5.02 Create your scene

Create your scene

Have you got an idea about your animation?

Add a backdrop 🖼️, main character 🐙👩‍🦼🦖, and interesting object 🎂🎾🎁 of your choice to create the first part of your animation.

Animation creates the effect of movement by changing pictures quickly. The first animators carved pictures out of wooden blocks and used them as stamps. It is much faster to use Scratch to code your animation!

Open the starter project

Open the Surprise! animation starter project.

There are people called narrative designers who do storytelling for apps and video games. Digital storytelling allows everyone to share their stories and creative imaginings with other people.

Design your scene

Choose: a theme for your animation. You could choose:

• 🐯 Land Animals
• 🐠 Sea animals
• 👽 Aliens
• 🌿 Nature
• 🌈 Weather
• 🌮 Food
• 🚀 Travel
• ⚾ Sport
  …. Or something else

Choose: Choose a sprite to be the 🐙👩‍🦼🦖 main character, another sprite to be the 🎂🎾🎁 interesting object and a 🖼️ backdrop to set the scene.

Prepare your sprites

Where do you want your sprites to start? How big do you want them to be? How do you want them to look?

Add a when green flag clicked block, then, underneath, add blocks to set up your sprites at the start of your animation.

Tip: Remember to set up both your 🐙👩‍🦼🦖 main character and your 🎂🎾🎁 interesting object sprites.

Position your sprites

Move the 🐙👩‍🦼🦖 main character to the position of your choice on the Stage, then add a go to x: y: block to your code:

Repeat this task for the 🎂🎾🎁 interesting object.

Resize your sprites

To change the size of a sprite for the whole project, change the number in the Size property in the Sprite pane:

To change the size of a sprite for part of the project, add code to set size to the size of your choice. This option is good if you want your sprite to change size in the project.

Set the costumes of your sprites

To change the costume of a sprite for the whole project, click on the Costumes tab and select one of the available costumes:

To change the costume of a sprite for part of the project, add a switch costume to block to your code and update it to show the costume of your choice:

To hide a sprite at the start of the project, add a hide block to your code:

Set the direction of your sprites

Your sprites might be facing the wrong way when you add them to your project.

To change the direction of a sprite for the whole project, change the Direction and rotation style in the Sprite pane:

To change the direction of a sprite for part of the project, add blocks to your code to change the rotation style and direction: