alarming. Hopefully the tools will still allow me to make high quality animations... Well, as high-quality as a standard-definition 3DS can be, anyways.
YES
I lol'd at 1:20.
I don't see myself buying this, especially since I'm more iOS than 3DS these days. Though I did use Inchworm quite a lot, back in the day. Good to see them coming back and doing what Nintendo should have done in the first place.
Too bad everyone is finally getting the animation software they were promised in 2013... At the end of the 3DS' lifespan...
Brilliant...
Nice, but all these on-the-go animation tools don't really amount to much when I've got a free copy of flash that I've never used.
great!i used the previous ones to draw over a short movie i made frame by frame,so it lookt all cartoony and colorfull but with realistic movement.i gave up after a day because it was hours work for just a few seconds.
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