Animation

In Scratch, you can make your sprites animate by changing its costumes. In Pygame Zero, we do the same by changing the images. One way to do this is...

def update():
    if runner.image == 'run__000':
      runner.image == 'run__001'
    elif runner.image == 'run__001':
      runner.image == 'run__002'
    elif runner.image == 'run__002':
      runner.image == 'run__000'

This checks what is the current image and switches to the next one. It works, but it's a lot more troublesome than Scratch. To help with this, we can use the Pygame Zero Helper module.

Pygame Zero Helper

First, download it from here.

Next, open up the downloaded zip file and copy the pgzhelper.py file that's inside. Paste it into your ninja_runner folder.

Finally, we need to load the pgyhelper.py module. Add from pgzhelper import * to your Python game file. It should now look like this...

import pgzrun
from pgzhelper import *

WIDTH=800
HEIGHT=600

def draw():
  screen.draw.filled_rect(Rect(0,0,800,400), (163, 232, 254))
  screen.draw.filled_rect(Rect(0,400,800,200), (88, 242, 152))

pgzrun.go() # Must be last line

Save and run it, just to make sure that everything is done correctly.

Ninja Images

Before we can start programming our ninja, we need to put the ninja images in the images folder.

Go to the image_pack that you have downloaded previously, and look for the ninja folder. Inside, you can find many run images, ranging from run__000 to run__009. Copy all of the run images from the ninja folder and paste them into your own images folder.

Options: There are many other sets of running images that you can use. Try dino, knight, or zombies.

Programming the Ninja

We'll add in the ninja into our game using...

runner = Actor('run__000')
run_images = ['run__000', 'run__001', 'run__002', 'run__003', 'run__004', 'run__005', 'run__006', 'run__007', 'run__008', 'run__009']
runner.images = run_images

This is what each line does...

runner = Actor('run__000') : This creates a new Actor using the first run image. It's the same as what we have done in our gem catcher game.

run_images = ['run__000', 'run__001', 'run__002', 'run__003', 'run__004', 'run__005', 'run__006', 'run__007', 'run__008', 'run__009'] : This creates a new list in the variable run_images. The list is filled with the names of the run images. If you are not using the ninja, you will need to change these names.

runner.images = run_images : This tells our Actor to use the images in run_images for its animation.

We'll also need to add runner.draw() into the draw() function. Once completed, your program should look like this...

import pgzrun
from pgzhelper import *

WIDTH=800
HEIGHT=600

runner = Actor('run__000')
run_images = ['run__000', 'run__001', 'run__002', 'run__003', 'run__004', 'run__005', 'run__006', 'run__007', 'run__008', 'run__009']
runner.images = run_images

def draw():
  screen.draw.filled_rect(Rect(0,0,800,400), (163, 232, 254))
  screen.draw.filled_rect(Rect(0,400,800,200), (88, 242, 152))
  runner.draw()

pgzrun.go() # Must be last line

That should display your ninja on screen, but it's not running yet! Add in the update function like this...

def update():
  runner.next_image()

This tells Pygame Zero to switch to the next image everytime it updates. With this, you should now have a running ninja!

Adjusting Position

You can adjust the position of the ninja using runner.x and runner.y. Try the following...

runner.x = 100
runner.y = 400

Try: Adjust the position of the ninja by changing runner.x and runner.y until you have her at the position you want.