Movidoodle
A drawing app with undulating, vibrant patterns as your marker
With a brand new update now available, the free animated drawing app Movidoodle—available for iOS users—manages to charm now more than ever. Beginning with either a blank white page or a preexisting photo, users doodle with vibrant, animated patterns. The implement (aka your finger) actually almost feels as if it were an eraser, revealing over a dozen swirling, color-coordinated backgrounds of your choice as you draw away space. The tip size is customizable, and using the app can allow you to go into striking detail or just playful bold strokes.
The end result is a GIF which is easy to save or share across social media. Movidoodle is the product of first-time developer Mike Adams and his husband, award-winning animator and artist Carl Burton. According to Adams, “It’s inspired and loved by adorable kids who now shout, ‘Wanna play DOODLE!’ when we visit, so it’s already successful beyond our dreams.” That said, Movidoodle isn’t just for children. The app engages users of all ages, punctuates pictures and allows for a fun exploration of imagination.
Burton’s art reflects the Movidoodle mindset and its inception. Colorful, chaotic and with mesmerizing structure, his digital imagery reveals a creator who would seek to build systems for other digital creators, of all ages. As for Adams, “I had never programmed anything near this level of complexity before, but I’m an inveterate geek and learning how to make things do new things is somehow fun for me,” he tells CH. While it appears simple and is easy to use, the coding work behind Movidoodle is complicated—from consistently shifting color spectrums to the GIF generation and housing; especially for a first-timer.
Together, Adams and Burton drew inspiration from coloring books with a view in mind to bring them to modern times. “We were inspired by those sort-of-coloring books where you scratch the black coating off secretly iridescent pages—we thought, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be fun if that could move?'” Adams says. He wanted to create something that would appeal to both his two-year-old niece as much as it would his friends. He succeeded, and the brilliant color schemes are the key to such success.
Download Movidoodle through the iTunes store for free.
Screenshots from Movidoodle app, GIFs and artwork courtesy of Carl Burton
