APP
OF THE
DAY
Squigglish!
Draw lines. Now they wiggle.
We see you there, doodling on your newspaper. You’re putting a glasses and moustache on a politician’s face, aren’t you? Adding a hat and a few nostril hairs to that over-exposed celebrity?
If you are someone who absolutely cannot resist adding some silly graffiti to a famous face (or indeed, to any face), then Squigglish! is the app for you.
Start by choosing a photo from your library (or taking a new one using the app), then select a brush (there are various levels of squiggly-ness from wavy lines to tight coils) and a colour. Start doodling, and every squiggle you draw will wiggle – add twinkly eyes, jumping eyebrows, a head of flowing hair, whatever you like. It's silly, but excellent.
Here’s the geeky bit for you: the secret behind Squigglish!'s squirmy images is a mathematical function called the Fourier series. This is what allows the app to calculate the ‘correct’ tremor necessary for every line. It's no surprise that several of the app’s developers, Iridesic LLC, are mathematicians.
All you need to know, however, is that you can squiggle away and then convert your creation into a GIF or video to share online.