<a name="1004560"> </a>In Corel Painter, you work mainly with bitmaps, or raster images. Bitmaps are composed of tiny squares called pixels; each pixel is mapped to a location in an image and has a numerical color value. The location and color value data are stored as bits-hence the name bitmaps.
</p>
<p id="1004670" class="Body">
<a name="1004670"> </a>Vector graphics are made up of lines, curves, objects, and fills that are all calculated mathematically. Shapes are vector objects, and you can work with them in Corel Painter in much the same way you work with vector objects in drawing programs like CorelDRAW« and Adobe« Illustrator«.
</p>
<p id="998953" class="Body">
<a name="998953"> </a>Corel Painter draws shapes in an anti-aliased fashion. This anti-aliasing gives objects a smooth edge, as opposed to the jagged edges apparent in some drawing programs. Some clipart objects actually look like photographic elements when imported in Corel Painter and displayed with anti-aliasing.
</p>
<p id="998960" class="Body">
<a name="998960"> </a>Anti-aliased shapes are typically slower to draw to the screen in Corel Painter than aliased objects are in drawing programs. So, you may want to do most of your object creation in your drawing program. You can then import the vector artwork into Corel Painter, tweak it with the drawing tools, and add some Natural-Media effects.
</p>
<p id="998973" class="Body">
<a name="998973"> </a>Shapes in Corel Painter can be interleaved with pixel-based layers, so you can layer both styles of artwork in a single composition. You can convert vector objects and groups into pixel-based layers and use any of the effects or painting tools on these floating objects to create Natural-Media artwork.
</p>
<p id="998977" class="Body">
<a name="998977"> </a>You can also use shapes to generate selections. You can convert shapes to selections and vice versa. The tools for adjusting shapes allow precise control over the outline path, so you may want to use shapes to create some of your selection paths. For more information about selections, refer to <a href="12-Selections3.html#998948">"Working with Selections"</a>.
</p>
<h3 id="1004631" class="Heading2">
<a name="1004631"> </a>Shapes as Layers
</h3>
<p id="1004684" class="Body">
<a name="1004684"> </a>In Corel Painter, shapes are implemented as layers. When you create a shape, a new layer is added to your document.
</p>
<p id="1004585" class="Body">
<a name="1004585"> </a>The shapes you create are listed on the Layers palette. Many of the options and controls for working with pixel-based layers apply equally to shapes. For example, you can apply effects to shapes or give them a composite method to control how the shape interacts with the underlying image.
</p>
<p id="1010975" class="Body">
<a name="1010975"> </a>Shapes follow the same layering rules as pixel-based layers, and you can manipulate them in many of the same ways.
</p>
<p id="1010976" class="Body">
<a name="1010976"> </a>Shapes differ from pixel-based layers by the type of data they contain. Shapes are vector objects; pixel-based layers are constructed of pixels.
</p>
<p id="1010977" class="Body">
<a name="1010977"> </a>If you want to work with pixel information in a shape, you can convert the shape to a pixel-based layer. In many cases, Corel Painter will do this for you automatically. For example, if you paint on a shape, Corel Painter asks if you want to commit the shape to an image layer.
</p>
<p id="1010984" class="Body">
<a name="1010984"> </a>You can also deliberately convert a shape or group of shapes to a pixel-based layer.
</p>
<p id="1010971" class="Body">
<a name="1010971"> </a>For more information about layers, refer to <a href="14-Layers3.html#1023186">"Layer Basics"</a>.
</p>
<p id="1004724" class="Body">
<a name="1004724"> </a>For information about changing layer hierarchy and working with groups, refer to <a href="14-Layers8.html#1023673">"Managing Layers"</a>.
</p>
<p id="1004591" class="Body">
<a name="1004591"> </a>For information about moving and aligning layers, refer to <a href="14-Layers9.html#1023346">"Moving Layers"</a>.
</p>
<p id="1004595" class="Body">
<a name="1004595"> </a>For information about layer composite methods, refer to <a href="14-Layers10.html#1003873">"Blending Layers Using Composite Methods"</a>.
</p>
<h5 id="1011011" class="ToDoHead">
<a name="1011011"> </a>To convert a shape to a pixel-based layer
</h5>
<ol type="1">
<li class="SmartList1" value="1"><a name="1011012"> </a>Choose the Shape Selection tool from the toolbox <img src="images/19-Shapes50.jpg" height="16" width="66" border="0" hspace="0" vspace="0" />
.</li>
<li class="SmartList1" value="2"><a name="1011024"> </a>Click the shape to select it.</li>
<li class="SmartList1" value="3"><a name="1011013"> </a>Do one of the following:</li>
<li class="Bulleted2"><a name="1011198"> </a>Click the Convert to Layer button <img src="images/19-Shapes62.jpg" height="16" width="16" border="0" hspace="0" vspace="0" />
on the property bar.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="998980" class="Heading2">
<a name="998980"> </a>Working with BΘzier Lines
</h3>
<p id="998981" class="Body">
<a name="998981"> </a>The paths used to create shapes are known as BΘzier lines. BΘzier lines can be straight or curved, and they consist of anchor points connected by line segments.
</p>
<p id="998982" class="Body">
<a name="998982"> </a>When the path is a curve, "wings," represented by a straight line, extend from the anchor points. The wings are tangent to the curve. The wings have control "handles" on them. By dragging the wing handle, you can change the curvature of the line segment.
<a name="1013471"> </a><i>Open paths contain endpoints; closed paths do not.
</i></p>
<p id="1000793" class="Body">
<a name="1000793"> </a>Anchor points can be either <span style="color: #000000; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline">smooth</span> or <span style="color: #000000; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline">corner</span> points. A smooth point allows you to manipulate the segments on both sides of an anchor point by dragging a handle. A corner point restricts the manipulation of the segments to the one side of the anchor point that has a handle.
<a name="999056"> </a>When you save files in the RIFF format, Corel Painter maintains shapes as vector objects on separate layers. In other formats, shapes merge with the Canvas. In the Photoshop format, shapes convert to bitmapped images and are assigned to appropriate layers.
