MoodCubes

In early stages of creative processes, practitioners externalize and combine inspirational materials, using strategies such as mood board creation to achieve a desired vision and aesthetic. Yet, collecting and combining materials can be difficult: (1) mood boards bias towards 2D images, neglecting audio, video, and 3D models; (2) alternative externalizations such as prototypes are best suited for later stages and can be time-consuming and tedious to create; and (3) online searches lead to disjointed sources between different websites and assets in the file system. To address these challenges, we created MoodCubes, a system for rapid creation and manipulation of multimedia content. When adding content, MoodCubes decomposes objects (e.g., extracting colour palettes), suggests new materials without the need to search (e.g., 3D models, images, lighting effects), and provides filters to change the scene’s aesthetic. We studied eight creative professionals using MoodCubes, which suggested ways the system might advance existing design practices.