Resources

OUR TOP SITES

What tools do our team use behind the scenes to exercise creativity, find inspiration, and bring Electric Medway to life?
Go to the bottom of the page to see further useful links categorised lists to everything from audio tools to pixel art creators to sites that help with organising!

KEVIN'S PICKS

Spatial

Spatial is great for getting into word-building and game design. It’s a good step before learning something like Unity - and you can invite others in! I use it to work with young people to create imaginary story sets and characters. You can even drop in 3D objects taken from the real world.

Soundtrap

Soundtrap is a web-based music production tool that is brilliant for getting ideas down quickly. You can record live sound, make podcasts and produce synthetic beats - just from your phone. I love the fact you can record on the fly and invite collaborators from across the world to add their parts!

Twinery

Twine is a text-based tool to help build interactive and non-linear stories. You can join one story part to the next and then play it back for testing. I used Twine to help map out a ‘choose your own adventure’ story for an outdoor sound trail. I like its simple layout, which is perfect for prototyping complex ideas.

JANET'S PICKS

Blockade Labs

A fun tool for design, particularly for gaming. Software uses AI and text prompts, and although there's a limited quota of free artworks per month, it provides a great introduction to 3D world-building. For experienced developers, there's a Unity plugin available for colourful and high definition 360° backgrounds.

Sketch MetaDemolab

A simple and effective tool which brings sketches to life in short animation sequences. Entertaining young people and adults alike, the website is free to use, and there are no limits on the number of drawings you can animate.

Forge of Neon

A relaxing and mesmerising program where you can create doodles and glow art with three-dimensional symmetry. An open-source program ideal for beginners, you can experiment with patterns, animations and filters in a kaleidoscope of colour.

LIVI'S PICKS

SculptGL

Fantastic free browser based 3D sculpting software. It's the online version of popular sculpting app Nomad Sculpt. Use your virtual lump of clay and the provided tools to create 3D models that can be exported for use in Games, XR, Animation and 3D printing!

Spline

Part 3D modelling software part web development tool. This user friendly browser based tool allows you to create games and unique web interactions (such as 3D models following your mouse!) using easy to follow templates and tutorials, That can be hosted on your website.

Internet Archive

An important online resource from an initiative striving to preserve online culture. You can explore how websites used to look using the wayback machine, use their gif search engine "GifCities" and also watch and download a host of archived TV shows and videogames!

ADAM'S PICKS

Polycam

Polycam stands out for its intuitive and user-friendly interface, enabling quick 3D scans of objects or environments directly from a mobile device. Its availability on both Android and iOS platforms, along with its cloud-based processing, ensures accessibility across a wide range of devices connected to the internet. Notably, Polycam continues to innovate with features like Gaussian splats, further enhancing its functionality.

Meshroom

Meshroom is an indispensable tool in my photogrammetry arsenal, renowned for its open-source nature and advanced algorithms. With Meshroom, transforming high-quality photographs into stunning 3D models with ease. Its comprehensive control over the reconstruction process allows me to tailor results to my specific preferences, making it a standout choice for professionals and enthusiasts alike.

Accurig

ActorCore simplifies the rigging process for 3D models, offering a user-friendly interface and rapid results. As free software, it serves as a valuable resource for animators and game developers seeking efficient rigging solutions for their projects.

TOM'S PICKS

Styly

Styly is fantastic tool for building 3D environments. Fantastic for both mockups and showcases, you are able to bring in your own 3D models, images, and environments/skyboxes into a blank virtual world you build and host online for free, that users can walk around, lightly interact with as a standard.

Photopea

Photopea is an indispensable tool. The full functionality of Photoshop hosted for free online- So your one stop shop for photo/ image editing as well as 2D assett building, but minus the cost or need to download. You are able to export in all major filetypes- A well as being able to import and export as photoshop documents.

8th Wall

8th Wall (From Niantic- The creators of Pokemon Go) is the leading industry standard web- hosted AR platform. There are plenty of templates to get you started with creating AR, available at a lower subscription rate for R&D projects

JACK'S PICKS

There's an AI for That

The team used this for XR
Schools programme to find a tool to help us decode the handwriting within old documents. A really intuitive way to find Al tools for any use!

Soundplant

I was shown this in the Electric Medway Makey Makey workshop. A really simple and intuitive (and free!) sound launchpad/triggering application. You can assign sounds to your keyboard and it's got some tools in the software to edit those sounds, or you can just use it as a standard launchpad.

Audacity

I just love audacity. No frills. Just hit record. Low barrier to entry audio editing programme, incredibly complicated everything else, but I kind of love it's Spartan UI

KYLE'S PICKS

Gimp

Around since 1996-a classic free downloadable alternative for Photoshop. It's especially great for image manipulation!

Fireaplaca

Free digital illustration/drawing/ painting tool, very good quality and built similar to a lot of paid digital art programs

OpenToonz

Free open source animation program similar to Adobe Animate and Flash. Incredibly high quality, I believe it's used a fair amount in the industry possibly as a ToonBoom replacement.