The 3D model is flawed, yet charming. Disney research developing new interactive coloring app that brings your creations to the 3D world. (via Disney)
Coloring is a relaxing and creative past time that's slowly gaining traction with adults thanks to some unique coloring books. But what are you supposed to do with your masterpiece once it's finished? Hang it on the fridge? Now, you can bring your art to life thanks to a new Disney research project. The ream has built an interactive coloring book app for Android and iOS that uses the Unity game engine to take a colored drawing and turn it into a 3D object on screen. The result is charming even if a little imperfect, since it keeps the artwork's original texture. It will even generate backside of a 2D picture, as shown in the above photo.
Sounds phenomenal, how does it work? The app copies pixels from the original picture and adapts them for use on the object's other regions. You can watch your drawing transform into a 3D object right before your eyes. But don't rush to Google Play just yet. The app is currently unavailable to buy or download, since it's still in the testing phase. During an early study for the app performed with adults, researchers found most users saying the app increased their motivation to draw in coloring books, while 80 percent said the app increased their feeling of connection to a character.
Along with case studies there are still some kinks to work out, like rendering the backside of a 2D drawing. The app can't simply copy the user's colored strokes since the pattern of colors used for a character's ears for example, will not be appropriate for the back of the character's ears. The color also has to be continuous meaning no seams can be seen between the visible areas and where disparate portions of the textures meet. But the team isn't going to let this issue stop them. They created a “lookup map” for each character, which matches pixels in the occluded with appropriate pixels in the area the user can see. The lookup map also enables coloring to be done instantly. Along with this, the team created a deformable surface surface tracking method to keep track of surface changes inspired by the flexibility of a physical coloring book.
Not only will this be an innovative way to rethink the coloring book, but it's open to endless applications. It could use characters for interactive games or maybe even physical objects if they can somehow get it to work with a 3D printer. But we'll have to wait to actually use the technology for ourselves. For now, just be awed by the app in action in the accompanying video. Perhaps I should animate some my own cartoons?
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