CubePaintAR is 3D painting (coloring book) app for iOS and Merge Cube. You can look at it like a coloring book, but instead of painting directly on a paper, you pain on top of a 3D hologram projected on top of the Merge Cube itself.
There are 13 different animals you can choose from. The first one is a horse, and it’s free, but if you want to try the other ones, you’ll need to pay for it. Due to how the app is designed, it seems like it’s aimed at the younger audience.
I can’t remember the last time I’ve painted something in 3D. I think it was a 3D model that I made using 3D Studio Max 5 quite a long time ago. I used a software called Painter 3D, but I am not sure. Anyways, I liked the experience a lot because it gave me the freedom to color the object as I imagined it to be like.
Now, CubePaintAR doesn’t allow you to import your own 3D model (it could have been cool by the way) and it only has two controls: a color picker and a slider to choose the brush size. The third option is to decide whether you want the animal to be animated as you paint or static. I personally prefer seeing it animated, because it’s cool being able to paint a moving 3D object, I liked that experience.
In some ways, the app works well for the Merge Cube is because it allows the user to hold and rotate the 3D model and paint it very naturally like you probably would have done with physical tools for doing the same job.
Cube Paint AR gives you an option to record a clip of your artwork and share it online. You can even record it with a small Picture-in-picture selfie and voice. The main downside is that you can’t actually save your work, I mean, the texture that you’ve spent time working on. This app could have been better with an option for users to share and import paintings of others for each animal. Of course, this probably would be overkill considering the market that this app is aimed for.
Oh, there is one last option, which is to change the texture of the Cube itself. You can make it metallic, wood, etc.
Conclusion
It’s a nice free Merge Cube app for kids but I personally don’t see myself spending any further time on it. Kids love drawing stuff, so I think this can be a good app for them.
I think this app will be more comfortable to use using the Merge VR than in Phone mode, Even with my big hands, I found it quite uncomfortable rotating the Merge Cube and interacting with the controls. Therefore, I think kids will find this experience not so comfortable.
If you plan to download the app for your kids, I recommend either putting the cube on a flat surface like on the table, putting the phone or tablet on the mobile device holder that came with the Cube. This way, your ki can easily interact with it via the phone’s display.
Overall, a very simple app, which can be fun for kids who like drawing stuff. This will definitely give them an opportunity to try something really different than just drawing on a white paper. I say give it a chance and see if your kids like it or not.
Download CubePaintAR for iOS from the App Store here.