Startup Dunia

Marshall wrote a very favorable review on Techcrunch for another Indian startup, Toufee. Toufee (phonetically similar to toffee), is a web based Flash movie builder. For anyone, who has tried to create a Flash based movie, you would know how difficult a task it is. With the current craze about video, several web based Flash movie builders have emerged. I have tried TagLoops earlier when it was profiled on Techcrunch. I had a tough time following their interface and instructions. Frustrated, I gave up. After reading the TC review about Toufee, I created an account and decided not to have any great expectations.

Boy, was I surprised. I took the interactive tutorial to create a movie and within minutes, I had one ready. I found the interactive tutorial very helpful — the way it works is that each element blinks in a sequence. So, for instance, when you create a new Text element, the ‘Text Properties’ button blinks. That way, you know when and how to proceed next. They also have several video tutorials on how to create a Flash based movie. I could also ‘drag-and-drop’ an element within the frame. Upload photos, video and add them to my movie. You can also add fancy transition effects (similar to those in Powerpoint) to elements within the frame and the frames themselves.

Here’s a movie I made using Toufee.

They claim that the movies made with Toufee are extremely small:

How much time does it to download a movie?
The movies made with Toufee are extremely extremely extremely small. We can show you a 2 minute movie with audio and music and images that loads faster than an average 320×200 image. Toufee biggest forte is the size of the output movies. We knew from the start about some stigma that is associated with using Flash on websites due to the general size of flash movies.

There were a couple of places where I hit a snag. While working on the movie, I decided to upload photos from my disk. However, they did not show up immediately in the ‘user uploaded photos’. The drop-downs for selecting the color of an element were also a bit tricky.The UI of the site can be refined further.

However, these are minor issues that come alongwith any new product launch. In my opinion, Toufee is, hands down, one of the simplest means out there to create a Flash based movie. Going further, they are very well positioned to get a stronghold in the market and give some serious competition to the existing players. The also seem to be marketing towards MySpace users. If they get it right, it could translate into a HUGE opportunity.
Toufee is founded by Sanchit Bhatnagar and Navneet Rai and the company blog is here.