StoryCut - Review
November 20, 2020 by RSS Feed
With the popularity of video clips, video editing tools on mobile are not in short supply. Such apps are often swamped with new features, including rich filters, special effects, cute stickers, variable speeds, rough cuts, and even adding recordings. It can often all be a bit much.
In that case, is there a video editing app that is powerful and comprehensive enough to cover all the features provided by existing video editing apps? The answer is – yes, StoryCut is the only video editing app you need on your phone. So if you’re a big fan of clip creation, try StoryCut, which allows you to quickly finish what you want and share it on your desired social media platform.
If you are an amateur, StoryCut also customizes the clip sizes suitable for various social platforms, such as Tik Tok, Instagram, and YouTube - so that you can share the clip with one click after making it. StoryCut has standard editing functions, such as video cut and filters. It’s worth looking at the features in StoryCut that are absent from most editing apps.
PIP
PIP (picture in picture) allows you to merge images with a video. When we tried to overlay an image of a starry sky with my portrait, we saw an incredible double exposure. Using the green screen matting feature, we placed a video in a Jurassic Park scene, and created a Hollywood-style effect.
Keyframe
Keyframe is a dominant feature of StoryCut, a feature previously only available in professional clipping tools on the PC. In this feature, you only need to set a few keyframes to make any material move according to the trajectory you set. For example, if you want the object to move in sync with a moving car, you just need to add two keyframes. This feature can even achieve special effects like those seen in science fiction movies.
Effects
StoryCut offers a vast number of popular effects for short video platforms. Add an old TV frame to the video, or a gold dust effect can give you a dreamlike image. There are also some split-screen effects you can utilise.
Speed
You might think that video speed adjustment is a regular feature - but StoryCut can increase the speed by eight times, with many similar apps only offering half that. We imported a video of some skateboarding and got amazing results after adjusting the speed and combining it with the reverse play function.
Adjust
StoryCut contains 18 fine adjustment parameters, which can make up for the shortage of filters, saving the poorest videos that even filters cannot do anything about. I imported a video taken on a cloudy day with poor lighting, for example, but found that even with a filter, I could not get a nice color. Then I turned on the image quality adjustment. After a series of parameter adjustments, including brightness, sharpness, contrast, saturation enhancement, and color temperature reduction, the video looked brand-new, just like the image quality of a movie, and the clarity was significantly improved.
Very satisfactory results were obtained.
The Good
As detailed above, StoryCut has everything. You can perform every edit imaginable, and the interface is intuitive
enough to allow you to do it in no time at all. It’s entirely conceivable that you could have a video or slideshow with sound effects, cuts, transition, custom audio, double-exposure effects, and picture-in-picture ready in under five minutes.
For the most part, the effects and filters are tasteful and stylish, too, so StoryCut will let you turn out productive, high-quality content at speed. Curious prospective video editors could easily spend hours experimenting with all the tools and functions on offer, some of which are surprisingly advanced.
While tools like Instagram and your phone’s camera software will enable you to apply basic filters and stickers and so on, none of them contains anything like the depth of functionality available in StoryCut. In that sense, the app emphatically earns its place as an advanced, bespoke video tool.
The Bad
StoryCut can recognize voices to generate subtitles. With one tap, you will see subtitles auto-generated from the voices in your clips. For now, this feature is only supported on Android, but we hope the dev team will implement this feature on iOS sooner so users can also enjoy the ease of subtitling that the app provides.
Check out StoryCut via the App Store (and Google Play) and also its official site, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube channels.
Overall
StoryCut is a comprehensive and intuitive video and picture editing app. VIP users will get the most out of it, as long as they don’t mind being subscribers rather than owners, but anyone looking for a richer alternative to Instagram should check it out.
8.3
OVERALL
iPhone Integration 9
Lasting appeal 8.1
User Interface 8
Is engaging 8.2
Does it well 8.3
StoryCut - Video Editor &Maker
Wenzhou XunChi Digital Technology Co., Ltd.
Source link: http://appadvice.com/reviews
credit : appadvice
MovieMusic Review
November 20, 2020 by RSS Feed
Music is a more powerful storytelling tool than most people realize. It’s the vital seasoning that makes every movie, TV show, advertisement, and internet video meme work how it should, manipulating your emotions in exactly the right way.
The problem is, using an existing piece of music involves paying exorbitant fees or drawing on classical pieces that everybody has already heard a trillion times.
MovieMusic aims to solve that problem for you by providing a library of compositions that you can dip into for every conceivable dramatic context.
These tracks, which have been written by a company of jobbing professional composers and performed by a live orchestra, tend to be around a minute long. They fall into 70+ albums, with titles like “Attractive”, “Badness”, “Excitement”, “Light”, “Christmas”, and so on.
The tracks themselves have titles too. In the “Love” album, for instance, you’ll find “Bond”, “Bliss”, “Longing”, “Intimacy”, and more. Each album contains 30 tracks, meaning there are over 2000 in all.
There are a couple of chapters of Orchestral Tools as well - subtle accents to create mood rather than full-blown musical compositions.
The first two tracks in each chapter are free, while the remaining 28 cost 99c a pop. The reason MovieMusic is able to sell its music so cheaply is that the files are restricted to a bitrate of 128kbs, and the tracks are licensed for personal, non-commercial use. So if you’re looking for a cheap way to score your next Hollywood project, you’ll have to look elsewhere.
The Good
MovieMusic is simple to use and it works surprisingly well. The Christmas music sounds Christmassy, the Comedy music sounds suitably quirky and upbeat (think Curb Your Enthusiasm), and the Disgusting music, somehow, sounds disgusting.
A bit of imagination is required when it comes to the individual track names, such as “Baking” (“Bright pizzicato helps show off the intricacies of the expert in full flow”), but on the whole MovieMusic provides snippets of music that intuitively belong in their categories and do what they’re supposed to do.
Every single one of the app’s 2000+ tracks is in the same key and tempo, too, so you can in principle blend them into a seamless orchestral score. It’s very clever.
This really helps when navigating the 2000+ tracks, as does the simple preview - or “audition” - facility that lets you listen to each track in full before deciding whether to spend money on it.
It’s also worth mentioning that each track in MovieMusic has three versions: Cinematic (the default), Intimate, and Modern. While the quality levels of the different versions naturally vary according to the track, in general we find that Cinematic is the one to go for.
MovieMusic has a seamlessly simple interface. You just choose a chapter, pick a song, and tap the play icon to listen. Once you buy and download a song you’re given the option of sharing it via iMessage, WhatsApp, Mail, or even opening it in iMovie or another video-editing program. It couldn’t be easier.
The Bad
While MovieMusic’s interface is intuitive and easy to use, its presentation is functional rather than enjoyable.
You could argue that the same applies to the music itself. This isn’t a criticism of the compositions, all of which sound polished and professional. But the wall-to-wall orchestral arrangements don’t reflect the breadth and variety of music right now.
There’s a bit of digital percussion overlaid on the tracks in Modern mode, but few other nods to contemporary musical styles. If you’re looking for a traditional sound, it’s perfect. Otherwise, you may struggle to find what you’re looking for - even in the Technology chapter.
Overall
MovieMusic is a slightly odd proposition. While asset libraries are usually for commercial use, this one is just for fun.
But it’s a fun tool that will add a pleasing sheen to your personal and non-commercial YouTube videos. It’s incredibly easy to use, too, and it contains a generous supply of musical morsels.
8.4
OVERALL
User Interface 9
Lasting appeal 8.4
iPhone Integration 8.5
Is engaging 8.1
Does it well 8
MovieMusic | Music For Videos
Gothic Projects
Source link: http://appadvice.com/reviews
credit : appadvice
Athenion: Tactical CCG Review
November 20, 2020 by RSS Feed
Athenion might not have the pedigree of some other deck-building card games available for mobile, but that shouldn't put you off. This is a game that's packed full of bright ideas, fresh new gameplay modes and enough content that you can lose hours of your life to.
Battles take place on a 4x4 grid, and see you taking it in turns with your opponent to lay down cards. You draw up to five cards from your deck of forty at the start of every turn.
These are the units you're playing in the fight, and they range from hulking monsters to flighty fairies, from magical trees to fearsome undead dragons.
Your cards have arrows on them that you show you which direction they can attack. You'll also notice a bunch of other numbers on the cards. These let you know the hit points a card has, how powerful its attack is and how many soul points it grants you.
Those soul points let you attack your opponent and they're the key to victory. The first player to lose all of their own hit points is the loser.
There's a lot more going on than that though. For one thing you need to pick from one of six different factions before you even get to the fights.
These factions have different strengths and weaknesses and figuring out which of them best suits the way you want to play is the first step of a pretty long journey.
Different factions have different special moves as well. Some let you link together cards to make them more powerful, others are all about sacrificing weaker units to create pockets of dark magical energy. One lets you build giant rock walls that you can use to protect some of your units or power up others.
There are single-player challenges, regular events and much, much more as well. You're never short of something to do in Athenion, and the pace of the matches lets you get a lot of them in in a single setting.
The Good
There's a staggering amount of depth to Athenion. It's going to take you a good while to get to grips with the basics and once you've done that there are layers and layers to peel back. Every time you win you'll figure out a new strategy and every time you lose you'll be trying to find a way to right that wrong.
The game looks amazing too. The cards all sport a brilliant anime art-style and you'll want to collect all of them just so you can check them out. The speed of the fights is a massive plus too - they deliver huge chunks of tactical action in the sort of short-blast sessions that are perfect for mobile play.
On top of that there's a brilliant community to the game, and you never have to wait long to find an online battle. There are a number of different modes that let you practice with different decks, take part in intriguing events and fight it out in ranked and casual multiplayer matches.
The Bad
There's a pretty steep learning curve here, so if you're not in for the long haul then you might be better finding your card-based fun somewhere else. Even when you've got the basics down you've still got a lot to learn and it can be punishing to come up against an opponent who knows more than you do.
There are also a lot of currencies, crafting materials and other rewards to figure out. The game does tell you what they do, but the tutorials are pretty brief and you're left on your own for a lot of the time to try and get to the bottom of things.
Overall
Athenion might not be the easiest game to understand, but once things start clicking it becomes something really rather special. There are some brilliant ideas here and they're woven into a bright tapestry of gorgeous visuals and wonderfully paced mobile play.
It won't be to everyone's taste, and it's fair to say that some players are going to put it down before they've even got to the good bits, but this is one CCG that it's well worth sticking with.
8.2
OVERALL
Replayability 8.1
Game Controls 8.2
Graphics 8.7
Sound/Music 8.2
Gameplay 7.8
Athenion: Tactical CCG
ZERO-bit Company Limited
Source link: http://appadvice.com/reviews
credit : appadvice
Enjoy Explosive Tunnel Shooter Action in Space Cycler
November 20, 2020 by RSS Feed
Space Cycler ($1.99) by Sung Liwen is a retro tunnel space shooter arcade game that's as challenging as it is fun. If you enjoyed games like Danmaku Unlimited 3 and AKA TO BLUE, but wish for some classic Tempest shooting action, then Space Cycler is perfect.
When I was growing up, I spent a lot of time playing computer games while I was hanging around my siblings' PCs. I ended up playing whatever games were on them at the time, which usually involved Solitaire, Classic Pinball, Asteroids, or Tempest. I loved arcade games back then, and I enjoy them even more now. It's hard for me to find good space shooters on the App Store, let alone a tunnel-style one that's reminiscent of Tempest. So when I was perusing the App Store for some new entertainment, I stumbled on Space Cycler, and am glad I found it.
Danmaku Unlimited 3 - Bullet Hell Shooter
Sunny Tam
AKA TO BLUE
TANOSHIMASU CO.,LTD.
Visually, Space Cycler has a lot going on for it. The game is rendered in 3D with a quirky and cute cartoonish art style that makes me think of Saturday morning cartoons when I was younger. The space backdrops are what you'd expect from this kind of game, and the textures are nice. Enemies and bosses are pretty detailed and all of them have their own unique appearances and behavior patterns, while your ships have distinctive aesthetics based on the primary weapon type. There's a lot of fun and exciting explosions to witness, and it's easy to spot the incoming enemy bullets and attacks, which tells you when you need to move to dodge them.
Space Cycler is full of bright and vibrant colors, and the animation is smooth and fluid with no lag on my iPhone 8 Plus. The upbeat music is quirky and charming, fitting with the rest of the game's eccentric nature. The sounds are also fun and fit the typical space ship noises that you'd expect from cartoons.
You can play Space Cycler solo or with a friend in the local co-op mode, so one device is between two people. There are five planets to fly and fight your way through, but you unlock them in chronological order. So to get to the second planet, you must clear out the first one, and so forth. Each planet counts as the main stage, but there are multiple waves for all of the planets, including challenging boss fights. Once you unlock a world, you can start new games from there, rather than starting from the first world. However, your score won't be as high this way, so keep that in mind.
There are three space ships that you can choose from in Space Cycler, though only the first one, Bullet, is available at first. To unlock the other two styles, you must reach a certain point threshold. Each ship has a different primary weapon type and unique ultimate attack. You earn points by defeating enemies, as well as collecting the stars that they leave behind. The more you get, the better. Fallen foes can also leave power-ups behind, which you want to collect to upgrade your weapon, giving it more firepower.
Controls in Space Cycler are simple and allow for one-handed play. A slider towards the bottom of the screen lets you move your ship clockwise or counterclockwise on the screen, with the enemies coming in from the middle of the circle. When you move, your ship automatically shoots its primary weapon, so you don't need to worry about a separate attack button.
For the most part, the sensitivity on the slider should be decent enough for most people. However, I wish that there was an option to adjust sensitivity, since you can either move too fast or too slow during more intense fights, like with bosses. I felt that sometimes my ship moved too slowly, or I zoomed across the circle and end up hitting something else I didn't notice. Perhaps I just need more practice, but I feel like adjusting the sensitivity would help out most people.
The co-op mode is a neat feature, as it lets two people play on a single device. This is probably better on an iPad than an iPhone, but it works on both. The second player can just tap to jump in, choose their ship, and then you're both off. You can save your partner from the verge of death, but watch out! It's entirely possible to collide on the battlefield, so you need to be careful and coordinate with each other appropriately to defeat the enemies.
Space Cycler is highly entertaining with fun graphics and challenging on-rails tunnel shooting gameplay, and there is an awesome local co-op mode.
The Good
Space Cycler is a lot of fun and has plenty of replay value. The game is full of vibrant, eye-catching visuals and the music is well done. While five worlds doesn't seem like enough at first glance, when you consider the fact that each area is broken up into several challenging waves of enemies, it's actually a lot of content for the price. Plus, the game gets progressively more difficult, so it does take time to master and beat them all.
On top of it all, Space Cycler's co-op mode is a delightful surprise that works, and is perfect for those who enjoy local co-op with friends.
The Bad
For what it's worth, Space Cycler is a hidden gem on the App Store with a lot of good things going for it. However, again, I would like to see options for control sensitivity, as it would help with better reactions to enemy behaviors and attacks. Hopefully the developers can consider this in the future.
The verdict
Space Cycler is not a new game, but it was recently released and a nice surprise for me on the App Store. I love distinctive graphics that separate games from the rest of the pack, and Space Cycler has that. The music and sound are fun too, and the intuitive controls work well for one-handed play. The stages are challenging, and I can definitely see myself playing this for a while, especially with the co-op.
Space Cycler is available on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for $1.99. There are no in-app purchases.
9.2
OVERALL
Sound/Music 10
Replayability 9
Graphics 9.5
Gameplay 9
Game Controls 8.5
Space Cycler
Sung Liwen
Source link: http://appadvice.com/reviews
credit : midatlanticconsulting
See Things in a New Perspective and Get Creative with .projekt
November 20, 2020 by RSS Feed
.projekt ($1.99) by Kyrylo Kuzyk is a minimalistic puzzle game that makes you see things from a different perspective. If you liked titles like Monument Valley (and the sequel) and FEZ: Pocket Edition, then you will enjoy what .projket brings to the App Store.
Most of my gaming time has been with Monster Hunter: World in the past two months, but every now and then I need a break. That's when I look for delightful games on iOS to keep me occupied when I'm not monster hunting. And for relaxation, I find nothing better to calm my nerves than puzzle games. So when I saw .projekt in the recent releases this week, I knew I had to give it a spin for myself. As a fan of the rising trend of perspective shifting optical illusion games, .projekt does not disappoint.
Monument Valley
ustwo Games Ltd
Monument Valley 2
ustwo Games Ltd
FEZ Pocket Edition
Corporation Polytron Inc.
Evo Explores - Perspective Puzzle
Kyrylo Kuzyk
Shadowmatic
TRIADA Studio LLC
From a visual perspective, .projekt is simple, clean, and oozing with minimalism. Everything is in shades of black, white, and gray, and it's rendered in 3D with grids and cubes. It's sharp, crisp, and appealing to the eyes. Plus, the hues of white, black, and gray seamlessly blend into each other in gorgeous gradients, giving everything a silky smooth appearance. Animations are fluid with no lag on my iPhone 8 Plus. The ambient soundtrack is rather atmospheric and soothing, helping players focus and immerse themselves in the puzzles themselves. The developer is familiar with optical illusion games (Evo Explores, their other release, is clearly inspired by Monument Valley), and it's been taken and applied here for a different kind of perspective shift puzzle experience.
Like many puzzle games, .projekt is level-based. At the moment, there are 60 stages total in .projekt, but the developer already has plans for more in the future. While the game takes a more relaxed approach to solving the puzzles, since there are no points or stars to earn, you'll still have to complete each level before moving on to the next. And there are no hints or in-app purchases, so you'll need to solve them on your own. Fortunately, though, the puzzles themselves aren't too hard, and provide more of an unwinding experience than anything else.
The goal in .projekt is to place cubes on the center grid to create and match the silhouettes that appear on the two walls adjacent to the grid. It's pretty simple and straightforward, but the game has a tutorial in the beginning to show you the ropes. To place a cube on the grid, just tap on the space you want it to go. It'll materialize right on the grid, and then you'll see the silhouettes forming on the wall. You can also put cubes on top of cubes, or even on one of the sides. To get a better perspective, drag your finger on the screen to rotate the camera. When you need to get rid of a cube, just long-press on it and it vanishes.
Again, since the game is more about tranquility above all else, the puzzles are not difficult to solve. In fact, if you get stumped, it usually just takes a few attempts and some trial-and-error to figure things out. The thing with no points to worry about or stars to earn mean you can solve these puzzles at your own pace, which is always nice.
Once a puzzle's solved, the cubes you've placed, which are originally in grayscale with black outlines, become solid dark gray. There's also an animation that shows the cubes matching up with the silhouettes and kind of melting together to form one solid piece, which is fun to watch.
Then you're whisked away to the next stage and a new set of silhouettes to match. As you get further along, the puzzles get more interesting, forcing you to think outside the box. You'll need to use all of the basic controls to get the silhouettes to match up, such as what appears to be cubes floating with nothing underneath them for support. How do you make this happen? Hint: long-press to delete.
.projekt is a fantastic meditative puzzle experience that's reminiscent of Shadowmatic and allows you to unwind and think creatively.
The Good
For a meditative puzzle experience, .projekt is fantastic. The visuals are minimal yet appealing, and the music is soothing. The controls in .projekt are intuitive and easy for anyone to pick up. Puzzles are not too difficult, but this means it's just a great game to relax and unwind to. You can play it at your own pace, and there's no in-app purchases.
The Bad
For what it's worth, .projekt is great. But it's not the game you want if you're looking for challenging puzzles that truly make you think. This one is more about seeing things in a different perspective, and thinking creatively to solve them. Also, since the game isn't meant to be difficult, it's easy to get through all of the current stages, so hopefully new content comes sooner rather than later.
The verdict
I play puzzle games to unwind, relax, and just take a breather from life. With .projekt, I get just that. I'm also a fan of minimalism, so the graphics are lovely to me and the music delightful. The intuitive controls make the game easy for anyone to play and enjoy. And when I want to unwind with a puzzle, I don't like to be pressured or rushed, so the whole play at your own pace thing works well for me. This is definitely a game I'll be going through until I clear all of the stages, and then I'll eagerly await more content.
You can find .projekt on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for $1.99.
9.0
OVERALL
Sound/Music 10
Game Controls 9
Graphics 9
Gameplay 9
Replayability 8
.projekt
Kyrylo Kuzyk
Source link: http://appadvice.com/reviews
credit : appadvice
Follow Mid Atlantic Consulting
Subscribe Mid Atlantic Consulting
APP review today