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  •  » Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

#1 2007-05-29 16:32:32

tammy
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-03-07
Posts: 57

Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

We currently have no plans to add an "export to movie" feature to Scratch.

We have used screen capture programs such as Camtasia (for PCs) or SnapZPro (for Macs).

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#2 2007-05-30 21:39:47

Marthvader
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-05-30
Posts: 1

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

Why cause i want to change in to a movie and show it on our schools tv show in the morning can u plz make it so we can export projects to a file format.

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#3 2007-08-28 01:09:10

Grunt
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

Ya, can you please change this.  Adding options to export stand alone apps, and vids, would really make scratch cross the line from something fun to play with, to a major development tool for casual programmers (also, more blocks wouldn't hurt).

Last edited by Grunt (2007-08-28 01:09:36)

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#4 2007-08-28 15:08:29

paulmedwal
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-03-09
Posts: 100+

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

A free alternative to Camtasia that I have used is CamStudio. Especially for shorter videos, this works well.

Paulmedwal


clutter.scratch.mit.edu Visit the Clutter site to create multi-scene stories and multi-level games with Scratch.

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#5 2007-11-04 15:53:09

relyt12101
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-05-19
Posts: 500+

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

Its simply not possible to do, since mouse and keyboard interaction is involved.


http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/2860/pspbanneregg089deiy0.png

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#6 2007-11-12 19:03:34

nicolasx
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-07-30
Posts: 500+

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

it is posable you just have to get Ulead Gif Animator 5.Open your video and save it as a gif file but it has to be under 30 secs.!  big_smile

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#7 2007-11-12 19:08:09

nicolasx
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-07-30
Posts: 500+

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

if you want to get ulead gif animator go to downloads.com
Click on the link below
http://www.download.com/Ulead-GIF-Animator/3000-2186_4-5422267.html?tag=lst-1

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#8 2007-11-12 19:09:43

kevin_karplus
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-04-27
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

Nicolasx, I think you misunderstood relyt12101, who was saying that converting a scratch game to a movie is not possible.  It is possible to make a movie of a scratch game using external screen-capture software, and there are people who think that being able to export a scratch animation in a common video format would be valuable, but that is not what relyt12101 was talking about.

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#9 2007-11-12 19:11:44

nicolasx
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-07-30
Posts: 500+

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

i was just going to delete them. that was funney

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#10 2007-11-12 19:13:54

nicolasx
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-07-30
Posts: 500+

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

i dont think i will

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#11 2007-12-02 05:47:59

loopylew456
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-07-14
Posts: 6

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

Could anyone make an export to .exe feature for scratch?

Please look at this scratch team!!!!

Last edited by loopylew456 (2007-12-02 05:50:13)

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#12 2007-12-02 13:35:06

kevin_karplus
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-04-27
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

I believe that the scratch team has looked at making standalone applications out of scratch projects.  There seems to be no advantage to them to doing so.  Here are some possible reasons (I'm not on the scratch team, so I am guessing at their reasons):

1) The purpose of the scratch programming language is to teach programming, and part of the teaching is by making the source code always available, so that any student can learn how a particular effect was achieved.  Providing a way to hide the source code (like a stand-alone application) defeats this purpose.

2) Exe files only run on windows machines.  Making standalone executables that run on windows, Mac OS X, and Linux machines adds a lot of extra work and more things that can break.  There is enough difficulty getting the Java applet and the Squeak interpreter to do the same thing.

3) Both windows and Mac machines can be configured so that double-clicking on a project starts it in Scratch, so you don't really *need* standalone applications.

4) A big chunk of what people want could be accomplished by allowing projects to start automatically in presentation mode, which would be a much simpler feature to add.

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#13 2007-12-05 12:07:03

johnm
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-03-08
Posts: 100+

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

Hi, all.

Kevin presented a good explanation of why we (the Scratch team) do not plan to implement either an export-to-movie feature or an export-to-EXE feature.

However, with Scratch 1.2.1, it is now possible--on Windows, if you are willing to do a little work--to launch a Scratch project in presentation mode. This can make your Scratch project feel more like a finished application while still allowing users to exit presentation mode to study the underlying scripts. You can also use this technique to put your Scratch project on a CD or Flash drive so you can run it on your friends' computers. See:

  http://scratch.mit.edu/forums/viewtopic.php?id=243

Another idea we've been considering is a stand-alone Java player for Scratch projects. This would allow you to put your project plus the Player (a .jar file) on a CD or Flash drive as a stand-alone package that you can could on any computer that has Java installed. (According to some statistics, over 95% of Windows and Macintosh computers already have Java installed and Java is a free download if you don't have it.)

  -- John

Last edited by johnadmin (2007-12-12 18:00:46)

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#14 2007-12-13 22:28:07

fbboi999
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-05-17
Posts: 100+

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

that would be awesome...

i'm doin a science project (building a computer) and if scratch had stand-alone Java stuff (aka no Scratch needed) i could use scratch to put some games on it


Check out my cool projects!
“Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.”

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#15 2007-12-14 13:06:35

kevin_karplus
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-04-27
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

The Scratch applet (downloadable from MIT) will run scratch .sb files in java.  That's how the web pages with scratch projects work.

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#16 2008-01-07 12:21:38

geckojsc
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-07-03
Posts: 10

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

http://scratch.mit.edu/pages/embed

I suppose you could use the link above to save the scratch project into a html file, then you could send it to freinds and show it in other places. It might not be as good as exporting to exe though...


If at first you don't succeed, try try and try again. If you still can't do it, give up!

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#17 2008-01-18 17:02:47

camieac
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-06-19
Posts: 3

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

Can you at least make sonething so i can turn my scratch projects into java games so i can give people without scratch a chance to play it!!

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#18 2008-01-18 20:45:01

kevin_karplus
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-04-27
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

You can post your games on the scratch.mit.edu website and provide links to them for your friends.

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#19 2008-01-27 13:06:44

nsincaglia
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-07-23
Posts: 1

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

I wanted to export my scratch project to a movie type format so that I could post it on the web and send people the link. There is no way to do this. I next tried to share it through the scratch website but there is a 10,000 kb limit on uploads. I tried Camstudio to do a screen capture but all my fluid animations appear jerky.
I thought Scratch was an amazing and useful tool. I wanted to recommend it to everyone I know but I can't because of it fails to be useful after you spend all the time and effort to get your project the point where you want to show it to people. I am very disappointed in this application because it has failed to make my project portable.
Please Scratch team, reconsider your stance on project portability.

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#20 2008-01-27 15:16:12

kevin_karplus
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-04-27
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

There are three other ways you can share your movie:

1) send the .sb file to your friends and have them download Scratch to run it.
2) Put the .sb file on your own website with the appropriate HTML code to run it under the java applet.  This way you are limited only by how much space your website allows, not the 10Mbyte limit on the scratch.mit.edu site.
3) Put scratch and the .sb file on a CD-ROM or flash drive and run it from there.

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#21 2008-01-28 13:39:04

andresmh
Scratch Team at MIT
Registered: 2007-03-05
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

nsincaglia: you can reduce the size of your project if you cut down the music and images. I've seen a lot of great projects under 10MB. Plus, even if we were to increase the size limit you would hit the limit of the Java Virtual Machine which is pretty low too.

It would be great if Scratch could export to many other formats, it would be a big undertaking and unfortunately resources are limited so this has not made it to the top. If you know of a Squeak and Flash expert that would be willing to help with this please let us know!  big_smile


Andres Monroy-Hernandez | Scratch Team at the MIT Media Lab
on identi.ca and  twitter

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#22 2008-01-28 14:19:31

JSO
Community Moderator
Registered: 2007-06-23
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

Maybe it is possible to have a "scratch player". I know an old kids programming language (superlogo) in Dutch, and you where able to create a "demo" read: a project that you can only run. You can create ma odern version of this: "Burn to disc" in a menu behind the share button. It could be a "wizard" (it's called a wizard in Windows, I don't know how it's called on the mac) where you can select multiple projects, and burn them automaticcaly to a disc with a nice looking autorun-menu and a scratch runner program (and all the data it needs to run). I think it won't be that difficult, because you already have the code for the scratch presentation mode.

It is only an idea, but i think this would be a very good feature. You can show your friends what you can do with scratch, and then they can consider downloading the full program, insatead of saying "download Scratch and the open this".


http://oi48.tinypic.com/2v1q0e9.jpg

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#23 2008-01-28 14:29:11

kevin_karplus
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-04-27
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

JSO, the java scratch player used on the web is basically what you are suggesting.  All that is needed is an HTML page for selecting the projects and the Scratch.jar file.

Perhaps the ScratchR team could release a little utility program that allows building a freestanding Scratch demo disk.  The user would select projects (from disk or the web) and the utility program would make a nice HTML page and put all  the needed things in the folder to save to CD ROM.

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#24 2008-01-29 02:05:44

Jens
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-06-04
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

I agree that it would be very helpful to at least store a permament link to the Scratch.jar file somewhere on the page featuring support material. I usually test projects offline using the java player before uploading them to the website, but I keep searching the forums for that link every time I want to update that file...

I also believe that it would be nice to have a stand alone Scratch-player that wouldn't need a html page. It could be done either in Java (as John once suggested) or in Squeak (if you took Scratch, and removed everything but the execution engine and the presentation mode). Of course, if you're using Windows you can now make use of the new command line parameter which lets you start Scratch in presentation mode right away.


Jens Mönig

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#25 2008-02-02 14:43:11

MsT
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-06-29
Posts: 3

Re: Can I export my Scratch project to another file format? (exe, swf)

tammy wrote:

We currently have no plans to add an "export to movie" feature to Scratch.

We have used screen capture programs such as Camtasia (for PCs) or SnapZPro (for Macs).

I used Camtasia for dealing with this limitation when I was running Windows XP, but Camtasia cannot reliably record the sound from Scratch on a Windows Vista machine, because Vista does not allow applications to access audio devices directly.  There is a workaround on the Camtasia support page, but it depends on the configuration of your sound card.  My new Dell cannot do it.  Tough break.

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