Masterpieces

## Painting Tool

Jammers can make art with the Aj Painting tool. The **Painting** activity is a feature that allows Jammers to create their own artwork. It can be found in the Art Studio and it was introduced on July 19, 2012. It can also be accessed using the Painter's Easel den item, the easels found around the Masterpiece Gallery Party, and even the player's own Jammer Wall when selecting a Masterpiece.

## Activity

This activity involves painting on a blank canvas using the player's cursor by selecting colors and brushes from a tool panel. The painting can be printed by clicking on a round button, which has a picture of a printer, located below the canvas along the left side; this will open up a printer dialog for sending the artwork to an attached printer. The canvas can also be reset by clicking on a round button, which has a recycle bin label on it, located below the canvas along the left side; this will confirm that the player wants to start over and then erase the current artwork. The canvas can be saved to a file or an old canvas file can be loaded by clicking on a round button, which has a file cabinet label on it, located below the canvas along the left side; this will open a file dialog that allows the player to select the location and file name.

## Tools

The tool panel for Painting is located along the left side of the screen with color selection in the top half and brush selection in the bottom. There is also an undo-redo button at the very bottom of the tool panel.

## Colors

The top-most section of the tools is devoted to a large color palette that is configured with color brightness along the horizontal axis and color hue along the vertical axis. Beneath the color palette is a small grey-scale palette that has brightness along the horizontal axis. Beside the palette area is a column of fifteen rectangles that represent the color history for the player, with the most recently used colors at the bottom.

Below the color palette and color history column is a grid of eight (two wide by four tall) large rounded rectangles that represent the saved colors for the player. When the player clicks one of the saved colors, it is highlighted with a golden border and that color becomes the active color for the current brush. If the player clicks a color from the palette or the color history, that color will be saved in the currently active slot, replacing the previously saved color.

The top-most section of the tools is devoted to a large color palette that is configured with color brightness along the horizontal axis and color hue along the vertical axis. Beneath the color palette is a small grey-scale palette that has brightness along the horizontal axis. Beside the palette area is a column of fifteen rectangles that represent the color history for the player, with the most recently used colors at the bottom.

Below the color palette and color history column is a grid of eight (two wide by four tall) large rounded rectangles that represent the saved colors for the player. When the player clicks one of the saved colors, it is highlighted with a golden border and that color becomes the active color for the current brush. If the player clicks a color from the palette or the color history, that color will be saved in the currently active slot, replacing the previously saved color.

## Brushes

The top half of the brushes section contains a two-wide by four-tall grid with eight different brush types. Below the brush types is a grid with six (two wide by three tall) brush thicknesses that range from tiny to large. Each brush type can have a thickness level except for the paint bucket fill brush. The brush types are as follows:

* *Paint Brush* - This is a standard brush tool that draws along the path of the pointer.
* *Line* - This brush is used to make straight, rectangular lines. The player clicks down where they want the line to start then drags their pointer to the ending spot for the line and releases the pointer to create the line.
* *Air Brush* - Similar to the *Paint Brush*, this brush tool draws a series of semi-transparent circles along the path of the pointer.
* *Rectangle* - This brush is used to create hollow rectangles that have transparent centers. The player uses this tool by clicking to set one corner point and then dragging and releasing at another location to set the opposite corner point for the rectangle.
* *Paint Bucket* - This brush tool is used to fill a contiguous area of the same color with the current color by clicking anywhere in the area to be filled.
* *Ellipse* - This brush is identical to the *Rectangle* brush tool except it draws an ellipse inside the area that would be the rectangle.
* *Paw Smudge* - This brush tool is used to smear the existing color along the path of the pointer.

* *Triangle* - This brush is identical to the *Rectangle* brush tool except it draws a triangle inside the area that would be the rectangle.

## Sketch Jam

The Painting activity includes a button (which looks like a Penguin holding a pencil) to open the *Choose A Video*screen. On this screen, the player can select a short speed-drawing video to watch. The currently available videos are:

* Sketch Jam - Arctic Wolf
* Sketch Jam - Hyena
* Sketch Jam - Mira
* Sketch Jam - Wolf
* Sketch Jam - Puppy
* Sketch Jam - Phantom
* Sketch Jam - Bunny
* Sketch Jam - Pet Phantom
* Sketch Jam - Toucan
* Sketch Jam - Pet Reindeer
* Sketch Jam - Pet Rooster

## Create Den Item

After the player has finished their artwork, they can click the *Create Den Item* button (located below the canvas in the bottom right corner) to create a Masterpiece item with their canvas in the center. The player is given the option of different frames types, some of which are only available during certain seasons. After selecting the frame and purchasing it for 2 Diamonds, the player must also agree that their artwork follows a set of rules. The artwork will then be sent to AJHQ for approval and the player will be given the Masterpiece item with a blank canvas and the gold AJ badge. Once the artwork has been approved, the player will receive a Jam-A-Gram message from AJHQ and their Masterpiece item will be updated to show their artwork.

## Send to AJHQ

Below the painting in the middle is a button labeled "Send to" with the AJ badge placed at the end. When clicked, this will send the painting to AJHQ and then erase it from the canvas. Artwork sent to AJHQ may be featured on The Daily Explorer or Jammer Central, in which case the player will receive an Artist Plaque as an award.

## Trivia

* The undo button can only undo a single action, so many mistakes cannot be undone this way.
* The color history column defaults to a rainbow spectrum of colors when the activity is first started.
* Each time the activity is started, the saved colors default to black, white, red, purple, blue, green, yellow, and orange.
* If the triangle tool brush is used with a very large thickness to draw a small triangle, it draws a trapezoid instead.
* If the circle tool brush is used with a very large thickness to draw a small circle, the inner edge of the circle will have a hexagonal shape instead of a rounded shape.
* The *Create Den Item* button was added when Masterpieces were introduced on May 26, 2016.
* The paint brush is the default brush tool and it defaults to an intermediate thickness with black as the selected color.
* There is a glitch where the "Print" frame will not display correctly for the frames preview screen. When this happens, the canvas displayed in the "Print" frame will also grow larger each time the frames preview screen is shown until the player reloads the game or the game crashes.
* On June 9, 2016, the Load / Save button was added to the layout. This makes the Painting activity one of the two features in *Animal Jam* that allow the player to save a file directly, the other being the Photo Booth.
* If the canvas has been changed and the user tries to close the Painting activity, a message will pop-up asking if the canvas should be saved before quitting. This feature was introduced on June 9, 2016.
* There is a glitch during March 2017 where saved "ajart" files can no longer be loaded and new artwork cannot be saved to a file.
* To prevent lost work, Animal Jam's auto logout for inactivity is disabled while the Jammer is playing the Painting activity. This means that the Jammer can remain connected almost indefinitely to continue working on their art.