TBH Kids: Time Travel Interactive Sketches
I’m currently working on redesigning the “Time Travel to an Ancient Rock Shelter” interactive. The images below (if I succeed in uploading them) are my sketches for the first scene of the interactive.
Option 1: Inside the Time Machine 1
I’m considering digitally painting this scene with a gouache style. I think it might make it look more like a children’s book if the image were painted than with vector drawings. The scene depicts Dr. Dirt off to the side with a speech bubble were the text will go. Behind him is the main interface of his time machine with buttons, screens, and levers. There will be a window that displays the destination (prehistoric Texas) and above the window will be a display that shows the time in which we’ll arrive (XXXXXBCE). I haven’t decided whether the window will contain an image of prehistoric Texas, or of a wormhole in space. On the square TVs, I could insert pictures of prehistoric Texas from the TBH box repository or from creative commons repositories online, if possible. There would be a large “Go!” button in the center that users would click to move to the next scene. The button could be a bright green to indicate that it is clickable. I am also considering making the outlines darker or thicker for the button to make it stand out. The main color for the backdrop would be chrome (grey) for a futuristic feel.
Option 2: Cactus Spaceship
Another idea I had was to put Dr. Dirt into a time machine travelling through space. To make the machine feel more “Texan”, I decided to make it a cactus. One thing I noticed was that even though the old site had flash animation, the interactive still felt static, so I wanted to make the redesign more “active”. One way of doing this is to depict an object currently in action, like a rocket travelling through space. I could even add a sort of motion blur to make the space appear as if its moving. The interactive would display text on the left and if necessary, can be put in front of a black rectangle (opacity: 30-70%) to enhance readability. This design would incorporate the UI buttons Jun designed (i.e. the “Next” button).
Option 3: Inside the Time Machine 2
This is a different take on the same concept presented in Option 1. In this scene, we have Dr. Dirt inside the time machine with a window looking out to our destination. Within the window frame, we would have the Earth with the shape of Texas colored (any color but green or blue) to make it stand out. This can be constructed with vector shapes. The text would be black and placed on the left-hand side of the frame and would incorporate the new UI buttons. The time machine will likely be grey, so there should be no problem with readability. This design is relatively similar to the old design in terms of object-placement.
