Drawing

Clicking on the draw button in the tool palette reveals a different set of tools – the drawing palette. You can be still holding an avatar while you are drawing and can speak, but you won’t be able to move your avatar on stage. Click the act button to return to the tool palette so that you can operate your avatar again.

Layers 

Drawing allows you to draw directly onto the stage, in one of four layers; the layers correspond to the four boxes on the right hand side of the drawing palette. Click on the red pencil icon to select a layer to draw in. The black border shows which layer you have selected; a pale blue border indicates that another player is holding that layer. If you select a layer with a  blue border you will "steal" it from the other player. The top box will draw on the top layer, obscuring avatars. The next two layers will let you draw amongst the avatar layers, and the bottom layer draws behind the backdrop. 

Tools

Click the eye icon to hide or show your drawing. Click clear to erase all the drawing from that layer. Note that it is currently not possible to erase only part of the drawing in a layer. 

The slider in the layer box controls the transparency of what has already been drawn in that layer: move it to the left and the drawing in that layer will become more transparent; move it all the way to the left and it will vanish completely. This is useful for fading prepared drawing in and out. 

The colour picker at the top has three sliders, letting you adjust the colour of what you’re about to draw. Move the sliders to change the hue, and the new colour appears in the square to the left of the sliders. 

The slider immediately below the colour picker controls the transparency of what you are ABOUT to draw, that is you can draw in percentages of transparency on the same layer (use the slider in the layer box to change the transparency of something AFTER you have drawn it).

The circle and slider below the transparency slider control the size of your brush. Move the slider to the right and the circle will increase in size, indicating how big it will appear on stage. Move it to the left to make it smaller. 

Currently it is not possible to erase, other than to clear everything in a particular layer. If you are trying to draw a curved line and finding that it appears as sections of straight lines, you are moving your mouse faster than UpStage can keep up with; try drawing slower for smoother curves. 

If you want to draw a completely straight line, hold the shift key down while you click at the beginning and the end of the line.