How to make your own cartoon

Think about and maybe write down what exactly you want to happen in your cartoon. An outline helps when making the final animation.

Download the free pivot stick figure animator. See resources for a link to the free download page.

Open up microsoft paint, or any other program you already have on your computer that enables you to save the picture as a bitmap image. Proceed to draw the backround for your cartoon and save it as a bitmap image.

Open the pivot stick figure program. Under the file menu, choose load backround. You will then choose the file that you've saved as a backround. You will see the backround appear behind your stick figure.

Start with the first frame, place the stick figure where he would start, and click next frame. You will see a grey image outlining your stick figure's location on the last frame. Proceed to make each frame according to your outline from step 1.

When finished with all frames, save the project as a .piv file. Then save the project as a .gif file. (there is a bug in the pivot program, you must save it as .piv first or it may not save correctly)

Once you've saved the project as a .gif file, you can upload this file in windows moviemaker. If you do not already have windows moviemaker, it is also free to download. See resources for a link.

Once your gif file is uploaded into windows moviemaker, you can add all types of sound effects, voice, songs, and visual effects. Play around with it to make your movie the way you like it. When finished, choose publish the video in the file menu.

You're done! Now you can upload the final video anywhere you'd like! You can put it on youtube, myspace, or even ehow!!