Animated animals

Step 1: Make it

What is it?

Animate your own pictures on the micro:bit display.

How it works

• This program creates an animation on the micro:bit’s LED display output by using a built-in image and one you create yourself.
• First it shows the duck built-in image and then shows a modified version, which is made by moving all the dots (pixels) down one row.
• It shows the two different pictures one after the other, with a half second (500 millisecond) delay, to make it look like a duck bobbing up and down on the water.
• An infinite loop keeps the micro:bit showing the image sequence until you unplug the micro:bit.
• Using loops in computer programmes is also known as iteration. They help you create efficient compact code without needlessly repeating the same instructions.

What you need

• micro:bit (or MakeCode simulator)
• MakeCode or Python editor
• battery pack (optional)
• optional graph paper or LED planning sheet to sketch out your own animal designs

Step 2: Code it

1from microbit import *
2
3while True:
4    display.show(Image.DUCK)
5    sleep(500)
6    display.show(Image(
7        "00000:"
8        "09900:"
9        "99900:"
10        "09999:"
11        "09990"))
12    sleep(500)

Step 3: Improve it

• Try modifying and animating different built-in images like GIRAFFE and RABBIT.
• Create your own images from scratch using graph paper or our LED planning sheet to sketch out your designs.
• Make longer animated sequences to tell a story.
• In Python, use different numbers to change the brightness of different pixels. 9 is the brightest, 1 is the dimmest and 0 is off.