Aviary Blog

This week’s Blackbox will impart a watercolor type of texture to your images. It’s a great effect to alter your photos, or you can use it as a backdrop for your already awesome creations!

To use, search for “watercolor” in the Blackbox browser (Go to File -> Import Blackbox).

If you’re not sure what to do, check out this beginner tutorial on how to use Blackboxes!

\cell \row \itap1\trowd \taflags0 \trgaph108\trleft-108 \trbrdrl\brdrnil \trbrdrr\brdrnil \clvertalc \clshdrawnil \clmart10 \clmarl10 \clmarb10 \clmarr10 \clbrdrt\brdrnil \clbrdrl\brdrnil \clbrdrb\brdrnil \clbrdrr\brdrnil \clpadt20 \clpadl20 \clpadb20 \clpadr20 \gaph\cellx4320 \clvertalc \clshdrawnil \clwWidth18000\clftsWidth3 \clmart10 \clmarl10 \clmarb10 \clmarr10 \clbrdrt\brdrnil \clbrdrl\brdrnil \clbrdrb\brdrnil \clbrdrr\brdrnil \clpadt20 \clpadl20 \clpadb20 \clpadr20 \gaph\cellx8640 \pard\intbl\itap1\pardeftab720\ql\qnatural \cf0 \cell \pard\intbl\itap1\pardeftab720\ql\qnatural \cf0 \cell \row \itap1\trowd \taflags0 \trgaph108\trleft-108 \trbrdrl\brdrnil \trbrdrr\brdrnil \clvertalc \clshdrawnil \clmart10 \clmarl10 \clmarb10 \clmarr10 \clbrdrt\brdrnil \clbrdrl\brdrnil \clbrdrb\brdrnil \clbrdrr\brdrnil \clpadt20 \clpadl20 \clpadb20 \clpadr20 \gaph\cellx4320 \clvertalc \clshdrawnil \clwWidth18000\clftsWidth3 \clmart10 \clmarl10 \clmarb10 \clmarr10 \clbrdrt\brdrnil \clbrdrl\brdrnil \clbrdrb\brdrnil \clbrdrr\brdrnil \clpadt20 \clpadl20 \clpadb20 \clpadr20 \gaph\cellx8640 \pard\intbl\itap1\pardeftab720\ql\qnatural \cf0 \cell \pard\intbl\itap1\pardeftab720\ql\qnatural \cf0

TL;DR: Looking for the new Aviary homepage preview?
Click through here to avoid the wall of text…

Aviary’s achievements to date are mind-blowing. When I think back to just a few short years ago, when I was sitting around with my good friends, Michael Galpert and Israel Derdik, discussing the problem of creativity not being accessible to the masses; and to now, when we are a full blown company of talented individuals and have provided the world with a suite of powerful alternatives to desktop software, it’s really amazing. I don’t think that anyone could ever say again that they would be an artist, if only they had access to the tools.

But as I think back to that day I find myself wondering if we really fulfilled the core of our mission of democratizing creation. In order to do that we’d need everyone in the world to feel and be more creative. We have certainly provided the software to make it possible, but in doing so we have affected change only among artists and future artists with the skillset and sophistication to use powerful editing software. In order to really change the world and make it a better-looking place, we need to make sure that we are enabling everyone on the planet to be creative.

And to do that we need to think even more progressively about how we are providing creativity tools. Instead of simply trying to duplicate the desktop software experience, we need to think from the ground up: what is the best user experience for creating or improving content in a world where no other model exists?

Creating our embeddable HTML5 editor, Feather, was the first step in that direction. It was a tool that was built with a specific purpose: to be injected seamlessly into the existing creative workflows of other applications across the web and mobile. And to provide exactly the functionality needed for that workflow: No more, no less.

The next step in our goal of powering the world’s creativity, is to fully open up the powerful bulk Effects API that helps run Feather’s filters behind the scenes. This API will enable web and mobile apps to batch process photos and improve them in three major areas without any needed user interaction:

* Auto-correction (i.e. remove red-eye, fix lighting, fix blurriness, contrast and color levels)
* Apply stylistic filters (i.e. retro, polaroid-like, frames, comic book, etc..)
* Utility operations (i.e. smart-crop a photo to a person’s face, rotate a photo, make thumbnails, etc…)

More detail on this particular bulk Effects API is coming very soon, but if you want early access please do email api@aviary.com and we’ll provide you with documentation and an API key.

As part of this expansion we needed to make a new website – something that speaks to people at all levels of the creative spectrum. I realized that our homepage and various websites weren’t readily accessible and the full breadth of what Aviary offers wasn’t clear. With our continued expansion we needed a way to organize all of the various Aviary-related properties under one central easy-to-understand (we hope) homepage.

I hope that by organizing our site into more of a portal into the various components that make up Aviary we will better serve everyone who visits Aviary in finding exactly the tool or service they need. And best of all, we’ll continue to service the core artist community that makes up our life-blood, by keeping the tools and community that uses them intact.

We’re going to make the new homepage opt-in for the community and use the time-period before it goes live to accept feedback and make tweaks to it. I welcome your direct feedback – please reach out to me at avi[a]aviary.com and let me know what you think.

By taking all of these steps we hope to further extend Aviary’s reach and impact on the world of creativity… and maybe in doing so make the world a better-looking place.

Soaring higher!
Avi

PS: You can activate the new homepage beta HERE… and if you don’t like it, no worries you can always revert back.

With the recent release of so many new Instrument Folders into Roc, there has been quite a bit of excitement. The new mixes are coming out fast and furious, and we’re having a hard time deciding what to feature this week because there is so much great stuff!!

If you have been experiencing any temporary glitches in saving or mixing your music, please be patient! Put in a support ticket if you’d like, or search the forums for related issues. There is even more cool stuff being worked on right now that will be released in the not too distant future.. trust us, it will be well worth any minor hassles you might have had. ^_^

So, we all know bassp, right? Did you know that she is also quite the Roc artist? Since this is her first attempt, and it is pure vocal bliss, there was no way we could not feature such a stirring and heavenly piece this week.

Pushing the envelope yet again and exploring higher levels of integrating Roc into Myna with outside the box effects, Jdogg247 has MC’d a wild ride through the jungle that is fantastically intriguing. Don’t miss out on this one, or we’ll be sending lions and tigers and bears after you. Oh my!

This challenge has not had many entry’s as of yet. but it is one of our fave photo effects and we would love to see loads more ! so come and join the fun in this Phoenix challenge: Out of Bounds

just some of your awesome creation….

This awesome tricked out optical illusion was created for the Peacock: What If contest on Worth100 by our very own Stevek , not only did it make 3rd place but it has also been awarded Picture of the day and an exceptional skill award. so congratulations Steve !

One of our newest groups, For the Musically Inclined (FTMI), stays very alive, active and exciting. Fly higher and deeper with Aviary’s music apps and join the fun!

♫ Promote your music creations!
♫ Play the Word Association game
♫ Give a hollah! to and get background on the newest members!

Toucan has a great color formula system that makes it quick and easy to create great color palettes. There are six color formulas to choose from, each producing a different color scheme based off of a single color sample. To try them out, first choose a color formula. Depending on the formula, you may have several parameters to adjust the colors further. Next, pick a base color in the color wheel. The base color and the resulting subordinate colors will be displayed to the left, on the color wheel. When you are satified with the colors, you can push them directly to the color palette above by pressing the To Palette button

Try out this awesome feature and start making color palettes to use within the other apps! It’s especially useful for web design

Learn more about the color app Toucan.

This week’s Blackbox will produce a symmetrical distortion on your image. The effect is perfect for creating a funhouse mirror look. Try using the camera hub to make a fun distorted self portrait! The effect can also be used also as a general distortion filter, similar to the plaid distortion. So go have fun and make some awesome creations with this Blackbox!!

Just search for “funhouse” in the Blackbox browser (Go to File -> Import Blackbox) and start making awesome creations!

If you’re not sure what to do, check out this beginner tutorial on how to use Blackboxes!

Learn more about the color app Toucan.

Congratulations to madameava,yotambonehbait and Redstar for their 1st 2nd and 3rd places in the Peacock Minimalism: Play With Plaid! contest. Also congrats to Redstar, mpeutz and bisowski for their 1st 2nd and 3rd places in the Phoenix This contest. There are lots more contests starting all the time so come and win yourself some credits and trophies!

For this week, the Birdbath features something a little bit different than it usually does for Artist of the Week. We’ve added rhinestones and a filtered water pump! Yay!

All joking aside… considering the extra emphasis that Aviary has been placing on the music apps recently (think Rocapalooza and Worth 1000 contests for music), we have a special treat.

Coming to you from K-ROC FM in Cape Girardeau, MO… Indie artist Generisk is spinning Roc beats mixed in Myna that are truly worthy of the word “phenom.” FX master Generisk (the name alone is cool!) has taken advantage of all the new Instrument Folders recently available in Roc, and has used Myna for some wicked effects to make some electronica music that will top the charts. Whatever you’re listening to right now, turn it off… get your iPod ready to download, and tune in to these crazy good tuneages – from robotics to eerie sound effects. You’ll thank us when you can say “Yep, I knew Generisk back when he was on Aviary.”

This week’s challenge has just popped back to the top of the forum after a very, very long leave of absence; in fact, it was the first Raven challenge ever! Some of your entries were outstanding way back then, so it will be very interesting to see how we have all grown in talent and skill. So come and join the fun in this Raven Mini Challenge # 1!

Some of our faves:

This week’s Blackbox is The Color Newspaper, which will add some comic book goodness to your images.

Try out Parrot, the new voice control addition to all of our apps. It’s way cool!

You can access your Toucan color palette, along with every other color palette saved to Aviary, from within Phoenix and Raven. Open the in-app color picker by double-clicking on any color control in the apps. From within the color picker, click the double arrow button at the bottom to open the palette importer. A fly-out panel will open where you can search for your palette. Type the name of your saved palette in the search box and press find. All the palettes that match your search will load in the slots below. To push a palette to the color picker, click the circle button next to the palette. Once a palette is loaded into the color picker, you’ll have access to the colors every time you open the color picker.