This Is the First of a Two-Part Introductory Lab. in Part 1, the Objective Is to Learn

Lab 1 Part 1

Assigned: 1/6/15
Due: 1/6/15

This is the first of a two-part introductory lab. In Part 1, the objective is to learn how to use the Alice 3 IDE (Interactive Development Environment) to set up an initial scene. In Part 2, the scene created in Part 1 will be used to create a first program (Hello World).

Problem:

The most famous introductory computing programming problem is known as "Hello, world." This program appeared in the first edition of a textbook, The C Programming Language, written by Brian Kernighan & Dennis Ritchie in 1972. The "Hello, world" problem has become a traditional way of introducing programming in introductory computer programming courses. Following this tradition, your first programming assignment is to create an animation program where Alice and the White Rabbit greet each other, turn to face the camera, and then Alice waves and says "Hello, world!"

Algorithm:

Initial Scene:

1. Follow along with your instructor’s demo to use the Scene Editor in creating an outdoor scene where Alice will meet the white rabbit. Objects in this scene are created from models in the Prop package in the gallery. Select the Prop package in the gallery, as shown here:

Then select models from the Prop package. The example shown here will create a pond object.

Add several plants and rocks around the pond to create an initial scene environment that looks something like this:

2. Now, add Alice and the White Rabbit to the scene. To create an Alice, use the SIMS character builder, found in the Bipeds package. Then, add a WhiteRabbit (also from the Biped package).

When completed, the initial scene should look something like this (your scene may have different environment objects, but must have Alice and the white rabbit):

Camera Markers

3. View the Camera Markers video tutorial. In the scene editor, mark the original camera point of view, using the name camera_originalView. The image below illustrates the steps:

Use the camera navigation controls (indigo arrows at the lower edge of the scene editor) to move the camera's starting position so that Alice is standing off screen, to the left. Do not move Alice; just move the camera so Alice cannot be seen in the camera's point of view, as shown here:

4. After completing the scene set up, return to the Code Editor and with your instructor to create program code that implements the first three steps in the algorithm from the previous page of this lab document (The steps in red).

5. Save the Alice world as HelloWorld. Alice3 will automatically add a filename extension, .a3p. (Do not type the extension yourself.) Your instructor will provide information regarding saving the world file on your computer system (USB drive, networked account, desktop, etc.).