Contest: Facebook Profile Photo Makeover

A few months ago, we partnered up with Pixable to offer their users an additional level of awesome - fun photo editing on the fly! With a simple click, Pixable users can launch Feather to tweak their profile pics, friend's engagement photos, step-grandma's poodle pics, etc. etc. This week, we're combining all our fun juices together to run a Facebook Exclusive contest, entitled "Profile Photo Makeover!" Plus we just like having contests!

The rules are simple:

Use Pixable's Photofeed app to choose a friend's profile pic (you can easily find them by choosing the 'New Profile Pics' category.

Edit the photo with Feather, our simple image editor. You can find the edit button on the bottom lefthand corner. Launch Pixable now.

Once the app is running,

• Add a funny, hilarious, laugh till your stomach explodes comment with the text tool
• Beautify the photo with a fun filter (polaroid, retro, instant, old news)
• Adjust where needed! (change colors, add doodling, adjust brightness, blur, crop, etc.)
• Slap a silly beard or hat with the stickers tool
• Be as creative as you want!

Submissions

Entries may be submitted in 2 ways

• Download photo to desktop (option will be displayed after you click 'save'). Then upload it to the Pixable wall on Facebook.
• Download photo to desktop (option will be displayed after you click 'save'). Then share it on Twitter with a #Pixable hashtag.

The last photo must be submitted by August 16th, 11:59PM PST. Our team of scavengers will find every photo submitted, so don't you worry!

*U.S. submissions only

What am I going to win???

Our BFF's at Photojojo have been kind enough to offer the best and most creative photo a sweet prize! If you're not familiar with Photojojo, they publish an insanely great newsletter on photography. More specifically, they scour the internets, rip pages out of magazines, ransack their friends' closets, and go though dumpsters to find the very best Photo tups, DIY projects, and Gear. The Photojojo store carries only the most awesome photo gifts and gear for photographers.

Up for grabs is a fisheye, telephoto, AND macro/wide angle cell phone lens! These finely constructed lenses transform your standard phone photos into a wide, up-close, super zoomed and wonderfully warped wonders. They work with any camera phone, and yes, you'll receive all three lenses! Learn more about the lenses

*The top photo will also receive an Aviary t-shirt, Pixable t-shirt, and a box full of goodies.

We're looking forward to all the entries! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email us, but also you can subscribe to our blog , follow us on twitter and facebook to get the latest updates on contests and more.

Edit Alberta J. Ellybeans, Win an Aviary Gift Pack!

Your task is to give this baby elephant a friend, a companion, maybe a tree, maybe a shirt, a hat, some new shoes?? A rainforest in the background??? Simply put, it’s a FREE-4-ALL! Add anything to this image! To start, open up the file created by Aviary superstar Flavia. Then click on ‘Open in Vector Editor’

Once your creation is finished, add a link to our Facebook Post. (You must ‘like’ the Aviary page to post a link)

The contest will end on Monday, May 9th, at 5PM EST. The winner will be chosen based on how creative or jaw-dropping their creation is, and will receive and Aviary t-shirt + more!!!

Need a quick refresher on how to use our vector editor? Click here

UPDATE 5/10/2011 - Winner winner, chicken dinner! Congrats to Ozzybear for giving Alberta J Ellybeans one sweet habitat!

Edit Your Facebook Photos with Aviary and Pixable

Pixable has enabled over a million users to manage their online photos with a variety of features that are centered around photo search, aggregation, editing, and photo-product creation. When Pixable first launched, they allowed users to create and print photo books from within their Facebook, but since then, the company has grown to offer an assortment of tools including mosaics, digital videos, and a powerful Facebook app (imagine your news feed on steroids), entitled Photofeed. Photofeed offers users a unique and fun way to discover photos on Facebook. Not only can you browse through feeds of photos customized to your taste and connections, you can have them automatically filtered into specific categories (Popular of the Week, Best of the Month, Just Ladies, Popular on Flickr/Instagram) and more!

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve partnered up with Pixable to offer their users the ability to edit and customize their photos, right inside of Facebook! Pixable is the first to implement Feather, our simple image editor, onto Facebook's platform, showcasing how the float version of Feather can be used in Facebook's iframe without any fuss!

Now you can finally get your daily dose of Facebook gossip, find out what you did in last night's party photos, or view your cousin's newborn child, while having the ability to edit and add fun effects to any of their images! Basic tools include quick-edits like rotate, crop, blur, brightness, etc, to more advanced filters like retro, toy camera, 1st camera, and more.

Launch http://apps.facebook.com/pixable/ to get started.

After you choose a photo, look for the ‘Edit’ button, located on the bottom right-hand corner. Once clicked, Feather will appear. *Note: You can drag the widget anywhere you please!

You may notice that the editor looks a little different from our original design. We’ve worked together with Pixable to produce a customized skin, and it serves as an excellent example of how our editor can be customized to fit your site! We changed the color schemes to fit Pixable's brand, and we changed the buttons from eggs to circles. If you'd like to look into customizing Feather for your own site, give us a hoot!

Once you're done editing, you can save it to your desktop or straight to Facebook!

Here’s a video tutorial in case you left your reading glasses at home!

[youtube width="640" height="510"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KCw9ryKJXg[/youtube]

"Simply, we're using feather to give our users another level of engagement and fun with their photos on Facebook. As our attempt is to be the destination where people come to enjoy their photos, we want to add another type of enjoyment - editing. They'll then be able to share or save these photos just as they can do with any of the other photos they discover through Photofeed." - Loren Appin, Director of Marketing

If you've integrated our Simple Image Editor onto your site, or would like to inquire about custom stickers and skins, let us know at api@aviary.com. Our Simple Image Editor is free to use and free to implement on your site. If you're a developer and would like to try it out, read the technical documentation,  or embed it on your site, go to aviary.com/html5

Zoomin Adds Filter Effects to Their Facebook App

Zoomin is a leading online service that enables you to share, store, and print your digital images, easily and affordably. From photo books, prints, postcards, gifts, stationaries and more, Zoomin is no doubt on top of their game. Their photo prints and gifts are of the highest professional quality, using world class technology and infrastructure to deliver you top notch products. Zoomin ultimately allows their members to connect with family and friends, sharing love, laughter, and life - online and offline!

Zoomin's latest initiative, Zoomin Postcards, is a Facebook app that allows you to upload and send any of your Facebook photos as REAL postcards! Send them to your friends, your family, who knows, maybe even your dog! Currently, these real-life postcards are limited to being sent only in India, but Zoomin plans to offer digital postcards soon, allowing any user across the world to benefit from their app.

The best part? They've just integrated Aviary's Effects API, adding a variety of effects for their users to have fun with, including First Camera, Old Newspaper, and more! This is a great example of how our API can be used to enhance your already awesome app or platform. We're more than excited to be a part of Zoomin's fun and creative project!

If you're interested in testing, integrating, or learning more about the features of our Server API, email us at api[at]aviary.com or visit the Effects API documentation!

Getting started with Zoomin Postcards is easy. Visit Facebook.com/Zoomin and 'like' their page. Then click on Zoomin Postcards in the sidebar, located on the left-hand side (or you can just go straight to apps.facebook.com/zoominpostcard).

Select your favorite Facebook photos and albums, and choose up to 3 photos...

Then customize your postcard! You can choose from 4 different filter effects, located underneath the photo.

Flip the photo over to add a message and address, and you're good to go!

Here's a video tutorial to help you get started!

If you've integrated our Server API onto your site, let us know at api@aviary.com. If you're a developer and would like to try it out, get an API key, read the technical documentation, or use it on your site, check out the Effects API documentation!

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Aviary Photo Effects in Facebook

Aviary Effects, that is targeted for people who don't really know how to use more advanced apps.

We made this new app with a very simple goal in mind: Make someone feel like they have amazing creative power with just a few simple mouse clicks.

Lego	Etch-a-Sketch	Sketch
Pop Art	Oil	Warhol

We are initially launching on Facebook's app platform and will also host it on Aviary's website shortly as well as stand-alone entity (or as a filter option within our image editor tools). You will be able to turn any of your or your friend's Facebook photos (defaulting to your profile picture) into stand alone pieces of art work.

I used the following photo of myself and Marilyn Monroe (on one of our infamous dates) to illustrate the power of some of the effects.

Check out what I was able to do with Aviary: Effects on my photo!

Sketch Effect
Turn your photo into a hyper-realistic pencil sketch drawing:

Try it!

Toy Bricks Effect
Make your photo out of stacked toy bricks, similar to the Lego toys.

Try it!

Pop Art Effect (my favorite)
Turn your photo into a Roy Lichtenstein-esque pop art photo.

Try it!

Etch-a-Sketch Effect
Make your photo on an Etch-a-Sketch

Try it!

Oil Painting Effect
Make your photo into an oil painting.

Try it!

We have a whole slew of amazing effects planned with the level of Aviary polish you have come to know and love. Our criteria in developing these were that they were fast, fun and as beautiful as possible. We also threw an added bonus of letting you watch your effect build your creation right in front of you - so you can watch it made in real time by our team of hyper computer sparrows.

This app is completely free to use and available now. You can even play with your friends' photos! If you have a Facebook account, go give Aviary Effects a try and let us know what you think in the Aviary forums!]]

Announcing Our New Facebook Application

Facebook Application for editing your Facebook photos directly in Facebook.

Use our app to browse and edit your photos and your friends photos on the fly. The app creates a new album in Facebook called "Aviary Advanced Editor Photos" where all of your creations are saved.

Perfect for basic re-touching as well as complex effects, our Facebook editor includes brushes, blend modes, a magic wand, layers, groups, layer masks, and so much more.

If you're an experienced user you can jump right in and start creating. If you're new, you can head over to our tutorials to get some tips and tricks.

Give it a try and don't forget to let us know what you think!
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