| Developer(s) | Orig. Craig Hickman; later versions Broderbund LLC/Software MacKiev |
|---|---|
| Stable release | Kid Pix Deluxe 3D (Mac and Windows) / October 2011 |
| Operating system | Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows |
| Type | Bitmap graphics editor |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www.kidpix.com |
Kid Pix is a bitmap drawing program aimed at children. Originally created by Craig Hickman, it was first released for the Macintosh in 1989 and subsequently published in 1991 by Brøderbund. Hickman was inspired to create Kid Pix after watching his son Ben struggle with MacPaint, and thus the main idea behind its development was to create a drawing program that would be very simple to use. The product today retains much of the same principles as the original software created by Hickman in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The latest Mac and Windows versions of the product were developed by the owner and publisher of Kid Pix, Software MacKiev, who had been involved in development of Kid Pix versions since 1998 prior to acquiring the brand from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in October 2011. Hickman had no involvement with the development of Kid Pix from the late 1990's until late 2011 when he began consulting with Software MacKiev on the development of future editions. Kid Pix and all of the intellectual property, trademarks and copyrights associated with it are owned by Software MacKiev.
Contents |
[1] The canvas occupies most of the available screen face, and the entire canvas is visible at all times. The drawing tools available to the user are placed in a column of buttons down the left edge of the screen. Instead of using menus to access the different options that each tool has, they are displayed in a row of icons along the bottom of the screen. Selecting a new tool presents a new set of options, such as different styles for the Wacky Brush. The color palette is situated below the list of tools and consists of a collection of colored squares for each of the available colors.
Here are the drawing tools used in Kid Pix:
Kid Pix includes a selection of tools that go beyond drawing simple lines and shapes. These include:
The Undo Guy acts as a standard undo button, undoing the last change made to the image. When clicked, the Undo Guy yaps out phrases such as "Oh no!", "Oops!", and "Wait a minute!" in an odd voice, including a robot and a little girl.
The "Pick a Draw Me" addition (located under the 'Goodies' Section) gives you three random phrases for a drawing idea. Each phrase is said by a different person to create a strange idea for drawing. Such examples are quite humorous, "I'm a flying sea otter! With a set of sharp crooked toenails! Aaand! I love to dance...", "I'm a hairy eyeball, ten feet tall, with a magic cookie jar, in a beautiful fairy ice-castle", "I'm a singing mermaid with slosh in my noggin and maybe you saw me today", "I'm a troubled tarantula with a hundred toes, and a pickle in my nose and I rock the house" and, "I'm a flying sea otter with a sparkly fish tail and I blow smoke out my ears!", always followed finally with the ultimate challenge, "draw me!"
Kid Pix 2 added new features to the original. These features were originally available in an add-on known as Kid Pix Companion.
A program allowing the creation of a Slide show of Kid Pix images with transitions and custom recorded sounds. By setting the time delay between slides to the lowest possible setting crude animations can be created using multiple Kid Pix images acting as each of the frames of animation.
The Wacky TV allows the user to watch video clips in common media formats such as *.mov or *.avi. The picture can then be distorted using various buttons. The CD came with various sample clips to watch. If a movie contained sound, there was also an option to speed up the audio by 50%, or play it in reverse.
A later version of Kid Pix entitled "Kid Pix Studio" offers a complement of programs to the original Kid Pix. It opened up the ability for children to create not only static images but animated creations as well.
Kid Pix
Extended to allow the use of any Kid Pix, Moopie, Stampimator and Digital Puppet files in the slide show.
Very similar to the standard Kid Pix program except with a reduced canvas size and the ability to add several animated rubber stamps and wacky brush items. Music and sounds can also be chosen to play in the background of the "moopie."
Again similar to the standard Kid Pix program and "Moopies," except the animated rubber stamps can be dragged across the canvas recording a path which they would then repetitively follow.
Several pre-made computer puppets are provided in this program. The user can animate them like a real puppet including choosing facial expressions by hitting various keys on the keyboard. Sound and music can be added to go along with the movement of the puppet.
The "Moopies," "Digital Puppets," "Stampimator" and "Slideshow" creations can be saved as a standalone executable that enables them to be viewed by others regardless of them owning a copy of Kid Pix Studio. "Slideshows" also have the added possibility of being exported to a video file, although this functionality is limited to slide shows that contain only Kid Pix drawings.
This feature allowed users to watch movies and animations made in Moopies, and Slideshow, and even any movies the user may have on their computer. Several buttons are available for use in this feature, which allows users to watch the movies in several different ways, like in reverse or flipped screen. This was also available on the previous version of Kid Pix.
A later version entitled Kid Pix Studio Deluxe allows editing text items after they have been placed down; in previous versions this was not possible. It was also possible in this version to have the computer read the text aloud.
Kid Pix received a significant makeover with Kid Pix Deluxe. It was updated with a new 3D looking interface and new sound effects which makes it almost unrecognizable from the older versions. The only surviving new feature inherited from Kid Pix Studio was the Slideshow. This is possibly because the others were rendered unnecessary with the addition of clip art pictures and animations to the basic Kid Pix program. Some believe this has given Kid Pix a stronger emphasis on the user using pre-drawn images rather than creating their own.
A new version of Kid Pix Deluxe 3, this version featured Mac OS X compatibility, increased canvas size and integration with applications from the Apple's iLife application suite, such as iMovie, iTunes, iPhoto and GarageBand. Also, it features export of Kid Pix projects to iPod video format, giving kids a head start in creating their own podcasts.
The exploding screen eraser from the previous Kid Pix Deluxe 3 Edition is replaced with a fire hose, which was less destructive and noisy.
A significant upgrade from Kid Pix Deluxe 3X, the 3D edition was published for the Mac by Software MacKiev in October 2010 and for Windows in October 2011. While retaining the features of the previous "3X" edition, Kid Pix Deluxe 3D emphasizes digital storytelling with video narration and export to YouTube. The "3D" part of the name comes from the newly added 3D animations and backgrounds, and an export to 3D feature that creates anaglyph video images that can be viewed using red/blue 3D glasses (included in the package).
Tux Paint, a free open-source alternative to Kid Pix.