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*After publishing the review, the developer notified me by email that several features I noted as missing in the app were actually available and so I have editted my initial review to reflect this oversight.*
Whether you own a Nintendo Wii, or your last console ended in 2600, you have probably seen or heard of the avatar creations known as Miis. Nintendo offers a tool for creating cartoon avatars for use in many of the Wii games. Fackmakr aims to add this avatar creation to the iPhone for use as contact pictures or even for use abroad on the Internet.
Avatars are created with a series of tabs, each with a selection of different parts of the face (eyes, nose hair, etc) to choose from. The color can be changed but facemakr does not have ability to change sizes of the parts like on the Wii. The color of many objects can be changed from a pallet at the bottom, while the placement of many objects can be changed by dragging them. Size and rotation can also be changed by using tow fingers to pinch and rotate. Accessories like ear rings, hats, and backgrounds can be added as well. The variety that can be created is good and I was able to create likenesses of many people I know. When you have your face looking perfect, you can save it as a preset in the app, or export your face to the iPhone picture gallery. From there it can be shared or used like any other image.
Facemakr will definetly appeal to those that enjoy making characters of their friends. Once I was shown that size and orientation could be changed, it opened up many more possiblities for avatar creation. If I can to find one area that needed improvement I would say that the app should have a help page or button that would explain all the controls within the app. Once could say taht Facemakr needs more items to pick from, and while you can never had too many different options to choose from when creating you avatar, I think Fackmakr has a great set of tools for creating just about any avatar you would want. I can’t wait to see what the developer has in store for us next! Fans of Miis or other avatar creation tool like on the Playstaion 3 may find the offerings in Facemakr a bit limiting. For Example, some of the hair styles won’t cover the heads you might pick, which is a limitation of using static images to build the faces as opposed to 3D rendered objects. It would also be nice to see some control over the size and placement of the various elements which would offer far more versitilty to this tool. These shortcomings aside, the app is a good start and does a good job of letting you quickly create cartoon avatars. I hope to see some exspansion to this app that will enhance it’s value and usefullness in the future.
