1. Skater World: Part Four By Deborah Nelson Duke University Under the direction of Professor Susan Rodger June 1, 2009

2. Overview Make Billboards by bringing 2D images into your Alice world. Learn how to animate them like any other object. Finish the opening scene by learning how to use 3D text as a title. The story continues: Using two billboards, we will simulate a plane taking off.

3. Make Billboard takeOff.jpg Pictures can be saved and imported into your world, this is known as “Make Billboard” Right Click on camera in the object tree. Set point of view to Dummy Objects, watchTakeOff. In the menu bar, select File. Then Make Billboard. Select takeOff.jpg. Click Import. This image should have been downloaded with the tutorial. Or download it now.

4. Position Billboards always appear in one default position in the world. Right click on takeoff in the object tree. Select methods, move to, doNotEnterSign, the entire doNotEnterSign. Drag takeOff into the middle of the scene. Click on Add Objects to see it better

5. Make Billboard: Plane.jpg Select File, Make Billboard. Import Plane.jpg. Right click on Plane in the object tree. Select methods, move to, takeOff. Use the position buttons to turn the images like this. Use quad view if needed

6. The Story takeOff is an image of a plane sitting on green grass. Plane is an image of a plane in the air Even though Billboards are images, they can be animated like any other object. In this scene we will use these images to simulate an airplane taking off. takeOff will move across the screen. As it moves, it will gradually become invisible while Plane gradually becomes visible. Then Plane will lift up into the air and continue moving.

7. Set Plane Vehicle Click on Plane in the object tree. Set vehicle to takeoff Keep in mind, the camera position and the size of the billboards may be slightly different from mine. That’s ok for this animation

8. Position takeoff With the position button, move takeOff to the right hand corner. Plane will follow since it’s vehicle is set to takeOff.

9. Position Plane Drag the Plane so that it is covering takeOff. Then drag it up slightly so you can see the bottom of takeOff. Click on Plane in the object tree. In the details area, set opacity to 0.0%

10. Plane orient To takeoff To make sure they are facing the same direction, right click on Plane in the object tree. Select methods, orient to, takeOff.

11. Brighten the images The images are too dark. In the local gallery, open the Lights folder. Drag stageSpotLight into the world. Drag the spotlight over to takeoff. Use the resize button to make it bigger Right click on spotlight in the object tree. Select methods, turn to face, takeoff Use the move and up buttons until your picture brightens

12. Make spotlight invisible and set vehicle The light still shines, even though the black box is invisible. Click on stageSpotLight in the object tree. Set isShowing to False. Set the vehicle to takeOff

13. In the scene, move takeoff over to the right so just the edge is showing. Click Done to exit the gallery Click on world in the object tree create new method. Name it airplaneTakeOff. Click OK

14. Write airplaneTakeOff – Drag the following code into the method, using skaterGuy2: – Set the first event, when the world starts, to call world.airplaneTakeOff – Play your world

15. Click on Plane in the object tree. From properties, drag opacity into the Do together. Set to 100.0%.. Set duration to 4.5 seconds

16. Drag in the rest of the code. The complete method:

17. Play your world. Your flight and speed may vary because of slight differences in our camera/billboard positioning. Make sure the plane flies all the way across the screen. Now, we want the airplane to take off repeatedly. First we will use invisible objects to store the initial position of Plane and takeoff, then we will write a method to reset the positions. Click on Add Objects and go to the Shapes folder.

18. Storing the billboard position Drag two cones into the world. These will be used to store the current billboard positions. Rename cone4 “saveTakeOff.” Rename cone5 “savePlane”

19. Positioning continued Right click on saveTakeOff in the object tree. Select methods, orient to, takeoff Right click on saveTakeOff, select moveTo, takeoff. In properties, set it’s isShowing to false Then Right click on savePlane. Select methods, orient to, Plane. Right click on savePlane, again, select move to, Plane. Set Plane’s isShowing property to false in the details area.

20. Write airplaneReset Now we’ll write a method to reset the billboard positions to saveTakeOff and savePlane. Click on done in the gallery. Click on world. Create a new method. Name it airplaneReset. Click OK.

21. The complete airplaneTakeOff: Click on the airplaneTakeOff tab and drag airplaneReset at the end

22. Calling airplane takeOff We will use a new event to call airplaneTakeOff so it will happen repeatedly create new event, select when the world starts. Scroll down in the event pane to see it Right click on this new event. Select change to, while the world is running

23. In the During, click on None, and select airplaneTakeOff in the drop down menu Play your world to watch the airplaneTakeOff repeatedly. Change the very first event, when the world starts to call world.myfirstmethod

24. Make a Billboard, as a scene Billboards don’t have to be animated. They’re also great for improving your scene. Right click on camera in the object tree. Select methods. Set point of view to,Dummy objects, originalPosition Go online, find an image of a scene. Make Billboard and drag it into your original scene.

25. Adding a title using 3D text Text can also be added to your world. Click on Add Objects. In local gallery, scroll over to Create 3D text. Click on it. In the pop up window, type “A Skater Story”. Click OK.

26. Position 3D Text Right click on 3D Text in the object tree. Select methods, move up, 3 meters. Use the position button to turn the text to face the camera. Click Done to exit the Gallery

27. Properties of 3D text Click on 3D Text in the object tree. Click on properties. If you want, change the color, the fillingStyle, or the font. 3D text can be animated just like any other object. Click on the methods tab. Create a new method. Name it Introduction. Click OK

28. Write Introduction Drag the following instructions: Drag extrusion from 3D Text properties into the Do Together. Set to -5.0

29. Complete the Introduction method:

30. Call Introduction in world.my first method Click on world.myfirstmethod in the object tree. Drag Introduction into the method as the second instruction. Play your world

31. How to use sound in your world Finally, let’s add a bit of sound to our world. Click on skaterGuy in the object tree. Edit his celebrate method. In his properties, expand the + beside Sounds. Click record sound

32. Record your sound Click record sound, say “Wow, Awesome!” Click Stop Name it yell. Click OK.

33. Drag sound into your method From properties, drag yell into skaterGuy.celebrate Play your world, make sure your volume is turned up on your computer You can click on import sound to bring other sounds into your world, like the sound of an airplane taking off.

34. Commenting your code Finally, it is always a good idea to comment. A comment is not code that will be animated. It is for a person to read when they look at your code, to help them understand it In world.my first method, drag comment above your first instruction

35. Type inside your comment Type in “Created by” and your name For practice, go back and look at each method you wrote. Add a comment at the beginning to explain what it does. In the future, you can comment as you code.

36. The final World.my first method  Congratulations on completing your Alice world