Kappa Jizo Picture Book App

Press Kit

Unique Properties

This hand-drawn interactive picture book app will get children thinking about the importance of being open-minded towards people who are different from them. Kids can listen along with audio recorded in English or Japanese and they can also have fun with interactive characters and the coloring page. They can tap, drag, and pinch the characters and objects while the story plays. The children will find that they can be friends with people even though they come from different backgrounds.

Dimensions & Packaging

2048 x 2732 pixel (214.9mm x 280.6mm)

Tags

picture book app, children’s book app, book app, children’s book, picture book, iTune, Google Play, Japanese book, kid’s book app, app, jizo, app jizo, kaori hamura, kaori hamura long, moss moon, mission, moss moon studio, tolerance, prejudice,

Production Technology

First, the storyboard and dummy book was made and then created illustrated pages with pencils and paper. Then the illustrations were scanned and colored in Photoshop. There, all the layers were separated, heads, eyes, arms, etc. for animation. The sprite sheets were created using the extension software called Kwik in Photoshop. We recorded voices and music in Garage Band, and the sound files were imported into Kwik programming. All the pages were published into Solar 2D programming software to build for Xcode (App Store) and Android Studio (Google Play).

Design Challenge

The creative part came quickly and naturally for the artist, but the challenge was to create programming without knowledge. Even as an artist and writer with no programming background, she made her first interactive picture book app using the Photoshop extension called Kwik. With easy to use interface within Photoshop, she was able to program her book the way she wanted. However, submitting the app to App Store and Google Play was a totally different challenge, and she has to keep updating the app according to the technological changes.

Project Duration

The manuscript and dummy book was created in October 2007 in Vermont, U.S.A. The app development started in 2015 and was released in June 2017 in Fukuoka, Japan. The updated version was released in October 2020.

Operation Flow

It is an interactive children's book app for Apple and Android devices. The reader can listen along with audio recorded in English or Japanese. Children can also have fun with interactive characters and the coloring page. They can tap, drag, and pinch the characters and objects while the story plays.

Research

Once the artist decided to take on a challenge to make her picturebook into an interactive picturebook app, she had done an extensive research to create it without too much knowledge of programming. There were few software and extension choices to create an app without extensive knowledge of programming, so she has tried out a few. She decided to use the Photoshop extension program called Kwik, and their tech support was beneficial, so she decided to use the software.

Inspiration

Living in a time of the divided world, with bias and hate crimes rising, the artist felt that she had to do something to teach the next generation that it doesn't have to be that way. By changing our mindset, we could change the world to be more united, respectful for people with different backgrounds, and show love for each other. She wrote the story and made a picturebook and decided to turn it into an interactive picturebook app.

Image Credits

Image1-5: Illustrator/Writer/Music: Kaori Hamura Long,
Voices: Kaori Hamura Long, Bill Long, and Mika Long

Patents

© Kaori Hamura Long

Colors of Kappa Jizo Picture Book App