EPIC SPRITE TRAILS | Easy Coding Tutorial to Spice up your Game

Learn how to create Epic Sprite Trails for your Scratch Game in this Easy Scratch Tutorial. Give your player those Go Fast Turbo Speed Effect, whoosh! Or upgrade your mouse pointer to look super cool. Keep the trails short or long, it's up to you. We look at using clones and pen stamping for trails using the Pen extension.
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-------------Video Chapters-------------
0:00 Intro
0:33 Trails using clones
1:23 Fading Clones
2:15 Variable length clone trails
3:39 Pen Stamping Sprite Trails
4:51 Ghosting a Stamp
7:14 Fading a stamped trail
8:51 Outro

[@nitrous5139]

I remember following you nearly 10 years ago on Scratch. I was still in elementary school then. It's honestly heartwarming that you are still teaching this amazing community

[@OmniSync]

i cant believe how long its been

[@SametKaratas0]

O

[@DanielHCassidy]

I feel like this would fit in well with a sonic or crash Bandicoot game

[@NeoCaeky]

Especially for Super/Hyper Sonic

[@NeoCaeky]

@Percy G Exactly!

[@surlo69]

i love the creativity in the tutorials. griffpatch always makes even the simplest tricks more optimized and satisfying. not only are these tutorials helpful they also encourage people to think outside the box and work around the limits

[@cst1229]

Protip: You can drag a stamp block into the stage and it works fine! Together with the brightness effect (100 is fully white), you can make the fader without any extra sprites or costumes, as long as the backdrop has no transparent parts (otherwise not all parts will fade properly).

[@griffpatch]

Wow cool

[@frenzy9102]

also works if you put another colour i put black and it worked

[@occrazy8]

This will be a great feature to my game. Thx for posting

[@arandomorange]

I love how 99% of KZbinrs start with 'Without further ado'. Also, when you enable Subtitles, it says 'adieu', which means goodbye LOL.

[@need890]

lol

[@PersonOverHeaven]

Lol hahaha

[@taramoloney9119]

Bruhhhhhhh

[@gceceditsstuff]

Is it just me or is Griffpatch making features that make games more SATISFYING? First, boids and now trails! Really satisfying indeed! I wonder what satisfying feature he will make next...

[@bankio6957]

A EDITOR!

[@blackhole37]

The first time i started Scratch i was like "Oh. Ok that's just a little price version of a Turing Machine but it's kinda gcool." But now i see how scratch is satisfying.

[@lightbeam6056]

It's nice to see you posting more often!!

[@melon9089]

Hello fellow scratchers is a very great intro to the video!! Another helpful video, please make more!!

[@ticyyy2336]

OOOOH i've been waiting for this tutorial for YEARS

[@onyxtautuhi3473]

This is just really clever and simple, I never thought of this method for the fade effect!

[@NITRO_PRO]

Another great tutorial! Also, congrats on 400K!

[@Resseguie]

I love the self contained tutorials! Well done as usual. The fader feels like a nice backpackable solution. I guess another downside to the stamping is that it assumes you're not using stamps for some other purpose already? I suppose you could re-stamp things like tiles, etc if needed after the ghosting? Or if you had something like a level mask, I guess you could only stamp the fader in areas that don't have other more permanent stamps. Hmm...

[@griffpatch]

Using clones is generally better for scrolling games, stamping is good for longer trails and more objected with trails, but to stamp on scrolling games requires using lists

[@DinoTaken]

@@griffpatch it said scratch email not exist

[@DoDoBird830]

​@@griffpatchwhy are my clones following the character

[@WaterhouseFishing]

Love the tutorials. You made me a better programmer! 👍

[@griffpatch]

Great to hear!

[@ChuckSploder]

@@griffpatch same

[@KatOnMelon]

I have no idea how to use stamp like that at first i did not know why this was useful in since u can just use clones but i forgot that theres a clone limit great job!

[@shinyian82]

Haven’t even watched yet but here’s simple code Start |Forever |create clone of myself |wait [insert number] When I start as clone Repeat [insert number] Change ghost affect by [insert number] Wait [insert number] Delete this clone Go nuts with adding things as well

[@littlespark0]

I love how he always give explanation about what he does.

[@AHappyFace_RBLX]

Thank you griffpatch! I now have a trail for my game!

[@Mel-mu8ox]

I've seen you use stamps in another video, but it was done so fast I didn't see what you clicked on to get it up TY for making it clear in this vid. :D its like my whole world just got that much bigger XD

[@caramelmilk1826]

This is really helpful! Tysm for the tutorial!

[@heatherwheatley2905]

I have been pondering this for ages and now I can make it happen

[@nicotitan7834]

Thank you for helping me make a trail because I’ve been trying to do it for a while

[@Phillip_Anatra]

This is epic! Can't wait to add some to my projects :) Thanks griffpatch

[@revelnic]

great! I will use the functios with the stamping in my platformers now! Thank you very much for the tutorial! :D

[@sansanbanana4397]

Your videos are always helpful!

[@-_-MichaelMike-_-]

I Love the Tutorial it can be really cool for fast games. (^Please make more Tutorials I'm excited^)

[@mariotasticgamingMARIO]

This was extremely helpful when i was making a trail in your lemenoid video

[@instinctdiff7765]

Oh, that explains why you had an odd background effect in the boids tutorial. I was wondering how you managed to make those. It's like from a different platform. Now I get it. I was actually looking for simplest way to do this, the rotation, and the text engine. You don't know how much I learn from you. I love learning so thank you so much Griffpatch! PS. Your biggest influence to me was the forever loop with a send broadcast. and use it to loop all sprites simultaneously, so I would only have 1 forever loop block in my project. And I've been using it ever since! It saves me from a lot of lag and it even helps me organize my codes (like what block will trigger first or last on the entire project)!

[@griffpatch]

Yes, that was a great help to me too when I worked it out :)

[@oso_lacion]

I used your boids tutorial to make my own version but in JavaScript. I got them all except for the rotation. gladly I can just use arc tan of speedx/speedy. I even made the boids change the hue based on that rotation so it looks like they're colored based on their groupings

[@griffpatch]

So cool

[@Cofeinny]

I've been looking for this for so long! thank you grifpatch

[@griffpatch]

Np

[@weegie3343]

great tutorial! And very concise! next, can you do a follow up on the terrain generation video? Maybe tackling crafting or inventory stuff?

[@TylerTolander]

I really wish you could choose which layer you were stamping on so certain pen effects could be viewed over other sprites.

[@hmmm5752]

Just hide the sprie and do forever stamp and then you can draw over it :D

[@snakeoviper249]

wow this helped me a lot in my new game - i didnt know how to fade pen sprites + my game is scrolling

[@creeperdoesredstone]

1:58 If you are using the white background, you can use the 'Change brightness effect by 10' block if you don't want the effect.

[@win_ini]

black background works almost exactly the same, except you need to change by -10

[@abosarry6102]

@@win_ini0:20 griffpatch is says forever not for-ever!

[@bacon-sandwich2010]

thank! it's helpful! keep it up! ^-^

[@johannsegovia6267]

thank you so much i watch many of your videos and it helps me a ton

[@mh2580]

Thanks for the tutorial man! This helped a lot in most of my projects

[@pessskychaos4874]

Very smart, thanks a ton griffpatch!

[@Iminsanealr]

This is very simple! But very very SATISFYING!

[@_KDP]

these tutorials are amazing! (obviously, you ARE the number 1 scratcher ;) )

[@imasdew-fnejkw]

Woah your channel has grown a lot!

[@Milan12234]

Amazing! Btw I will today or tomorow become a channel member!

[@griffpatch]

Wow that would be amazing!

[@lego_man_epic]

on Monday I made the exact same thing and I had no idea griffpatch was gonna do this :D

[@griffpatch]

He he :) nice

[@elijahthesponcore7534]

THANK YOU!!! I WAS HAVING SO MUCH TROUBLE WITH A FADE BY PEN THING I WAS TRYING TO DO!!!

[@Username-mp8jl]

Very nice it made my game a lot better

[@idiot_from_nowhere9272]

now for the rpg i cant wait. i was starting to make an rpg with clone tiles but then i saw that your making one so i may aswell take some of your tutorial. also can you please upload the projects on scratch so we can backpack it if we dont have enough time to make it ourselves

[@TechArtsWithEli]

That's cool, I learn something more for my starting scratch.

[@Jachii9]

heh, i actually figured this one out before this tutorial, i saw that the boids used pen for the trails, and the first thing that popped into my mind about how to fade pen was to then overlay a transparent pen dot with a ridiculous size, altho i didnt think of stamping a black screen. Very clever! btw the project that im referencing is called Griffpatch’s Boids AI, its in the scratch studio ;)

[@Jellyjam14blas]

Awesome! The fade solution is so simple yet so brilliant, the only downsides I can see is that you can add extra effects like shrinking and color change, etc. And you can't have complex backgrounds. I have a really strange idea, instead of using a single solid color for the fading, what if a small sprite moved across the screen stamping/penning based on the detected color at that location? That way you could have a detailed background & trails! I'm not proficient enough to make it though, but if any smart scratchers out there are looking for a challenge! If anyone does attempt to make something like this please reply with a link whether it works or not! :D

[@Super_IronMan]

you could have complex backgrounds by just making the fader sprite the background i think, but if there are sprites you also want to fade out to then yes, that would be the only option. Check out the colour scanner tutorial he made for a way to do that ( kzbin.info/www/bejne/aZ3dYqGvobp7n7s )

[@tiash_dev]

:( not me

[@wiseowl83]

You could solve this by making multiple costumes of the fader Sprite

[@piedoge5976]

you can also make the trail look cooler by adding a change color effect by 10 block into the custom fade over frames block

[@koji4884]

I’m learning javascript and i’m excited to see what i can do!

[@StrawberryBunnyCake.]

Thanks! This will help in future projects!

[@griffpatch]

Hope so!

[@The_octogamer]

Another great and useful vidéo thanks griffpatch you are the best

[@Twin138956Productions2019]

Really love this. :)

[@GamingChair9482]

thx for the tutorial. It really make my boids simulation project a lot better.

[@KiewieGames]

Can you make for example a “10 scripts that visually spice up your projects” video. I, and probably other people, would love to see this.

[@kacpersztejna8303]

In the script for fader sprite you used the stamp block inside the forever loop. The conclusion is that the loops in Scratch work with a certain delay, because the cat trails are visible.

[@griffpatch]

Yes indeed - A repeat loop outside of a "run without screen refresh" will always pause for the screen to update before looping back around. That's 1/30th of a second

[@JMS-ji3qp]

Thanks for tutorial! Nice!

[@shahidrasool1414]

Brilliant tutorial, thank you.

[@igorfire13]

This guy is literally can do and solve anything.

[@CoolRubiksCube]

I never would have thought of that, although I perhaps should have!

[@Jesus...Christ]

thank you for the tutorial!

[@anjponni]

hey i just have to say that this tutorial is very useful and that ghost part around 1;48 you can choose pixel which does something insane

[@malachaitownsend272]

wow another awsome tutorial :D

[@brokenbloxyt]

thank you so much i love your videos you help me alot with coding

[@griffpatch]

No problem :)

[@lemmy15yt]

I wanted to make a trail of eggs that follows Yoshi around like the original games, so I'll make good use out of this one.

[@adamyamg7975]

great, this helped me a lot

[@sonic176yt7]

My guy is a legend in the scratch community

[@forgedinfaithfarmboys8092]

I seen the studio yesterday, so I could tell the future!

[@demoblunt181]

nice video griffpatch!, i will like to see a video that explain about your ragdoll project and how everything there works

[@z00ber54]

there is a much simpler way to extend the amount of clones on the trail. all you need to do is go to the repeat 10 loop and change the number 10 to however many clones you want to include in the trail.

[@NiceGames150]

Amazing Tutorial!

[@tabb3677]

Thanks, griff for making this video

[@user-hs3rw1uc6t]

Hey griffpatch is it possible to make customkeyboard combination? (and will you ever going to release the book?)

[@someonenamedgreen]

Bro this is really cool. Also, i like more clones, because they can be deleted by One by One, but the stampings no.

[@villeolof2000]

The trails were also featured in your project "Orbital Velocity v0.2f"!

[@nonexistence00]

Missed opportunity to make this tutorial while using the mouse trail thing :)

[@CoolRubiksCube]

That looks pretty cool

[@yz2949]

hi griffpatch, i've been following your tutorials for a wihle now and i'm working on this platformer game on scratch (though im still a beginner), and i've been wondering if you could make a tutorial on how to make a tail of some sorts onto an enemy AI that could either follow you or follow a certain path (similar to how you did on your snail game) (if you decide to make one you can choose which you want to make a tutorial about), i've seen how other people do it and they all do it with pen, but have jumbles of other code that i can't follow, so maybe you can make one so it'd be easy to follow?

[@PenguinBuster0725]

Yo griifpatch you’re the person who inspired me made Me a man tysm

[@artubevibes12]

THANKS FOR THE AMAZING TUTORIAL griffpatch

[@griffpatch]

Glad you liked it!

[@GooseOnoob]

I made the trail effect in the boids project before this video even released, with the same technique!

[@datoto01]

I remember that I was done it before in a project that has a ball bouncing with a super high speed.

[@titilayoibazebo6178]

I love your tutorials

[@rapid_sivel]

can you do a video explains how some complex blocks work like maths opertators and custom blocks/variables that are more complex ☺️

[@halfbraincelled]

this is awesome!

[@dhiyak.s5611]

hey griffpatch about that last time i told u about that spider boss it cant be backpackble? u said

[@-andye-5515]

griffpatch shows ordinary things from an unusual side!

[@YouthExploreStudy]

Awesome tutorial!!! But I found a problem sometimes on devices, such as Mac, you sometimes see the tail left from the trails.

[@waterylemon6880]

Hey Griffpatch! I am currently working on an RPG game on Scratch and your Devlogs have been really useful for me! It would be really interesting to get some tutorials for rpgs! Kind of like the Mario game! No pressure though! It's just a thought and I would really appreciate it if you do so but it's still your choice and you don't have to do it! :D

[@caseyyeow1649]

He's working on it right now.

[@Lukex305]

Can you please make a tutorial on how to make appel. Ik it will be a really long series but please it will mean a lot.

[@Richard_Nixon-mr6rq]

I don’t think I ever would of thought of that! I would of overcomplicated things by keeping list values of previous trails and stamp them all each tick…

[@Resseguie]

That was my initial thought too when I was trying to guess how he'd accomplish it.

[@Farleigh1050]

my thought was that it wasnt even possible in the first place

[@thewhiteassassin4473]

Griffpatch how can I press buttons or sprites with the mouse? Because the mouse trail blocks the mouse from clicking other sprites. Is there a code to make the trail fade away when the mouse isn't moving? And make the trail come back when it moves again?

[@imasdew-fnejkw]

You sound like Mumbo Jumbo sounds when he's doing redstone tutorials (that's meant to be a compliment btw)

[@jaisuryaprasad318]

Hey griffpatch, Can you tell how you have your backpack so can also use it

[@SUSUS22641]

Hey I was wondering if I was to use Turbowarp I can use infection clones then I could use the clones right?

[@SniperReaper10]

ive made a quick version that looks smoother with bigger gaps and also a green trail that follows instead of the cat repeating

[@armortampubolon1916]

Is it possible to make the trails effect on a top down scroller ? it could be useful for a top down scroller game. and it was a cool vid btw

[@tabb3677]

Hey Griff, Are you continuing your RPG devlog and the tutorial series or did you end it?

[@griffpatch]

Continuing

[@dagreenboi]

This is as satisfying as an satisfying thing indeed satisfying