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Turn your smartphone pictures into unique 3D worlds with Matter

turn smartphone pictures unique 3d worlds matter iphone ipad
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Photo editing apps for mobile devices are all the same, right? They let you do crops, edit the brightness and contrast, alter the colors, and sometimes apply filters. But there are some that go beyond the basic tools, allowing you to capture photos with a unique twist, and one of them is called Matter.

Matter is an iOS photo manipulation app that lets your create fantastic 3D worlds within your iPhone or iPad pics. It lets you choose from a number of different geometrical shapes that you can put into your pictures, which interacts with the world in the original photo. You can add realistic reflections, translucency effects, shadows, and even short video clips.

But you’re not limited to adding basic three-dimensional shapes into photos of landscapes, cities, or the like. By letting your creativity roam free and combining Matter with other photo editing apps, you can create fantastic worlds of all kinds that look like they’re straight out of a science-fiction movie, an 80’s LP cover, or a scene of a mystery role-playing game.

Matter_iPhone
Image used with permission by copyright holder

This is how it works. First, you choose a picture that you’d like to enhance by inserting a 3D object. Next, you pick an object that you can freely position inside the picture. You can mask away portions of the object to make it interact with what’s inside your picture – the ground, the sky, buildings, people…whatever.

Then, you can add shadows, reflections, and/or translucency effect to make it look like the object (or objects) was really there when you took the photo. If you don’t want to use any of your own pictures, there’s also a gallery of background images free for all Matter users. And if you need some inspiration, take a look at what other users did with Matter on Instagram.

Matter for iOS devices is available on iTunes for $2.

Felix Esser
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Felix is a freelance tech journalist with a strong focus on photography. Based out of central Germany, he contributes to…
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