The most important area to you is called the stage. This is a centrally located window with some scrollbars on it and a solid white background. Take a look at Figure 1.3 to identify the stage.
The stage is where you can actually see your creation coming to life. You can place art (when you have some available) on the stage and move it around. You can color the stage, resize it, and manipulate it in many ways, as you will see soon. For now, we have nothing to place on the stage, so we'll leave it alone. As soon as we have created some art for our movie, we'll place it on the stage. Then we can watch the magic happen.
There is a gray area surrounding the stage that represents an off-stage area. You can place objects here, but they will not be displayed in your final movie. Sometimes it's convenient to place an object offstage and then slide it in when it's time for its appearance. We'll see how to do both of these tasks very soon.