Developing a Mobile 3D Coloring Book for Kids

Abstract

The modern mobile gaming industry is quickly gaining popularity thanks to a huge leap in mobile device performance. Naturally, games are more than just entertainment; they can have a great educational potential for kids too. That is exactly why Intersog came up with the idea of the 3D Coloring Book for Kids, a mobile app that lets children play and develop their creativity all at once.

Product

Unlike regular print coloring books, Intersog’s coloring book uses a 3D canvas that allows children to not just fill the blanks with colors they like, but to explore the environment and the characters from different angles. The app offers natural and realistic colors with shadow effects that make the drawings look extra-real. The cartoony style makes the characters friendlier to the kids too. We added several features to make the app truly special:

Key Features

• Easy progress saving for keeping the finished drawings in the gallery
• Undo/redo button to make quick changes to the picture
• Animations for all the characters the kids can then apply for a more entertaining experience
• Automatic shading and texturing for the characters and environments
• Simple user interface
• A huge selection of characters outlines to color

Challenge

There is an impressive selection of mobile games for kids, and some of them are quite entertaining. Our team came with an idea to make a game that brings entertainment value and helps children develop creative skills all at once. We dismissed the idea of making a 2D coloring book app immediately raising the bar up and challenging ourselves with developing a 3D coloring book that features a variety of interactable characters. 

As for the characters and themes, our designers came up with different collections that would be exciting for the children with different interests and preferences:

• 3D Coloring Book for Kids: Seasons
• 3D Coloring Book for Kids: Pets
• 3D Coloring Book for Kids: Fantasy
• 3D Coloring Book for Kids: World
• 3D Coloring Book for Kids: Fairy Tale Heroes
• Paint Me 3D: Airplanes
• Coloring Mix 3D (includes Winter, Fantasy Girls, Pets, and Airplanes themes)

Solution

• Designing a wide selection of characters and themes that include animals, fairy tale heroes, airplanes, and more
• Developing 3D models for the characters and their respective environments
• Adding save feature
• Designing an intuitive and child-friendly user interface
• Adding automatic shading and texturing for all the models
• Implementing the animation feature

Results

3D Coloring Book for Kids has become a huge hit on iTunes thanks to the distinctive experience it offered. Intersog came up with a wide selection of characters and unique environments that can be filled with color and life. Our main goal was to make the UI as friendly and as simple as possible so that the youngest users would feel comfortable navigating through the app. 3D Coloring Book for Kids was quite a refreshing project our team had tons of fun with.