Animation Pacman
Basics
So we have actual images representing Pacman and the ghosts instead of the circles that we had previously. But we are only using one image for each object. So they are just static images moving around the maze. During the game Pacman's mouth is moving and he also points in the direction he is moving. The ghosts also have different images depending on which direction they are moving. The only difference in their images is which way their eyes are looking. They also have some animation to them. Pacman is a simple game, so that's all the animation there is. But, once we learn how to do it for Pacman, then it will be easier to apply that knowledge to other more complex animations.
This section is all about writing the animation code, then we'll apply it to the Pacman and the Ghost objects in the next section. You don't need to read any books on animation to understand this section. As long as you understand that I'm defining animation as a series of images then you'll be fine.
I think we've all done some kind of animation in the past, or at the very least we know the very basics of how to animate something. As a kid we would have little flip books that we would use to draw little stick figures on each page. Each page represented one animation frame. As you flipped the book you would see the stick figure walk or something. The faster you flipped the book, the faster the animation. The smoothness of the animation depended on how many images you drew depicting a certain motion. The more images you use and the smaller the change between each image, the smoother the animation.
