Subject Matter:

Drawing Fun for the Little Ones
A teacher mentioned Kerpoof in a Twitter. Hmm…what’s Kerpoof? There’s not many free, quality offerings for PreK to early elementary students, but Kerpoof fits the bill. Kerpoof is a free, colorful, online application that lets the young ones make pictures, a card, short animated movie clip, a story, and practice their drawing.  Viewers can select seven different languages (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, plus I think Russian and Japanese).  Kerpoof Studio was acquired by Disney.

Pictures, Movie and More!
Open up Super Doodle, and a colorful drawing board with side tools opens up. The drawing palette is easy to identify and use. Viewers can use their mouse, a notebook touch board, or drawing stylus. Young drawers can doodle, splash on paint, change font colors, make the drawing line thin or thick, and print their creation. Check out the multicolor doodle pen. It’s fun!

Make a Move lets students choose a storyline, pick a scene, then provides different characters, backdrop and special effects. Different music can also be added. Scenes can be inserted, choreographed, then dropped into the timeline. Watch the tutorial first, and it becomes pretty obvious how to create a movie.

Play around with all the activities. There’s plenty to keep young and old entertained.

Neat Effects
When clicking on different characters in the various activities, they poof!, disappear, and new characters appear. Some of the movie characters move around. Don’t like what was made, click on the sizzling red bomb, and Kablooey!, it’s gone. Users earn gold coins for applying more advanced tools, which can be redeemed if a member.

Membership, you say? Yes, it costs a monthly fee. Members can unlock additional characters, add music, buy movies, buddy draw, form groups, chat and more.

Learning Sophisticated Illustration Tools
Yet, viewers don’t have to be members to enjoy the initial activities. And Disney is helping budding illustrators, movie makers, graphic artists and designers learn important skills. The tool setup found in these fun activities are simple, yet teach the beginning work flow used in more sophisticated media and illustration software programs (like Adobe Premier Elements and Illustrator, ToonBoom Studio and FlipBoom, Apple FinalCut).

For tutorials, click on the “How To Play” at the top of the website.

I haven’t shown my teenagers this website yet, but I will. I don’t think I’ll have an easy time prying them off the computer when they start designing their movie set.

For another review, check out Virtual World News.

System Requirements: Web based browser (Firefox & Internet Explorer 7 recommended); Flash Player 9 (download for free at Adobe Flash)
Contact: Kerpoof.com
Cost: Free for initial activities; Extra Features Membership required (1 month @$4.39; 6 months @ $24.79; 1 year @$44.79)