One of the most essential parts of web development is finding the right look-and-feel for what you’re building. When working on a project, web designers experiment with tons of themes, customizations, animations, and other aspects to find exactly what they or their clients like. And CSS plays a major role in such web designing. Typically, web designing with CSS involves putting in the code, watching how it turns out on the website, tweaking the code a bit, then again watching the results, and so on. It’s an iterative process involving considerable time and effort. And for someone who’s new to CSS, the whole thing can turn into a nightmare since he’d have to research to find the exact lines of code that can result in the effect he want.

Although it’s a part of the job, it is natural for designers to feel exhausted and frankly, annoyed with it after some time. But that’s just how the process goes. There isn’t really anything anyone can do about it right?

Well, not actually! With Animista, a lot can be done to ease CSS based web designing; actually to the point of making it click-based. Want to know how?

Animista – the wonder tool for creating and testing CSS on the fly!

Animista is a place where you can play with a collection of pre-made CSS animations, tweak them and save only the ones you actually wish to use. It’s like a supermarket for CSS animations. You visit, you tweak and play around, you consider options, and you pick the stuff you like. The online tool contains a considerable amount of animations that have been organized in a meaningful and accessible way so that they can be easily reused on different projects. What started off as a small personal project for a web designer, has shaped into this online playground which contains a collection of pre-made animations that can be tested with various options like easing, delay, duration and others. Once a user is satisfied with his selections, all he needs to do is save the code for the animation and he’s done. The work which would have taken hours to research, build, and test, squeezed into the work of minutes – that’s Animista for you!

Here are the best features of the tool at a glance:

• Generates CSS animation code at the click of a button
• Contains pre-designed motions like slides, transforms, swings, shade dump animations, and more
• Supports exporting generated code
• HTML5 FileSystem API based downloads supported in Chrome browser

Now, let’s start playing!

This is how it rolls

The tool’s homepage is a bit confusing to be honest, but you can view that as a sign of uniqueness too. When you visit the page, all you can see in the name of the tool and a ‘Try Me’ button next to it. That’s it! No scroll-bars, no menus, no footers, nothing. For a moment you start wondering if the page has loaded properly or are some elements still pending. Once you’ve figured out that you need to click on ‘Try Me’ to proceed, you’ll land up on the tool’s dashboard. And everything will instantly become clear.

Here’s the working of the tool explained step-wise:

• Instead of the black box in the center of the screen, select an object which gets affected by animations. For this click on the drop-down named “select object” in the Options section on the left (try the card (hor-flip) 3D object)
• Browse through animation options displayed within circles on the top and play with various options like easing, delay, duration etc. You should be able to see how they affect the animation on the spot
• You can change animation attributes through the Options section of the left. Everything will show results instantly
• When you see something you like just hit the ‘heart’ icon on the upper-right corner of the animation panel. Once you do this, several options will become available on the top-right corner of the screen.
• Rinse and repeat until you are happy with your picks. You can see your favorites at any time by hitting the “Funnel” button or click the “Trash” button to start from scratch.
• When you are ready, head to download screen by clicking the ‘Download’ button or download link in main navigation. If you use Chrome browser, hit the download button and check your download folder. If everything went well the ‘animista.css’ file should be there.
• Alternatively, you can generate the code for the animation by clicking on the “curly braces” icon on the upper-right corner of the animation panel. When you see the code, simply copy it and paste it into your favorite code editor.

What we like and what needs to be improved

Needless to say, a tool that offers such flexibility, variety of options, and ease-of-use and is also free is a clear cut winner. However, Animista does have a lot to improve on. This includes direct download support for browsers other than Chrome, more object options, and a brief explanation of what the different options on the left exactly do (it’s mostly try and find out for beginners right now).

• Build, Tweak, & Play with CSS Animations on animista.net/ @cssanimista via @supermonitoring

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Verdict

We like Animista, and so do a lot of designers across the globe. A few more enhancements and sometime later this tool could be one of the simplest-yet-most-useful tools out there.

Relationships form the very base of society and in the modern world, technology plays quite an important role in fostering relationships. With the rise in social networking websites and mobile apps, staying in touch is as easy as the click of a button or a simple tap on a screen. Remembering dear ones on special days and wishing them with beautiful personalized photo messages and picture collages is much easier today as compared to the times when we had to step out and look for experts who could do that, pay to get it done and then have the gift delivered. Now, all it takes is the installation of an app on your mobile device and a little creativity.

Today we’re going to focus on one application that has made the world an easier place by offering simple, touch-and-go methods to transform photos into pieces of art so that they can be shared with loved ones to express your feelings. In the spotlight – Pixlr!

Pixlr – the makeover artist for photos

Quite a few of us are not so good at capturing the perfect shot. We don’t know how to use the background, how to make advantage of the lighting and in some cases, even how to hold the camera still. The result? Blurred photos with ok lighting and a random background that are good, but not great. So what can we do to touch up the pictures of important moments that have not turned out so well? Transform them into beautiful images with Pixlr.

Pixlr is an omnipresent photo-editing app that can turn everyday pictures into works of art wherever you are and whenever inspiration strikes. And this fact is evident from the first look that you lay on the tool’s website. It’s classy, elegant and yet so captivating. Scroll down and you can discover sample photos that you can click on to view in detail. If you want to see how fabulous the results of creative minds using this application can be, click on the “Made with Plixlr” tab on the main menu. You be swarmed with a continuous stream of awesome images that were just ordinary photos earlier.

Pixlr lets anyone become a genius photographer. No matter if you’re trained in photography or not, doesn’t matter what camera you have or what shot you capture. Pixlr lets you morph it into something as beautiful as you can imagine it to be. And the best part of it is, no one knows how plain or even bad the original shot was. So it’s a big boon for the not-so-good clickers out there.

How it works

Pixlr comes in three different flavors – web app, mobile app and desktop app. Let’s go through each one by one.

To launch Pixlr web app, click on the “Web Apps” tab on the main menu. Once redirected, you can choose to jump right in by clicking on the “Launch Web App” button or scroll down to have a look at the sub-flavors available. You can choose from the following sub-flavors:

• Pixlr Editor: Browser photo editor that’s robust and fits for most needs. This option lets you have full control over your images including layers and effects. If you launch this option you’re taken to a page where you can choose to upload images from the computer, take them from a URL, capture fresh ones through the webcam or make a picture collage with photos on your computer. Each image that you select can be edited with a variety of adjustments, effects, overlays, borders, stickers and text. The final image can be saved to the computer by clicking on the “Save” button.
• Pixlr O-Matic: Free photo-editing tool to add retro effects and make your photos look like vintage images. If you launch this option you’re taken to a page where you can either take a fresh picture through the webcam or upload one from your computer. Thereafter a cool speed-o-meter like pointer let’s you choose if you want to add effects, add overlays or play with borders. The whole look of the tool is very chic. The final image can be saved to the computer by clicking on the “Save” button.
• Pixlr Touch-up: Free offline photo editor for chrome. You’ll have to download this tool to your machine to work offline.

Mobile

On clicking on the “Mobile” tab on the main menu, you’ll be redirected to a page where you can choose where you wish to get the app from – App Store (iOS) or Google Play (Android). Choose the appropriate option and install the app on your tablet or phablet. To get it on your phone just visit the appropriate store and install it.

Desktop

If you were thinking this app is only for smart devices and there’s no way you can get a hold of it on your old desktop, you can rejoice. The desktop version of the app is available for download on Windows and Mac. Download it and go crazy editing.

Plus VS Minus

The highlights are major and many but they can be summed up in 7 words – ‘awesome free photo editing on the go’.
As far as the downside of the tool is concerned, it’s tough to find. There’s just such a high cool factor about the app that you’ll happily overlook any glitches (if you happen to find some).

• Give your photos an awesome makeover over the web, mobile or desktop with @pixlr pixlr.com/ via @supermonitoring

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Wrapping it up

We know you’re waiting for us to come to the pricing part. Well yes, there is a price to the premium version of the app that has more options for you, but, the free version also has quite a lot in store if you don’t want to go the paying way.
All-in-all, great tool to go bonkers with photos! Just visit the website and experience it for yourself.