alice-teacher questions

Wed Oct 5 13:48:06 EDT 2011

Rebecca,
If you want them to work on the different scenes at the same time, this is difficult in Alice.

One trick is to build a world that has different parts of the scene in different locations in the world, and then use camera markers and camera movement to move from one scene to the other. But this does mean that only one group can work on the world at a time.

Another solution is to export each world to video, or to use screen capture software to make moves of each individual world, and then "stitch" the different movies together in video editing software, such as iMovie on the Mac. You can tell your students that this is the way "real" movies are made.

The advantage to this is that one Alice world with multiple scenes can become very large, and sometimes overwhelm Alice. There is less risk in this happening if each student / group is working on their own scene. This also forces collaboration between different students / groups as they think about how their different scenes go together.

I am going to forward this response to the alice teachers listserv, as I am sure many in the community will also have some very good ideas.

All the best,
Don Slater

On Oct 5, 2011, at 12:52 PM, Rebecca Brown wrote:

> Hello, I just started using Alice with my 5th grade students and they LOVE it.  I am having a hard time figuring out how to put two or three scenes together.  If they make one scene in a school hallway and then one in a classroom how do you get them to play together?  Thanks
> 
> 
> 
> >>> Don Slater <> 10/5/2011 10:26 AM >>>
> Do you mean, change the ground from grass to snow, etc?
> 
> 1) Open a new world with the new ground texture that you wish to change to
> 2) Right-click on "ground" in the object tree
> 3) Select "Save object…" from the drop down menu
> 4) Name the object appropriately, and save it in a convenient location.
> 
> 5) Open the world in which you wish to change the ground
> 6) From the File menu, select "Import…"
> 7) Locate and select the new ground object you have just saved (in step #4)
> 8) Your object tree will now have a "ground" and "ground2" object 
> 
> 9) right-click on the "ground" object in your object tree, and select "delete"
> 10) you should now see the new ground texture.
> 
> Let me know if you have any other questions.
> 
> Don Slater
> 
> 
> On Oct 5, 2011, at 10:11 AM, swn5 at aol.com wrote:
> 
> > Is there a way to change the 'world' without loosing our objects and animated methods?
> > THanks
> > Pat Swain
> > swn5 at aol.com
> > www.patswainphotography.com
> > 
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: swn5 <swn5 at aol.com>
> > To: dslater <dslater at andrew.cmu.edu>
> > Sent: Wed, Oct 5, 2011 9:53 am
> > Subject: enlarge the world
> > 
> > Our 8th grade class would like to put on a little animation festival with our Alice animations.
> > Is there a way to make the world fill the screen? RIght now it is small.
> > Thanks
> > Pat Swain
> > swn5 at aol.com
> > www.patswainphotography.com
> > 
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Don Slater <dslater at andrew.cmu.edu>
> > To: swn5 <swn5 at aol.com>
> > Sent: Fri, Sep 23, 2011 12:04 pm
> > Subject: Re: Screen shot, 2nd attempt
> > 
> > Here is a link to a website with some useful resources, maintained by Dr. Susan 
> > Rodger's at Duke University…
> > 
> > 
> > http://www.cs.duke.edu/csed/alice/aliceInSchools/
> > 
> > 
> > All the best,
> > Don Slater
> > 
> > On Sep 23, 2011, at 9:16 AM, 
> > swn5 at aol.com
> >  wrote:
> > 
> > > This is great. Now I have another question as I am very new to this. Is there 
> > a place where I can read how these functions work. So far I don't know how to 
> > create functions to 'do together.'
> > > thanks
> > > 
> > > Pat Swain
> > > 
> > swn5 at aol.com
> > 
> > > 
> > www.patswainphotography.com
> > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Don Slater <
> > dslater at andrew.cmu.edu
> > >
> > > To: swn5 <
> > swn5 at aol.com
> > >
> > > Sent: Fri, Sep 23, 2011 8:32 am
> > > Subject: Re: Screen shot, 2nd attempt
> > > 
> > > I have attached a world, "HareWalk.a2w" that illustrates a walk for the Hare 
> > > form the Animals gallery. You will see that I am animating both the legs and 
> > the 
> > > and the are movement. I have built it so that the hare will move forward 2 
> > > meters in 2 seconds, which felt like a reasonable walk animation. By adjusting 
> > 
> > > the time durations and the amount of rotation in the turns, you can change the 
> > 
> > > time and distance of a step in the walk. I have chosen the abruptly style to 
> > > smooth out the animation. (Both the duration and the style modifiers are 
> > > available from the "more…" button at the end of each method tile.
> > > 
> > > If you look in the People gallery of Alice 2.2, you should find a directory of 
> > 
> > > "Walking People" that already have a walk method. You can look at how walk is 
> > > implemented in these characters for ideas.
> > > 
> > > Also in the People Gallery, there is a HeBuilder and a SheBuilder that allows 
> > > you to create human characters that come with several different animations, 
> > that 
> > > you can also look at for ideas.
> > > 
> > > Please let me know if you have any questions.
> > > 
> > > All the best,
> > > Don Slater
> > > 
> > > 
> > >    
> > > 
> > > 
> > > On Sep 23, 2011, at 8:07 AM, 
> > > 
> > swn5 at aol.com
> > 
> > >  wrote:
> > > 
> > > > Hello,
> > > > I have just started using Alice with 5th to 8th Grade. Is there a way to 
> > make 
> > > the legs move forward in a character/animal and the body at the same time so 
> > it 
> > > looks like a walk?
> > > > Thanks
> > > > 
> > > > Pat Swain
> > > > 
> > > 
> > swn5 at aol.com
> > 
> > > 
> > > > 
> > > 
> > www.patswainphotography.com
> > 
> > > 
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: Don Slater <
> > > 
> > dslater at andrew.cmu.edu
> > 
> > > >
> > > > To: swn5 <
> > > 
> > swn5 at aol.com
> > 
> > > >
> > > > Sent: Mon, Sep 19, 2011 1:50 pm
> > > > Subject: Screen shot, 2nd attempt
> > > > 
> > > > Let me know if you still have problems, or any other questions…
> > > > <ObjectMarker.png>
> > > > 
> > > > All the best,
> > > > Don Slater
> > > >  
> > > 
> > > 
> > 
> > 
> 
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