In part 1 of this series on creating fairy tales in Scratch 3.0, we showed how to switch backdrops and costumes, add sound, manage timing, and utilize the Glide and Broadcast blocks. This time our fairy tale will continue using the Ghost effect, Backpack, Functions, animation frames, Broadcast and Wait, and Clean up blocks. That’s a lot but thankfully Scratch makes it easy. Let’s jump back in!
To view the sample project, go to Scratch and do a search for “Fracturing Fairy Tales” by creator Fairy Scratcher (or visit the linked Project Page below).
To start, let’s look at the Ghost effect. In Scene 3 of our tale, the cursed King (who is now a toad) surprises our Fairy heroine by fading in. This is accomplished by using a Change __ effect by block that is found under Looks. There are seven different effects; we will use Ghost. To have our King fade in, we set the Ghost effect to 100 (which makes him invisible), then we change this effect gradually until it’s 0. Because the Ghost effect is so fun and useful, we can save this block stack in our Backpack to use in other projects (see Image 1).
Next, let’s look at how to create animation frames. Scratch does provide some “walking” Sprites, but our Toad sprite does not have that option. To create a hopping effect, go into Toad’s costumes and duplicate his costume. Then (staying in Vector mode), Ungroup his image and slightly move his legs. Copy over that costume and repeat 3 more times until you achieve an “animation”. Then, go into your code and use a Repeat block to have your Toad cycle through costume changes, time and steps to achieve the hopping effect. To reuse this code, create a function by going to My Blocks and Make a Block. Drag the hopping effect block stack into the function to use it for the scene (see Images 2 and 3). Remember, functions can also be saved in your Backpack!
We used the Broadcast block several times in part 1 of this lesson, but now we will use the Broadcast and Wait block. In Scene 4, Fairy and Centaur are plotting how to snatch the magic crystal from the Witch’s lair. The Witch makes a spooky appearance using the Ghost effect. We don’t want viewers to miss that eerie moment so we can use a Broadcast and Wait block to ensure the rest of the code doesn’t continue until the Witch fades in completely (see Image 4).
Using the Clean up Blocks tool will keep you organized. Go to each page of Code and right click on the Code Area – you will see the option to Clean up Blocks. Select it and your code will be neatly lined up! You can rearrange the code in logical order and then clean it up again!
Learn More
FRACTURING FAIRY TALES PROJECT PAGE
https://realpython.com/lessons/reserved-keywords/
SCRATCH ACTIVITY GUIDES
11 FRACTURED FAIRY TALES FOR YOUNG READERS
https://www.readbrightly.com/11-fractured-fairy-tales-young-readers/
