Help Me Fix My Bad Selfie!
I take really bad selfies! I even have a collection of them! Help me fix my bad selfies by drawing on top of them. Use the mouse to draw, the space bar to clear and the up and down arrows to change the selfie.
I had a really hard time deciding what to do for this project. My brain just doesn't speak any kind of programming language. I was racking my mind for game ideas, animation ideas, etc. Did I want to do something educational? Expressive? Funny? At first I wanted to create a game that in had to do with the environment in some way. So I googled environmental games on scratch and found a ton of stuff. I toyed with doing a NYC Flora and Fauna bingo game (based on a game I made for Highbridge Park last year). However, I only slept for four hours last night, and I knew that would probably be too complicated for my first scratch experiment.
I then had the idea to create a drawing game. I decided to create a game using my collection of bad selfies where the player had to help me "fix my bad selfie". I looked up other drawing games to figure out how to do it. The first few games I looked at used extensive controls (many colors, many pen sizes, and multiple erasers) but I wanted my game to be really simple. I wanted to use just one pen that changed colors while the player drew. I found a game "How to make a drawing game" that was perfect! I used the code from the game with a couple modifications (I made the drawing work by pressing the flag and made the pen bigger). I also added multiple backgrounds using my bad selfie. I coded the game so that when the player pressed the up and down arrow the selfie would change.
Although the game was fairly easy to make once I found another drawing game to learn from, I found the control really clunky and difficult to work with. Things would delete at the slightest touch. It was especially hard to edit the images, which all uploaded the wrong way.
Classroom Connections: During my exploration of scratch games, I found a lot of really great "earth day" and environmental games created by kids. One game had information about Governor Jerry Brown's water restrictions and the drought in California and had the player catch all of the water before the reserves dried up. One kid made a google earth globe that turned. Many kids made animations about recycling and wildlife. There is a lot here for a teacher to work with. These games reminded me a lot of the educational games I used to play when I was a kid like Oregon and Amazon trail, interactive books on the computer. Teachers could have students research an issue (environmental, political, social etc.) and create an educational animation or game that explores that issue.
Screenshot from Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego
There is endless potential for scratch in the classroom. It is also a great way to explore interdisciplinary ideas. Students could bridge music and art by designing their own instrument and they can program the sounds that it would make. Students could animate study guides for their classmates (I also saw this in a scratch game on the explore feature) and create quiz games where the players have to guess the answers to questions. Students could animate their poetry or writing projects. I could go on and on.
I take really bad selfies! I even have a collection of them! Help me fix my bad selfies by drawing on top of them. Use the mouse to draw, the space bar to clear and the up and down arrows to change the selfie.
I had a really hard time deciding what to do for this project. My brain just doesn't speak any kind of programming language. I was racking my mind for game ideas, animation ideas, etc. Did I want to do something educational? Expressive? Funny? At first I wanted to create a game that in had to do with the environment in some way. So I googled environmental games on scratch and found a ton of stuff. I toyed with doing a NYC Flora and Fauna bingo game (based on a game I made for Highbridge Park last year). However, I only slept for four hours last night, and I knew that would probably be too complicated for my first scratch experiment.
I then had the idea to create a drawing game. I decided to create a game using my collection of bad selfies where the player had to help me "fix my bad selfie". I looked up other drawing games to figure out how to do it. The first few games I looked at used extensive controls (many colors, many pen sizes, and multiple erasers) but I wanted my game to be really simple. I wanted to use just one pen that changed colors while the player drew. I found a game "How to make a drawing game" that was perfect! I used the code from the game with a couple modifications (I made the drawing work by pressing the flag and made the pen bigger). I also added multiple backgrounds using my bad selfie. I coded the game so that when the player pressed the up and down arrow the selfie would change.
Although the game was fairly easy to make once I found another drawing game to learn from, I found the control really clunky and difficult to work with. Things would delete at the slightest touch. It was especially hard to edit the images, which all uploaded the wrong way.
Classroom Connections: During my exploration of scratch games, I found a lot of really great "earth day" and environmental games created by kids. One game had information about Governor Jerry Brown's water restrictions and the drought in California and had the player catch all of the water before the reserves dried up. One kid made a google earth globe that turned. Many kids made animations about recycling and wildlife. There is a lot here for a teacher to work with. These games reminded me a lot of the educational games I used to play when I was a kid like Oregon and Amazon trail, interactive books on the computer. Teachers could have students research an issue (environmental, political, social etc.) and create an educational animation or game that explores that issue.
Screenshot from Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego
There is endless potential for scratch in the classroom. It is also a great way to explore interdisciplinary ideas. Students could bridge music and art by designing their own instrument and they can program the sounds that it would make. Students could animate study guides for their classmates (I also saw this in a scratch game on the explore feature) and create quiz games where the players have to guess the answers to questions. Students could animate their poetry or writing projects. I could go on and on.
I think this is SO clever and relatable for students in this day and age. They live for the selfie. This game is a fun combination of coding and pop culture that becomes immediately relevant to students around the world.
ReplyDeleteIt would be a fun assignment to have students compile number of photos around a specific theme of their choice (Selfies, food, sights of NYC...) and then challenge them to make their photos into an interactive experience using Scratch. Maybe they create postcards of NYC that come to life when clicked or maybe they create a forum for a digital food fight. There are endless opportunities using scratch. I like the idea of incorporating their own photography into the project rather than using found images. It adds another layer of artistic experience that they will be proud to take ownership of.
I am In love with this project! I think that it relates so much to the culture we live in nowadays. Selfie culture is something that is so important for students, and anyone as well, the awkwardness of your faces make give a special touch as well. I believe this project is so good to look for bad selfies, and "enhance" them.
ReplyDeleteTo further this project, I would love to see more selfies! But more related to art education, selfies is a communication image that speaks more than a 1000 words can. With this in mind, it would be great for students to take random selfies, or images taken and using scratch, try to make up a game, or even use their faces as a reference to understand how to draw (use it as reference and get to see the results). Also the drawing tool in scratch gives students the confidence of drawing at images in new ways.