Back in days of yore I took a two-week course in HyperCard, the long lost Mac-only application creator that is now looked back on as one of the precursors to the modern Web. While our use of the application was mainly to create small animations with sounds and interactive buttons, it was fun, and if I really knew what I was doing, it likely would have led me down a different path.
So when I heard about a project called TileStack my ears perked up. The idea behind it is to bring old HyperCard stacks back to life by putting them on the Web, meaning you can take some of those long lost creations from the late '80s and early '90s and make them working Web apps. You simply upload them to TileStack's servers and they'll be converted and hosted for just you or the entire world to use once again--sans the software that is.
What makes the app especially cool is that you can make edits to public stacks, or just the ones you've uploaded from the past. You can also make entirely new ones with a Web-based editor that's a step up from the one in the old days.
So far, the mix of stacks goes from rehashes of modernday Widget files to honest-to-goodness early 1990s HyperCard test programs. There are also some newer creations that blend in special effects like fades, wipes, and transitions--some of the polishes that come with a decade of technological advancement. Co-founder and CEO Joshua Gertzen tells me future plans entail an iPhone-centric interface and more focus on widgetized content. Since the service runs without Flash, Gertzen says, TileStack is perfect for the iPhone and other devices that run on the Web without all of the latest technologies that are found on the desktop.
TileStack is in private beta with plans to launch at the end of summer. It originally demoed at the MacWorld Expo back in January. You can sign up on this page in the meantime. I've also embedded a demo of it in action after the break.
Kind of related: AniBOOM's ShapeShifter: easy user-generated animation creation
Does this look old to you? It is. This record collection organizer app comes from Claris--the ancestor of FileMaker, which now works on TileStack.
(Credit: CNET Networks)... Read More
Old-school Mac users might remember a little application called HyperCard. Originally a database application, it doubled as a casual animation tool--letting users create fairly basic cartoons, frame by frame. This morning I've been playing around with AniBOOM's ShapeShifter, a Web-based animation creation tool that brings back those old feelings of black-and-white computing, with a new social bookmarking twist.
ShapeShifter is pretty simple to use. There are four shapes to choose from, and you can place them wherever you want on the canvas. Each shape can be rotated, resized and grouped together to make new forms. When you're done moving things around you just add another frame. Every time you do this, all your shapes come with you from the frame before. To see the last few frames at once, there's an "Onion" button which displays three of each shape's previous movements in layers. This is incredibly helpful if you want to figure out what you were doing.
To spice up your creation, there are four basic sound effects. You can also upload your own files, to replace them, although the file size is capped at 50KB, so they must be kept small.
When you have finished your masterpiece, it can be shared with other AniBOOM members or friends (via URL), who can rate and comment on it. It's a little bit like YouTube, but the content is made entirely on the site. Unfortunately you can't embed your work on other sites--something I think would do well on social networking profiles.
ShapeShifter isn't a replacement to professional animation tools, but it's really easy to pick up and surprisingly fun to use. I'm holding back on calling it a time waster, as it's more of an art tool.
ShapeShifter's workspace is fairly simple. Shapes on the left, and editing tools on the right.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
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