“Kwik is the software that many authors and artists have been hoping for since the first book apps appeared in the app store.”
Diane Cipollo
T’was The Night Before Christmas
Share this timeless Christmas classic with your children or grandchildren and give them a peak into your childhood Christmas memories. T’was The Night Before Christmas is a poem written by Clement C. Moore and first published in 1823. Originally entitled A Visit From Saint Nicholas, this poem has been adapted into many other forms throughout the decades, including books, comic books, films, radio and television – to name a few.
Now, you can enjoy this simple story about the arrival of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. Everyone is asleep – Mom, Dad, the children – even the mice. Dad awakens to get a glimpse of Santa.
In this iPad adaption, the mice are also awakened by Santa’s arrival and you can join them as they play with the children’s toys as well as the new gifts Santa brings.
Features:
– Read to Me and Read Myself options
– Sound effects and interaction on every page
– Look through the window to see Santa and the reindeer
– Help Santa fill the stockings with goodies
– Blow the whistle for the miniature train
– Play with the ball and ride the rocking horse
– Play with the toys under the tree
– Games: Three jigsaw puzzles.
How did Kwik help?
Kwik is the software that many authors and artists have been hoping for since the first book apps appeared in the app store. Many have tried to create their own book apps with Xcode and Objective C but have given up in defeat. The Kwik plug-in opens the doors for those with dreams of making their own book apps.
dCipollo Designs started as a design and development business but my real love is teaching others, which I have done at BellaOnline for over 10 years. T’was The Night Before Christmas is the finished working example for my latest book app development tutorials. These step-by-step project based tutorials show anyone how to build an iPad storybook app in Photoshop using the Kwik plugin with no programming skills. Using Photoshop and Kwik is a very user-friendly app development option for authors and artists, because of their familiarity with the Photoshop workspace.
What are your favorite features?
I don’t have any favorite features – I’m blown away by them all because I know what it would take to write the code. It’s amazing how Alex has taken that code for animation and interaction, reducing it down into an easy-to-use plug-in for Photoshop. The author or artist only needs to use the drop-down menus and checkboxes to add great looking animation or fun interaction to the pages of their own storybook app.
Any tips and tricks to share?
When you’re in the beginning stage and you’re working out just that perfect animation or interaction for the pages in your book, make a storyboard and take screenshots of the settings in the Kwik panel. Then, when you’ve finished experimenting and are ready to build the app for publication, you have a record of exactly what you wanted to put on each page and how you created those great animations and interactions in the Kwik panel. You’ll thank yourself over and over.
Alex’s Review
T’was The Night Before Christmas is a good example of what a single, talent, person can do with Kwik. It pretty much compiles a good set of features offered by the plugin. Besides the story, which offers a good narration when Read to Me is selected, you will be able to play with three jigsaw puzzles. And even better, the app is free! Diane has been a great collaborator for Kwiksher, writing tutorials about Kwik at her BellaOnline website.
