In this activity, we will be making simple animations using text in Python.

We will create a program that will draw some text, clear the screen, make a change and draw the text again, and then repeat it. This creates sequence of still images in quick enough succession that it looks like a continuous moving image.

Taken from: 101 Computing .net

1 - Setup

Go to trinkiet.io and start a new Python project: http://bit.ly/pythontrinket (log into your account if you have one or create one to save your progress).

Import the os and time modules.

import os
import time

The os module will allow us to issue commands directly to the text console where we will be showing the animations. The time module will allow us to make the program wait.

2 - Define the animation function

Write a function called animate_rocket:

def animate_rocket():

Inside the function (remember it needs to be indented!) set a value for how far from the top the rocket is going to start:

distance_from_top = 20

4 - Draw the rocket

In line with the previous statement write a while loop that will always run:

while True:

Inside the while loop (remember it needs to be indented!) write the series of print statements that will draw the rocket:

    print("\n" * distance_from_top)
    print("          /\        ")
    print("          ||        ")
    print("          ||        ")
    print("         /||\        ")

The first line will print as many blank lines as we set above the while loop. If we reduce the distance_from_top value we can move the rocket upwards.

5 - Make changes

Still inside the while loop we’ll make the rocket stay on the screen for a short time then clear the text:

time.sleep(0.2)
os.system('clear')

Now we’ll make the rocket go in a constant loop from the bottom of the screen to the top:

distance_from_top -= 1
if distance_from_top < 0:
    distance_from_top = 20

6 - Use the function

Let’s blast off!

Outside of the function definition (no indentation, all the way to the left) call the function to launch the rocket!

animate_rocket()

7 - Challenges

Draw some other animations, here are some ideas:

• An animation that prints out a sentence letter by letter

• An animation that mimics the rolling of a dice

• An animation of a space invader

The solution for this activity can be found at:

8 - Solutions

Rocket

Sentence printer

A die

Space invader