Little Town - Session 03 - 10 Adding Effects

TL;DR

An explanation on how to animate a textbox to fade in and out, improving the visual transition of the object.

Transcript

right now our text box just appears and disappears when we invoke it which is a bit dull how about we animate it a bit and have it fade in and out before we continue i just want to show you one thing open up object text box and go to its draw event remember in this code that we wrote here we were drawing the text box sprite and then the text one th... Read More

Key Insights

• 👻 The code modifies the image alpha variable to control the transparency of the text box sprite, allowing for a fading animation.
• 🐎 Additional variables, such as fade speed and fade me, are introduced to control the speed and state of the fading animation.
• 🎮 The step event utilizes a switch function to determine the current state of the fade me variable and control the fading animation accordingly.

Questions & Answers

Q: How does the code animate the text box fading in and out?

The code uses the image alpha variable to control the transparency of the text box sprite. In the step event, the fade me variable is checked to determine the fading animation. When fade me is 0, the image alpha is gradually increased until it reaches 1, making the text box fade in. When fade me is 2, the image alpha is decreased until it reaches 0, making the text box fade out.

Q: Can the fade speed be adjusted?

Yes, the fade speed is controlled by the value of the fade speed variable, which can be adjusted in the text box object's create event. By changing the value of fade speed, you can control how quickly the text box fades in and out.

Q: How is the fade out triggered?

The fade out is triggered by the key press space event. When the player presses the spacebar while the text box is open, the fade me variable is set to 2, which initiates the fade out animation. An alarm is then set to destroy the text box once the fading out is complete.

Q: Why is the draw event modified to use image alpha for fading the text?

By modifying the draw event of the text box object to use image alpha, the transparency of the text is synchronized with the transparency of the text box sprite. This ensures that the text fades in and out smoothly along with the text box.

Key Insights:

• The code modifies the image alpha variable to control the transparency of the text box sprite, allowing for a fading animation.
• Additional variables, such as fade speed and fade me, are introduced to control the speed and state of the fading animation.
• The step event utilizes a switch function to determine the current state of the fade me variable and control the fading animation accordingly.
• The fade out functionality is triggered by modifying the key press space event and setting the fade me variable to 2, which initiates the fading out animation.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The code is modified in the text box object's draw event to include an argument for transparency (alpha).

• Additional variables are added in the text box object's create event to control the fading speed and transparency.

• A switch function is implemented in the text box object's step event to control the fading animation based on the value of the fade me variable.

• The fade out functionality is added to the key press space event, where the fade me variable is set to 2 to trigger the fade out animation.

• The code can be commented out using forward slash asterisks to temporarily disable the code without deleting it.

• The draw event of the text box object is modified to use the image alpha value for fading the text.