My Character

• I had many outlines for different characters but when I started creating one on scratch, something totally different came out. This was my favorite one out of all my other characters.

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• It was supposed to look like dust or some bacteria that is harmful to us.

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• Despite its physical appearance, my character is nice and sympathetic. Unfortunately, nobody accepts his kindness because of his looks.

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• He floats around in air, leaving behind dust. The dust he leaves behind make everyone hate him but he doesn’t have any bad intentions.

Comments

• I used blocks that involved trig functions for the first time. It was hard but fun.
• I like that I made my character move by itself without actually moving the physical interacting with the sprite.
• From here, I want to figure out how to switch the costume consistently as the sprite is moving.

My character overview

1. The first movement I created for my character was floating/flying. My character floated in air along with the trail of dust following it behind.�

2. The second movement I created for my character was walking. In contrast to the first movement, my character would walk on land, with legs. Even the pieces of dust have their own legs.�

3. At first, I thought it was pretty obvious for dust to just shift around due to wind, so I made my character fly/float. Then for my second movement, I thought about the dust that gather in corners or on the sidewalk. So I wanted to create a way for my character to move around on land. As a result, my character started walking.�

4. A game or story that would feature my creature could be a game about pollution in the world. When I first created the character, Dustman, I was thinking about the message, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’. Dustman isn’t the most attractive character in the world but he would have the biggest heart in the world. I think a story/game that can send this message to the audience would be suitable for my character.

link: Dustman Movement

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March 7, 2014 Progress Entry

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/16988742/#player

• Today in class, I didn’t get much done because I spent so much time trying to fix mistakes I made yesterday. But, I still managed to make my sprite look like he’s walking by making the background change. Also, I made a brief outline of my female sprite.
• Next class, I want to finish my female sprite and her movements. Lastly, I want to add in some background music to give more impact to my very short story.
• I think my project is going okay at the moment because I am not having any specific problems. I think my biggest obstacle is trying to get everything done within the time frame.

New Scratch Blocks

With costumes, I was able to make the sprites look like they are moving. This block made it possible for the sprite to switch costumes by itself, without me doing anything each time.

The broadcast blocks were useful when making a story. It made it really easy to make things happen in order and get the timing right. With this block, I don’t have to time how long each action takes or how many times the action has to repeat in order to make things flow.

I have never had sound in any of my projects before. In this project I can use sound to improve the quality of my story. I want to add music to the background

I was not familiar with this block so I never used it in any project. In this project, I think it would be a good feature to add in the ending. I can have my sprite draw a heart or draw out ‘The End’ when the story is over.

Final Story Project Entry

1. Describe your character and it's animation.

My character is a lonely creature in a world with only him and his pets. He floats in air with his pets but also walks with two legs at times.

2. How does this animation relate to/enhance the story/game.

I think different animations or movements help show the creature’s emotions. For example, if the creature is sad, I felt that walking/running with tears would show his sadness better than just floating with tears in his eyes.

3. What had you known about or seen before that gave you ideas and made you want to make this project?

I was looking at other projects in scratch and I saw someone’s project where he/she made two gingerbreadman fall in love. I wanted to do the same thing and create a short love story with my character.

4. Describe the things that you can do now that you could not do before this project with evidence for each thing using I can statements.

Before, I didn’t know how to make sprites and other things move without any keyboard inputs. Also, I didn’t know how to use the pen block, as well as the broadcast blocks. Now, my characters can move by themselves and be a part of a story without the audiences input. I also learned how to make my sprites into a pen. Not only that but I am now very familiar with broadcasting blocks and how they work.

If your creature were 3D instead of 2D, how would you want it to move? Describe how it would move if it were clay. What new problems would exist?

If my creature was 3D, when they move, their arms and their entire body would change direction, instead of moving only their legs. If my character was made with clay, I would have to figure out the appearance of all the other parts of my sprite (ex. the back, right, left side) as well as the texture of my character (ex. furry, slimy, smooth, rough.. etc.). After, figuring out the movements of my character would be different because it would use different parts of its body than in a 2D animation.

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3/21/2014

link: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/16988742/#player

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