How we turned Steve Jobs into an iPhone Spore

So, the iPhone version of Spore Origins is available on the App Store, and if you read our earlier story, you'll know it has a nifty feature letting you import images from your iPhone to use as a texture for your Spore.

While someone else gets on with the serious business of reviewing the game, I've been having a play with this picture feature, with suitably juvenile (but occasionally creative) results.

Accessed via the in-game creature editor, there are two ways to use the photo feature. You can use one of your own iPhone snaps, or you can import any image that's saved in your handset's photo library.

Meaning, in other words, that you can search for a photo of, say, Steve Jobs using the iPhone Safari browser, save it, and then import it into Spore…

A trick that also works for Barack Obama…

And Sarah Palin (oh, the irony of putting her into a game all about evolutionary biology)…

That's enough politicians for the moment. Tweaking the images is easy enough – you pinch in and out to make them bigger or smaller, and you can rotate them around, too.

It also works with product shots. I couldn't resist creating an actual iPhone Spore, for example:

Pretty little fella, isn't he? Apologies for the lack of variety when it comes to eyes, spikes and fins. You unlock more parts as you progress through the game, and I'm only on level 10.

Although downloading images from the web to make Spores is pretty fun, the more creative aspect is actually using your own photos. I was at Paddington Station this morning, for example, and saw plenty of good material…

Note, other burger chains are available. Actually, you can get pretty arty if you have the urge. For example, a shot of Paddington Station itself turned into this Spore, after a bit of rotating and zooming:

But you can get up close and personal with material, too. What would a Spore made out of chocolate biscuit look like, for example?

I thought I better explain it's a chocolate biscuit first, in case you jumped to another conclusion. Staying on the close-up tip, how about a hairy Spore?

Hair is journalist's own. Or a QWERTY Spore…

The sky's the limit, with a bit of creativity (i.e. you might prefer to use shots of stuff that can't be found on your desk or head).

But I know what you're thinking. 'Hey, this turning photos into Spores lark is ace! I wonder if it works if I take a picture of my naked ar…'

Bum not journalist's own. You'd be surprised what you can turn up with a quick Google Images search. Of course, on PC, Spore Creature Creator users have spent the last couple of months creating comedy penis monsters. I wonder if…

No, sorry, you'll have to try that one yourself.