First Look: Toontastic 3D storytelling app lets kids create their own cartoons
NEW YORK—The free Toontastic 3D digital storytelling app that Google launches Thursday for home and classroom use met high praise from exactly the kind of user Google has in mind. That would be my soon-to-be-10-year old son Samuel whose review of the new app is summed up in two words, “totally cool.”
The new app lets kids draw, animate and narrate 3D cartoons, which they can use to tell stories or for school reports.
Google compares Toontastic 3D to “digital puppet theater” that goes beyond that, since kids can tap into interactive 3D worlds, choose among dozens of customizable characters or draw their own, even set the mood with music.
If this sounds somewhat familiar it is because an original Toontastic app for the iPad dates back to 2011, about four years before Google acquired Launchpad Toys, the startup responsible for this make-your-own-cartoon app.
The latest version works on iOS and Android and replaces the original Toontastic.
Google product manager Andy Russell, who was one of the co-developers of the app, says the typical age range is between 6 and 13, with the sweet spot among kids who are 8, 9 or 10.
“Storytelling the universal medium,” he says. “We all tell stories whether we’re drawing with crayons, whether we’re in Final Cut or whether we’re writing daily articles.” He says the goal is to inspire kids to be improvisational.
The youngsters might get such inspiration from the "idea lab" inside the app, where they can view other creations, or watch a brief video on the keys to storytelling from Pixar story artist Austin Madison.
Kids are given three choices when they set out to create their own masterpieces. They can tap on Short Story, which involves creating three one-
minute scenes—basically a beginning, middle and end.
If they tap Classic Story instead, the story is divided into five one-minute parts: setup, conflict, challenge, climax and resolution.
And if they pick Science Report, they start out by asking a research question, and follow that up with scenes that address the hypothesis, experiment, results and conclusion in the report.
You can view a promotional video for Toontastic here.
In a blog post announcing the availability of the free app, Google says: “We hope the app will empower kids to imagine, invent and explore while developing skills for the creative jobs of tomorrow—whether they dream of becoming a filmmaker, a teacher, a designer, a cartoonist, or just want to explore the boundaries of their imaginations.”
Judging by Samuel’s reaction, it is well worth checking out.
Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow Paste BN Personal Tech Columnist @edbaig on Twitter