The Hyperpage

Hyperstudio still remains one of the best ways to help students "tell their story".  Each month, this page is devoted to bringing to life one little technique to add that special finishing touch to your students' creations. 

In the past, we've done animations using those that come packaged with Hyperstudio.  Suppose, we wish to take a dog for a walk and it ISN'T ADDY!  Good grief!

Here's what you do...

Select "Add an Object and place the object to be animated on your screen. Let's call him, oh say, Beauregard.

From the Options menu, add a button "Go Beau", place it on the screen, and then when asked at the "Things to Do" screen, select Play Animation. This time, when you select your object to be animated, you're going to take it from the card on the screen. Using the selection tool, you will choose the area of the screen to animate. Follow the instructions and move your object in the path that you want on the screen.

Depending upon the effect that you want, you may or may not wish to display the first frame of the animation. 

When you click the button to start the animation, you may notice a "hole" in the screen that really isn't all that attractive. Here's a suggestion. After you have created your animation, go back to the card and delete the original picture. After all, all that we want is the animation. Or, if you really do want the original picture, and have it remain, add it back in now. The animation will only affect the first piece of clipart.

You'll notice also in the dialogue box above that you have a chance to make one of the colours transparent.  That can be very helpful if you have a background.  Instead of Beau walking with a white box around him, I chose to make the white background transparent.  Now, when Beau walks, the grass shines through beautifully.

This is a terrific animation tool. Experiment and you'll find that there are all kinds of things that you can do!