This page is for more advanced learners as it explains in detail what the code and functions inside `overlay_functions.py` do. It is possible to make the All Seeing Pi without understanding what these functions do - simply save a copy of the file [overlay_functions.py](code/overlay_functions.py) into the folder with your code and they will be available.
These statements import functions from the `PIL` library to process and save the images and the `itertools` library so that we can cycle through the overlays.
```python
from PIL import Image
from itertools import cycle
```
## Setting up the variables
This part sets up the directory where the overlays are saved, and the names of the various overlays. The overlay variable is initialised with the first value in the list.
This function is only used within other functions in this file. Given the name of an overlay as a string, it creates a PIL Image object of that overlay and returns it.
This function is passed a `PiCamera` object (`camera`) and a string (`overlay`). It removes all overlays currently associated with the camera object, creates a PIL Image object of the chosen overlay called `overlay_img`, pads that image to display correctly and then adds it to the camera preview. The alpha of the preview is set to 128 so that the overlay is semi transparent. If the overlay was made fully opaque it would obscure the camera preview.
This function takes the location of the photograph (`output`) and the given overlay (`overlay`), both as strings. It then creates a PIL Image object of the specified overlay, also creates a blank PIL Image to save the finished output to, and then combines the photograph with the overlay, re-saving the finished photograph at the `output` location.
This code creates a `cycle`. We use the `next()` function on this cycle when the `next_overlay_btn` is pressed in order to receive the next overlay in the list. A cycle is needed because when the end of the list of overlays is reached, we want to automatically begin again with the first overlay.
Now you know what all of the overlay functions do, head back to "Working with overlays" in [worksheet 2](worksheet2.md) to find out how to create the software.