Creating Sprites In Scratch

You awoke this morning with a burning desire to place an animated version of yourself in a Scratch games ... well this tutorial is for you!

The Scratch version 1.4 Interface

You animate sprites in Scratch by changing the sprites costumes, this means that you will have to take several photos of your subject in different poses. The process is a bit like taking photos for stop motion animation.

Each costume is a separate image in a different pose.

Lets go through a list of things you need to do to successfully create your own sprites. This tutorial assumes you know how to animate sprites in scratch.

1. Taking Your Pictures 

You need a digital camera - a tripod is helpful but not essential.

A webcam connected to a computer is a good solution.

If you are pretty confident using  video, you can film your subjects poses and grab still images from the video.

You can take take as many pictures as you like but lets keep it to a manageable 3.

A webcam will transfer yours picture directly to your computer and there's no need for a tripod.

2. Image size.

Keep you images small.

Set your image resolution/size to 480 x 360 pixels or 640 x 480 or about 1 mb in size.



3. The Pose

For inspiration check out some of the poses in the Scratch people library!

Keep your subject in the centre of the frame to get a smooth animation.

Use a green screen or a plain backdrop that contrasts against your subject.

A green screen or plain contrasting backdrop = easy background removal!

5. Editing your Pictures

Use an image editor to erase your background.

You can use programmes like Corel Paintshop Pro or Adobe Photoshop. You can also use free image editors like GIMP or Pixlr.com.

You should see a checkerboard pattern after you take away your background

Name your files sequentially; e.g., image1, image2, image3 then save as a .GIF or PNG file format.


6. Now lets open Scratch!

Open image1.png as a new sprite then import the rest of your images - select costumes tab - import.

You can also use the image editor in Scratch to remove backgrounds from your sprite. 

7. Add your code

Rearrange this code to make a basic animated sprite

You can now treat your sprite like any other sprite in scratch- well done!

Next Scratch 2.0 is here

Scratch IT!

This month, we've been running fun programming workshops using free Scratch software.

Local Y5 primary school students made their own 'sprites' - these are graphics that you animate in Scratch - to create interactive poems based on the work of Archie Markham.

"This is Fantastic!" said Alma, and Naseem says, "I've got this at home and I'm making games with my Dad."

Students created a fantastic game called 'Shark Attack!', using sprites from Scratch and their own sprite creations. A lesson plan plus code will be online soon!

Stop Motion Animation for the Nation!

For all you Wallace and Gromit fans, make stop motion come alive!

Buy some clay or make your own play dough using this recipe here 

Breakdown;

1. Storyboard your story - stick figures will do.

2. Do scene by scene drawings, you will need a beginning, middle and end. Download storyboard templates from here.

3. Use a webcam connected to a computer - trust me its easier.

4. Download relevant frame capture software Frame by Frame is a free one.

4a. If you haven't got a webcam, you can use a digital camera just use a tripod & keep the camera STILL!

5. Keep  models bold and simple. Make facial features large so you can move them around a bit

6. Important! - The models must be able to stand up on their own.

7. Take one shot per movement, continue until end!

You should have your web pics in a nice order for you to play and edit. You can duplicate frames or delete the unwanted ones and voila! you have an animation!

Options;

-Choose a plain background or a drawings - it looks better

-Paint the inside of small cardboard boxes to create sets.

-Add your own sound effects & dialogue

-Create a different mouth for each vowel sound = "AEIOU"& swap the mouths between each shot.

-Make sure your in a bright space or move a desk lamp closer to light your set.

If you are using Windows movie maker and a digital camera this tutorial should help.

Making it all 3D!

Just replace your 2D webcam with a 3D camera (on a tripod). They are pretty cheap now (this one's around £30 from Amazon). While the process of taking 3D images is a pretty straight forward one, making the movie is not so easy!

The above camera takes 3D pics using the side-by-side method.

Easy Way: Upload you movie to youtube as 3D video. Done. View with 3D glasses.

Hard Way: Use a decent video editing package to overlay and colourise the images. Done. Eventually. View with 3D glasses.

Peer to Peer teaching in ICT - Stop Motion Animation

As part of a creative Partnership residency in Derby, we ran a whole school digital storytelling week.  Working in teams pupils wrote storyboard scripts and created mini sets in cardboard boxes!  Each team set-up a digital camera on a tripod and took pictures of action figures/small toys moving around the set. Y4,5,6 helped Y1, 2 and Y3s take pictures. Even Foundation Stage got in on the act! The media specialist students (they had been trained in using ICT creatively by me) were on had to offer advice to teachers and help other pupils!

A great example of year groups working together and sharing skills across the school.

Top Tips;
1. Use a tripod and keep the camera still when taking photos
2. Set you picture quality to no more than 2mega pixels
3. Keep take your Set as still as you can!
4. Taking 50 pictures means 25 seconds of animation
5. You can view your animation in camera
6.You can add titles, music and a narration using editing software. Check out my adding a narration tutorial.
7. If your using the XP version of MovieMaker, in menu- options/advanced - change image duration to 0.5 seconds. Trust me its make thing easier in the long run!
8. Have a play using pine cones/leaves/twigs/etc.to get your animation movements right - you can make them to dance!
9.You can download free music here
10. Make sure you have plenty of light, open curtain/blinds, turn the classroom lights on, point your Set at the window - use your camera flash if you need to.
11. If you have a webcam- stop motion animation is easy! You can save your picture directly to your computer using great free software like Philipp Brendel's Frame by Frame.

Creative Partnerships Residency, Chesterfield Part 1- Under the Sea!

Under the sea is where I would like to be! 

Working with a class of Y3 children on an underwater fairytale! 

We spent the morning making crabs, seaweed, mermaids, jelly fish and underwater castles to star in their digitally animated fantasy movie.  It was hectic but we finished it in just one day.

They got a DVD of their film. 

Funded by Creative Partnerships and  The Mighty Creatives