Pivot Stick Figure Animator

[minmay]

Hrmph, I've been making lots of threads lately.

Pivot is a free, small, really easy-to-use program for creating stick figure animations. Like this one:
http://www.vulomedia.com/images/66974fallingchair.gif

Or this one:
http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/780/spamisbadnormal2av.gif

And everyone loves this one:
http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/9117/veryrandom1fz.gif

(those are all by me)

Download it and make your own animations. They'll be better than mine, at any rate. (http://www.geocities.com/peter_bone_uk/pivot.html)


Note that I've known about this program for a long time. A very long time. A very, very, very, very long time.

[Leon]

That's pretty nifty. Can it make anything into a *.gif, or do the images have to be drawn in the program?


EDIT: Oh, okay. Thanks.

[minmay]

If you use the Pivot 3 beta (only accessible by members of the MSN group, unless you're an evil pirate person, although it's free software anyway), you can import sprites and use separate backgrounds for each frame. So you can, yes, turn anything into a .gif, although I wouldn't use it for that purpose.

With Pivot 2.2.5, you can only have one background for the whole animation (and no sprites). So if you wanted to turn something else into a .gif, no.

However, I'd just use some other animation program for that; Pivot is specially made for animating stick figures easily and quickly. It is not well equipped for other types of animation.

[Red_Cracker]

How can you upload them?

[TH155]

upload to media fire by saveing them as a .gif un the drop down file menue (I found piviot 2 years ago)

[Rex Nex]

You dont know how to upload gifs...

[minmay]

1. Make your animation.
2. Save your animation as a GIF (select .gif instead of .piv from the drop-down menu).
3. Uncheck "Crop" and "Merge," and set the frame delay to:

7 if your animation plays best with the slidebar at the bottom
5 or 6 if it plays best with the slidebar at the middle
4 if it plays best with the slidebar near, but not at, the top
3 if it plays best with the slidebar very near, but still not at, the top
2 if it plays best with the slidebar at the very top

4. Go to VuloMedia (http://www.vulomedia.com). THIS IS THE BEST IMAGE HOSTING SITE. EVERYBODY IS FORBIDDEN TO DENY THIS. I MEAN, COME ON, IT DOESN'T HAVE ANY POPUPS OR BANNER ADS, THE SERVER IS REALLY FAST, THE FILESIZE LIMIT IS REALLY BIG, IT DOESN'T RANDOMLY LOSE YOUR IMAGES, AND THE IMAGES UPLOAD IN LIKE THREE SECONDS. THAT'S PRETTY FREAKING GOOD. SERIOUSLY. I SHOULD STOP TYPING IN ALL CAPS.
5. Click on Browse and find your GIF. Double-click on it, or click "Open," whatever floats your boat.
6. Click on Upload. Wait until it uploads.
7. Copy and paste the image URL into [img] tags.
8. Post the freaking animation already.

Oh, one other thing: VIEW ANIMATIONS IN FIREFOX! Internet Explorer sucks at GIF images and it makes them randomly lag and likes to screw up their framerates.

[Red_Cracker]

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii267/Red_Cracker/LaddersandMigets.gif



http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii267/Red_Cracker/Tanksqushesmiget.gif


And yes i made both.

[minmay]

Where'd you find all those models in the second one? You didn't make them yourself, did you?

Anyway, those are great for first animations. I'd recommend two things: make the animations a little smoother, and make the stick figures actually walk instead of just cross the ground. Walking is unfairly difficult, so don't worry if you can't get the hang of it at first (even after several years my walking still looks weird).

[blissturd]

Darn, the service is temporarily unavailable.

I'll try again later.

You are going to love mine. I'm usually good at these kind of things.

[flankattack]

Those were slightly disturbing Red_Cracker.
I might try it soon...or not.

[minmay]

Darn, the service is temporarily unavailable.

That happens a lot. Peter has a tendency to run out of bandwidth.

In the meantime, download it here (http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=1203), or on any other download site of your choice.

[blissturd]

Thanks, minmay.

Here is my first short one:

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n70/blissturd_one/SneakAttack.gif

[Red_Cracker]

They weren't my first!

Droidz.

And you think THEY were disturbng!!!! You should see the one i made when i was 7.

[flankattack]

Ahh, no thanks Red.

@blissturd: that's funny.

[prateek.singla]

Very nice program. Fun and addictive.

You should see the one i made when i was 7.

I thought you were seven. How old are you? 9 years?

[flankattack]

I made one post it tomorrow, Real late here!

[ekoz]

i've been using pivot for years. i'll post some later.

[minmay]

Heh, nice, blue_moon.

[ekoz]

wheres blue_moon?

[minmay]

Oh, crapforcrap. I mistook blissturd for blue_moon.

They freaking sound exactly the same. Seriously.

[flankattack]

Here's my FIRST EVER stick figure animation:

http://i33.tinypic.com/10hmujq.gif

[TH155]

orange one is to slow, apart from that, good.

[minmay]

The animating is terrible, but the idea is good. I suppose I should post another one of my animations:
http://i23.tinypic.com/301oigy.gif

And its sequel:
http://www.vulomedia.com/images/49478101waystoslaughterastickmanpart2.gif


Both of those contain numerous in-jokes. Don't expect to understand them. If a part seems unusually crappy compared to the rest, then it's probably one of the in-jokey parts.

[flankattack]

It was my first one.

@minmay: 27 of Part 2 is funny.

[Rex Nex]

Red Cracker is 11.

[minmay]

@minmay: 27 of Part 2 is funny.

I always liked 23 and 24 the best. 23 is both a reference to another one of my animations AND one of the higher quality ones, and 24 is just an awesome way of tacking stuff onto it.

Incidentally, there WILL be a Part 3. Eventually.

[Red_Cracker]

Red Cracker is 11.

Dang right i am!

The one i made when i was 7 has bad animations, and i can't find it.

[flankattack]

Here's one my sister and I did, it took three hours:

http://i38.tinypic.com/3589sme.gif

It's called basketball, the grey stuff on his face is a beard that grows.

[Pizza Dude]

http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/6097/pizzadudepivotstickfigujd1.gif

[Red_Cracker]

I like that one!

[AWP]

I like everyone's.