★ ★ ★ Photo Animation Technology ★ ★ ★ Welcome to PAT Alpha, the future of Scratch animation! To use, simply remix the latest version of PAT, and follow a set of instructions! Or, if you’d prefer, backpack the engine sprite to use in your animations! ★ ★ ★ Don’t worry if PAT seems complicated at first glance. It’s really simple to use after a little practice! ★ ★ ★ Here’s a general description of how to use PAT: First, you should know the formatting PAT uses in its custom blocks, for ease of use: ! ~ Don’t use these blocks; they’re currently unstable and in testing. @ ~ Animation tools, such as playing frames and moving sprites relatively. // ~ This is special formatting. It’s a comment, meaning a block that does nothing, but is instead an alternative to Scratch’s comment system. & ~ Blocks with this symbol in front of them deal with the camera. # ~ Special effects, such as fading in and out, and impact frames. ^ ~ Technical details, such as pauses. $ ~ Essential for the system, but not to mess with yourself. ★ ★ ★ Next, let’s go over the variables’ formatting: ** ~ Used by the system, but not to mess with. ## ~ Feel free to change the value of variables that start with this. ★ ★ ★ Let’s go over additional things to keep in mind when working with PAT: • The two scripts with “when green flag clicked” should be kept like that. The one that’s above the other is where you should put all your animation code, or broadcast the start of your animation. • Don’t use scripts that stop the other scripts in the sprite, because it will stop the essential scripts that should always be running. • When using clones, use a “if not (clone id, which you always reset after making the clone, so that your clone has that identification) = (a designated identification value), then: stop this script”. If that’s too complicated to understand, please refrain from using clones, as it could mess things up. • When animating, keep in mind the frame rate you’ve set (or kept with the preset 12 fps). • Don’t use the “go to [front/back] layer” and “go [forward/backward] (#) layers” blocks from the looks library. Instead, use the blocks provided. • Don’t delete any costumes with ** in front of their name, and keep the first three in the front and the last in the back. • Remember, all of these rules are just suggestions to make sure you get the best and easiest experience. If you think you understand the code, though, feel free to modify it to your own personal needs. ★ ★ ★ For the future: • Scale changing / camera zooming • More flexibility for different animator’s styles • Built-in lip sync (maybe as a mod) ★ ★ ★ ** PLEASE GIVE FULL CREDITS ** ★ ★ ★ º\_(•-•)_/º
