Our NEW Interactive Picture Book: 12 Huia Birds

General (non-technical) New Apps / Works in Progress
#1

We are proud to announce the release of Yoozoo Book’s latest interactive book: 12 Huia Birds. The app is filled with Spine created animations plus the addition of page curls and 2.5D effects. Not to mention audio coded special effects.

12 Huia Birds is aimed towards children aged 6-8. It is a story+activity app based on the true story of New Zealand’s beautiful, lost huia bird. Learning from the app is centered around science and the environment, via the impact of the story and the included comprehension enhancing activities.

The app is FREE as a condition of the funding that helped create it.

We hope you can take the time to check it out and I can answer any questions about the use of Spine or any other features.

Age: 6-8

Device: Universal iOS app (iPhone, iPad, iPad Pro)

App Store:https://itunes.apple.com/app/12-huia-birds/id1059189790?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2%26amp%3Buo%3D4

YouTube Trailer:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY-9wBQXPZA

WebSite:http://yoozoobooks.com/12huiabirds.html

Making of the app blog:http://12huiabirds.tumblr.com

#2

Hi kilopop

Very nice idea, graphics and animations. Congrats!

And thanks… I might want to ask you some spine questions at some point.

I left you a nice review in the danish app store :wink:

#3

@kilopop, 

Looks great!  Congratulations.

-Ed

#4

Many thanks @ojnab for the App Store review, you’re fantastic :slight_smile: Thanks Ed, appreciate that.

#5

This app is AMAZING!

Impressive work! It is really inspiring to see this. I have so many questions :slight_smile:

  1. did you use spineHelper?

  2. did you use the page curl plugin?

  3. did you use 2.5d for the popups in the beginning?

  4. What do you mean by audio coded special effects?

-Tom

#6

Many thanks Tom - really appreciate your feedback!

Just in reply to your questions:

  1. did you use spineHelper?

A spine module was used which works somewhat like spineHelper but adds event additions amongst other time-saving routines.

The mind does boggle though with what we could achieve with a little love from Corona on graphics features. Mesh voting needs some love:

http://feedback.coronalabs.com/forums/188732-corona-sdk-feature-requests-feedback/suggestions/8614108-add-meshes-support-for-spine

  1. did you use the page curl plugin?

Yes, page curl was used in the index page navigation back when it was still being developed by StarCruch before it became a plugin (which I believe you were instrumental in kick-starting so thanks :slight_smile: )

  1. did you use 2.5d for the popups in the beginning?

Absolutely yes. Each animated “edge transition” was triggered as they onCompleted.

  1. What do you mean by audio coded special effects?

Well there is an advanced audio module being used. Mostly the sfx part relates to the sound of the birds which are sequenced so that there is no looping throughout.

  • j
#7

I got a chance to see this a few days back on my colleague’s iPhone. Looks and sounds really nice!

I do have something mesh-ish in the works, basically what I posted here. It has its quirks, since it makes certain assumptions about the geometry (so properties like scaling and rotation won’t “Just Work”), but from what I can tell Spine isn’t in need of anything too much more sophisticated. I hope to give it some attention later in the week.

#8

Thanks StarCrunch, I’ll try it out once we are back into Spine action.

If your outcomes work do you think it might be a proof of concept for meshes in Corona graphics itself? Just wondering how we can get that feature working, in the absence of Corona showing any interest.

#9

I’d like to think so. Basically, I’m emulating the index machinery that meshes would require.

I have in mind something a little more general than the Spine use case, allowing one to stream blocks of data and effect a sort of instancing (one of my earlier long-winded feature requests  :)). I’ve used these abilities in the past to sculpt meshes along a curve and am hoping to achieve something similar again. If this were to help steer some future official API, I wouldn’t complain!

#10

I used spine to make some animations yesterday and my thoughts went to you StarCrunch and your amazing ability to solve these unsolvable problems (at least for mere mortals).

In my animation I really missed meshes. Meshes would have made it so easy and my animation would look much smoother and more beautiful. 

I´m rooting for you StarCrunch :smiley:

#11

This app is now working on Android - well, my Galaxy II at least. I’d be very interested to hear how it performs on other Android devices, tablets in particular. If you have 5 minutes to spare on the Beta, here’s the link:
 

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.yoozoo.books.huiaBirds

If you can help, much appreciated.

#12

Hi kilopop

Very nice idea, graphics and animations. Congrats!

And thanks… I might want to ask you some spine questions at some point.

I left you a nice review in the danish app store :wink:

#13

@kilopop, 

Looks great!  Congratulations.

-Ed

#14

Many thanks @ojnab for the App Store review, you’re fantastic :slight_smile: Thanks Ed, appreciate that.

#15

This app is AMAZING!

Impressive work! It is really inspiring to see this. I have so many questions :slight_smile:

  1. did you use spineHelper?

  2. did you use the page curl plugin?

  3. did you use 2.5d for the popups in the beginning?

  4. What do you mean by audio coded special effects?

-Tom

#16

Many thanks Tom - really appreciate your feedback!

Just in reply to your questions:

  1. did you use spineHelper?

A spine module was used which works somewhat like spineHelper but adds event additions amongst other time-saving routines.

The mind does boggle though with what we could achieve with a little love from Corona on graphics features. Mesh voting needs some love:

http://feedback.coronalabs.com/forums/188732-corona-sdk-feature-requests-feedback/suggestions/8614108-add-meshes-support-for-spine

  1. did you use the page curl plugin?

Yes, page curl was used in the index page navigation back when it was still being developed by StarCruch before it became a plugin (which I believe you were instrumental in kick-starting so thanks :slight_smile: )

  1. did you use 2.5d for the popups in the beginning?

Absolutely yes. Each animated “edge transition” was triggered as they onCompleted.

  1. What do you mean by audio coded special effects?

Well there is an advanced audio module being used. Mostly the sfx part relates to the sound of the birds which are sequenced so that there is no looping throughout.

  • j
#17

I got a chance to see this a few days back on my colleague’s iPhone. Looks and sounds really nice!

I do have something mesh-ish in the works, basically what I posted here. It has its quirks, since it makes certain assumptions about the geometry (so properties like scaling and rotation won’t “Just Work”), but from what I can tell Spine isn’t in need of anything too much more sophisticated. I hope to give it some attention later in the week.

#18

Thanks StarCrunch, I’ll try it out once we are back into Spine action.

If your outcomes work do you think it might be a proof of concept for meshes in Corona graphics itself? Just wondering how we can get that feature working, in the absence of Corona showing any interest.

#19

I’d like to think so. Basically, I’m emulating the index machinery that meshes would require.

I have in mind something a little more general than the Spine use case, allowing one to stream blocks of data and effect a sort of instancing (one of my earlier long-winded feature requests  :)). I’ve used these abilities in the past to sculpt meshes along a curve and am hoping to achieve something similar again. If this were to help steer some future official API, I wouldn’t complain!

#20

I used spine to make some animations yesterday and my thoughts went to you StarCrunch and your amazing ability to solve these unsolvable problems (at least for mere mortals).

In my animation I really missed meshes. Meshes would have made it so easy and my animation would look much smoother and more beautiful. 

I´m rooting for you StarCrunch :smiley: