Scratchorial

-The Guide to Scratching-

Hey!

Welcome to the Ultimate Scratch Tutorial! This will help new scratchers as well as experienced!

Lets begin with simple stuffs:

Art/Design

There are two options for art design, bitmap and vector, and we’ll discuss the pros and cons of both:

Bitmap
This is the standard scratch art setting and is the most used by beginners. It is set in pixel by pixel form and is best used in arcade and lower graphical use (Tho it can still look awesome).

Pros:

•Easy to draw and design with
•Is great for a classic look
•Has an eraser for those common mistakes

Cons:

•Can’t create smooth corners or turns
•Has limited design space

Vector
This is the extra scratch art feature and is for more complex games or higher graphics. It is not in pixel by pixel form, so it is not limited to a choppy look.

Pros:

•Smooth corners and circles
•Great for taking pics from the internet into scratch
•Has ‘unlimited’ design space
•Can group objects flawlessly

Cons:

•Harder to draw with
•Can’t really do pixel art
•NO ERASER! WARNING: BE CAREFUL

Now that you know about each art setting we’ll move on to basic programming!

Programming

Welcome to the programming section of this topic! We will discuss each tab of the programming bar!

Motion

Does pretty much what it sounds like! Under this tab is the ability to move your player or object by a number of ‘steps’ set by you in the direction set, the ability to turn degrees either left or right, the ability to set the degrees by pointing in a direction or toward another sprite, the ability to set coordinates (x, y) or set to the same as another sprite or gliding to the coordinates of another sprite in set amount of time, the ability to change x and/or y by set number or set x and/or y to number, the ability to make an object or player to bounce off of a wall, the ability to set rotation style, and the ability to show the current direction and x and y positions.

Looks

This will change the look and costume of the sprite and backdrop and shows stuffs. Under this tab you can have your sprite ‘say’ typed words by you in a speech bubble for a desired amount of time or until he’s ‘told’ to say something else or he can ‘think’ it in a thought bubble the same way. You can show and hide your sprites (Visible and invisible, and this is a VERY important part of scratching and video game production). You can switch the ‘costume’ or look of the character to the costume desired by selecting the costume name under the drop down tab. Next costume is helpful for animating a spites movement. Switch Backdrop to is helpful for changing the background graphics and in the case of platformers, the level. You can also change the graphics effect, this is very helpful in making your game smoother and less choppy such as using: -Set ghost effect to 100- then -Repeat 10 times_Change ghost effect by -10. That will fade your sprite in and vice versa will fade it out. You can also clear graphic effects to set every effect to 0. Changing size is sorta self explanatory, it changes your size to a set percent of the normal size. Go to front-Scratch sprites are set to layers, depending on the layer it is on it will overlap the lower layer- Go to front will set it to the highest layer or the front and Go back () layers will set it back that many layers to put it behind the opposing layer EX: layer 4 is on top of layer 5. Then you can your costume number, backdrop name, and current size by toggling the check mark.

Sound

This tab is important! Games with sounds and/or background music ALWAYS are more popular then ones without. You can play a recorded or saved sound with ‘Play sound’ and 'play sound until done’. You can record sounds under the ‘sounds’ tab. The ‘Stop all sounds’ is again self explanatory, it stops all current playing sounds. You can create your sounds by using the drum beats and instrument settings, tho this is REALLY hard to make an extended sounds and I do not recommend trying useless your absolutely completely without an idea and are board. Setting volume can quiet the sounds to a less obnoxious setting (or just turn down your volume XD)

Pen

Pen is a little more complex use of creating graphics. Clear will delete any pen currently drawn. Stamp will imbed the drawings look onto its current spot. Pen up and down is as if the screen was a sheet of paper and you are holding the pen, is you pen is up its not touching the paper, and down is. Setting pen color will make any new pen change to that color and all old will stay the old color, a color change. You can also set the thickness of the pen using the ‘change pen size’ and the 'set pen size’.

Data

This is the data section, here you can create variables and lists. Variables can be normal (Reset every time someone starts the game/personnel numbers) or cloud (Saves for everyone who plays, like a highscore for example, cloud can currently only hold numbers and chat rooms are not allowed and will be removed). You can also make lists to hold info such as a name or inventory items, there is no cloud list currently on scratch. These are super helpful functions on the scratch editor and are in almost every project and ARE in EVERY popular one.

Events

This is the Events tab, this is used to begin scripts and are used to receive info sent to the sprite. ‘When Green is Clicked’ is used to signal a script as soon as the game starts and is used in most scripts. ‘When key is pressed’ is an extremely helpful script piece since it can detect interaction with the player keyboard and can be used to signal movement. ‘When Backdrop switches to’ can be used to signal between graphics backdrop to change the sprite or make it do something. ‘When () > ()’ is used to detect lots of occurrences and will signal the sprite. ’When I receive’ and ‘broadcast’ and ‘broadcast and wait’ are used to send and receive messages between sprites and can be used to signal a sprite to do something after another sprite has finished its job.

Control

This is the Control section. This is probably the most used section in all of the programming on scratch. Here you can delay between actions with ‘Wait’. You can ‘repeat’ can make a sprite do the action again and again the desired amount of times. You can use ‘Forever’ to make a sprite always do the action, or detect a wall or floor in a platformer for example. You can use ‘if-then’ to signal the sprite to do an action -if- something else happens, such as a key pressed or an enemy hit the player. ‘If-Then-else’ can be used like an ‘if-then’ except if the key or enemy isn’t touching the sprite then it’ll do another action instead. ‘Wait Until’ can be used to stop the list of actions in the script -until- the desired key or enemy touches the sprite and then the script will continue again. You can use ‘Repeat Until’ to have the sprite continue an action over an over until the desired key or enemy touches the sprite. ‘Stop-all, this script, and other scripts’ can either stop the entire game (Like a you lose), just that action, or stop other scripts. Cloning is used to make a copy of the original so you can have the same sprite without the need of more the one sprite with the same programming (all in one ). ‘When I start as a clone’ is the base (Like the ‘When green arrow Clicked’) for all programming that the clone will listen to when it comes to life or starts. ‘Create Clone of’ does just as it says, it makes the clone. ‘Delete this clone’ can go at the end of the ‘When I start as a clone’ script to get rid of the certain clone (Ex: Killing an enemy would delta that clone).

Sensing

This is probably the second most used…maybe . It will tell the sprites script to sense if the sprite is touching another sprite, a color, or if one color is touching another color. It can also sense the distance it is to another sprite to begin an action. In here you ask the player what his or her name is for example, and it can take the players answer and use the info to add to a list or to use in the game (Such as a players name). ‘Key Pressed’ can sense when a key is pressed like the ‘When key Pressed’ under the “Events” tab. ‘Mouse down?’ can check if the player has clicked the mouse button down and can use this info to begin an action. ’Video on’ and related one can be used to turn a background cam on to see you and use your motions to play the game (Like the Xbox Kinect). ‘Timer’ can be used to time the player in the game (Self explanatory again XD). ‘Current ()’ can be used to auto detect the date and time the player is currently playing the game. ‘Username’ will detect the username of the person playing your game and the game and use the info.

Operators

This is the mathematical aspect of scratch! Also known as the hard part! You can add numbers and use variables to add together and subtract, multiply, and divide. You can also ‘Pick Random’ to select a random number (Such as setting spawn to a random point between to numbers). Greater than and less than and equal than can be used to compare variables and positions between sprites. ‘And’, ‘Or’, and ‘Not’ can be used to detect more then one thing to activate an action, can be used to detect one or another to activate an action, or switch to opposite (If its not detecting something start an action). ‘Join’ can be used to join variables or words, ‘Letter’ can detect whats in the said position of a variable or word or username. ‘Length’ can be used to detect how many numbers or letters are in a variable or word or username. ‘Sqrt’, ‘Abs’, etc. are beyond me but there are tutorials for it over scratch if your crazy complex like that!

More Blocks

More blocks can be used to create ‘your own’ scratch block. You can simplify your game by using a new block and defining what it means by make an example of what it does and using the new block inside your other script. This can greatly simplify and speed up your game! Have fun and try out new things!

Thats all for now! I really hope this guide will help every scratcher that reads it, new and experienced alike!

Have fun!
#ScratchOn!
-ASEMAZING

Please see this recent topic https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/170576/

Posts like your do appear regularly and it's really good that people want to help others but the forum functions best when people just answer the questions posted by those needing help.

If I ask you a question about a block, will you answer?

If so, what does the

do?

SpaceQube123 wrote:

If I ask you a question about a block, will you answer?

If so, what does the

do?

There is help on every block in the editor, just right click (in Windows) and choose help. It does what it says - gives the distance to another sprite.

SpaceQube123 wrote:

If I ask you a question about a block, will you answer?

If so, what does the

do?

Yes I will!

And the ‘distance to’ can tell the distance from another sprite. If you were to enter {100} into the ‘distance to’ it would send a signal to the sprite when it is within the {100} marker to the other sprite and start the scripted action.

-ASEMAZING

deck26 wrote:

Please see this recent topic https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/170576/

Posts like your do appear regularly and it's really good that people want to help others but the forum functions best when people just answer the questions posted by those needing help.

Thanks and I totally understand, but I just wanted to make a topic that a super new scratcher can read and instantly get an idea of how scratch works.

-ASEMAZING

You really help me out. I am STILL a beginner at Scratch (and by that I mean not knowing how to use EVERY BLOCK in it,) Even if it's been 8 months.

Thanks!

I would maybe see if you can get an admin to move this to requests. This is kinda like a shop, but for learning.

How do I submit a project?

By clicking Share at the top right corner

BKFighter wrote:

I would maybe see if you can get an admin to move this to requests. This is kinda like a shop, but for learning.

Oh yea, it kinda is! That would be awesome thanks!

-ASEMAZING

SpaceQube123 wrote:

You really help me out. I am STILL a beginner at Scratch (and by that I mean not knowing how to use EVERY BLOCK in it,) Even if it's been 8 months.

Thanks!

No Problem! And if you ever have any more questions I'm always happy to help!
#ScratchOn!

-ASEMAZING

It's a great guide, but a trifle uneeded. Thumbs up.

flutehamster wrote:

It's a great guide, but a trifle uneeded. Thumbs up.

Thx!

-ASEMAZING

ASEMAZING wrote:

flutehamster wrote:

It's a great guide, but a trifle uneeded. Thumbs up.

Thx!

-ASEMAZING

You even acknoledge its a shop with your signature. Lets just get it moved to requests.

BKFighter wrote:

ASEMAZING wrote:

flutehamster wrote:

It's a great guide, but a trifle uneeded. Thumbs up.

Thx!

-ASEMAZING

You even acknoledge its a shop with your signature. Lets just get it moved to requests.

My Sig. is actually for a different shop I made a while back that failed since know one requested or joined. But I would like this one moved to requests, but I'm not sure how to do that.
If You click my sig. it'll take you to my other shop.
-ASEMAZING

ASEMAZING wrote:

BKFighter wrote:

ASEMAZING wrote:

flutehamster wrote:

It's a great guide, but a trifle uneeded. Thumbs up.

Thx!

-ASEMAZING

You even acknoledge its a shop with your signature. Lets just get it moved to requests.

My Sig. is actually for a different shop I made a while back that failed since know one requested or joined. But I would like this one moved to requests, but I'm not sure how to do that.
If You click my sig. it'll take you to my other shop.
-ASEMAZING

I would suggest changing that. Just report your first post and ask to have it moved to requests.

BKFighter wrote:

ASEMAZING wrote:

BKFighter wrote:

ASEMAZING wrote:

flutehamster wrote:

It's a great guide, but a trifle uneeded. Thumbs up.

Thx!

-ASEMAZING

You even acknoledge its a shop with your signature. Lets just get it moved to requests.

My Sig. is actually for a different shop I made a while back that failed since know one requested or joined. But I would like this one moved to requests, but I'm not sure how to do that.
If You click my sig. it'll take you to my other shop.
-ASEMAZING

I would suggest changing that. Just report your first post and ask to have it moved to requests.

By Clicking the ‘Report’ button?

Yes. Click the report button. It does NOTHING NEGATIVE in and of itself. All it does is notify an Admin/Mod, essentially, and gives the message you wrote.

BKFighter wrote:

Yes. Click the report button. It does NOTHING NEGATIVE in and of itself. All it does is notify an Admin/Mod, essentially, and gives the message you wrote.

ok there, I reported it.