Create A Monster HD Review

Create A Monster HD is a very creative app for iPad allowing players to create the monster of their dreams with some unique and very helpful features not typically included in apps such as this.

The app offers many different choices including head shape as well the basic eyes, nose, mouth and ears choices, with these choices typically including a monster slant to them, such as bloodshot eyes, single eyeball, and varied fang choices included with the mouths. There are many odd selections available for great interesting details like horns, scars, and antennae, as well as some quirky choices like hair pieces and eyeglasses, plus much more.

It is very nice that tutorial is offered that guides you step by step, something worth looking at. I did not find this app as intuitive as others like it without instruction, but with a quick view of the tutorial, this app becomes very easy to use for both adults and children - I would think grade school and up, possibly slightly younger.

I really like how this app uses some basic principles found in programs like Photoshop to resize and rotate elements, made simpler here by allowing players to zoom in and out as well as rotate parts with ease with a single finger - something I often have trouble with and get frustrated by in other situations.

It is equally impressed by the ability to center elements with the tap of a finger as well as create a symmetrical monster as this app can also copy an element such as an eye or ear to the other side, two things I have spent way too long perfecting on my own in other apps such as this that do not contain these features. I am especially smitten by the ease of symmetry here, as in nature, the healthy, fertile “beautiful” creatures show these gifts oftentimes with more symmetrical features, and the perfectionist in me wants nothing more than to create the perfect monster.

There are some other nice features worth noting. One can save the monster within the app, take a photo later to be found in the iPad’s camera roll, as well as emailed, Facebooked or Twitted, and it is always nice to be able to go back to a finished face and keep working if one chooses to do so. I have not printed my monsters from this app as our iPad is not set up this way, but it is a nice choice to have. My favorite option is the ability to clone my monster so I have saved the original as well as continued working on a clone to try out the plethora of options available.

This is a most creative app that can really bring out the artist in kids who are very imaginative but who may or may not be good at drawing representationally. I really enjoy the monster-themed body parts included, as I enjoy making the creepiest ghoul possible, but it is nice that a cute, friendly monster can also be designed from these options. It is great fun that once the eyes are included, they blink from time to time, adding to the off-beatness found in this application. I have found myself really focused on my creation, and one can spend as little or as much time as desired with these creatures. I am excited to show this app to my son as he gets a little older; I think he will enjoy this as much as I do.