Scratch/Lessons/Making Sprites

Starting Scratch

When you first start Scratch, or press the "new" button to begin a new Scratch project, you always start out with the basic Scratch Cat as an icon for you to manipulate. However, Scratch projects would get very boring if this is all you could work with, so there are a few basic tool buttons that you should perhaps look at for creating additional sprites. All of these buttons are found right below the "stage" display where you can watch your Scratch project while it is in development.

Random Sprites

The first button that will be introduced here is the random sprite button. Hover over the cat button at the bottom right of your screen, and a menu should pop up. Click the button that has a star:

Go ahead and press this button a few times. What is happening is that Scratch is loading up random images from the images that are originally added to your computer when Scratch is installed for the first time (specifically, those found in the Media folder within the main Scratch directory). While the images that you are going to get will be different than those shown, the variety of images means that almost anything could appear as a new sprite.

Sometimes this can also help to inspire you to come up with a new idea to make with Scratch, such as a game with cartoon characters being watched over by a football referee. Remember that this is but one way to create new sprites, and we have just started out.

Remember, you can delete sprites with the scissors located on the toolbar.

Creating Your Own Sprites

To draw your own sprite, click this button:

You will then be met with the Scratch Costume Editor screen. This interface may seem complicated to begin with, but don't worry, you don't need to know much of it at the start.

There are two ways you can draw sprites in Scratch: bitmap and vector. You can switch between the two using the "convert to vector" or "convert to bitmap" button at the bottom left of the costume editor. By default, you will be in vector mode. What is the difference? Bitmap uses pixels to draw sprites, while vector designs use equations to draw lines. Vector designs can be scaled to any size and retain their quality, while when a bitmap sprite is scaled the individual pixels are visible. Since they are easily scaled, vector designs are great for backgrounds and characters, while bitmap is great for a retro look or designs that will not be scaled. Vector graphics will also look more clear and crisp than bitmap graphics. Let's look through both bitmap and vector tools!

Vector Tools

Navigate to the portion of the paint editor shown here. The buttons found on this toolbar, reading left to right top to bottom, are: Select Tool, Reshape Tool, Paint Brush, Eraser, Fill Tool, Text Tool, Line Tool, Ellipse Tool, and the Rectangle Tool. Here is a brief break down of what all these tools do.

Select Tool: This tool allows you to select shapes, text, and drawings and move, reshape, and rotate them freely.

Reshape Tool: This tool allows you to add, remove, or move points of drawings and shapes in your image. You can also change if the edges are rounded or curved using the top toolbar.

Paint Brush: This tool allows you to paint freely. You can change colors using the color selection tool on the top toolbar. This tool has varying sizes.

Eraser: This tool allows you to erase drawings you have already made. Like the Paint Brush, you may change its size.

Fill Tool: The Fill Tool (or Paintbucket) allows you to click somewhere and have everything filled in a certain color.

Text Tool: This tool allows you to type text in a variety of fonts and colors. You can rotate, resize, and move your text once you have finished typing it using the Select Tool.

Line Tool: This tool draws lines of your chosen color from the place where you first clicked to your cursor.

Ellipse Tool: This tool creates unfilled or filled circles and ovals by dragging with your cursor. To make a perfect circle, hold down the [SHIFT] key while dragging.

Rectangle Tools: Similar to the Ellipse Tool, this tool allows you to draw filled or unfilled rectangles and squares by dragging a box with your cursor. You can make perfect squares by holding down [SHIFT] while dragging.

Bitmap tools

The buttons found on the bitmap toolbar, reading left to right top to bottom, are: Brush Tool, Line Tool, Ellipse Tool, Rectangle Tool, Text Tool, Fill Tool, Eraser, and Select Tool. All of the bitmap tools function very similarly to their vector counterparts.

Brush Tool: You can draw and paint freely with this tool.

Line Tool: With this tool you can draw straight lines by dragging your mouse.

Ellipse Tool: You can draw unfilled or filled circles and ovals by dragging your mouse with this tool.

Rectangle Tool: This tool creates unfilled or filled squares and rectangles by dragging your mouse.

Text Tool: This tool lets you create text in a variety of fonts and colors.

Fill Tool: Using this tool, you can click somewhere and everything will be filled in a color of your choice.

Eraser: With this tool, you can erase drawings or shapes you have already made. You can change its size similar to the Paint Brush.

Select Tool: This tool allows you to click on something and resize, rotate, and move it freely.

These are the main tools you will use in the Scratch paint editor. Familiarize yourself with them and you will do fine, for a more in-depth tutorial of the Paint Editor look on the Table of Contents under advanced tutorials.

Importing Sprites

There is one other way to create sprites that you have not experimented with yet. That is the "Import Sprite" button which allows you to import a pre-made image on your computer to use as the costume for your sprite.

With this button you can take images of all file types and import them into the costumes tab of a sprite. Note: if you import a gif it will only import the first frame of the file. If you want to import the entire gif drag the gif onto the thumbnail the sprite whose costumes you wish to contain the gif.