Using Vector Art in Painter

MetaCreations Painter is capable of importing vector clipart, but it's fussy and will only accept files in Adobe Illustrator format in spite of most clipart for Windows is in Windows Metafile format.

1. Acquire image.

File

Acquire

Adobe Illustrator File...

Switch to the appropriate directory and pick the file. Painter will then display an information box, saying  Now processing plugin... and will open the vector art.

This will open the clipart into a new file.

2. Using Objects

Make sure that the Objects:Floater List is shown.

 Window

 Show Objects (Ctrll+4)
  [It will say Hide Objects if Objects:Floater List is already on the desktop.]

Most of the changes should be made to the vector clipart prior to converting it to a bitmap format. That way, the image will maintain its full resolution and some things are easier to do while the vector art is in its native format. Color fills are much easier to perform while the image is still vector. When it's converted to a bitmap format, there's a tendency for openings to occur that allow colors to leak out of a shape.

3. Ungroup Object

Click on ouch!.ai in the Objects:Floater List to highlight it.

Click on the Ungroup button.

The Santa Claus ouch!.ai image is composed of 136 individual shapes. Each one of those shapes can be individually manipulated.  They can be stretched independently of the other shapes or be colored separately.

The Objects:Floater List has 3 icons for each shape as well as the shape's name.
The first icon identifies what the object is (in this case, a shape) and isn't terribly interesting.
The second icon is the eye. Clicking on the eye will open and close it. When the eye is open, the shape is visible. When the eye is closed, it is not visible and any objects underneath become visible.
The third icon is more important, the lock, when dealing with objects composed of multiple objects. With 136 shapes composing this one image, it's hard to grab smaller items without the larger ones getting in the way. Clicking on the lock will lock and unlock a floating object. When a floater is locked, it cannot be selected with the Adjuster Tool in the image window. Whenever a large image is selected instead of the one that's wanted, lock the large one so that it is no longer in the way.

4. Select and Change Colors

Shapes can be selected with the Adjuster Tool and then modified from the Shapes menu. To change the color of Santa's present, the four violet areas have to be selected. This can be done one at a time with changes performed individually or the Shift key can be held down while selecting. Each additional shape is added to the selection as shown top left. Once the areas are selected, they can be grouped on the Objects menu so that the grouping is retained. Go to the menu bar and click...

Shapes

Set Default Shape Attributes    Ctrl+[

This will bring up the menu at right. To change the colors, double click the violet square.  This will bring up a color grid and a new color can be selected from the grid. Click OK on the grid and OK on the Set Default Shape Attributes menu. This will change the selected shapes to the color that was picked.

5. Select and Change Shapes

The star in this image (Image A) turns out to be two shapes. Selecting the star and moving it results in only moving the yellow part of the star (Image B) and not it's black border, which turns out to be another shape. The fact that they're two shapes is an indication that this was originally a bitmap image that was converted to a vector image with a trace program. The trace program retained the irregular shaped border by creating two shapes, a background black star-shaped background for the star and the yellow star.

To do things with the star, both images can be selected by using the Adjuster Tool to draw a box around the star to select both the yellow star with the black border (Image C). With the two shapes selected, it's convenient to then Group them on the Object Menu. That combines the two shapes into a single grouped shape, making it easier to manipulate.

A copy of the star was made by selecting the grouped star and copying and pasting it from the menu bar. (Image D).

The star was then stretched by grabbing one of the selection handles with the Adjuster Tool  (Image E). The selection box has eight handles, four on the corners and four in the middle of each side of the rectangle. Grabbing one of the corner handles allows resizing the shape in all directions. That's why the changed star is fatter than the original. To maintain the same height/width ratios, hold the Shift key while changing the size. Had that been done, the star would have retained its original shape even though it was made larger. The handles on the side of the selection rectangle will change the shape in only one dimension. Stretching the top Shape handle will increase the height of the shape without changing the width.