Contrary to the past generation, a new and exciting trend in storytelling has emerged into the lives of the newest batch of readers—eBooks. With the dawn of reading devices, such as iPad and Kindle, the demand grew for digitizing story content for next gen devices.
Over the years, the need for interactivity among the growing platform has continued to expand and further shape the children’s book market. Advanced storytelling apps and enriched interactive eBooks have been the answer to creating next generation story content within the digital space for today’s children. This pushed digital arts school nowadays to offer lessons on making interactive eBooks.
Due to this trend, leading children’s entertainment studios like Disney and DreamWorks Animation have started to embrace the need for this new kind of educational interactivity. They even opened business segments dedicated to creating digital publishing and eBook content making way to more jobs for digital artists.
Interactive EBooks Defined
Interactive eBooks is a category for apps designed specifically to utilize the powers of tablets and enable users to interact with the storyline in sight, sound, and touch. It is an evolution of the printed books with added interactivity to create an experience beyond the printed formats. Examples include pop-up book apps for kids, interactive travel guides with GPS features, and cookbooks with built-in timers and video recipes.
On a touch device, interactivity is the ability to engage with the user interface. It involves the way you move your fingers on the screen, select an app, or browse the web. It provides content interaction and storyline, and therefore offers a unique experience each time you use it.
Unlike the simulations we see on TV, artists create animations on children’s eBooks with learning as the top priority. Moreover, they draw each element on the page in its own layer so that they can use and move it without affecting the page’s design.
They typically use computer graphics in children’s eBooks, though it is technically possible to do them in other types of eBooks, as well. Most animators create them using CSS, which allows images and text to move around the screen along pre-set paths. They also have some functions that allow an artist to add interactive elements and other features via JavaScript.
Do you want to learn any of these technical tricks and functions? You may enroll in a digital arts school like CIIT Philippines or consult an expert. Visit www.ciit-ph.com to learn the multimedia courses we have available.