Originally released as a free application for the DSi back in 2009, Flipnote Studio was the virtual equivalent of a flip book. A simple concept, the app captured the imagination of many, and, as is usually the way with anything you let people go crazy with creativity on, a whole host of rather impressive animations quickly popped up on the official Flipnote Hatena sharing site - including some seriously amazing ones submitted for the The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary competition. And, following a recent Nintendo Direct Mini, it seems that 3DS owners will soon be able to get in on the animating fun, with the news that Flipnote Studio 3D will be hitting the 3DS eShop later this month - although the transition also means that the Flipnote Hantena website will be no more from the end of May.
Zelda, Link and Gannondorf took the news about Flipnote Hantena hard...
With the application's move over to the 3DS comes the ability to create three-dimensional pictures in your Flipnotes, letting you draw across three different layers, giving your creations more depth. The colour palette has also been expanded beyond simple black, blue and red sketches to include six different colours - most notably, yellow and green which can presumably be mixed in the same way as before by stacking layers to give you many more colours to play with.
Another funky new feature is the ability to export your creations in the AVI video format or as animated GIFs - making them far easier to share with your friends. But while there's no official Flipnote Hatena replacement, Nintendo have at least made a few nods to the social aspect by letting you share creations with other Flipnote-using friends via Flipnote Gallery: Friends, or with the wider Flipnote community with Flipnote Gallery: World - but sadly, there's something of a catch. While Flipnote Gallery: Friends is free, if you want to share your creations with people who aren't on your friends list, you'll have to pay a "small monthly fee" to access Flipnote Gallery: World - although you do get a free month trial which can be extended if you're particularly talented and your creations get loads of votes. At least the software will be free, we suppose...
For those of you that can't wait till the download lands this summer, Nintendo have put some of their own demo creations for you to have a gander at. We would've attempted to put our own together, too, but it probably wouldn't have been the best demonstration of the program's capabilities...
