fx

As all movie-makers know, if you want to put butts in the seats, you need splashy special effects.

Like, say, an explosive missile strike or an alien attack. And who doesn't love a massive car crash?

Bad Robot Interactive's Action Movie FX 2.0 lets you add Hollywood-style effects sequences to the movies you shoot on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad.

It works like this: Choose a sequence, then start filming. When you're done, the app lets you choose where in the clip to insert the effect. After a few seconds of rendering, presto: you've … Read more

Autodesk Motion FX is an effects plug-in for MacBook and iMac that works with the camera to give you some way-cool images. There's quite a bit built in to Motion FX, but the easiest way to learn what it does is to download it and play with it for 10 minutes. Do that and you might be hooked. Motion FX requires Mac OS X 10.7, so if you haven't upgraded yet this is a good reason to do it! Installation is easy.

To use Motion FX, you select an effect and it is applied to the image … Read more

If you thought photo editing on an iPhone was limited by touch and the device's 3.5-inch screen, you must try out HDR FX, a free, intuitive piece of digital photo software designed for the iPhone.

At launch, the app looks like any other app used for taking images, yet it has additional features such as antishake, which is very handy for taking clear pictures. However, HDR FX goes beyond just providing a set of tools with which to take cool pictures. Right after you've snapped an image, the fun begins, as the app begins to analyze it … Read more

Instacollage lets you combine and manipulate multiple photos into a single collage before sharing with your social networks. It gives you 18 different collage styles to choose from, including a single square picture layout (similar to Instagram), and layouts with up to four different panels of varying arrangements. After you pick your style, the empty collage template pops up so you can add your photos to the panels. The interface here is perfect, as it lets you simply tap a panel to insert a photo from your gallery, then drag and pinch to move and resize. Unfortunately, though, Instacollage does … Read more

It may not beat Photoshop, but Aviary is still one of the most comprehensive photo editors available for Android. What's more, it's incredibly simple to use.

From the get-go, Aviary makes it simple to edit your photos, as it opens up directly to a carousel of all the saved images on your device. From here, you can swipe through your photos straight away or go to your photo gallery and make your selection that way. Otherwise, the app also gives you the option to take a new photo to import into the editor.

Once you make your selection, … Read more

VJay, from the makers of DJay for iPhone, is mixing software for videos much like a DJ setup, but instead you'll record, mix, and add audio and effects to create cool-looking video mashups.

The interface is sleek-looking and fairly easy to use with a little bit of digging around. It is set up with video screens on the bottom on both sides, then the main viewing window up top. On each side you can touch a button to add a video source and work with playback and loop controls. You also have a button that brings up tools for … Read more

I'm looking at my guitar sitting on a stand in the corner of the room. It just looks so plain. If only it had screaming LED lights blazing along the neck and lighting up as I shred my way through a folksy murder ballad.

My imaginary light show could soon become reality with NeckFX, a Kickstarter project that aims to turn regular guitar necks into finger-triggered light shows.… Read more

Photofunia is a ridiculously simple photo effects app that lets you drop your photos into funny and interesting scenes, similar to those you might find at an amusement park photo booth. If, say, you want to see what your face might look like on a billboard in Times Square, Photofunia has an effect for that. How about on the cover of Esquire Magazine? Photofunia's got that covered, too. With an incredible number of effects available, the possibilities seem endless.

To get started with Photofunia, just fire up the app and start looking for an effect you like. You can … Read more

Yesterday, I wrote about Luminance, a streamlined-yet-versatile photo editor that I think iPad users in particular will like. Paint FX ($1.99) is a bit more complicated, but for the slightly steeper learning curve, you gain the ability to edit only select areas of a photo.

To get started, tap the load/share button in the upper-left corner to load a photo from your Camera Roll, Photo Stream, or iPhoto (if you have your iDevice set up to sync some portion of your iPhoto library). You can also grab a photo from Facebook. This button also lets you save photos to your Camera Roll or share them via Facebook, e-mail, or the Paint FX community page.… Read more