Creativures

Table of contents

• Drawing a cursor - about pencil, eraser, line, etc.
• Blending mode - mixing drawn and previous pixels.
• Setting cursor hot spot - the "clicking-point" of a cursor.
• Selecting a color - pick color to draw with.
• Downloading a cursor - get the result of your work.

Geeky help topics

Click on my friend Geeky down there to learn more.

Hot spot

Each mouse cursor has one special pixel (called hot spot) that controls the actual position of a click. For arrows, it is usually the upper left corner, for a sniper scope-like cursor, it may be in the center.

Select the "Hot spot" tool and then click on a pixel. The clicked pixel becomes hot spot. Look at the preview in the lower left corner - the hot spot pixel is always in the center of the cross.

Blending mode

If the opacity of the currently selected color is less than 100%, the blending mode controls whether pixels are replaced or drawn over the previous content.

	In "blend" mode, the pixels are painted over the previous content.
	"Replace" mode removes previous color and opacity of a pixel and uses the currently selected one.

Downloading

Before you can use a cursor on your computer, you need to download it.

Fill in a name for your cursor and then click the "Download" button in the top left corner.

Important: When your browser asks you what to do with the file, do NOT try to open it. Instead, SAVE it to a folder of your choice. Only then you can make it your cursor.

Selecting color

Many of the drawing tools and effects are making use of the current color and opacity. You can select color and opacity by clicking in the color areas by the right side of the window. Select hue by clicking in the top bar, select saturation and brightness in the middle square. Opacity (alpha) can be selected using the lower bar.

The "Dropper" tool can be used to make color of a pixel on a canvas active. Click the tool and then the pixel. Previously active tool is re-activated automatically.

Table of contents

• Using templates - start making a new cursor.
• Applying effects - about colorize and drop shadow.
• Using cursor on your computer - changing mouse pointers.

Cheesy help topics

Cheesy up there can explain the basic topics.

Using templates

You can quickly delete all pixels or initialize the canvas with one of the common arrows.

Click on an image (or the empty space) in the "Templates" panel. It may take a second or more depending on your computer and internet browser (Internet Explorer is extremely slow).

Applying effects

There is a couple of effects that can be applied by clicking on them in the top toolbar. It may take a second or more depending on your computer and internet browser (Internet Explorer is extremely slow).

	Re-color all pixel using currently selected hue and saturation.
	Add a dark shadow around the drawn pixels. Repeat for more intense shadow.

Switching cursors on your computer

After you have downloaded a cursor, go to your Start menu and click on Control Panel. Then find the Mouse control panel. Switch to the Pointer tab, select a role, click Browse and navigate to the downloaded file. Finally, click OK.

An alternate way of switching cursors is using the Change Cursor tool (freeware).