Hypercompendia

Got through the first chapter and have actually learned by restraint.  Taking the time to learn a procedure does indeed take some time, but the discipline of needing to complete an exercise successfully does take out the frustration of not learning something properly.

Besides the emphasis on storyboard, the Alice textbook gave out another suggestion that looking back (after having a scenario all set up) makes a lot of sense:  bring in all the objects at the beginning of the setup of the stage and move them into position.

I can’t find, in the whole world I created, the freakin’ bench.

Where it was plopped down I don’t know.  Obviously outside the garden walls that encompass the characters and action.  I flew around with the camera a bit but couldn’t find it close by. And to be honest, with my lousy sense of direction I was afraid I’d get lost and lose the whole scene if I didn’t keep a part of the garden in sight.  No, really; I’m that seriously spacially impaired.  Earlier I did find a tree and moved it inside the walls, but the tree was a lot bigger than a bench and it was fairly close by.

So the thing to do now is take the easy way out: delete the bench and add in a new one.  Though this may be a case of having put the garden, which is now the central point of my created world, not in the center of the world itself so that any added objects end up in the center point of the world, therefore outside of the garden, and I’ll just have to go search for them.

Wouldn’t you just know that any world I build would be off-kilter.

In New Media classes, we were given the assignment of producing a storyboard for a project.  In my own way and sense of writing as a flow that cannot be regulated or charted, I didn’t take it as a serious part of the whole.  Now I realize that the instructors, familiar with games, IF, programming, narrative structure, et al, placed it at a high value because in something like this, animation and graphics versus plain text, there is a series of events that make up a story, and where everybody is standing at the time plays a major part of that story.

Alice brings up the importance of storyboard:

Do the following steps in order: alien moves up; alien says "Slithy toves?"; robot’s head turns around; robot turns to look at alien

Do the following steps together:  robot moves toward the alien; robot legs walk (Learning to Program with Alice, p. 25)

Looking at the "map" of this textual storyboard (there’s an example of a visual as well) one can see immediately what program codes need to be put in place and in what sequence, bringing in the elements of space in distance and time.  With this simplest of narrative form, any inconsistencies or flaws will show up immediately and can be modified.  Much easier at this point than to set up the scene with complicated code just to find out it doesn’t work.  I’m thinking too that Storyspace might prove a valuable tool to use as this storyboard for work in Alice.  If I’m going to do a lot with Alice–and so far I’m really into it–than Storyspace may become a justifiable expense.

So I’ll be spending some time in the learning by instruction method and give the actual project a very brief break while I read, watch, experiment with the techniques outlined.  I’m sure it will make the whole project smoother and easier to progress more quickly.  With the Alice text and tutorials there are enough fun hands-on things to do for both my way of learning and adding the element of excitement and satisfaction.  Enough to keep even me from rebelling against authority to stumble through in my own stubborn way.  There’ll be time to let loose as soon as I learn a few basics, and perhaps a few tricks.

Now that’s service, from a third party dealer through Amazon; ordered on Monday, got it by Friday: Learning to Program with Alice (Dann, Cooper and Pausch).

Got it minutes ago–like three–and just flipping through it came across the answer to my walking question–Repetition with a Loop.  I know I did click the Loop tab but a calculator came up so I wasn’t sure what to do with it.  Besides, I also would have had to know enough to drag it to the Editor.

This is exciting!

Here’s where I hit a block to overcome before I proceed further.  I found a separate module to have the Mad Scientist, now named Dr. Roderick V. Sheutzenheimer, walk rather than the glide I was using, but two little problems came with it.  First, he only takes a couple steps in the pre-coded module and I’m not sure how I get it to continue for a further distance (ah, just got the thought that maybe distance rather than repeat is the way–I’ll have to check).  The second glitch is that the code has him moving his head left and right as he walks, and that’s not something I want.  Actually, that gives me the idea right now that i could just make a new module that doesn’t include the head swinging.  And that would eliminate the third problem–where to make the edits.

For one thing, it looks like I can edit it right from the Methods window, but will that edit that method forever, both within the scene and within the program?  Another way seems to be when it is open in the large window that details each movement that constitutes the walk.  The head swing is there and I may be able to take it out.  The concern is again that I don’t want to mess something up and change the original but rather just to change it for this one segment.

I’ll be looking at other projects to see what the coding is for a smooth, maybe ten-step walk.  And I’m patiently waiting for the textbook to come in which I hope to have by the weekend.

In the meantime, I am working on Socrates.

Got a character walking and talking–although the walking is really only a gliding movement and the talk is a cartoon bubble.  I’m sure there’s a way of recording sound and inserting it in place so that we can have some munchkin audio conversation going here.

There are the tutorials, and one of the most useful elements of them and the fact that you can download any of the user videos is that it allows viewing the script to see how things have been accomplished.  It would have been helpful to have a help index of at least some of the simpler moves, such as my question about sound or walking for example.  Because I’m enjoying this so far and realize that while it is actually quite a powerful program, it can be manipulated easily enough to make some simple yet interesting and nice-looking videos, I have ordered one of the texts, Learning to Program with Alice, from Amazon, used.  There will be a new version of Alice coming out and along with it, updated text, I’m sure.  On the forum it was mentioned that there had been a downloadable version of this original text, but I haven’t found it and buying a used version seemed reasonable since I’m anxious to have the info quickly and easily available.

So now I’m going to get Socrates to lift his arm and greet the Mad Scientist, welcoming him into the garden environment.  I need a bench, and I imported a table thinking I may be able to size it about right for use as such.

This isn’t going to be a week-long project; it’ll likely take a while to first produce a simple short clip, and then work to tweak it out to a bit more elaborate (decent-looking) piece, and then move on to a continual learning process and create new projects. 

Progress meaning I fixed the decapitation I performed on the Mad Scientist (will come up with a name for him shortly) but I did watch it a few more times just for giggles.  Working now on making him take a few steps into the garden after he spots Socrates standing there.  Will then have Socrates greet him and a dialogue begin.

That’s the part I’m curious about, the speaking.  I can record a voice, I think, but I need more info than the four tutorials offer.  I’m looking into getting one of the textbooks since I think that even with the FAQ and forum, it would be easiest to have a place to find an answer quickly when something comes up.

While Alice looks like it can get quite complicated, I think that if I keep it simple to start and don’t go off on a tangent about details and such, it’s do-able, even for one such as I who loves to play but is easily frustrated by complicated instructions when the creative spirit strikes.

In my first attempt at assigning motion to a character, I did the right procedure–it’s easy enough–but didn’t really know what the actions (and distances) would do.  I have the Mad Scientist entering the garden area (that’s him on the right) and upon seeing Socrates (by the tree), he’d shake his head left, then right, then focus on Socrates.

Well, his head jerked off to the left, zipped to the right, then flew forward and landed on the ground beside Socrates! Notice the lump laying at his feet.

What I should have done, of course, is rotate his head–not move it! This is a case of learning the language. I’m done laughing and am getting serious now.  What do you think the philosophical Socrates would have to say at this point in the story?

Leave it to me to find a way to stall the process; with Socrates and the Mad Scientist, just think what an interesting dialogue I can write.

So now there’s story to think of first.

Though I haven’t done anything with it for a long time, I believe that if I ever get back into writing and working on my hypertext project, the decision to use Storyspace as a base in laying out the stories will be the way to go.

I’ve played with cheaper but similar programs, CAD programs, programs meant to make company flowcharts, plain old pencil and graph paper, but Storyspace is really best geared for what I was planning to do with the least amount of compromise and effort.  Though I can’t justify the expense for the software now, especially if I’m not mentally into creative writing, this will be the software I’d plan on getting.