We haven’t covered tadaa here on the blog. Along with its own social network that you may be seeing pop up on your iPhones, it’s a free, full-featured camera app that’s one of the best free photo apps available. Its blur feature is excellent and alone worth the download.
The same developers have just released tadaa 3D. It’s not really a LoFi iPhoneography app, but I had the chance to help beta test it and it’s a really fun iPhone photo app that adds a very cool 3D effect to any flat 2D photo! Plus, tadaa 3D is FREE today only for it’s launch.
I’ve even got video for this one! Keep reading for more info!
tadaa 3D lets you create 3D illusions from any photo. This isn’t a hackneyed version of a stereoscopic Viewmaster trick. You don’t need to steal a pair of cinema 3D glassed to view the effect. tadaa 3D lets you mask out and create a foreground layer that floats above the background and moves relative to the iPhone’s motion. It’s prestidigitation, but it’s cool iPhone photo trickery that they’ve created here.
Still preview photos don’t do the effect justice. See my sample video below.
You can shoot an image in app or load any photo from your camera roll. What makes Tadaa 3D work so well is the same excellent smart mask that’s in tadaa HD, their 2D camera app. Simply paint a rough mask around your subject. tadaa 3D’s smart mask automatically detects edges. The mask tool is intelligent yet conservative in that you may have to paint over an edge a few times before it masks it completely. I prefer this approach over the sloppy masks of some other photo apps as this greatly reduces the time you’ll spend erasing unwanted parts from the mask.
The Smart Mask can be easily toggled off and on, so you can go in and clean up mask edges. With a good, high contrast edge, the mask should require minimal cleanup. The tool is that good.
The app then extracts the foreground object and blurs the background. As you move your iPhone, the subject adjusts position onscreen. Your 3D image is also uploaded to the Tadaa 3D network, where it can also be shared to Facebook and Twitter. On a desktop, the 3D effect can be moved using a cursor or trackpad. It’s a pretty slick novelty!
It doesn’t add a true, multidimensional 3D effect. And its 3D images are not saved to your camera roll. You can’t make stereoscopic 3D prints. Some users may object to having another social photo network to keep up with. To get the full effect, images are best viewed onscreen on an iOS device. Despite these limitations, I still think that tadaa 3D is a really fun photo app to play with and to share unique 3D style photos.
tadaa 3D is FREE today only. It normally runs $3.99 in the App Store. I definitely recommend grabbing it now while it’s free. I’ve had a blast with it.
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G, iPad (3rd generation), iPad Wi-Fi + 4G, iPad (4th generation), iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular (4th generation), iPad mini and iPad mini Wi-Fi + Cellular. Requires iOS 6.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.
App Store link: tadaa 3D
=M=
