Introduction to Alice

1
Introduction to Alice

Alice is named in honor of Lewis
Carrolls Alice in Wonderland
2
Alice

• A modern programming tool
• 3-D graphics
• 3-D models of objects
• Animation
• Objects can be made to move around the virtual
  world (a video game or simulation implemented in
  3-D)

3
Getting Started

• Install Alice
• Use the software from the CD
• Can download latest version from the web
• www.alice.org
• Start Alice
• Double Click on Icon (Alice.exe)

4
Kinds of Animations

• Two kinds of animations
• Movie
• Passive user watches the animation
• Interactive
• Active user clicks on mouse, types a key on
  keyboard
• Actions of user are called events

5
Pick a World

• Sample Worlds on the Student Shared
• Octopus (movie)
• Skater (interactive)
• Dancing Bee (interactive)
• Examples tab
• And click on a world to open it
• You might need to scroll down to see this world

6
Playing the Movie

• To play a saved movie
• Click the Play button
• The movie or game will start to play in a
  separate window

7
Create your own Movie

• Create a new world
• File ? New
• Choose template

8
Add Objects To the World

• Click the Add Objects button
• Select an Object Category from the Local Gallery

9
Add Objects to the World

• Select an object to add
• Click on object to select
• Click Add Instance to world Button
• Or drag the object and drop it into position in
  the world

10
Position an Object in the World

• Once the object is in the world
• You can move it by
• Dragging it with the mouse
• Using the mouse controls
• Click the Undo button to undo the last action

11
Mouse Controls

• Use mouse control buttons (from left to right)
• To move object left, right, forward, back
• Up and down
• Turn left or right
• Turn forward or backwards
• Tumble the object (free rotation)
• Resize object
• Copy the object

12
Deleting an Object

• Click on the object you want to delete
• The object will be displayed with a bounding box
  around it
• Click the right mouse button
• Select delete from the pop-up menu
• Hit the delete key on the keyboard

13
Posing an Object

• You can move just a part of an object
• Click affect subparts box under mouse controls
• Select a part to move with the mouse
• Mouse controls will affect just that part
• Or use the object tree
• To pick the part to move

14
Techniques and Tools

• Mouse is used to
• approximately position objects in the scene
• Camera Navigation is used to
• set the camera point of view
• Drop-down menu methods are used to
• resize objects
• more precisely position objects in the scene
• Quadview is used to
• position one object relative to another object

15
Classes and Objects

• A class is a template (like a blueprint,
  rubberstamp, master copy, etc.) for creating an
  object. In Alice, classes can be found in the
  gallery.
• The action of using the class to create an object
  is called instantiating the class. In Alice, you
  instantiate a class by picking something from a
  gallery.
• The new object is called an instance of the
  class. In Alice, the new instance automatically
  goes in the center of the world.
• An object is a unique entity within a virtual
  world that is the result of instantiating a
  class. You can have more than one object from
  the same class in a world.

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Class

• Objects are categorized into classes
• Each object is
• an instance of the class.
• All objects in a class have similar properties
  and generally can perform the same tasks.

spike
Dogs
rover
fluffy
17
Galleries

• Classes (3D models) are found in the galleries
• Local gallery (installed with the software)
• Minimum or complete options
• Web gallery

18
Objects

• An "object" is
• any thing that can be identified as unique from
  other things
• How is an object unique?
• has a name
• has properties
• width, height, color, location
• can perform actions (methods)
• associated actions it can perform
• tasks it can carry out

19
Object Parts

• Objects may be composed of parts

20
3 Dimensions, 6 Directions

• A 3D object has
• 3 dimensions
• height, width, depth
• 6 directions of movement
• up, down, forward, back, left, right

21
Center of an object

• At the center of mass
• Where it stands on the ground
• Where it is held

Distance distance between two objects is
measured from the centers
22
The Camera Positioning Controls

• Move camerain the horizontal plane, not
  changing the direction it points.
• Drive camera---Left/Right steers, changes the
  direction in horiz. plane, Fwd/Back is speed
  control.
• Tilt camera---changes up/down direction

23
Saving a World

• Writing and testing an animation is an intense
  load on the computing system a crash can occur.
• Best solution Save your world every 15 minutes