Hey everyone,
I just released FlipKit, a flipbook animation app for everyone who likes to draw.
As a kid, I loved to draw small post-it flipbook animations and when Apple released PencilKit with iOS 13 I started working on a small prototype to see if this would work as a fun drawing app. It felt pretty good early on, I especially liked how you can "flip" (swipe) through the pages (frames) of an animation with your finger and control the playback speed manually, just how you would with a real physical keyboard.
I kept working on the app on and off for the last several months and my wife supported me with the design and created some awesome and fun examples (they can be downloaded within the app).
I am really happy with how the app turned out and early feedback has been great so far. Hopefully, we'll also see an App Store feature in the next few weeks (Apple has requested promotional graphics 🤞).
FlipKit works great for beginners and more advanced artists. I tried to keep the user interface as simple as possible, and it's also a great way to introduce kids to the world of moving pictures. My 6-year old son was one of our first beta testers and has drawn some funny animations. Ok, mostly cars 😁
It works best with an Apple Pencil (or another stylus) but you can also simply draw with your finger. You can also import photos as a background or create stop-motion animations. Each frame has a separate background and foreground layer, and "onion skins" are used to visualize the previous frames.
The app is free to download with a one-time IAP ($2.99) to unlock some advanced features: unlimited frames per animation (20 in the free version), animation controls (frames per second, loop on/off, ...), and export functionality (video or gif).
Currently, it's iPad only but an iPhone version is on top of my to-do list. 90% of the UI is written using SwiftUI, with some UIKit sprinkled on top (mainly the PencilKit stuff).
I would love to hear some feedback and hope that you give it a try!
Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flipkit-flipbook-animations/id1507694594
