Alice 3.3.1.2.0

You do not have to be a professional programmer to create animations. Whether you want to play an interactive game, tell a compelling story or prepare a video for the Web, Alice is all you need. The program is meant for people interested in learning the basic concepts of object-oriented programming. If you want to train as an animation designer, then this is the tool you need for your initial exposure because it will make the learning process simple and enjoyable.

Using Alice

The Welcome dialog box allowed us to choose a template for our project scene. Once we had chosen our preferred scene, it was displayed on the upper left corner of the program window while the Code editor panel was on the right. The Control tiles panel and Methods panel were on the lower right and lower left of the display respectively.

All the tiles in the Methods panel represent methods, which are actions an object performs. The methods for display are grouped into three tabs:

• Procedures
• Functions
• Properties

On the other hand, the tiles in the Control panel represent statements used to organize and manage information and instruction. The tiles generally specify the appropriate order of performing methods. We found it convenient to use the comment and variables tiles. We created statements for programs by dragging control tiles and methods into the Code editor. The programs are what animate objects.

Clicking the Setup Scene button allowed us to access the Scene editor, which displayed the Gallery and Scene Setup panels. That was where we added and arranged objects in our scenes. The Gallery contained many 3D models that we selected to create desired objects while the Scene Setup panel enabled us to change various object properties such as color and size and then position them in the scene.

Alice makes it easy to toggle between Scene and Code editors because each displays a button for the other editor.

Setting Preferences

Alice disables nearly all preference options at first, with only the first two preference items in the Gallery being enabled. The code editor displayed only one tab when we first launched the program. However, we had the option to set our own preferences by selecting the Preferences tab under the Window menu. We could even set a combination of preferences to suit our needs. The settings chosen determine the appearance and feel of the 3D programming environment.

Verdict

Alice provides an intuitive 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create simple video games and animated movies. It allows users to create programs that animate desired objects. We found that creating a program was as easy as dragging blocks of code and piecing them together, which removes technical hurdles that many new programmers struggle with. Dragging words eliminates the risk of doing mistakes, and designers will see what's going on.

While the user interface may appear sketchy for experienced users, it actually makes things simple for learners. Research shows that many people are visual learners, and Alice provides a unique opportunity to learn programming visually. Whether you want to be a professional animation designer or create animations for fun, Alice will fulfill your needs.

Although Alice started as a PC-only program, it is currently also compatible with both Linux and Mac.

Note: The Alice 3 installer makes use of the Java JDK and the JDK is *not* the same as the JRE. If the computer does not already have the Java JDK installed, download and install JDK prior to downloading and installing Alice 3.