We bring you a review from one of our good friends and contributing writers here on iSquint, Larry Zoll from Zoll Design. Larry has spent some time using the Wybron’s latest iPhone app the Moiré Gobo Library app and has provided us with a detailed review.

Wybron’s Moiré Gobo Library app for the iPhone provides an extensive catalog of ‘A’ sized gobos from some major manufacturers and gives the user some very useful features. Unfortunately, an interface that is less than slick keeps the app from being a truly stand out addition to the lighting designer’s arsenal of iPhone based tools.

First, let me say that Wybron has done an excellent job of compiling a catalog of 3300 different gobo designs from Gam, Lee, Apollo, Goboland, and InLight.  Having this many designs in one place without having to search through a desk full of catalogs is a great advantage in and of itself. Scrolling through individual manufacturers is as easy as flicking your finger.  You can search the entire catalog of manufacturers but only by name or by number. Moiré does not allow any way to search or browse by category. So if you’re looking specifically for a breakup of a certain type the only real way to find it is to search for breakup and hope that the one you’re looking for has breakup in the title. Having the ability to browse or sort by category would be a huge would be a huge help here

Once you start to browse through individual gobos Moiré gives you a really unique set of features. Not only can you rotate the gobos, and create a Twinspin effect with two gobos you can focus or unfocus your gobo to simulate running your barrel in or out. This, I feel, is Moiré’s biggest advantage. How many times have you ordered a gobo with the intention of blurring it out only to find that it’s not nearly as effective as you’d hoped? All right, hopefully not TOO many times, but it’s happened to all of us at least once. Moiré, gives you the ability to at least get a general idea of what you’ll be looking at once you run that barrel all the way out. They do make a point of saying that “Actual projected patterns should be used to make final design decisions.” But if you’re working on a tight deadline sometimes you need to make a quick decision and Moiré could certainly aid that process. I’d really like to see some indexing ability, but that’s probably an easy enough fix for a future update.

Where Moiré falls flat for me is in its control over gobo focus and rotation. If the control were smoother I think it would eliminate some frustration that occurs when trying to be fairly accurate in focus or rotation speed – the slide bar is, unfortunately, clunky at best.

Overall I think Moiré is a solid app, it has its issues, but I think its usefulness far outweighs its downfalls. At the very least, it’s a great foundation for Wybron to improve on. One decent update could really take this app from good, to invaluable in the field.

Wybron’s Moiré Gobo Library app for the iPhone goes for $9.99 on the iTunes app Store.

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