Scratch

Yo darkstar800! You sent me this...
"You commented on one of my forum posts with some tips - I just wanted to know: what did you mean by colour preview and do you know how i can save and load images and what scripts to do that with - many thanks - Darkstar800"

By color preview I meant like a "currently selected" box that would show what color you have picked. I now see that you already have that with your "Colour Bar." I thought it would be a good feature to have if you also implemented a color selector. From what I understand, Scratch does not currently have a native color selection option but you could simulate one using If's and checking for every color that you put into the application. You do have multiple colors available already but I was thinking along the lines of a more standard gradient type circle, etc. Unfortunately, the more colors you make available, the more If checks you would have to add for any type of color picker. An alternative would be to use a graduated color picker shape (circle, square, etc) and then read the mouse location x,y values and translate that into draw color values. A tricky prospect but far more flexible than coding hundreds of If checks in order to have a lot of color options. That is the route I would probably go but I always take the hard one 

As for saving, I did not mean the actual picture itself. I meant colors but I now realize that would be impractical as the user could not add "new" colors but would have to work with the ones you put into the app to start with.

However, and this is probably crazy.... in theory I think you could "record" what a person draws by saving 1) draw color used and 2) x,y values as variables for every time they change while the user is drawing. But it doing so would generate a vast amount of data quickly. I don't think you can actually save/load pictures between drawing sessions but you could use this for an undo feature. But whew, that is gonna be a lot of coding. I still haven't tried to figure if you can generate arrays on the fly and that sounds like what you would need. May not be do-able.

There are still a lot of features you could add. You could use different sprites to allow users to draw with different shapes. You could use this to make an airbrush spray effect (ie. a bunch of tiny dots, multiple costumes might make this even cooler) or to create a library of stampable shapes or images.


ps. I saw you too had some RPG apps you have worked on. It occurred to me the other day that although Scratch does not currently let you write permanent data, which is what you would need more most "save" type features, there is a way around this for an RPG! In the old days of computer games and in say, early Nintendo games, some games would generate a "save code" whenever you finished playing it. The player would write this code down and the next time they started playing, enter the code. The game would then re-interpret this into the last player position, score, etc. thusly allowing a rudimentary save feature. You could do this in Scratch too! So I am excited at this prospect, although the more data you wish to "record" into the save code, the trickier it will be to implement. No player really wants to enter a 75 digit code, especially just to play a typical Scratch game. I am currently working on a smooth-scrolling RPG that uses a small set of floor tiles connected by a data array to create rather expansive dungeons. But it is on hold cause I want to first make an Asteroids type space-shooter using the same smooth-scrolling background. So many ideas.... lol. I can tell that you have put a lot of work into V-paint, it looks and functions very nicely. Keep up the great work!! Oh yeah, my 6yr old did indeed demand my computer when she saw it, she loves to draw! Peace.