Ever want your coloring creations to come to life?  Well you’re in luck, they have an app for that.  Disney imagineers at, surprise, Disney Research Centers created an app that makes your colored characters come to life. 

To make your creations come to life it’s easier than you think. All you need to do is buy a regular coloring book that is app compatible and download the app on your smartphone or tablet.  The app uses your device’s camera to detect what you are coloring.  Next the app uses special and advanced software to 2-d doodles to 3-d characters that dance and walk around your screen. You can also do it as you color. As you color the character the app colors your 3-d character too!

When users responded to the app Disney learned that 80% of trial users said that they were able to connect with the character and increased their interest with the activity of coloring. “The app isn't meant to replace the low-tech practice of putting crayon to paper; it's only meant to ‘enhance engagement’ with this treasured pastime by offering a ‘magical digital overlay’ to accompany the act of coloring,” Disney said.  Meaning that they aren’t trying to take coloring away, they just want to add some magic.

Disney was not able to make this app in a day, it was a lot of hard work.  Disney created a “lookup map” for each character or coloring page.  That means that the pixels correspond with where they draw the colors.  The program automatically makes the back the same color.  So if you drew the characters hair pink the back of their head would automatically be pink.

You can download the app on google play and the app store and you can get the coloring books at most stores.  Let’s have fun with magic!