Creating Animated Characters in Scratch

ElevatEd
Coding
August 24, 2024

Imagine bringing your favorite characters to life with movement and action! Scratch is an amazing tool that lets you create animated characters using simple coding blocks. You don’t need to be a professional coder to start; it’s like playing with digital LEGO pieces. By dragging and dropping colorful blocks, you can make characters walk, jump, dance, and more! This is a fun and easy way to learn coding while being super creative. Whether you want to animate a cat, a superhero, or a dancing robot, Scratch makes it possible. Let’s dive into how you can create your own animated characters in Scratch and watch your imagination come to life!

Begin Your Child's Coding Adventure Now!

Animation in Scratch

Animation in Scratch is like making your own cartoon! You can create characters and bring them to life with movements and actions. It’s super easy and fun because Scratch uses colorful coding blocks that you snap together, just like building with LEGO. For example, you can make a parrot fly across the screen by moving its wings and changing its position. Today, we will make our first animation by making our parrot fly. With Scratch, you can create stories, games, and animations that move and interact just the way you want. It’s a great way to learn coding and have fun at the same time!

Some of the most Common Blocks in Scratch

Motion Blocks: These blocks move your sprites. For example, "move 10 steps" makes a sprite move forward.
Looks Blocks: These change how your sprite looks, like "Say Hello!" or "Switch costume to."

Sound Blocks: These play sounds or music, such as "play sound meow."
Event Blocks: These start actions, like "when green flag clicked," which starts the code.
Control Blocks: These control how the blocks run, such as "wait 1 second" or "repeat 10 times."
Sensing Blocks: These detect conditions, like "touching mouse-pointer?" or "key space pressed?"

These blocks help you create interactive and animated projects in Scratch easily!

Making our First Animation in Scratch

Set Up Your Project: Open Scratch and create a new project. Choose a parrot sprite from the library or draw your own.
Create the Background: Select a backdrop for your project, like a sky or jungle scene, to make it look realistic.
Animate the Parrot: Click on your parrot sprite and go to the "Costumes" tab. Add or create different costumes that show the parrot in different flying positions.
Add Motion: Use the "when green flag clicked" block to start the animation. Add "switch costume" and "wait" blocks in a loop to make the parrot switch between costumes and look like it's flapping its wings.
Move the Parrot: Use the "move 10 steps" block to make the parrot move across the screen. Combine this with "if on edge, bounce" to make it stay within the screen.
Add Sound Effects: Use the "play sound" block to add a flying or chirping sound whenever the parrot moves.
Test and Adjust: Click the green flag to test your animation. Adjust the timing and movement as needed to make the parrot’s flight look smooth.

By following these steps, you can create an animated parrot that flies across the screen in Scratch!

How to Learn Scratch?

Learning Scratch is a fun and engaging way to start coding, especially for beginners and young learners. Scratch uses colorful blocks that fit together to create programs, making them easy to understand and use. Here are some free resources to help you learn Scratch:

Scratch Website: The official Scratch website offers tutorials, guides, and a large community to share your projects and get feedback.
Code.org: This site offers free, interactive courses that teach the basics of Scratch through fun and engaging activities.
YouTube: There are countless tutorials on YouTube that cover everything from the basics to advanced Scratch projects. Channels like ScratchTeam and Griffpatch have great content.
Khan Academy: Khan Academy provides free tutorials and exercises that can help you get started with Scratch.
Books and E-books: There are many free and paid books available that guide you step-by-step in learning Scratch.

For a more structured learning experience, consider enrolling in live classes. At 98th Percentile, we offer interactive live classes where expert instructors teach you how to create amazing projects in Scratch. Our classes provide personalized attention, making learning Scratch easier and more enjoyable. Join us and start your coding journey today!

In this blog, we learned how to create our first animation in Scratch by making a parrot fly. We covered step-by-step instructions, introduced common Scratch blocks, and provided resources for further learning. Get ready to make your parrot soar!