This tutorial explains how to use the Photo Clip Art applet.
1. What is Photo Clip Art?
Photo Clip Art is a new tool that allows you to insert objects into images easily and rapidly. No image compositing skill is required to use this program; you can create a new image in three simple steps:
- Load an image.
- Select an object to insert into the image--Photo Clip Art can automatically search for a list of "good" canditates.
- Tell Photo Clip Art to insert the selected object at a certain location in the image.
2. Running the Photo Clip Art Applet
Photo Clip Art is a Java applet, so make sure that your browser has a working Java Runtime Environment (JRE) plugin, and that Java is enabled in your browser's settings. Turning off pop-up blocking or temporarily allowing pop-ups might also be necessary for certain browsers.
Before continuing this tutorial, try running the applet. You will probably get a dialog box asking if you trust the certificate signed by Jean-Francois Lalonde--if you want to be able to load/save images from/to your machine, say "Yes." After answering this dialog box, the applet's interface should appear.
If the message below the menu bar says anything other than "Load a scene image with the File menu", then the applet failed to connect to the server. It is possible that the server is not receiving connections at the moment--in which case, please try again later.
3. Getting Acquainted with the Interface
If you have the applet running, then you might be wondering what all these buttons and widgets do. First, I'll explain what each part of the applet's interface is. The rest of this tutorial will explain how you use these features.
A quick summary of the things you see in the applet:
- Menu Bar
- File
- Edit
- View
- Location
- Help
- Tutorial: a link to this tutorial's outline
- About Photo Clip Art: brings up an about page
You can see informative messages and hints on what to do next.
The row of icons near the top of the window is a list of object categories. Clicking on one of these icons will bring up two things: a second row of icons for subcategories, and a corresponding set of objects in the object panel.
When you click on a category, a list of icons appears in this space. Clicking on one of these icons will bring up a corresponding set of objects in the object panel.
The sorting checkboxes, page buttons, and the object menus make up the object panel. When you click on a category or subcategory icon, a set of objects will appear in this panel. Certain sets of objects are large enough to consist of more than one page; in this case, the buttons directly above the object icon serve as page navigation buttons. The checkboxes allow you to sort objects using various criteria.
When you load an image for your background scene, the image will appear in this area.
Once you load a scene, you may notice that the mouse cursor changes when you move the mouse over the scene. The following cursors may display:
- Horizontal line that follows the mouse: choosing a horizon
- Horizontal line that does not follow the mouse: some operations such as pasting an object or choosing a fixed location require the cursor to be below the horizon.
- Square and Cross that follows the mouse: choosing a fixed location
- Cross that does not follow the mouse: pasting an object into a fixed location
- Object Outline / Filled Object that follows the mouse: pasting an object
Every now and then a message will appear in the status bar. These messages usually indicate that the applet is waiting for a response from the server.