A Pro version is available for $495 and supports additional file formats, high resolution rendering, and other features.

This is intuitive and extremely easy-to-use software.

In the screenshot of the free version SketchUp, below, I’ve been piling on and extruding through a box with random shapes. With the paint bucket tool selected, animated context-sensitive help appears.

For free models, visit the Google 3D Warehouse.

On the one hand, the project is a great way for kids to see their creations taken by a professional artist further than where they left them. It’s easy to see how this might ignite and inspire an artistic spirit that might otherwise fade.

On the other hand, there is something innocent and pure about the original art that doesn’t need embellishment. Would a kid see the difference between what they might otherwise be quite proud to claim, and end up assuming they had no talent compared to a real artist?

But, on the third hand, DeVries appears to genuinely care about the children and their art, and sees value in exploring from whence the monsters come.

It began when his neice Jessica, then 7, snatched his sketchbook at the beach and drew a flat, stick-like demon. DeVries, an artist, was so intrigued, he traced her drawing onto canvas and painted it in realistic, three-dimensional detail and color. Then he talked to Jessica about it.

It was the beginning of a project called “The Monster Engine,” …

“I love their drawings because they are so simple, uncensored and powerful,” he said. “They’re revealing a part of themselves, their souls.”

This is an inspiring project with some great art (both by DeVries and the children) on display.