Let's dive right in.
From the Scratch interface, click the Open button to display the Open Project dialog box, as seen in the following screenshot.
- Click on the Examples button.
- Select Simulations and click OK.
- Select Spinner and click OK to load the Spinner project.
- Follow the instructions on the screen and spin the arrow by clicking on the arrow.
- We're going to edit the spinner wheel. From the sprites list, click on Stage. From the scripts area, click the Backgrounds tab. Click Edit on background number 1 to open the Paint Editor.
- Select a unique color from the color palette, such as purple.
- Click on the paint bucket from the toolbar, then click on one of the triangles in the circle to change its color. The paint bucket is highlighted in the following screenshot.
- Click OK to return to our project.
We opened a community project called Spinner that came bundled with Scratch. When we clicked on the arrow, it spun and randomly selected a color from the wheel. We got our first look at a project that uses a background for the stage and modified the background using Scratch's built-in image editor.
The Paint Editor in Scratch provides a basic but functional image editing environment. Using the Paint Editor, we can create a new sprite/background and modify a sprite/background. This can be useful if we are working with a sprite or background that someone else has created.
A costume defines the look of a sprite while a background defines the look of the stage. A sprite may have multiple costumes just as the stage can have multiple backgrounds.
When we want to work with the backgrounds on the stage, we use the switch to background and next background blocks. We use the switch to costume and next costume blocks when we want to manipulate a sprite's costume.
Actually, if you look closely at the available looks blocks when you're working with a sprite, you'll realize that you can't select the backgrounds. Likewise, if you're working with the stage, you can't select costumes.