Scratch Tutorial For Beginners

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[schema type=”product” url=”http://scratch.mit.edu/” name=”Scratch” description=”With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations.” price=”Free” ] is a visual programming language to help introduce kids to programming concepts. With Scratch you can create interactive stories, animations, and games. The great thing about using Scratch in the classroom is that it is free. Students that wish to learn more about Scratch can download it at home, create and share their creations online.

In this step by step Scratch tutorial I will show you how to animate a sprite. Just like it says in the title this is a Scratch Tutorial For Beginners. If you have not downloaded Scratch and installed in on your computer just go to the Scratch website and install it now.

This Scratch Tutorial will focus on getting you comfortable with adding a sprite, adding a script, and testing your script.

Scratch Tutorial Name: The Thinking Blue Dog

Open Scratch

Scratch Interface

Right-click Sprite1

Delete Sprite1

Select Delete

New Sprite From File

Choose new Sprite from file
Double Click Animals
Double Click dog2-a

Note: Sprite1 is now the dog. A Sprite is just an object(thing) that can have scripts, costumes, and sounds.

Save Your Work by selecting File/Save As
Navigate to the correct location to save
Type thinkingbluedog in the New File Name field
Click ok
Click on the blue dog

Costumes Tab

Click on the costumes tab

Unlock Sprite Name

Click the Pad Lock.

Name Sprite

Change the name of the Sprite to Blue Dog
Click the pad lock again to lock the name of the Sprite

Import

Click Import

Import Dog 2-b

Import dog2-b

3 Costumes

Import dog2-c

Note:The Blue Dog should now have 3 customs

Now let’s animate the Blue Dog

Click “Scripts” tab. The “Blue Dog” Sprite doesn’t have any script blocks.

Looks

Click Looks.
Drag the “switch to costume” block to the scripts pane and drop it.

Select dog2-b

Click the drop down arrow and select dog2-b
Drag another “switch to costume” block to the scripts pane and drop it right under switch to costume dog2-b

select dog2-c

Click the drop down arrow and select dog2-c

Control Block

Click “Control”.

When Clicked

We are almost done with creating our first animation. To wrap it up, drag “when clicked” and drop it above the first “switch to costume” block.
Now click the green flag button to start the animation.

Note:There is just one little problem. It goes too fast and you cannot see when it changes from dog2-b to dog2-c

So now lets slow down the transition

Drag the “wait 1 secs” block between the “switch to costume dog2-b” block and the “switch to costume dog2-c”
Drag a “wait 1 secs” block after “switch to costume dog2-c”
Click on Looks
Drag a “switch to costume” block next

Slow Down

From the drop down choose dog2-a

Now let’s make the Blue Dog walk

Now click the green flag button to start the animation.
Click Looks

Add Hmmm

Drag think Hmm… for 2 secs to the bottom
Now click the green flag button to start the animation.
Click the Control block

Repeat

Drag the repeat 10 block to the script window

Note:Blocks are nested inside the repeat block.

Change the repeat block so that is repeats 4 times

Change Count

Change the think Hmm.. block to remain for 5 seconds
Now click the green flag button to start the animation.

Forever

Drag a the forever block around the blocks as shown
Now click the green flag button to start the animation.
The animation will repeat until you click the red stop sign

Download:The Final Scratch File

Additional Scratch Resources:

Share your Scratch resources and ideas in the comments below!

Scratch Tutorial Name: The Thinking Blue Dog

Now let’s animate the Blue Dog

So now lets slow down the transition

Now let’s make the Blue Dog walk

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