1-2 hours for kids with basic scratch experience
Introduction
Let's revise the concepts we have learned so far.
Stage – An area where you can see the output of the project and how it’s running by clicking on the green flag above it. You can stop running your project by clicking on the red button.
Script area – This is the place where you will have all your instructions and your blogs placed. Scratch provides different script areas for each sprite and the background section.
Block Pallet – It contains nine categories of blocks that can be used to code for the project in the script area. All you need to do is drag the required block and drop it on the script area.
Background selection – You can either upload an image stored on your device or select the background from the Scratch gallery or opt for painting your own background or get a random surprise background by clicking on the surprise option. All you need to do is to hover your mouse over the icon as shown below and choose the appropriate option.
Choose the sprite – Sprites are nothing but the characters that you want in your project. You can choose the sprites in the same way you select a background. You get four options here: uploading from your device, getting a random surprise sprite, painting your sprite, and choosing the sprite from the gallery, as shown in the image below. The process of selection remains the same as that of background selection. Hover your mouse over the icon and choose the appropriate option. You can have more than one to any number of sprites you require on stage.
Sprite properties – Here, you can look at and modify the name of the sprite, the x and y coordinates or position of the sprite, whether it is shown or hidden on stage, the size of the sprite, and its direction of it. The section is located right above where you see all the sprites you have added to your project
Costumes of sprites – A single sprite in Scratch can have multiple costumes which can have the same sprite in different postures, in different colors, etc. You can navigate to have a look at the selected sprite’s costumes in the costumes section shown below.
Let's solve this project problem now.
Setup the main sprite
Let's pick a ball image for the sprite
Setup the main costumes for the movie
We will upload all the frames in the movie. Since these frames are hard to build, let's use existing frames linked to this page. Please download the zip file. Extract all the images in a folder. Then upload all the images as shown below.
Add code to change the costume in a loop
A movie is nothing but a sequence of frames changing at a regular time interval.
We want to change the costume at a regular time interval. The time interval can be fixed or be made dynamic.
A delay (wait 0.15 secs) is added by default when the green flag is clicked
Use the first image in the list as the base costume
When the "green flag" is clicked - we want to create a loop that will go change the costume every 0.15 secs.
Add "fast" and "slow" mode buttons
We will use the broadcast message block to send a message to our main sprite when the button is clicked
Please check the video to understand how a sprite can send a message to other sprites
Create a new sprite. Use paint option. Create a rectangle and type "Slow" inside it.
Add code to send a broadcast message "slow" when the button above is clicked.
Extra points
See if you can create your own costumes - you should take 20 pictures that will create an exciting movie