How to Use Scratch Blocks for New Scratchers

892kittycat

New to scratch? Don’t know how to use blocks? This will explain the basic uses of blocks. ^^

The first ones are motion blocks.

move (?) steps

This block will make your sprite move. A more useful way of moving, though, is this:

change x by (?)
change y by (?)

This will make your sprite move in any direction. X controls horizontal (left to right) movements, and Y controls vertical (up and down) movements.

Another thing you can use is the glide block. All you have to do is put in where you want to glide to, and how long it will take the sprite to get there.

glide (?) secs to x: (?) y: (?)

That is what the block looks like. There are more things to do with motion blocks, though, for example this block:

turn cw (?) degrees

This will make your sprite turn in a given direction. There are two more motion blocks mentioned here, and the first one is the “if on edge, bounce”.

if on edge, bounce

This will make it so that if your sprite is touching the edge, it will turn around and go the other way. The next block is the “set rotation style ?”.

set rotation style [?]

This block makes it so that, for example, if rotation style is “left-right”, then the sprite will face its normal direction when pointing 90 degrees, and the opposite direction when pointing -90.

I hope this helped

892kittycat

Next we will be working with looks blocks. These are very interesting, as they will help with costumes and add effects to your sprite. We will start with the simplest ones: show and hide blocks.

show

hide

The show block will make your sprite show on the screen. The hide block will make it disappear, and use the show block to make it show again. The next blocks are the “say” and “think” blocks. These are two of the most useful blocks when you are learning to code.

say [Hello!] for (2) secs

think [Hmmm...] for (2) secs

These will make your sprite talk and think. You can also use the blocks that just say “think ___” or “say ___” to make your sprite talk forever. Next is this block:

switch costume to [?]

This will change your sprite’s costume. You can also use this block

next costume

if you do not want a certain costume, and want the sprite to switch to its next costume. Use the backdrop blocks for the same purpose. Next we are working with size blocks. The size blocks look like this:

change size by (?)

and

set size to (?) %

These two blocks will change your sprites size, and/or set a certain size for your sprite. Now, a quick lesson on layers. The blocks look like this:

go to front
go back (?) layers

The layers control if your sprite is on top, in the middle, or behind everything else. This does not include backdrops. Finally, we have gotten to effect blocks. These blocks are very, very useful. Take this effect block for example:

change [ghost] effect by (?)

This amazing tool can be used to make your sprites fade in and out. 100% ghost effect is hidden, 0% is showing. There is also color effect, which, in my opinion, is not as useful. It looks like this:

change [color] effect by (?)

It will change the color of your sprite, and you can make it flash rainbow.

Hope this helped!

TheOrcaKing

This really helps New Scratchers!

when green flag clicked
move (10) steps
play sound [ meow]
say [Hi!] for (2) secs
switch backdrop to [ Slopes] 
say [Its cold out here. Bye] for (2) secs
hide

Last edited by TheOrcaKing (Nov. 13, 2021 16:56:43)

Nezon

Sorry, but the scratch team aren't accepting guides right now.

892kittycat

Now sound blocks…these honestly confuse me a bit. The least confusing is this one:

play sound [?] until done

It will play a sound until it finishes. Keep in mind that the sound needs to be on the sprite to work. Next is this one:

play sound [?]

This one means that this sound will stop if the script it is in stops. Though, the only thing that can stop both these blocks is this:

stop all sounds

It will…well, stop all sounds that are playing, as the name says. The next block is this:

play drum (?) for (?) beats

It will play a drum sound for your chosen amount of beats. This one:

play note (?) for (?) beats

Will play your chosen note for your chosen amount of beats. Then this one:

rest for (?) beats

Will make your tune stop for as many beats as you want. I never use these blocks myself, but maybe you will find them useful. The last one in this category is the

set instrument to (?)

It will change the instrument your using. The last two things for sounds are volume and tempo. Use the following blocks to control volume and tempo.

change volume by (?)
set volume to (?) %
change tempo by (?)
set tempo to (?) bpm

You do not have to use them in this order, nor must you use them together. This is the end of the sounds category.

Hope this helped

Nezon

Nezon wrote:
Sorry, but the scratch team aren't accepting guides right now.

892kittycat

Nezon wrote:
Nezon wrote:
Sorry, but the scratch team aren't accepting guides right now.

Sorry, I’m confused?

892kittycat

Nezon wrote:
Nezon wrote:
Sorry, but the scratch team aren't accepting guides right now.

Did I do something wrong? Can someone tell me if I did please

Nezon

892kittycat wrote:
Nezon wrote:
Nezon wrote:
Sorry, but the scratch team aren't accepting guides right now.

Sorry, I’m confused?

They aren't accepting stickies (pinned topics) and they're not accepting unstickied guides (like this), so this will be closed and never be worked on or bumped again. You can though, create guides for the scratch wiki, or find other ways to help out scratchers.

In the meantime, please use the forums correctly.

892kittycat

Nezon wrote:
892kittycat wrote:
Nezon wrote:
Nezon wrote:
Sorry, but the scratch team aren't accepting guides right now.

Sorry, I’m confused?
They aren't accepting stickies (pinned topics) and they're not accepting unstickied guides (like this), so this will be closed and never be worked on or bumped again. You can though, create guides for the scratch wiki, or find other ways to help out scratchers.

In the meantime, please use the forums correctly.

I’m sorry! I didn’t know.

Nezon

892kittycat wrote:
Nezon wrote:
892kittycat wrote:
Nezon wrote:
Nezon wrote:
Sorry, but the scratch team aren't accepting guides right now.

Sorry, I’m confused?
They aren't accepting stickies (pinned topics) and they're not accepting unstickied guides (like this), so this will be closed and never be worked on or bumped again. You can though, create guides for the scratch wiki, or find other ways to help out scratchers.

In the meantime, please use the forums correctly.

I’m sorry! I didn’t know.

It's okay. If you have more questions about scratch ask the QaS forum, or use the scratch wiki. In a bit, a ST member will close this down.

Harakou

Thanks for offering your help! Unfortunately, the forums aren't well-suited to these kinds of tutorials, so we'd prefer if you avoid making them. A much better option would be to make a project, which can help you demonstrate what's going on. You could even share it in Show and Tell.

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