Quirky App Of The Day: MixBooth
by Kathryn Zane
June 3, 2012
MixBooth is a hilarious way to combine the face and head of two different people. This app is simpler than the apps that predict how babies will look from two different people. However, it does come with specific instructions to make sure your pictures come out great. Here's how it works.
The first picture that you choose is the face picture. The second picture is the headshot. MixBooth doesn't blend the facial features themselves. You won't end up with one person's nose or another person's mouth. It will be the complete face that you selected. While that might not sound like fun at first, the above picture definitely illustrates how hilarious it can be. The app gives four distinct instructions to make sure that your blended picture comes out great. The app advises that you only use a face completely facing forward. Both ears need to be exposed for the head picture to work, and there shouldn't be any hair obstructing the forehead or across the face. Uniform lighting is also important to make sure that the picture comes out right.
As an experiment, I used a picture that didn't follow any of the instructions whatsoever. That's right. I live life on the edge. While the picture didn't come out as a seamless blend, it was hilarious. The app analyzed the picture and marked my features with moveable boxes so that I could frame them properly. Even though my head was tilted to the side, it still accurately tracked my features. It also still let me use the picture. The blending process distorted some of my features, which was my fault since I didn't follow any of the instructions, and the end result made me look like an image from a circus mirror. It was still great.
Another cool feature is the attention to skin tone. The app provides ten stock photos that you can use for the headshot. They include several different skin tones. I used all of them. One of them is even an asian lady with her face painted in traditional white makeup. The app changed the skin tone from my personal picture to match the stock photo that I was using.
Once the picture is complete, there's the option to share it with your friends through Twitter, Facebook, or old-fashioned email. You can also save the image to the camera roll. I chose to delete my abominations rather than share them with anyone. I'll save the sharing for a proper picture that actually follows the instructions.
MixBooth is an iPhone app that is available in the App Store for $0.99.
