If you count sprucing up your Instagram photos as one of your favorite art forms, Apple's App Store has literally thousands of options ranging from cat stickers and collage templates to frightening zombie and aging effects.
Whether adding cats or looking like a character out of the "Walking Dead" is up your alley or not, you can now add a bit of sci-fi realism to your photos with the new photo and video-enhancing app Matter.
Created by reputable photo enhancing app developers Pixite, the app embeds actual 3D models into your photographs that can be fine-tuned to fit the scene per your creative direction. Need some UFO's flying behind grandma? How about a giant mirrored cube falling from the sky during your romantic sunset dinner? The embeddable 3D models range from simple geometric shapes to complex architectural structures and are all able to be scaled to your liking within the photo.
We've seen apps like this before that add varying elements into existing photographs, however Matter takes things quite a few steps further by using the data within the photos or videos to help determine the newly-placed object's final lighting and appearance. The edits are made realistic by adding and adjusting the model's shadows as well as the ability to fine-tune the shadow's position, opacity and strength. Built-in masking tools allow you to erase portions of a model or shadow to make it look like grandma actually is getting abducted by a UFO.
But perhaps, what really makes the app a game changer is its ability to play just as nicely with video as it does with photos. A user has the option to make a 3D model spin, pulse, hover and more while being able to adjust movement speed and direction. To do this in a single image is one thing, but to have it be in video and respond in real-time is downright impressive. With the rise of online video-sharing platforms such as Vine becoming the new 'television' for younger generations, the ability to make edits such as putting a 3D model within a video all from your mobile device is pretty dang impressive. While the app focuses on more abstract sci-fi type material, it opens up a conversation about what other kinds of 3D models could be dropped seamlessly into video and edited on-the-go.
Whether you want to create sweeping sci-fi landscapes from your recent summer road trip or just add a bit of interest to your breakfast photos, Matter is definitely one of the coolest photo-enhancing apps in recent memory.
You can download Matter for $1.99 over at the iTunes App Store.
