Me in 2D!
October 4, 2014
For class this week our assignment was to evaluate a mobile application on our smartphones. I recently downloaded FaceQ from the Apple App Store after I saw so many people creating cute little 2D versions of themselves.
FaceQ is free to download, offered in a long list of languages and will take up 28.5MB on your device. I did some investigating and you are also able to download this application for Android. Blackberry users have also had some success with running the Android application on their phones.
If there is one thing that I am terrible at–it’s drawing. Somehow the ideas I have in my head never translate correctly to paper–always a likely story. What I enjoyed about FaceQ is that I had the opportunity to create a “drawing” of myself without having to actually move a pencil around. In the end, I still was able to produce the same result–a fun cartoon!
Unlike many apps that are available today, FaceQ does not include any advertising banners on any of its screens. I have never been a fan of the pop up ads that you accidentally click when you are trying to click on a button or link inside of an app–so this was actually refreshing to me!
This particular application was a really fun and easy service to use because there was a wide assortment of different features that you could pick for your cartoon self. You had everything from hair styles, hair colors, eyes, lips, noses, outfits and skin tones. The facial features range from being rather normal looking to right out cartoonish; it would be almost effortless to create a caricature highlighting one of your friends’ visual quirks. For example, I decided to create my Dad. He has a giant mustache so I wanted to make sure his avatar had the perfect facial hair. Another trait he posses is that he always wears his sunglasses–even indoors. By the time I was finished, my Dad looked more like Borat.
One feature that I did find that was a drawback was being unable to control the color of the avatar’s makeup and clothing. When you are finished creating your work of art you can upload it to one of your social networking accounts, send it via email or save it to your phone.
This application is for pure entertainment purposes and offers no coupons, discounts or interaction with other users. There is no usefulness beyond that–unless you need a special cartoon-ized character for clipart. If nothing else, you get a pretty rad 2D masterpiece!
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Tags: cartoon, FaceQ, MMC5427, smartphone app
Hi Megan,
Thanks for your post! I’ve never heard of FaceQ before, but your experience looks fun! I think I would enjoy it. It seems like the type of application that could be amusing for people of all ages — adults and children included! I could definitely see my 11-year-old sister having a great time with this. Your experience cracked me up. He does look more like Borat (in the FaceQ caricature), but that is so hysterical and awesome! If and when I get some free time (hopefully sooner rather than later), I am going to add this to my must-download list. It’s interesting that you did not find any advertising or advertising platform on FaceQ. I wonder why the app developers chose to make it like that? I would think this free app would be a perfect example of when app developers could use creativity to generate profits. I do agree though, it is refreshing to see a free app that is also free of annoying advertisers.
Thanks!
Kim
Hey Kim,
I was also curious as to why there wasn’t any advertising on the app. I tried accessing the website the developer has but it is in a different language and there wasn’t a translate option–so I was not able to gather any additional details. What the SIMS did on Facebook from time to time was offer special items like t-shirts that you could wear that were “special editions” promoting something. FaceQ could let a company design a piece of clothing with a logo or something and use that for brand recognition or do a small pop up ad before you save your image–there are so many possibilities to capitalize on advertising. I’m sure within time, like all great apps, advertising will creep in there. Until then, I really think it’s awesome that it doesn’t have any :o)
Hi Megan: This looks like a fun app! For many of us in social media and digital marketing careers, finding interesting ways to present people can be burdensome. Creating caricatures out of characters gives us a creative way of expressing a message. I wonder, can you place this in a message post on Facbook or Twitter? I remember how just about everyone it seemed was using Bit Strips and now I can’t remember the last time I saw one of those. I wonder if FaceQ might also fall victim to the short span for app value we seem to have these days. The goal for most of these apps is to advertise and then sell them off to some bigger conglomerate. I’m not sure if FaceQ just isn’t big enough yet to sell ads yet or if they have another strategy in mind. If its another strategy, I’d be interested to learn more. Thanks for the post.
Hey Daniela,
Yes, this app does give you the opportunity to post directly to a few different places like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WeChat. You can also just save it to your phone so you can send it directly to the person you are creating the image of, or just keep the image for yourself without posting to a third party platform. I wish I was able to find more details about this app but the developer’s website offered no English translation and my googling provided no details. I’m sure you are right too about this being one of those apps that people just use for a little while then it fades into the app graveyard. Until then, it’s amusing.