Introduction: Alice and I-CSI110, Programming, Worlds and Problems

Transcription

1 Introduction: Alice and I-CSI110, Programming, Worlds and Problems Alice is named in honor of Lewis Carroll s Alice in Wonderland 1 Alice software Application to make animated movies and interactive games Making animated (or other) movies is a fun but difficult and creative task a kind of programming, basically Movie stars follow cues from director and each other they INTERACT AND they follow a SCRIPT. Your Alice creations will do those too! 2 Technologies in CSI110 course 1 st half or so: mostly with Alice, a little html. 2 nd half: Java plus brief introductions to digital circuits, simulations for science, etc.. Today, do 2 Alice stencil based tutorials...find out what Alice is about. This, like most CS courses, is a hands-on, active learning kind of course. You will become a 6-wk Alice expert and use it to solve problems the same ways professionals do (with more complex tools). 3 Creating a movie, game, or play What is the story?? create a plan, scenario, etc. select your cast of characters Create the script plan for audience interaction? Learn, practice, get better at techniques and technologies Replay,revise, repeat, rehearse,perfect! How Pixar does it.. Non-trivial projects require Goal setting, planning and design first increasing refinement and adding of details as the project progresses many steps require test runs, rehearsals, retakes, review-and-improve cycles, etc

2 Interaction Tutorial 3 introduces interaction. Programming interaction with Alice is almost like programming a start-to-finish script. Alice also does (simulated!) simultaneous acting by different actors. Techie lingo: concurrent, multiple threaded programs Program and Events Script == (Computer) Program An event is something that happens because of audience action (shout, mouse click, key, etc.) or program operation (actors bump, some data changes, etc.), that causes the special part of the script, written for that kind of event, to be followed. Event handler==such a special part. 7 8 What's next peculiarities of programming instructions involving our 3-dimensional world terminology, tips/techniques of Alice First Encounter from Chapter 2. Control structures and Interaction Interesting/Creative scenario making Keeping/Publishing your digital work Organizing different or similar objects and behaviors using classes 9 Getting started (Thurs.) You will have read Alice book Ch. up to 2.2. Covers 3 storyboard options. We'll learn and use 2.2 stuff: Create or copy initial scene of robot and moon on the moon. Write COMMENTS to say what we want. Write instructions (to run METHODS of our scene's OBJECTS) Use do in order and do together instruction groupings Make objects change their PROPERTIES 10 Assignment (before the next class session) read Chapter 2 intro and Section 1 Scenarios and Storyboards Section 2 First Program:Prepare to do this in class on Thursday. Play with Alice in LC-3 or in your own computer begin finishing Chapter 2 and go on to Chapter 1..Do (try?) exercise 1-3..save jpg file on LC-3 computer's W: drive. Finish Chap 1 & 2 for Tuesday How to read Boring Manuals.. For step-by-step instructions, try them out on the computer with the book in hand...don't try to memorize! (maybe make notes) Identify the concepts, particularly when named by vocabulary words...and study THOSE carefully; but stop, ask questions, go back to studying later if you're confused. Details: read what they are for, plan to REFER to book WHEN (later!) needed. Tuesday, we begin Chap. 3 material

3 Alice Concepts Chap 1 Help you create Alice worlds on your own. Virtual 3-d Worlds Alice Objects==3-d Models Dimensions, directions, centers, distances, positions The scene editor Creating a new virtual world Create a new world File New Choose template Picking from gallery and Adding objects using the Scene Editor Galleries Classes (3D models) are found in the galleries Local gallery (installed with the software) Minimum or complete options CD Gallery (only if CD is in the machine) Web gallery Middle-top World View Window Mouse is used to approximately position objects in the scene Camera Navigation is used to look at world better and set the camera point of view when scene editor is active: scene editor window lets you select quad-view which helps you position each object relative to others Quad-views are used in full-fledged graphics Check out Blender in LC-3! 17 Scene Editor Features Upper-left World Outline window shows all objects by name Mouse left-click selects object so: it is outlined in the viewer its methods appear in the window below Mouse right-press reveals Drop-down menus of methods useful to: resize or rotate objects more precisely position them in the scene run methods by hand, to see what they do. use the undo button after each trial! 18 3

4 Demo? The Camera Positioning Controls Do you want me to demo this? Move camera in the horizontal plane, not changing the direction it points. Drive camera---left/right steers, changes the direction in horiz. plane, Fwd/Back is speed control. Tilt camera---changes up/down direction Dimensions, 6 Directions A 3D object has 3 dimensions: height, width, depth 6 degrees of freedom (independent motions) 3 straight line directions 3 kinds of rotation Object Rotation Axis NAMES Roll left/right Yaw=turn left/right Pitch=turn fwd/back Used by airplane pilots Alice turn and roll methods do these Demonstration The rotations that Alice objects can do around the 3 different axes. Each Alice object has 3 axes attached. aliceliddell will demonstrate the 3 kinds of rotation... Moving one object around another The as seen by option for various movements makes those movements be done around DIFFERENT AXES. That is handy to animate somebody going around something. Demo

5 Each Alice object has a Center chosen by its designer At the center of mass Alice Object Parts Objects may be composed of parts(also objects) Where it stands on the ground Where it is held (Depending the model's intended use.) (what's fun...invent a non-intended use.) Objects An "object" is any thing that can be identified as unique from other things Alice objects are 3-d models How is an object unique? has a name has properties: width, height, color, location can perform actions (methods): associated actions it can perform tasks it can carry out What we'll do Thursday. Form teams of two. Follow instructions in Alice book 2-2 Ask for HELP (after the storyboard is decided...) Do Incremental Development make SURE each instruction does what you want. write a line or 2, run it, another 1-2, run, etc FIND and FIX problems when they occur Supplemental/Unused supplemental or unused slides follow... Are Pitch, Yaw and Roll really independent??????

6 Classes and Objects A class is a template (like a mould, rubberstamp, master copy, etc.) for creating an object. The action of using the class to create an object is called instantiating the class. The new object is called an instance of the class. An object is a unique entity within a virtual world that is the result of instantiating a class. 31 Class and Objects(instances) 32 Class Objects are categorized into classes peter paul mary Person Each object is an instance of the class. spike scottie fluffy Dogs An Alice class is a master object stored on the disk; you command Alice to make copies and put them in your world. Instantiating in Alice In Alice, you instantiate a class by picking something from a gallery. The new instance automatically goes in the center of the world..you then move it to where you want. (and change size, color, parts, etc. from their defaults.) (Just in case you are wondering, Alice 2.0 does not let you program object instantiation in Alice code.) Techniques and Tools Mouse is used to approximately position objects in the scene Camera Navigation is used to set the camera point of view Drop-down menu methods are used to run methods by hand, to LEARN or USE them resize objects more precisely position objects in the scene Quadview is used to position one object relative to another object Demo: Saving a world Writing and testing an animation is an intense load on the computing system a crash can occur. Best solution: save your world every 15 minutes (Or at least every half hour) also save to a backup system (flash drive, CDR. itsnuix.albany.edu file system to be explained in future lectures.) I ALWAYS backup what I don't want to retype!