Pygame – Drawing Objects and Shapes

In this article, we are going to see how to draw an object using Pygame. There can be two versions for drawing any shape, it can be a solid one or just an outline of it.

Drawing Objects and Shapes in PyGame

You can easily draw basic shapes in pygame using the draw method of pygame. 

Drawing Rectangle shape: 

To draw a rectangle in your pygame project you can use draw.rect() function.

Syntax: pygame.draw.rect(surface, color, rect, width)

Parameters:

• surface :- Here we can pass the surface on which we want to draw our rectangle. In the above example, we created a surface object named ‘window’.
• color :- Here we can pass the color for our rectangle. We are using blue color in our example.
• rect :- Here we can pass the rectangle, position, and dimensions.
• width :- Here we can pass the line thickness. we can also create a solid rectangle by changing the value of this width parameter. So let’s look at that.

First, import the required module and initialize pygame. Now, Create the surface object of a specific dimension using the display.set_mode() method of pygame. Fill the background of the surface object with white color using the fill() function of pygame. Create a rectangle using the draw.rect() method of pygame. Update the Surface object.

Example 1: Drawing outlined rectangle using pygame.

Python3

# Importing pygame module
import pygame
from pygame.locals import *

# initiate pygame and give permission
# to use pygame's functionality.
pygame.init()

# create the display surface object
# of specific dimension.
window = pygame.display.set_mode((600, 600))

# Fill the scree with white color
window.fill((255, 255, 255))

# Using draw.rect module of
# pygame to draw the outlined rectangle
pygame.draw.rect(window, (0, 0, 255),
                 [100, 100, 400, 100], 2)

# Draws the surface object to the screen.
pygame.display.update()

Output :

We can create a solid rectangle by setting the width parameter equal to 0 and the rest of the approach remains the same.

Example 2: Drawing a solid rectangle.

Python3

# Importing pygame module
import pygame
from pygame.locals import *

# initiate pygame and give permission
# to use pygame's functionality.
pygame.init()

# create the display surface object
# of specific dimension.
window = pygame.display.set_mode((600, 600))

# Fill the scree with white color
window.fill((255, 255, 255))

# Using draw.rect module of
# pygame to draw the solid rectangle
pygame.draw.rect(window, (0,   0, 255),
                 [100, 100, 400, 100], 0)

# Draws the surface object to the screen.
pygame.display.update()

Output :

Drawing Circle Shape:

To draw a circle in your pygame project you can use draw.circle() function. The entire approach is the same as above only the function and parameters are changed accordingly.

Syntax : pygame.draw.circle(surface, color, center, radius, width)

Parameters :

• surface :- Here we can pass the surface on which we want to draw our circle. In the above example, we created a surface object named ‘window’.
• color :- Here we can pass the color for our circle. We are using green color in our example.
• center :- Here we can pass the ( x, y ) coordinates for the center of the circle.
• radius :- Here we can pass the radius of our circle.
• width :- Here we can pass the line thickness. we can also create a solid circle by changing the value of this width parameter. So let’s look at that.

Example 1: Drawing a hollow circle.

Python3

# Importing pygame module
import pygame
from pygame.locals import *

# initiate pygame and give permission
# to use pygame's functionality.
pygame.init()

# create the display surface object
# of specific dimension.
window = pygame.display.set_mode((600, 600))

# Fill the scree with white color
window.fill((255, 255, 255))

# Using draw.rect module of
# pygame to draw the solid circle
pygame.draw.circle(window, (0, 255, 0),
                   [300, 300], 170, 3)

# Draws the surface object to the screen.
pygame.display.update()

Output :

We can create a solid circle by setting the width parameter equal to 0. 

Example 2: drawing a solid circle

Python3

# Importing pygame module
import pygame
from pygame.locals import *

# initiate pygame and give permission
# to use pygame's functionality.
pygame.init()

# create the display surface object
# of specific dimension.
window = pygame.display.set_mode((600, 600))

# Fill the scree with white color
window.fill((255, 255, 255))

# Using draw.rect module of
# pygame to draw the solid circle
pygame.draw.circle(window, (0, 255, 0),
                   [300, 300], 170, 0)

# Draws the surface object to the screen.
pygame.display.update()

Output :

Similarly, you can draw other basic shapes using the draw module of pygame. 

Drawing Polygon Shape:

The desired polygon can be drawn using polygon() function. 

Syntax: polygon(surface, color, points, width)

Again the approach remains the same only the function and the parameters change.

Example 1: drawing a solid polygon

Python3

# Importing pygame module
import pygame
from pygame.locals import *

# initiate pygame and give permission
# to use pygame's functionality.
pygame.init()

# create the display surface object
# of specific dimension.
window = pygame.display.set_mode((600, 600))

# Fill the scree with white color
window.fill((255, 255, 255))

# Using draw.rect module of
# pygame to draw the outlined polygon
pygame.draw.polygon(window, (255, 0, 0),
                    [[300, 300], [100, 400],
                     [100, 300]])

# Draws the surface object to the screen.
pygame.display.update()

Output :

Example 2: Drawing a hollow polygon

Python3

# Importing pygame module
import pygame
from pygame.locals import *

# initiate pygame and give permission
# to use pygame's functionality.
pygame.init()

# create the display surface object
# of specific dimension.
window = pygame.display.set_mode((600, 600))

# Fill the scree with white color
window.fill((255, 255, 255))

# Using draw.rect module of
# pygame to draw the outlined polygon
pygame.draw.polygon(window, (255, 0, 0),
                    [[300, 300], [100, 400],
                     [100, 300]], 5)

# Draws the surface object to the screen.
pygame.display.update()

Output:

Drawing Line Shape:

A line is the most basic drawing entity and can be drawn in pygame using line() function.

Syntax : pygame.draw.line(surface, color, start_pos, end_pos, width)

Example 1: drawing a line

Python3

# Importing pygame module
import pygame
from pygame.locals import *

# initiate pygame and give permission
# to use pygame's functionality.
pygame.init()

# create the display surface object
# of specific dimension.
window = pygame.display.set_mode((600, 600))

# Fill the scree with white color
window.fill((255, 255, 255))

# Using draw.rect module of
# pygame to draw the line
pygame.draw.line(window, (0, 0, 0),
                 [100, 300],
                 [500, 300], 5)

# Draws the surface object to the screen.
pygame.display.update()

Output:

Draw Multiple Shapes:

You can draw multiple shapes on the same surface object. For that, the first required modules are imported and pygame is initialized. Now, create the surface object of a specific dimension using the display.set_mode() method of pygame. Fill the background of the surface object with white color using the fill() function of pygame. Create required shapes are described above. Update the Surface object

Example 1: Drawing a circle inside a rectangle.

Python3

# Importing pygame module
import pygame
from pygame.locals import *

# initiate pygame and give permission
# to use pygame's functionality.
pygame.init()

# create the display surface object
# of specific dimension.
window = pygame.display.set_mode((600, 600))

# Fill the scree with white color
window.fill((255, 255, 255))

# Using draw.rect module of
# pygame to draw the rectangle
pygame.draw.rect(window, (0, 0, 255),
                 [50, 200, 500, 200])

# Using draw.rect module of
# pygame to draw the circle inside the rectangle
pygame.draw.circle(window, (0, 255, 0),
                   [300, 300], 100)

# Draws the surface object to the screen.
pygame.display.update()

Output:

Example 2: Drawing rectangles inside one another.

Python3

# Importing pygame module
import pygame
from pygame.locals import *

# initiate pygame and give permission
# to use pygame's functionality.
pygame.init()

# create the display surface object
# of specific dimension.
window = pygame.display.set_mode((600, 600))

# Fill the scree with white color
window.fill((255, 255, 255))

# Creating a list of different rects
rectangle_list = [pygame.Rect(50, 100, 500, 200),
                  pygame.Rect(70, 120, 460, 160),
                  pygame.Rect(90, 140, 420, 120),
                  pygame.Rect(110, 160, 380, 80),
                  pygame.Rect(130, 180, 340, 40)
                  ]

# Creating list of different colors
color_list = [(0,   0,   0),
              (255, 255, 255),
              (0,   0, 255),
              (0, 255,   0),
              (255,   0,   0)
              ]

# Creating a variable which we will use
# to iterate over the color_list
color_var = 0

# Iterating over the rectangle_list using
# for loop
for rectangle in rectangle_list:

    # Drawing the rectangle
    # using the draw.rect() method
    pygame.draw.rect(window, color_list[color_var],
                     rectangle)

    # Increasing the value of color_var
    # by 1 after every iteration
    color_var += 1

# Draws the surface object to the screen.
pygame.display.update()

Output :

Writing your own drawing functions:

You can easily create your own specialized drawing functions in pygame. 

This can be done by following the given procedure. Create a drawing function that will take starting position, width, and height as parameters. Draw required shapes are described above. Call the drawfunction()

Python3

# Importing pygame module
import pygame
from pygame.locals import *

# Creating Drawing function


def drawingfunction(x, y, width, height):

    # Creating rectangle using the draw.rect() method
    pygame.draw.rect(window, (0, 0, 255), [x, y, width, height])

    # Calculation the center of the circle
    circle_x = width/2 + x
    circle_y = height/2 + y

    # Calculating the radius of the circle
    if height < width:
        radius = height/2
    else:
        radius = width/2

    # Drawing the circle
    pygame.draw.circle(window, (0, 255, 0), [circle_x, circle_y], radius)


# initiate pygame and give permission
# to use pygame's functionality.
pygame.init()

# create the display surface object
# of specific dimension.
window = pygame.display.set_mode((600, 600))

# Fill the scree with white color
window.fill((255, 255, 255))

# Calling the drawing function
drawingfunction(50, 200, 500, 200)

# Draws the surface object to the screen.
pygame.display.update()

Output:

Drawing shapes with the mouse:

Now let’s see how we can create shapes whenever the user clicks the mouse. We are going to create circles in the next example but you can create any shape you want.

Create a list to store the position of the shape to be drawn. Create a variable to store the color of the shape. Create a variable which we will use to run the while loop and Create a while loop. Iterate over all the events received from pygame.event.get(). If the type of the event is quit then setting the run variable to false. If the type of the event is MOUSEBUTTONDOWN ( this event occurs when a user presses the mouse button) then getting the current position in a variable then appending that position in our circle_positions list. Iterate over all the positions in of the array created using a for a loop. Keep drawing the shape. Update the surface object.

Python3

# Importing pygame module
import pygame
from pygame.locals import *

# initiate pygame and give permission
# to use pygame's functionality.
pygame.init()

# create the display surface object
# of specific dimension.
window = pygame.display.set_mode((600, 600))

# Fill the scree with white color
window.fill((255, 255, 255))

# creating list in which we will store
# the position of the circle
circle_positions = []

# radius of the circle
circle_radius = 60

# Color of the circle
color = (0, 0, 255)

# Creating a variable which we will use
# to run the while loop
run = True

# Creating a while loop
while run:

    # Iterating over all the events received from
    # pygame.event.get()
    for event in pygame.event.get():

        # If the type of the event is quit
        # then setting the run variable to false
        if event.type == QUIT:
            run = False

        # if the type of the event is MOUSEBUTTONDOWN
        # then storing the current position
        elif event.type == MOUSEBUTTONDOWN:
            position = event.pos
            circle_positions.append(position)

    # Using for loop to iterate
    # over the circle_positions
    # list
    for position in circle_positions:

        # Drawing the circle
        pygame.draw.circle(window, color, position,
                           circle_radius)

    # Draws the surface object to the screen.
    pygame.display.update()

Output: