It all began with a sheet of paper and a few crayons. Today, it's a tablet with a drawing app installed. Kids' creativity hasn't faded... and neither have their demands. That pushes the market to respond in different ways, and in Google's case, we find Toontastic 3D, a new animation app compatible with iOS and Android that adds a third dimension to the well-known Toontastic from 2011.
One of the most criticized points in animation programs is their complex learning curve. Despite many optimizations and the introduction of very intuitive interfaces, the only way to master an animation program is by accumulating flight hours. So how do we get kids to learn animation? One of the most popular answers is "by playing". We've seen several initiatives in the past that seek to teach programming through game creation. If we extend that concept to animation, the ideal would be for the little ones to create their own cartoons, shorts, and why not, movies.
Toontastic 3D: Google's Puppet Theater
That said, let's make room for Toontastic 3D. This Google mobile app serves as the successor to the classic Toontastic that saw the light in 2011 and was received with very good reviews by educators around the world. Whether the goal is to have fun or shape a school project, Toontastic 3D adapts to what kids want. Besides animating, the app allows freehand drawing, inserting external content (voice for narrations and photographs), developing scenarios, and obviously characters. The expression Google used to describe Toontastic 3D is "puppet theater", and I think it fits perfectly.
Compatibility and Requirements
Toontastic 3D is compatible with Android devices, iOS, and some Chromebook models, although the official publication doesn't highlight which ones. On Android, it requires Lollipop 5.0 as a minimum, while on Apple's territory it requires iOS 9. The comments so far are very good, even for an initial version. Why don't you try it?
