New Work: Where To? App Preview
by Andreas | 11. 09. 2014 | Blog
I'm very pleased to announce the release of Where To? 7. Where To? is an iPhone app that allows you to find the best restaurants, and shops around you. With this major update Where To? not only got a visual makeover and now also includes integration with the Pebble smart watch, it also got a brand new iOS 8 App Preview produced by zCasting 3000.
Before we'll dive into some behind-the-scenes infos. Let's first check out this iOS 8 App Preview of Where To?, shall we?
While we generally followed Apple's guidelines for App Previews in terms of length and showing the app only, we also knew we had to test uncertain waters. This App Preview includes shots showing the navigation integration of Where To? and the Pebble smart watch.
The client, FutureTap, did all the scripting and storyboarding by themselves, only taking recommendations here and there, from zCasting 3000.
As always with screencasts and app videos, we had to use beta software, which, also always, means some aspects of the app needed to be "covered" to make this app look as good as possible on the App Store. All in all this project uses about 8 layers of video material. Not that much, but 8 is a good number for a project like this. Here's a small breakdown, showing most significant changes only. From left to right:
Final composited shot as it appears in the video. Status bar is different and only some other aspects. This shot has the final version of the status bar, and the reviews button is "touched".
Corrected shot of the recorded video. Where To? didn't show the right menu info, as it appears in the final version of this app. There was also the problem that Where To? displays the translated category underneath the set language category. Compared to the correct shot the status bar is different, Italian doesn't show the localized "Italienisch" below its text anymore, we have 41 ratings instead of 43, the description is longer, and the main menu is included, as it appears in the final app.
Original shot.
Where To? is a personal favorite on my iPhone ever since I have one. I can recommend this app, go check it out at FutureTap or on the App Store.
Bonus: Bloopers
One mistake that I'm willing to confess: in the scene where the photo gets flicked up above outside the screen and comes back into the photo view, the status bar overlays the photo. In the final app the status bar is not an opaque bar, as this video makes it appear. In fact the iOS status bar displays text and symbols, for clock, reception, battery, etc., on a transparent background. This means when you actually flick the photo in the app, the photo slides through right underneath the status text, without the opaque bar.
The problem here was that the order the layers had to be couldn't be keyed to make the background really perfectly transparent. The material I had to work with didn't allow to make this really better. The background doesn't have the same color as the recorded one because of color issues. Now we could have worked with masks and correct every single frame, but that would have meant to delay the production. We had to make a decision and said this is too small of an issue to cause delays.
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