The three apps for this fortnight concern storytelling — and beautiful storytelling and mobile publishing at that. All three are available only for iOS devices — working best on the iPad — and let you learn and create in one seamless experience.
NASA Visualization Explorer
The first app is called the NASA Visualization Explorer. It lets users explore concepts in “advanced space-based research” on their iOS devices. It combines an interactive interface with videos, animations, and textual explanations and is updated with two ‘stories’ every week. Although it doesn’t let you create stories of your own, it provides for a wonderful, inspiring experience at no price.
StopMo Studio
The second app, StopMo Studio, comes from the National Film Board of Canada, whose expertise it visibly brings to bear. It is a sophisticated stop-motion animation tool for your iOS devices. What’s great about the app is that, for $0.99, it packs in a stunning variety of tools, including a four-track mixing board and a sound-effects library that you can add to the images you shoot and animate. More, it also makes using the app a great learning experience while keeping the workflow casual. StopMo is best experienced on the iPad.
Steller
The third app, Steller, is much less intricate than StopMo but compensates with a stylish minimalism. Instead of letting you control everything about the story you’re telling, Steller has templates and a limited number of options you can choose from.
You use it like a blogging platform for your smartphone and limited to the phone, too. Add text, images and videos, create multiple pages, and customise the template.
To complete the experience, share your story with the Steller community or make it a presentation.
