Developer Contest: Aviary + Zazzle Mashup

On the heels of a successful run for our first ever API contest, we're officially announcing round 2, except this time... we're going big!

That's right, we've joined forces with our friends at Zazzle to host an opportunity for you to get creative with two awesome APIs!

What can you do with our APIs?

Aviary's Effects API allows you to bulk process photos while applying utility filters (crop, resize, watermark, etc) as well as dozens of photo effects like Instant, Toy Camera, Retro, Color Matrix, Bad Ass, and more.

Zazzle's Create-a-Product API allows you to generate a customized product (t-shirts, postage stamps, posters, and more) with dynamic images and text. Imagine your favorite image, sold on anything and everything!

So what's this contest all about?

You'll get to use Aviary's Effects API in conjunction with Zazzle's Create-a-Product API to produce a creative, fun, and powerful app! You're welcome to develop an application with JUST Aviary or Zazzle, but only apps using both APIs will be entered to win the grand prize (see below)!

• Aviary Effects API documentation
• Zazzle Create-a-Product API documentation (Pro Tip: Download their Create-a-Product PDF's)

Bonus* For each user that creates an app incorporating both API's (assuming that you can buy the end product using Zazzle's API), they'll get 15% of the sale, thanks to Zazzle's generous royalty fee program You don't even need to win to get a chance at the revenue stream! To learn more, visit Zazzle's Referrals and Reporting section of their documentation.

What's that? You want even MORE power? Feel free to integrate any other existing API into your Aviary + Zazzle app to add an additional layer of SWEETNESS.

Brainstormin'

Can't decide what to make? Have no fear, our team of visionary cyborgs have come up with a variety of examples to get your creative juices storming out of your nostrils.

• A Facebook app that uses friends' photos to add a filtered photo/text to their clothing
• Upload a photo of yourself, choose from a set of themed stickers (e.g., for a hippie theme use peace signs, hearts, etc. Personalized stickers can be applied using our Feather API), add the “bad-ass” filter (a filter that produces wild colors), apply to your shirt in the photo, and output 9 options before choosing one to make
• Create your own personalized stamps by uploading photos and using stickers and filters - wedding themed, birthday themed, pics of your dog...
• Political buttons: upload a photo and use the simplify filter & watermark to make "VOTE FOR" buttons (simplify is great for turning any images into something *simple* enough for product images - see what we did there?)
• Upload a photo and use the comic book filter to turn the image into a movie poster for an upcoming superhero movie starring whoever you want

Prizes 

On top of being featured and recognized in our Contest Gallery, you’ll have the chance to win:

• Grand Prize: 1000 Zazzle/Aviary Dollars (500 Zazzle dollars + 500 Aviary dollars. Zazzle dollars can be used to create and purchase anything on Zazzle. Aviary dollars can be used towards any app using the Effects API.)
• Runner-Up: 700 Zazzle/Aviary Dollars (350 Zazzle Dollars + 350 Aviary dollars)
• Honorable Mention: 200 Zazzle/Aviary Dollars (100 Zazzle Dollars + 100 Aviary Credits)

*Note: All winners (top three entries) will be showcased in our Contest Gallery, and will receive Aviary and Zazzle t-shirts and stickers.

Deadline to Enter: Tuesday, July 26th, 2011. 11:59 PM PST

Judges: Aviary and Zazzle Staff (Including the CEO's and CTO's). Apps will be judged based on technical accomplishment, cleverness, originality, and of course, the value of the application. Bonus points for coming up with something completely unique.

Rules and Submissions: Entries must be submitted by 11:59pm EST on Tuesday, July 26th. To submit an app, please sign up here.

If you have any questions about our Effects API or about this contest, please visit our developer site or Google Group, or send an email to api@aviary.com.

If you have any questions about Zazzle's Create-a-Product API, please visit their developer site, download their Create-a-Product PDF's (which will head off most issues) or send an email to devsupport@zazzle.com

Feather now available in any language!

Great news for our international partners! Our embeddable simple image editor (Feather) is now available for localization in any language. If you're interested in implementing Feather on your site in a language other than English, please contact us at api@aviary.com.

If you're interested in being notified the next time a new Feather feature is available, sign up here!

Aviary Effects API Contest Results!

We're more than excited to announce we've chosen a winner for the Aviary Developer Contest! If you're not aware, we held our first-ever developer contest, allowing developers of all skill levels to participate in a 2 week hack-a-thon! The rules were simple - build something spectacular with our new Effects API.

After a week of debate, we've finally been able to choose the top 3 winners. Each application was graded on technical accomplishment, cleverness, originality, and of course, the value of the application. Bonus points were given for coming up with something completely unique! The top 3 winners will be showered with gifts, as well as being featured in our Apps Gallery (coming soon)!

Without further ado....the grand prize winner, taking home a brand new iPad 2, is......

Joel Watson!

Joel's app, Effected, gives users an easy way to upload images, crop and resize them, and then apply a variety of super-sweet Aviary filters to them. Plus you can easily ship them off to any of your Facebook photo albums after!  Congrats Joel!

Coming in as the runner-up, and the new owner of an awesome F-Stop watch, is.....

John Pencola!

John's app, Let's Make a Puzzzzle, allows users to upload a photo to transform into a filter-ized puzzle, with difficulty levels ranging from 'passing time' to 'nearly impossible'. Congrats John!

And last but not least, the honorable mention (+a box of Aviary swag) goes to......

Florian Plag!

Florian's app, Instant Camera, is a web-based application that applies a randomly selected Polaroid filter onto your selected image! Images can be taken instantly from your webcam, or uploaded from your desktop. Download the result, or share it on Facebook and Twitter! Congrats Florian!

Congrats to Joel, John, and Florian for creating these awesome apps with our Effects API! With such great submissions, we're looking forward to running another API contest next month. To find out exactly when it starts, follow us on twitter @aviary (for all Aviary updates) or @aviaryapi (for just developer related updates), or subscribe to our blog!

Shopify & NY Daily News use Aviary API

Aviary's new API to announce : Shopify, a beautiful ecommerce hosting site & the New York Daily News, one of the largest daily newspapers in the USA.

Shopify

Shopify announced integration with Aviary's image editor Phoenix on their blog.

Now Shopify store owners can edit products shots, headers, and themes for their stores using Aviary. The images below show off the lovely integration on the Shopify admin panel.

So what did Shopify customers think?

Thanks @visualcreative! We think you're pretty awesome too!

The NY Daily News

The NY Daily News is running a great contest today to poke fun of the recent Air Force One flyover of NYC (background story) that scared lots of people and cost at least $60,000. They are trying to make a point about how easy and inexpensive it would have been to just have Photoshopped ($1,000) or used Aviary's image editor (free) to put Air Force One into scenes.

The Daily News even used Aviary's API to let you launch the Aviary image editor directly from their article!

Here are some creations from their contest that were made in Aviary:

Ed Juline - AF1 Flyby.egg by ejuline on Aviary

Bush-Obama-Jerusalem-flyover.egg by dubinsky on Aviary

Flyover Sodus.egg by rbbensinger on Aviary

We are excited by the number of developers who are tinkering with the Aviary API and cant wait until they release it to the public. If you have any ideas about how you would like the Aviary API to be implemented leave a comment. Your wish might come true.]]

Announcing Aviary's API

Since opening our doors, we've received many requests for the ability to embed Aviary's applications within other websites.

Well, we heard your chirps and are now proud to present the first version of our API!

Harness the power of Aviary's online image editor (Phoenix), vector editor (Raven), effects editor (Peacock) and color palette creator (Toucan) by adding just a few lines of code to your site. All you need are some basic server-side scripting skills in the language of your choice.

Register for the API and check out the documentation:

http://aviary.com/apidocs

If you need any help getting started, visit our forums or chat room and just ask!

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