Python Turtle, how to get colors to change by themselves?

Question

creating an image of a cube for minecraft. Trying to get the colors inside the box to change by themselves. Is there some kind of integer algorithm I can use to achieve this besides using random? Because right now, it creates random colors, but I want the little boxes to change colors by themselves. Any Ideas?

import turtle
import random


minecraft = turtle.Turtle()

minecraft.ht()
minecraft.speed(9999999999999) #I guess there is a max speed??? wanted it to make the mini cubes a lot faster.
#centers the box
minecraft.up()
minecraft.goto(-50,50)
minecraft.down()
#end of center box
for i in range(4): #Creates the box
minecraft.forward(100)
minecraft.right(90)
for i in range(1000): #Repeats all this code over and over
for i in range(10): #makes the 10 cubes going down, then it comes back up     and repeates making cubes until it gets to the last cube.
    for i in range(10): #initiate the random colors
        red = random.random()
        blue = random.random()
        yellow = random.random()
        minecraft.color(red, blue, yellow)
        for i in range(1): #the little boxes
            minecraft.begin_fill()    
            minecraft.forward(10)
            minecraft.right(90)
            minecraft.forward(10)
            minecraft.right(90)
            minecraft.forward(10)
            minecraft.right(90)
            minecraft.forward(10)
            minecraft.right(90)
            minecraft.end_fill()

        minecraft.right(90) #little boxes changing directions
        minecraft.forward(10)
        minecraft.right(-90)

    minecraft.forward(10) #little boxes changing directions...again
    minecraft.right(-90)
    minecraft.forward(100)
    minecraft.right(90)

minecraft.right(180) #and again...
minecraft.forward(100)
minecraft.right(180)

Turtle speed numbers are a bit weird. Speed 0 is fastest, but then they go from 1 being slowest, 2 is a little faster, 6 is normal speed, etc up to 10 being fast. Any numbers higher than 10 or lower than 0.5 get converted to 0. See `help(turtle.speed)`. — PM 2Ring, Feb 10 '15 at 03:51

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 08 '16 at 08:02

Based on your description of the problem, this is what I believe you're asking for -- a grid of randomly colored boxes that appear to individually change color at random:

from turtle import Turtle, Screen
import random

BOX_SIZE = 100
SQUARE_SIZE = 10
DELAY = 100  # milliseconds

minecraft = Turtle(shape="square", visible=False)
minecraft.shapesize(SQUARE_SIZE / 20)
minecraft.speed("fastest")

# Center the box
minecraft.up()
minecraft.goto(-BOX_SIZE//2, BOX_SIZE//2)
minecraft.down()

# Create the box
for _ in range(4):
    minecraft.forward(BOX_SIZE)
    minecraft.right(90)
minecraft.up()

# Move turtle inside box
minecraft.forward(SQUARE_SIZE//2)
minecraft.right(90)
minecraft.forward(SQUARE_SIZE//2)
minecraft.left(90)

squares = []

for i in range(BOX_SIZE // SQUARE_SIZE):
    # makes the 10 cubes going across, then it backs up and
    # repeats making cubes until it gets to the last cube.

    for j in range(BOX_SIZE // SQUARE_SIZE):

        # initiate the random colors
        red = random.random()
        blue = random.random()
        yellow = random.random()

        minecraft.color(red, blue, yellow)
        squares.append((minecraft.position(), minecraft.stamp()))

        minecraft.forward(SQUARE_SIZE)

    minecraft.backward(SQUARE_SIZE)
    minecraft.sety(minecraft.ycor() - SQUARE_SIZE)
    minecraft.right(180)  # little boxes changing directions

def change():
    random_choice = random.choice(squares)
    squares.remove(random_choice)
    position, stamp = random_choice
    minecraft.goto(position)

    red = random.random()
    blue = random.random()
    yellow = random.random()

    minecraft.color(red, blue, yellow)
    minecraft.clearstamp(stamp)
    squares.append((minecraft.position(), minecraft.stamp()))

    screen.ontimer(change, DELAY)

screen = Screen()

screen.ontimer(change, DELAY)

screen.exitonclick()

The key to this, like many turtle problems, is to stamp, not draw. Stamped images can do a number of things that drawn images can't -- in this case they can be individually removed and replace by other stamps.

Also, never let your turtle code run forever, nor any anywere close to it -- use an ontimer() event instead so that other turtle events (like properly closing the window) can trigger correctly.

John Hua · Answer 2 · 2015-02-10T03:56:34.207

-1

random.random() create a random number falls between 0 and 1. So when you need a random number generate between 0 and MAX, just simply multiply with it, in your case, like this way:

int(random.random()*256)

BTW, I checked the turtle docs again. turtle.color(*args) expects two color args, "Return or set pencolor and fillcolor". That means you need to pass it turtle.color((40, 80, 120), (160, 200, 240)) this way.

edited Feb 10 '15 at 03:56

answered Feb 10 '15 at 03:37

John Hua

1,400
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keeps saying bad color sequence. : (xxx,xxx,xxx) – pewpew Feb 10 '15 at 03:46
This seems more a comment than an answer. As an answer it doesn't address the OP's central question. As a comment, it's generally wrong. The default `turtle.colormode()` is 1.0 which means `random.random()` is a valid way of generating colors as you see if you run the code. Also, `turtle.color()` can take just one argument which is treated as both the pencolor and fillcolor -- you don't need to supply both. – cdlane Dec 08 '16 at 08:07

Python Turtle, how to get colors to change by themselves?

2 Answers2