Comments for Aviary: Flashy Collaborative Media Editing

Aviary: Flashy Collaborative Media Editing

2008-02-05T17:47:52Z

Online media processing tool suite Aviary is opening up two of its many services to those who have requested beta access and a limited number of new requesters. The first two tools, an image editor and a pattern generator, are impressive and will be followed by a vector editor next month and the rest of the Aviary tools later.

]]> Photoshop contest site Worth1000 is behind Aviary and built the tools in Flex and Actionscript3. The primary value of making the image editor social is in allowing users to view multiple steps in an image's creation process. You can fork off into a new design at any point in the design timeline, you can leave comments, etc.

Forthcoming tools from Aviary include audio and video editors, a font editor, digital content marketplace service and more. If you'd like an invite to Aviary's services, just visit the site and the first 100 RWW readers will get in right away.

The following is a short video demonstrating the image editor made by its creators. Let's be generous and presume that the choice to demonstrate the tool in transforming a young sex object, driven to psychiatric institutionalization into an old, poor, sickly looking image of womanhood reflects only a lack of maturity on the part of the Aviary staff and is not instead a reflection on the quality of their souls. In other words, leave Britney alone, dudes. Just another day in the male dominated tech world - may the creatives of the future be more creative than this.

Either way, it's a good looking set of tools that I look forward to seeing how our readers put to use.

Comment from Nate Westheimer on 2008-02-06

2008-02-06T21:10:41Z

This is actually a lot more revolutionary that folks realize. Wiki-like functionality to image editing is huge. I was browsing around on the site and loved being able to see the source and derivative files for each image. When the vector editor comes out I'll be able to work on a logo with my partner and not have to email back and forth. You're smoking crack if you don't see how awesome this is (and powerful).

And Marshall, I think that's a pretty harsh assessment of their video. I mean, sure it's a little easy, but it's a photo Brittany put out there and I don't think it has anything to do with her current state. They wanted to show how dramatically you could change an image.

Comment from Marshall Kirkpatrick on 2008-02-05

2008-02-05T19:25:17Z

Steven, you've read 3 reviews of this service now and still can't tell how it differs from Photoshop? Either you've found three top blogs that aren't explaining things well, or there's something funny going on over at your end, or the web based collaboration, commenting and timeline feature described above doesn't sound compelling to you. I have to wonder.

Comment from chrispian on 2008-02-05

2008-02-05T19:25:12Z

Interesting looking app, but the video is hilarious. Usually you see people touching up images in the other direction. Pretty slick.

Comment from Steven Finch on 2008-02-05

2008-02-05T19:20:45Z

This looks like a great service, that i have seen already reviewed on CenterNetworks and Techcrunch. Im not sure about the service though. Why should i use this service and not just find a rip off version of Photoshop.. However, i really wish i could use photoshop properly.