Scratch For Kids For Dummies

CHAPTER 8

Location, Location, Location

Every animation takes place somewhere, from a family basement to the far reaches of outer space, from South America to South Park, Colorado. The last chapter walked you through the creation of three different animated characters. In this chapter, you create immersive scenes — object-filled locations that grab your senses — for your characters to explore.

Enough of those flat backdrops. Get building your own immersive animation WORLD!

Planning Animation Scenes

Before a movie or television show is made, somebody writes a script, which includes all the scenes. Each scene starts with a location. While you are thinking about the story that you want to tell, you should also start to think about where the story will take place. I will stick with the three characters I designed in Chapter 7. It might be funny if I find a way to force all three of them together. What if they are strangers who must share a room? Where is that likely to happen? How about summer camp?

Every location is going to be either inside or outside, an interior scene or an exterior scene. Let’s begin inside. In previous chapters, I had you create a new project. If you plan to use your characters from the previous chapter (or from another project you have created), it will be easier to open that project so your characters will be available. If you wish to use sprites from the ...