Photo Cube - Animated Art

May 20, 2023

The smoothness of certain videos playing on the shape faces has been improved by increasing the accuracy of the extracted frame times. (The previous less accurate setting is still available using the new 'Turn On/Off High Accuracy Frame Time' in the 'Faces Video' menu available in the Option menu of the main menu bar.) Also the 'Throttle' option for alternate animation timing for smoothing is now ON by default.

January 9, 2022

42 of our own music recordings have been added for your photo cube videos. Access them from the new menu item 'Our Music' in the audio selection menu in the Options pane, or at the time a video is generated. Other maintenance latest iOS. Previous Updates: NEW : You can play the video you may have chosen for the graphics faces during animation. These are known as the ‘Album Video’, for the video used for random frames selected from the video, and the ‘Faces Video’, for the video used to play on all faces. Use the ‘Save or Play Video…’ menu item to access as ‘Play Faces Video’ and ‘Play Album Video’ IMPROVED : In the album picker the asset count of every album is displayed, and updated when necessary so you have an idea how many photos may appear on the graphics faces. FIX : On the first launch if the app asks you to allow access to photos then the album picker may not display albums in the ‘Media Types’ section. FIX : Albums in the ‘Media Types’ section were not showing up in searches. Also, a new alert is displayed if you try to play animation music and either access has not been granted to access music, or music has not been downloaded using the Music app to do so. NEW : A new album picker presents your photos library folders and albums in an outline form. You can also search for albums by name. Select albums to animate the shape with photos from that album! NEW : On certain devices the animation can appear jittery. The options pane now includes a new option called ‘Throttle’. When turned on a slider is presented for selecting 5 different levels of smoothing. The default value of 2 is usually sufficient for smooth animations. IMPROVED : New alert reminder ‘tips’ have been added for new or old users to aid using the app. For example after you pick a ‘Faces Video’ you are reminded in an alert that to apply the faces video to the shape faces you need to ‘turn it on’. You are also reminded that you can use the faces video audio for your animated video audio. NEW - ‘Faces Video’ - A new feature to set each face of the selected 3D shape to any video in your Photos library. Select the video from the new Options menu item named 'Faces Video…' After you pick the 'faces video' you can select the option to set the current audio to the video audio. Toggle 'Faces Video' using the 'Turn On/Off Video Faces menu item. Turn on animation, record and generate! Other Previous Updates: Fixed a bug when choosing audio for video generation. The option to select different audio is presented when you receive an alert prior to video generation that the current audio may not fit the number of recorded frames to achieve a 'good' frame rate (30 FPS). NEW - Use a video as an alternative to a photo album source: instead of picking a photo album from your photo library you can pick a single video. When you do so the frames of the video are randomly selected for the cube faces just like photos are randomly picked from a photo album. Moreover when selecting audio for the generated video you can select to use the video's audio. Longer videos can be recorded : The manner available storage is computed has changed typically allowing longer recordings. Updated: iCloud Shared Albums Support You can now animate the photo cube with photos selected from iCloud Shared albums in your photos library. Shared albums appear at the end of the menu used for choosing the animation album, after all your own albums in your photo library.

April 12, 2021

NEW : You can play the video you may have chosen for the graphics faces during animation. These are known as the ‘Album Video’, for the video used for random frames selected from the video, and the ‘Faces Video’, for the video used to play on all faces. Use the ‘Save or Play Video…’ menu item to access as ‘Play Faces Video’ and ‘Play Album Video’ IMPROVED : In the album picker the asset count of every album is displayed, and updated when necessary so you have an idea how many photos may appear on the graphics faces. FIX : On the first launch if the app asks you to allow access to photos then the album picker may not display albums in the ‘Media Types’ section. FIX : Albums in the ‘Media Types’ section were not showing up in searches. Also, a new alert is displayed if you try to play animation music and either access has not been granted to access music, or music has not been downloaded using the Music app to do so. Previous Updates: NEW : A new album picker presents your photos library folders and albums in an outline form. You can also search for albums by name. Select albums to animate the shape with photos from that album! NEW : On certain devices the animation can appear jittery. The options pane now includes a new option called ‘Throttle’. When turned on a slider is presented for selecting 5 different levels of smoothing. The default value of 2 is usually sufficient for smooth animations. IMPROVED : New alert reminder ‘tips’ have been added for new or old users to aid using the app. For example after you pick a ‘Faces Video’ you are reminded in an alert that to apply the faces video to the shape faces you need to ‘turn it on’. You are also reminded that you can use the faces video audio for your animated video audio. NEW - ‘Faces Video’ - A new feature to set each face of the selected 3D shape to any video in your Photos library. Select the video from the new Options menu item named 'Faces Video…' After you pick the 'faces video' you can select the option to set the current audio to the video audio. Toggle 'Faces Video' using the 'Turn On/Off Video Faces menu item. Turn on animation, record and generate! Other Previous Updates: Fixed a bug when choosing audio for video generation. The option to select different audio is presented when you receive an alert prior to video generation that the current audio may not fit the number of recorded frames to achieve a 'good' frame rate (30 FPS). NEW - Use a video as an alternative to a photo album source: instead of picking a photo album from your photo library you can pick a single video. When you do so the frames of the video are randomly selected for the cube faces just like photos are randomly picked from a photo album. Moreover when selecting audio for the generated video you can select to use the video's audio. Longer videos can be recorded : The manner available storage is computed has changed typically allowing longer recordings. Updated: iCloud Shared Albums Support You can now animate the photo cube with photos selected from iCloud Shared albums in your photos library. Shared albums appear at the end of the menu used for choosing the animation album, after all your own albums in your photo library.

April 8, 2021

NEW : A new album picker presents your photos library folders and albums in an outline form. You can also search for albums by name. Select albums to animate the shape with photos from that album! NEW : On certain devices the animation can appear jittery. The options pane now includes a new option called ‘Throttle’. When turned on a slider is presented for selecting 5 different levels of smoothing. The default value of 2 is usually sufficient for smooth animations. IMPROVED : New alert reminder ‘tips’ have been added for new or old users to aid using the app. For example after you pick a ‘Faces Video’ you are reminded in an alert that to apply the faces video to the shape faces you need to ‘turn it on’. You are also reminded that you can use the faces video audio for your animated video audio. Previous Updates: NEW - ‘Faces Video’ - A new feature to set each face of the selected 3D shape to any video in your Photos library. Select the video from the new Options menu item named 'Faces Video…' After you pick the 'faces video' you can select the option to set the current audio to the video audio. Toggle 'Faces Video' using the 'Turn On/Off Video Faces menu item. Turn on animation, record and generate! Other Previous Updates: Fixed a bug when choosing audio for video generation. The option to select different audio is presented when you receive an alert prior to video generation that the current audio may not fit the number of recorded frames to achieve a 'good' frame rate (30 FPS). NEW - Use a video as an alternative to a photo album source: instead of picking a photo album from your photo library you can pick a single video. When you do so the frames of the video are randomly selected for the cube faces just like photos are randomly picked from a photo album. Moreover when selecting audio for the generated video you can select to use the video's audio. Longer videos can be recorded : The manner available storage is computed has changed typically allowing longer recordings. Updated: iCloud Shared Albums Support You can now animate the photo cube with photos selected from iCloud Shared albums in your photos library. Shared albums appear at the end of the menu used for choosing the animation album, after all your own albums in your photo library.

March 31, 2021

IMPROVED : Album picker now includes all user and shared albums in your Photos library, i.e. not just the 'top level' albums but albums that are contained in folders. Albums list is also alphabetical. Use the album picker to animate (and record) the cube with random photo selections of the chosen album. Previous Updates: Improved photo album picker performance when the numbers of albums in the Photos library is very large. Fixed an issue with possibility of audio files not loading due to a mismatch of file type extension and audio type. NEW - ‘Faces Video’ - A new feature to set each face of the selected 3D shape to any video in your Photos library. Select the video from the new Options menu item named 'Faces Video…' After you pick the 'faces video' you can select the option to set the current audio to the video audio. Toggle 'Faces Video' using the 'Turn On/Off Video Faces menu item. Turn on animation, record and generate! Other Previous Updates: Fixed a bug when choosing audio for video generation. The option to select different audio is presented when you receive an alert prior to video generation that the current audio may not fit the number of recorded frames to achieve a 'good' frame rate (30 FPS). NEW - Use a video as an alternative to a photo album source: instead of picking a photo album from your photo library you can pick a single video. When you do so the frames of the video are randomly selected for the cube faces just like photos are randomly picked from a photo album. Moreover when selecting audio for the generated video you can select to use the video's audio. Longer videos can be recorded : The manner available storage is computed has changed typically allowing longer recordings. Updated: iCloud Shared Albums Support You can now animate the photo cube with photos selected from iCloud Shared albums in your photos library. Shared albums appear at the end of the menu used for choosing the animation album, after all your own albums in your photo library.

October 27, 2020

Improved photo album picker performance when the numbers of albums in the Photos library is very large. Fixed an issue with possibility of audio files not loading due to a mismatch of file type extension and audio type. Previous Updates: Updated for iOS 14. NEW - ‘Faces Video’ - A new feature to set each face of the selected 3D shape to any video in your Photos library. Select the video from the new Options menu item named 'Faces Video…' After you pick the 'faces video' you can select the option to set the current audio to the video audio. Toggle 'Faces Video' using the 'Turn On/Off Video Faces menu item. Turn on animation, record and generate! Other Previous Updates: Fixed a bug when choosing audio for video generation. The option to select different audio is presented when you receive an alert prior to video generation that the current audio may not fit the number of recorded frames to achieve a 'good' frame rate (30 FPS). NEW - Use a video as an alternative to a photo album source: instead of picking a photo album from your photo library you can pick a single video. When you do so the frames of the video are randomly selected for the cube faces just like photos are randomly picked from a photo album. Moreover when selecting audio for the generated video you can select to use the video's audio. Longer videos can be recorded : The manner available storage is computed has changed typically allowing longer recordings. Updated: iCloud Shared Albums Support You can now animate the photo cube with photos selected from iCloud Shared albums in your photos library. Shared albums appear at the end of the menu used for choosing the animation album, after all your own albums in your photo library.

September 28, 2020

Updated for iOS 14. Last Update Version 1.6: NEW - ‘Faces Video’ - A new feature to set each face of the selected 3D shape to any video in your Photos library. Select the video from the new Options menu item named 'Faces Video…' After you pick the 'faces video' you can select the option to set the current audio to the video audio. Toggle 'Faces Video' using the 'Turn On/Off Video Faces menu item. Turn on animation, record and generate! Other Previous Updates: Fixed a bug when choosing audio for video generation. The option to select different audio is presented when you receive an alert prior to video generation that the current audio may not fit the number of recorded frames to achieve a 'good' frame rate (30 FPS). NEW - Use a video as an alternative to a photo album source: instead of picking a photo album from your photo library you can pick a single video. When you do so the frames of the video are randomly selected for the cube faces just like photos are randomly picked from a photo album. Moreover when selecting audio for the generated video you can select to use the video's audio. Longer videos can be recorded : The manner available storage is computed has changed typically allowing longer recordings. Updated: iCloud Shared Albums Support You can now animate the photo cube with photos selected from iCloud Shared albums in your photos library. Shared albums appear at the end of the menu used for choosing the animation album, after all your own albums in your photo library.

April 8, 2020

Faces Video - A new feature to set each face of the selected 3D shape to any video in your Photos library. Select the video from the new Options menu item named 'Faces Video…' After you pick the 'faces video' you can select the option to set the current audio to the video audio. Toggle 'Faces Video' using the 'Turn On/Off Video Faces menu item. Turn on animation, record and generate! Previous Updates Fixed a bug when choosing audio for video generation. The option to select different audio is presented when you receive an alert prior to video generation that the current audio may not fit the number of recorded frames to achieve a 'good' frame rate (30 FPS). NEW - Use a video as an alternative to a photo album source: instead of picking a photo album from your photo library you can pick a single video. When you do so the frames of the video are randomly selected for the cube faces just like photos are randomly picked from a photo album. Moreover when selecting audio for the generated video you can select to use the video's audio. Longer videos can be recorded : The manner available storage is computed has changed typically allowing longer recordings. Updated: iCloud Shared Albums Support You can now animate the photo cube with photos selected from iCloud Shared albums in your photos library. Shared albums appear at the end of the menu used for choosing the animation album, after all your own albums in your photo library. Previous Update v 1.4.2: • FIXED: A problem adding photos with the camera was fixed. Previous Update v 1.4.1: • NEW: Add previous picked photo or camera shot to other faces. • IMPROVED: New image loading method to avoid memory issues with very large photos on devices with limited memory. Previous Update v 1.4: • Video recording and generation is now supported in iOS 9 and iOS 10 (previously only iOS 11) • Current album can be changed during animation • Videos can be generated with frames rotated 90º (i.e. landscape mode) • Additional recording progress shown when the option stop recording when video duration matches the current audio. • The recording and video can be deleted by the app to save space on your device when done • 8 additional sample audio (access from + button in Options pane) • To improve video quality and performance animation is turned off when generation commences. Other updates: • NEW: Pick current audio from iCloud Drive in addition to your music library, many built-in samples and by copying from other apps • NEW: Automatically stop recording when the recording duration matches the current audio duration • NEW: Play the generated video inside the app. This avoids the need to save the video to Photos to view it • NEW: Current playing audio progress is displayed • More built-in sample audio • Additional improvements to video generation and app performance • New options pane offer 6 animation speeds, 3 image qualities. Access from the Options menu. • Can receive audio from other apps such as Messages, Files (iCloud Drive) and Mail as well as the Music app. Makes it easier to incorporate audio into video animations. Common audio types include m4a, mp3, m4r, wav, caf, aiff and aac • In the options pane various information is available such as number of recorded frames, video duration at 30 FPS for that number of frames and the duration of the audio • Recordings can be continued after they are stopped • Video frames can be cropped square • Option to fit whole image on shape faces rather than crop • iCloud photos support added: The random photo selection for animation has been improved with the ability to load photos stored in iCloud. • Albums support added: You can now choose to use any of your own photo albums for random photo selection in animation , as well as 'All Photos'. • New video recording feature. Record animations of the graphics. • New option to animate graphics with existing face photos. • Edited photos are now saved so they will be presented on next launch.

March 30, 2020

Maintenance update for iOS 13. Fixed a bug that could cause app to terminate when choosing audio for video generation. The option to select different audio is presented when you receive an alert prior to video generation that the current audio may not fit the number of recorded frames to achieve a 'good' frame rate (such as 30 fps.) Previous Updates v 1.5.3, 1.5.2, 1.5.1, 1.5 NEW - Use a video as an alternative to a photo album source: instead of picking a photo album from your photo library you can pick a single video. When you do so the frames of the video are randomly selected for the cube faces just like photos are randomly picked from a photo album. Moreover when selecting audio for the generated video you can select to use the video's audio. Longer videos can be recorded : The manner available storage is computed has changed typically allowing longer recordings. Updated: iCloud Shared Albums Support You can now animate the photo cube with photos selected from iCloud Shared albums in your photos library. Shared albums appear at the end of the menu used for choosing the animation album, after all your own albums in your photo library. Previous Update v 1.4.2: • FIXED: A problem adding photos with the camera was fixed. Previous Update v 1.4.1: • NEW: Add previous picked photo or camera shot to other faces. • IMPROVED: New image loading method to avoid memory issues with very large photos on devices with limited memory. Previous Update v 1.4: • Video recording and generation is now supported in iOS 9 and iOS 10 (previously only iOS 11) • Current album can be changed during animation • Videos can be generated with frames rotated 90º (i.e. landscape mode) • Additional recording progress shown when the option stop recording when video duration matches the current audio. • The recording and video can be deleted by the app to save space on your device when done • 8 additional sample audio (access from + button in Options pane) • To improve video quality and performance animation is turned off when generation commences. Other updates: • NEW: Pick current audio from iCloud Drive in addition to your music library, many built-in samples and by copying from other apps • NEW: Automatically stop recording when the recording duration matches the current audio duration • NEW: Play the generated video inside the app. This avoids the need to save the video to Photos to view it • NEW: Current playing audio progress is displayed • More built-in sample audio • Additional improvements to video generation and app performance • New options pane offer 6 animation speeds, 3 image qualities. Access from the Options menu. • Can receive audio from other apps such as Messages, Files (iCloud Drive) and Mail as well as the Music app. Makes it easier to incorporate audio into video animations. Common audio types include m4a, mp3, m4r, wav, caf, aiff and aac • In the options pane various information is available such as number of recorded frames, video duration at 30 FPS for that number of frames and the duration of the audio • Recordings can be continued after they are stopped • Video frames can be cropped square • Option to fit whole image on shape faces rather than crop • iCloud photos support added: The random photo selection for animation has been improved with the ability to load photos stored in iCloud. • Albums support added: You can now choose to use any of your own photo albums for random photo selection in animation , as well as 'All Photos'. • New video recording feature. Record animations of the graphics. • New option to animate graphics with existing face photos. • Edited photos are now saved so they will be presented on next launch.

October 28, 2019

NEW - Use a video as an alternative to a photo album source: instead of picking a photo album from your photo library you can pick a single video.   When you do so the frames of the video are randomly selected for the cube faces just like photos are randomly picked from a photo album. Moreover when selecting audio for the generated video you can select to use the video's audio. Previous Updates v 1.5.2, 1.5.1, 1.5 Longer videos can be recorded : The manner available storage is computed has changed typically allowing longer recordings. Updated: iCloud Shared Albums Support You can now animate the photo cube with photos selected from iCloud Shared albums in your photos library. Shared albums appear at the end of the menu used for choosing the animation album, after all your own albums in your photo library. Previous Update v 1.4.2: • FIXED: A problem adding photos with the camera was fixed. Previous Update v 1.4.1: • NEW: Add previous picked photo or camera shot to other faces. • IMPROVED: New image loading method to avoid memory issues with very large photos on devices with limited memory. Previous Update v 1.4: • Video recording and generation is now supported in iOS 9 and iOS 10 (previously only iOS 11) • Current album can be changed during animation • Videos can be generated with frames rotated 90º (i.e. landscape mode) • Additional recording progress shown when the option stop recording when video duration matches the current audio. • The recording and video can be deleted by the app to save space on your device when done • 8 additional sample audio (access from + button in Options pane) • To improve video quality and performance animation is turned off when generation commences. Other updates: • NEW: Pick current audio from iCloud Drive in addition to your music library, many built-in samples and by copying from other apps • NEW: Automatically stop recording when the recording duration matches the current audio duration • NEW: Play the generated video inside the app. This avoids the need to save the video to Photos to view it • NEW: Current playing audio progress is displayed • More built-in sample audio • Additional improvements to video generation and app performance • New options pane offer 6 animation speeds, 3 image qualities. Access from the Options menu. • Can receive audio from other apps such as Messages, Files (iCloud Drive) and Mail as well as the Music app. Makes it easier to incorporate audio into video animations. Common audio types include m4a, mp3, m4r, wav, caf, aiff and aac • In the options pane various information is available such as number of recorded frames, video duration at 30 FPS for that number of frames and the duration of the audio • Recordings can be continued after they are stopped • Video frames can be cropped square • Option to fit whole image on shape faces rather than crop • iCloud photos support added: The random photo selection for animation has been improved with the ability to load photos stored in iCloud. • Albums support added: You can now choose to use any of your own photo albums for random photo selection in animation , as well as 'All Photos'. • New video recording feature. Record animations of the graphics. • New option to animate graphics with existing face photos. • Edited photos are now saved so they will be presented on next launch.