2. Setting the Scene

In the previous step, you should have signed into Scratch and created a new project. If you haven’t done this yet, pause this video and click the blue arrow to go back to the previous step. This video will introduce how to add sprites and a backdrop to your story, as well as how to start a dialogue.

Watch the video to learn how to do it, then try it on your own.

To start, you’ll need to add two sprites, or characters, to your story. All Scratch projects begin with the Scratch cat. To delete this sprite, click the scissors at the top of the project editor, then click the cat.

To select a new sprite, click the “Choose New Sprite From Library” button.

Here, you see all the sprites you can choose from. In the add-ons at the end of today's club, you will have the chance to animate a sprite for your story. If that sounds like something you'd like to try, be sure to select a vector sprite using the type menu in this step.

This example will use a duck for the first character...

and...

a penguin for the second character.

Remember, though, that you can select any characters you want for your story.

You might notice that these two characters aren’t facing each other. If they’re going to talk, they should probably turn around. To flip a sprite, click on it, and select the costumes tab. Then, click the “flip left right” button. The sprite should flip to face the other direction. If your sprite has more than one costume, you can flip the other costumes as well. Great, both costumes are now flipped.

Now that you’ve added two sprites, it’s time to add a backdrop, or a setting, for your story. To do that, click “choose new backdrop from library,” and select a backdrop. This example will use the “slopes,” but when it’s your turn, you can select any backdrop you want for your story.

Great! Now this project has two characters and a setting.

The last step in this video is to start a dialogue between these two characters.

Next to this video, you’ll see a list of possible starter phrases you can use to get your dialogue rolling. This example will use, “I didn’t think you’d be here.” But, you can choose any story starter you’d like for your project.

To get a character to say the dialogue you choose, click on the character, go back to the scripts tab, and select the looks menu. There are two blocks you can use to have a character say something: “say” and “say for 2 seconds.”

“Say” blocks will show the same piece of dialogue until another “say” block is run. “Say for 2 seconds” will show the dialogue for a specified length of time. For stories, you will almost always want to use a “say for 2 seconds” block instead of a “say” block.

Drag out a “say for 2 seconds block,” and type in the opening dialogue you chose from the list. This example will use, “I didn’t think you’d be here.”

Click the block to test it! Great! Now, it’s your turn.

After you complete this step, move on to the next video to begin developing more dialogue for your story.