Have you ever seen a teddy bear play the piano or a rabbit learn to swim? Well, now kids can see those wacky combinations brought to life with the new Pick & Play animation creation kit, from startup Grinrise.
The augmented reality (AR)-based animation kit offers kids the chance to make their own stories (for example, a deer walking into a cabin or a panda riding a bicycle) using word cue cards that are animated through a mobile device and simple coding. The set comes with 64 word cards that are made up of five categories: Character (who), Object (what), Action (how), Background (when and where), and Sound. With all of the different parts to tell a story, kids can piece together the puzzle-piece-shaped cards to form a sentence. As kids create their tales, an animation of said stories is played through an accompanying Pick & Play mobile application when kids place the cards in front of the camera. Any finished animation movies can be watched via AR.
“Children are always curious. Even after watching a short video, they ask questions, such as ‘Why did the villain come back to life?’ or ‘Couldn’t the main character go over there?’ We developed Pick & Play to help unleash their unlimited imagination,” said Seung Eun Kim, founder of Grinrise, in a statement. “In line with our motives, we designed Pick & Play to animate any card sequence. The only limitation we set was for dangerous actions that children may follow.”
With the new product, which launched on Kickstarter late last year and will be available this May, kids can create and develop their own animated stories in a sequential system by following commands in certain orders.
Lights, camera, action!
