Mixel iPad App
Mixel a social collage maker
It is a service that has a web page where you can make collages using your own images or the images you can collect from other users. You can also bring all those visual elements together then make something new and exciting. There is also an iPad application that you can use to have this sort of artistic fun and sharing is all part of the package.
Getting started with Mixel on the iPad
The first thing to do is to get yourself an account and connect up your Facebook and your Twitter accounts. Like I said, sharing is what Mixel is all about. next thing to do is to start making an image using bits and pieces of your own photos and images or see what other people have shared. What people seem to like to do is say something with the pictures. I was asked to join in with a Mixel recently that was basically a comparison between two images. One was some poor soul getting a full frontal lobotomy and a picture of a row of beer bottles. This all started with the silly saying – I would rather have a full bottle in front of me that a full frontal lobotomy. So the resulting images that other Mixel users came up with either joined in with the joke or did something all together different.
Getting creative with Mixel iPad App
At the top of the app you can choose from My Mixels, Updates and Popular. In the popular section you will see a few featured Mixel pictures and a bunch of other ones to choose from under that. In My Mixels you have the pictures you have posted and under that the re mixes that have been done. Your pictures will be either totally original or images that you have taken from other people and remixed yourself.
In the Updates section you will see all the updates from the people that you follow and you are also given the option to follow more people. Also in this area you can start a new picture, which is reasonable because you might well get inspiration from the Mixels you see on that page of the iPad application.
Making your first Mixel
you get an empty page and there is a bottom in the bottom right corner that invites you to click to start your image. You are then shown your options. You can get images from your Facebook account, from your iPad photo application, popular images on Mixel and you can do a web image search. I doubt if there is much a problem with copyrighted images as the use is completely artistic and most likely not for resale. Often by the time you have finished messing with the images they are pretty unrecognisable from the original anyway.
The image that you bring in has a red box around it and you can resize and rotate it, no problem at all. Then there are controls at he bottom of the screen to let you crop, flip, send to the front or the back and duplicate. You can have a bit of fun using this application. next thing to do is to hit the Add Image button in the bottom right of the screen again and bring in another object to work with. You are given random sets of images to grab also.
Manipulating pictures in Mixel
You can use the pinch gestures to change the size of the image object and use two fingers to rotate the picture to which ever orientation you want to put it into. It is simplicity itself to move it around the screen to create something marvellous. It would be nice in the Mixel iPad app to have a way to erase parts to give a soft edge, rather that have only the hard cut outs that you get from cropping.
As with all art it is all about making choices and decisions about what you put where. I really miss the chance to soften edges to get more of a smooth blend happening, but I suppose I could open up another app like Art Studio and save an image to the photo folder to use in Mixel.
Sharing your images
Once you click on Post you get a reminder to tell you that anyone can see your Mixel on the service and also use it as a whole or take the parts to use in other Mixel images. Once they are posted they can’t be deleted. When you get to that stage of the game you can also share your image on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.
