Alice Animation CPS 004.1, 23 January 2002

In order to get you started programming, you and a new partner will be creating a computer animated movie using the program Alice. Alice provides a good environment to start programming because it is easy to learn, allows you to construct your programs interactively, and allows you to quickly build 3D animations!

Warm-up

Probably the best way to get started is to modify one of the demos available on the system. Use the help button to get to this.

Making an Animation

Once you have familiarized yourself, create a complete animation that shows at least one "character" performing some simple action and lasts 15-30 seconds. Some examples include:

A character dancing in a distinctive way
Someone learning how to walk or play a sport
Someone that needs to be rescued from a desert island

Notice how simple and concise these example descriptions are, yet they evoke a variety of different animations. What will distinguish your animation is its clarity, creativity, and effect. Your first task is to come up with a premise for your own animation.

This project is intentionally open-ended, although there are a few guidelines. It should include the components described below.

coordinated movement
creating the illusion of coordinated motion by combining movements by the parts of an object. For example, animating a butterfly flapping its wings by repeatedly turning each wing back and forth.
interactive action
making part of your animation react to a user's mouse click or key press. For example, you may make your character start its coordinated motion when it is clicked on.

What Is Expected

This is such an open-ended assignment that you could spend your entire semester working on it. However, since we are just exploring this, see what you can produce by the end of class.

What to hand in

For this project, show your animations to one of the staff before you leave. Note, you can save all of your Alice files in the temporary directory C:\classes\cps004. However, when you are done saving your work to your acpub account, you should delete it from the local machine so that others are not tempted to reuse it.