Here is a basic sprite tutorial by John Doyle at www.excelcalcs.com You can use this method to create Excel game animation or scientific animation in Excel. Enjoy! Read More... "A simple tutorial of using Excel sprite animation on a 2D scatter chart"
I dedicate this section to modeling games in MS Excel. These are not the hidden Excel games such as the Easter Egg for instance. Download the free games available and use them in any version of Excel. Due to the excessive amount of new features, the new Excel versions would be slower though. Lean how to develop animations in MS Excel which you can use as games. You can certainly impress your colleagues. These are animations and games that YOU created! You can impress your bosses too. As a consequence you might snag yourself a bonus or even a promotion. Though seemingly hard, you might find developing certain games in a spreadsheet can be quite easy and satisfying. There nonetheless several different ways of creating such games. The first thing people are concerned when seeing excel games is animation. How can you possibly do that, they ask? Without trying to be exhaustive, there are essentially three methods to create animation in a spreadsheet.
Method #1 – Selective Cell Fill
The simplest method would be to selectively fill groups of spreadsheet cells with different colors and use VBA code (Visual Basic for Applications) to change these colors in time. This style of animation is better used in creating excel puzzles.
Method #2 – Shape Manipulation
You can create various shapes in PowerPoint or directly in Excel, using the “draw” menu. After properly renaming these shapes you can again use VBA game code to move them around, or re-scale them, or change the color in real time.
Method #3 – Using Wire Frames
You can also use a scatter chart to display x-y data as simple “wire-frame” objects. Of course you will need to develop basic algorithms or code to manipulate and change the data in time.
Method #4 – Scatter Charting
You can also use a scatter chart to display x-y vertices only and instead of markers you will paste an image on each vertex. This method is very similar to the previous one. The images manipulated on the chart are called “sprites”. Imagine a puppet show, where you can handle many different dolls but only a few are “active”, which means the spectators see them displayed above the curtain.
A 3D Flight Simulator – video preview
This is a preview to the 3D flight simulator model previously published on this blog. You can download the Excel Model or check out how to build this animation from scratch here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Read More... "A 3D Flight Simulator – video preview"
Anaglyph Stereoscopy in Excel – video preview
This is a video preview of a series of posts and models covering anaglyph stereoscopy applied in Excel. The following is a list of links internal to this blog covering the aforementioned topic: – a series of five tutorials in anaglyph stereoscopy leading to the creation of a 3D rotating cube(part#1, part#2, part#3, part#4 and part#5) associated to an Excel… Read More... "Anaglyph Stereoscopy in Excel – video preview"
A Fast Pong Game with Special Effects in Excel 2003 – video preview
This is a video preview to the pong game model developed during a series of ten tutorials as linked in the brackets ( #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9 and #10 ) [sociallocker][/sociallocker] Read More... "A Fast Pong Game with Special Effects in Excel 2003 – video preview"
Building a game of Tetris #1– the generation and the rotation of the “tetrominoes”
This is the first section of a tutorial about the creation of a Tetris game in Excel using mainly spreadsheet formulas and very little VBA. [sociallocker][/sociallocker] Building a game of Tetris #1- the generation and the rotation of the Tetris parts by George Lungu – This tutorial explains the creation of a game of Tetris in Excel using spreadsheet formulas… Read More... "Building a game of Tetris #1– the generation and the rotation of the “tetrominoes”"
Excel Tetris – a video demonstration
This is a video demo of an older game of Tetris model in Excel. The model is designed for Excel 2003 or earlier versions and it’s too loaded with graphics to work well in Excel 2007 or 2010. You can however try opening it in the newer versions of Excel. I wasn’t personally able to run it satisfactory in 2007.… Read More... "Excel Tetris – a video demonstration"
A Game of Tetris in Excel – video preview
This is a video preview of an older game of Tetris model in Excel. The model is designed for Excel 2003 or earlier versions and it’s too loaded with graphics to work well in Excel 2007 or 2010. You can however try opening it in the newer versions of Excel. I wasn’t personally able to run it in 2007. [sociallocker][/sociallocker] Read More... "A Game of Tetris in Excel – video preview"
A 3D Animated Excel Roller Coaster – video preview
This is a video preview for the 3D animated roller coaster previously presented on this blog. A tutorial on this topic will be posted later. [sociallocker]>[/sociallocker] Read More... "A 3D Animated Excel Roller Coaster – video preview"
VertX – a Very Useful Macro for Extracting the Vertex Coordinates of Freeforms – part #2
The first macro created in this section of the tutorial improves on the previously developed macro by correcting the up-down orientation of the shape, referencing the shape position to the coordinate of the first drawn point and closing the shape by repeating the coordinates of the first point at the end of the table. A last macro is then created which… Read More... "VertX – a Very Useful Macro for Extracting the Vertex Coordinates of Freeforms – part #2"
VertX – a Very Useful Macro for Extracting the Vertex Coordinates of Freeforms – part #1
Using autoshape freeforms is a very easy way to duplicate object outlines from pictures. It is convenient to create a freeform and once created, its vertices (points) can be edited with without difficulty. Aditional points can be inserted and others can be deleted. This is a tutorial about a series of macros which allow the extraction of freeform vertex coordiantes to a worksheet… Read More... "VertX – a Very Useful Macro for Extracting the Vertex Coordinates of Freeforms – part #1"
Excel Drawing – creating graphical object data
This tutorial will introduce the reader to creating simple drawings in Excel by using the “Freeform” auto shape. Later on, we will be able to convert this data in x-y-z vertex information for various models by using a macro. [sociallocker][/sociallocker] Drawing in Excel – part #1 – an introduction tocreating freeform type autoshapes – On this blog we will soon need to… Read More... "Excel Drawing – creating graphical object data"
Anaglyph Charts Demo #2- an animated heat transfer model using a red-cyan wireframe chart
This is another basic demo investigating the feasibility of using anaglyph wireframes to plot scientiffic data. Open the attached worksheet and with your 3D glasses on, watch the chart. The data is a dynamic temperature map obtained from a 2D heat transfer model in a metal plate. The heat model is complete and you can run it with various parameters. You can… Read More... "Anaglyph Charts Demo #2- an animated heat transfer model using a red-cyan wireframe chart"
Anaglyph Charts Demo #1- creating 3D effects on charts using red-cyan elementary chips (sprites)
This is a basic demo investigating the feasibility of using anaglyph sprites to plot scientiffic data. Open the attached worksheet and with your 3D glasses on, watch the chart. The data results are various temperature maps obtained from a 2D heat transfer model in a metal plate. You have 4 different selectable mapps there but you can also invert the pattern using the “Flip” button. I… Read More... "Anaglyph Charts Demo #1- creating 3D effects on charts using red-cyan elementary chips (sprites)"
Introduction to Anaglyph Stereoscopy in Excel – part #5: adding a joystick to control the yaw and pitch rates of the 3D cube
In this section, a joystick is added to the model which controlls the yaw rate and the pitch rate (not the angles!) of the stereoscopic cube. This joystick was used before in a dedicated tutorial and in the flight simulator tutorial. Its importance in future models can not be underestimated, hence I decided to cover this virtual device again. Use your 3D glasses while… Read More... "Introduction to Anaglyph Stereoscopy in Excel – part #5: adding a joystick to control the yaw and pitch rates of the 3D cube"