How to Make an Animated Stick Figure Cartoon
Stick figures are drawings that even the most artistically challenged can create and animate, even more so now with the modern age when there is no actual drawing involved. The old school method of laboriously drawing a mountain of stick figures with slight shifts in movement is over. New programs free for anyone to use allow you to quickly animate your own stick figures and monitor the movement as you go.
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Instructions
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Navigate your web browser to one of the free stick figure animation programs such as Pivot or Stykz (see Resources). Click on the "Download" button on the program of your choice's home page.
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Save the file to your computer and remember where you save it. Once it installs, find the file, and click the Setup.exe file to run the installation. For Pivot, you need to install a tool bar with the program, or opt out if you don't want this. The toolbar does not run the program; it is an advertising toolbar that supports the program's maker financially and is not required.
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Click on each step throughout the installation, making sure you check the selections it shows you such as where the program is being installed. When the installation is complete, close the menu and check your desktop for the shortcut to the program. Click on it to open it.
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Familiarize yourself with the menu bars and the program. The window opens with a stick figure on the screen. The stick figure has a click point at each joint which you can click and drag to move the stick figure. The previous shape of the figure will remain on the screen in a shadow so you can plot the progress. A cartoon strip shows on the screen so you can see the last frames you have created. Various functions such as play, flip, save and other things you can do to your animation are on the tool bars, so play with them to see how they work.
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Click the "Play" button when you have created some frames to see the stick figure moving. Make adjustments if necessary to the movement of your figure.
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Save your file when your animation is complete to play again and again, or continue the saga of your stick figure later.
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Tips & Warnings
If you are computer savvy, you can save your files and load them into a movie maker program, add music, backgrounds and other objects to make an entire stick figure movie creation.
