Edit July 24: So my goal is to make this the longest post in SN history. In fact I think I’ve already achieved that.

Anyway, as of this afternoon, version 3.1.8 is live for iOS users. This fixes the bug where you couldn’t “Copy to Stick Nodes Pro” new sounds, and a lot of backend (lol) tweaks to make some crash/analytics systems work better. Exciting I know.

Unfortunately with 3.1.8 on both Android and iOS, the text got a bit wonky and, is just not looking right. Something to do with the underlying LibGDX framework that had an update, and I have to investigate. I didn’t want to hold back the iOS update longer so you guys gonna have to deal with some dumb-looking buttons and text layout until 3.1.9 along with Android users.

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Edit July 21: Guess what? Version 3.1.8 is live for Android users. Again, just a few minor tweaks/bug fixes but, for Chromebook users, exporting with sounds should work now. In addition, further corrected a project/movieclip saving issue. Will begin work on the same iOS version tomorrow to correct some iOS-specific issues (skin via “Documents” and also adding new MP3 sounds to the app), and if not too difficult, will be uploaded tomorrow.

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Edit July 17: Version 3.1.7 is now live for Android users. This corrects a few minor issues and adds in some analytics for me to track down yet even more minor issues. This means there will likely be one more update soon-ish.

This update also fixes another Chromebook-saving issue. Next update, I will look into why some Chromebooks cannot export MP4s with sound.

Also, this update adds a new feature to MC-editing mode, where you can basically offset the “camera” for playback. It was brought to my attention that under some use cases, users would have to work on a movieclip outside of the “center” stage, and as a result, could not preview the playback. This small addition will help remedy that.

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Edit July 12: Android users now have 3.1.6. Not many changes from 3.1.5, but now both platforms have the same version number.

Android users can find all the new sounds just recently added by searching “310” in the Sound Import window (Pro only).

Also, this update fixes the Chromebook issue that wouldn’t allow some models to save projects (and movieclips).

There will likely be one more “small” update coming in the upcoming week to both platforms to iron out and remaining issues and make a few minor tweaks.

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Edit July 10: Stick Nodes 3.1.6 is now released for IOS users. Basically contains everything from the below changelogs.

Stick Nodes 3.1.6, with minor fixes and tweaks specific to Android only, will be coming to Android tomorrow!

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Edit July 6: Stick Nodes 3.1.5 is now released for Android users, more stability fixes, it is recommended to update as soon as possible or you’re gonna have a bad time.

Might take up to a couple hours for it to appear in your Google Play listings.

Changelog 3.1.5

• Crash fix: Copy/pasting a stickfigure with joins would eventually crash the app (random crashing)
• Crash fix: Deleting a stickfigure/MC from the project and pasting a copied version would result in a black hole
• Crash fix: Pasting camera lock bundle where the stickfigure is joined would explode the app
• Crash fix: A “Once” movieclip with “Tween Protection Enabled” during a delay (lol) would freeze the app
• Revert: List sorting back to how it was, as it was slow for some users
• Revert: Higher quality blur exports were resulting in odd artifacts for some users

I keep having this feeling I’m forgetting something.

*bites into apple*

If I can’t remember it must not be important.

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Edit July 4: Stick Nodes 3.1.4 is now released for Android users, its a quick patch to fix a critical crash from 3.1.3 that was basically affecting all users. My bad.

Changelog 3.1.4

• Crash fix: Undo/redo events would eventually cause a crash after building up over time

Unfortunately in reference to what I wrote below, this means 3.1.4 (the Pi update) will be short-lived, as there will likely be one more quick update before this update batch of SN is complete and it is pushed to iOS. Soon dot jpg.

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Edit July 3: Stick Nodes 3.1.3 is now released for Android users. This fixes critical bugs that occurred when exporting/playing for some users, as well as some more minor issues.

There will likely be one more update (3.1.4 the Pi update aw yisss) before I think this will be “good to go” and I will push it out to iOS users – hopefully this weekend. Sorry for the wait, it’s just much easier for me to handle emergency patches/fixes on just one codebase for one platform.

Changelog 3.1.3

• Crash fix: Exporting/playing, would happen under certain circumstances with frame delays and also textfields with “Draw above widescreen bars” set to true
• Crash fix: Rare bug with Open/Import lists still crashing for some users
• Crash fix: Undo/redoing an “Add tweened frame” event would crash under some circumstances
• Crash fix: Pasting a single segment after previously copying a polyfill would crash

Also, just so it’s not a secret, I’ve added Boomer to the Splash Screen because of his legendary splash screen minigame series, and I want to see more of it.

In the comments, please let me know of anything broken or just off/weird so I can fix it. Try to be specific, you can’t possibly be specific enough just let me have all them juicy details.

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Edit June 30: Stick Nodes 3.1.1 – and about an hour later 3.1.2 – are now released for Android users. This update fixes the two big bug/crashes that afflicted some users from 3.1.0. Sorry about that I just learned how to program overnight.

Changelog 3.1.2

• Bug fix: Open/Import menus no longer crash for some users.
• Bug fix: Stuck at loading screen/black screen issue fixed.

The first problem was a result of files in your file list containing very-long numbers that would end up making the app poop itself when it attempted to sort them.

The second was a real pain in the but to track down, but was due to an improperly-named assets folder affecting only SD (low resolution) Pro users.

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Skip the intro let’s get into it. Stick Nodes 3.1.0 is here. It touches on many different aspects of the app, and hopefully in a good way. You be the judge, here’s the changelog.

Changelog 3.1.0

• Long-press “Add tweened frame” button to add many frames and not just one or two
• Long-press “Copy stickfigure” to copy the stickfigure and its joined figures
• Long-press “Paste stickfigure” to paste a figure and attempt to preserve its layering in the frame
• New feature for frames, a checkbox to enable “slow motion” which increases the amount of tweening in that particular frame
• New feature for frame delays, a checkbox which will allow the camera to move during the delay
• New feature for joined figures, check the box to have them use their parent’s filters – useful for stickfigures with joined limbs to all use one source of filters
• When creating a stickfigure, you can now copy and paste polyfills
• In “View Options”, “Show neighbor nodes” shows the immediate-connected nodes to the current selection, for easier handling
• In “App Settings”, optionally enable zoom buttons to be displayed in the corner
• In “App Settings”, optionally change line/node thickness for easier viewing
• In “App Settings”, optionally enable Dark Mode skin
• New feature for sounds, panning (left/right stereo) and pitch modification
• Textfields can be locked to the camera
• Improved “Camera Wobble” looks better and more random
• You can now load a background in Movieclip Creation Mode
• Bug fix, movieclips can be sent via “Send Files” now
• Bug fix, when increment/decrement a blank text field, it is properly set to 0 first
• New language – Russian!
• A few new fonts (Impact, Comic Sans, Determination)
  
• A few news sounds (search “310” in Sound Import window)
• Textfields can be locked in general
• Sorting lists alphabetically better take into account numbers on files (Old: aura1, aura20, aura3) (New:aura1, aura3, aura20)
• Field for “Segment length” added to Modify Branch window
• Arrows/Guides moved to “View options” menu area
• The newest-added frame(s) have a blue indicator for better visual identification that they are new
• Can now copy/paste camera lock bundles, and also copy/paste camera wobble properties
• Blur export quality improved
• Changed up stickfigure submission windows/process slightly
• Can now disable JUST blur/glow filters (temporarily) for performance
• Audio quality in exports increased
• Many tweaks to menus and graphical icons for better visuals
• Skins are broken and will need to be updated

Long changelog is long.

In addition to the changes, this update features a refresh of the user characters featured on the Splash Screen.

There were about 350 submissions and I nearly lost my mind, but in the end, about 30 were chosen to be added to the already-existing roster of character art. I know everyone wanted to get in, but, realistically that’s just not possible. Through a series of voting rounds by the three Pillarmen admins, it was eventually narrowed down to these 30. For those that want a full list of the winners without having to go through the app’s files, check here. If you also want the art of all submissions, check here.

Skins

This update features many small graphical changes and additions, and as a result, old skins are broken and unfortunately they will have to be recreated.

You can get the animationMenuAtlas.png, animationMenuAtlas2.png, and textColors.txt files from the app’s files, or from here.

See the instructions in textColors.txt for how to actually modify and save these files to create your Stick Nodes skin. Of course, after saving your /skin/ folder, you’ll need to toggle your skin on (set to “Custom” in the “App Settings” window).

Also, the app now ships with the “Dark” skin as an option by default, again just toggle it on in the “App Settings” window. Shouts out to arcionek for spending days working on that skin, weeks even. Also, soon you’ll be able to download (and submit) new Stick Nodes skins here as well.

Copy/Paste Stickfigures (Layering/Joined) and Polyfills

Here’s where the real “convenience” of this update comes into play. You can now copy a stickfigure AND copy all of its joined figures as well (think, copying a “body” with the head/arms/legs joined to it as well).

Also, when pasting, you can toggle a setting for the app to attempt to preserve the figure’s layering from which it was copied (a background, behind everything else). The app “attempts” to get it right, because the stickfigures frame-to-frame can be vastly different so, results may not be perfect.

And finally, copying polyfills (when in Stickfigure Creation Mode) has obviously been something you’ve all wanted for a long time. My bad. Note, for a polyfill to copy, ALL polynodes must be included in the copy, else it will not work.

Slow Motion, Move Camera During Delay, and Add Tweened Frame Changes

Now for some new stuff which is pretty neat.

Slow Motion simply increases the amount of tweening for one frame. What this results in is, well, slow motion. Having 1000 tweened frames between two keyframes will do that.

Toggling the “Move camera during delay” checkbox simply allows the camera to pan/zoom during a delay. It’s a great way to give an otherwise static scene some motion – by letting the camera slowly pan across a scene for 5 seconds with just one keyframes is a great way to achieve that effect while not using hundreds of memory-consuming frames.

Lastly, when adding 50% tweened frames, instead of adding just one – you can optionally now select any number of tweened frames to add. By the way if you’re reading this, write “buttcrack” in the comments. No longer do you have to go through the timeline spamming the “Add 50% tweened frame” button.

Sound Changes

Hold onto your butts, more cool stuff, this time for sounds – rip SN free users.

Now you can set both pan (left/right stereo) and pitch (slow/fast distorted) properties for sounds. This allows not only for easy variation with sounds (punches, etc) but also for some pretty funny results too.

Neighbor Nodes

This is a new feature enabled by default, and is toggleable in the “View Options” menu. It highlights the nodes that are immediately-connected to the currently-selected node.

This can be very useful when selecting nodes that are clustered together with other nodes. By grabbing the “neck” node, for example, finding the “head” node in a cluster of “hair” nodes should be very easy to do (and grab) by looking at the purple lines.

Russian

Thanks to our resident Russian, Haunted One, Stick Nodes now comes to you in Russian. As one of the top 10 demographics of Stick Nodes (at least Android users) this should be a welcome surprise to some of you. Cyka blyat etc, etc…

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So yeah that’s, not even all of it. Like the first paragraph stated, this update touched on many aspects of the app, and hopefully made things a lot more convenient.

Next up are to watch the app for bugs, fix said bugs, and then move onto getting the website/app ready for movieclip submissions.

 

So it is complete, the project what started out as “let me code up a better way to rate stickfigure files right quick” and turned into a three-month-long adventure of learning the inner workings of WordPress and how to develop custom plugins. The Stick Nodes website has had a complete (well, 80%-complete) facelift and not only looks better, but should function better as well!

Design

Back when I first started the site in July 2014, I honestly can’t remember if I put more than five minutes into the decision of what theme to use. I quickly found DW Minion and, for whatever reason, took it. I slapped on the SN logo, changed a few colors, and the site was live.

Very boring, very bland. At this time, there was no community. There was no intention for there to ever be a community (lol). So as a result, the website took on a very static and Web 1.0 feel with the most rudimentary of features, just to get by.

In fact, there may have been a brief time period where there was no Stickfigures page at all, as that was not going to be a thing until Sean suggested implemented it very early on.

Fast forward ~3 years to mid-2017. Finally “user accounts” became a thing. Prior to this, everyone was a guest. This was also the launch of the Activity section of the site. Only true veterans of the site will remember back when the About Us page was the unofficial “random discussion” page in the comments. “Days random thing”, as a now-infamous Turk once said.

The timeline becomes a bit blurry here. But as the years went on, more and more features were tacked onto the website.

Speaking of, daily stickfigure uploads were never going to be a thing. Not “daily” – only an insane person would do that. In fact I remember the days when manually downloading attachments from my email, quickly creating thumbnails, and uploading the 10-20 stickfigures was something I’d do just a few times a week and take me just a few minutes.

For comparison, I now receive about 300+ submissions every week. I’ve actually coded a bulk-downloader which scans all submission emails, downloads the proper attachments/thumbnails, renames the files, and stores them in folders for me to review. Single node files are run through an automated screenshotter, where they are afterward approved or denied. Packs/ZIP files are manually opened and checked for quality before being screenshotted – this takes up a massive chunk of my time.

Once approved, all files are then run through another custom program of mine to find filename conflicts, where any offending files have their names tweaked – usually appended with a number.

All in all, the process of going through ~100 submissions can take an hour or two, and results in a “couple” day’s worth of uploads – scheduled ahead of time. This is performed a few times a week until its time to download a new batch of 300+ files. A far cry from the simplistic process it used to be.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, daily stickfigure uploads were never meant to be a thing. But when they did become a thing, the underlying file-managing plugin no longer would cut it. I still use it, to this day, even though it’s developer has long abandoned the project. To replace it now would be…just, let’s not think about that.

I’ve since hacked away at it for years and transformed it into something completely new. Ratings, sorting by downloads, linking files to individual user profiles, Users’ Choice voting, the “Daily Feature”, and all the other badges/etc that are now a staple of the site are a result of that old plugin being given new life.

And this new website update only solidifies that foundation. The backend code was cleaned up significantly and made to be much more robust. The modularity introduced also allows for much easier future expansion, and new features.

Because, to be honest, all of these new features added to the site over the years were done so in a very haphazard manner. There was no plan, no goal, and there was certainly no webdev finesse on my part. So as a result, the fact that the website ran at all was a miracle. I’m glad to have things running in a much more stable manner, even if it’s not noticeable to the end user.

(Speaking of, the periodic slowdown the website experiences is due to the high-dynamic nature of the website coupled with high-traffic at times. Will this new update alleviate that? I don’t know. I will watch and see, and plan on upgrading the server if need be.)

Also, shouts out to TheStewMan for the 15×15 pixel icons for all the stickfigure categories. A small detail but really add a bit of visual eye-candy to the site.

Features and Changes

So what exactly changed? Well, not much. I didn’t want to change the site too much but rather just refresh certain areas.

Ratings

For one, guest accounts can no longer rate stickfigures, only registered users can. Guests will see a “log in to vote” prompt upon viewing stickfigure files. This is to allow for a better rating system, taking into account performance and security. Now, the rating system is much more robust, and the “5-star” rating is used to properly rank stickfigures with the brand new list-sort parameter of “Sort by Likes” – which is very interesting, go check out the results.

Users’ Choice

Users’ Choice has been revamped a bit. Since the criteria for who can be a UC Voter has changed, some members were cut.

Also, winners of the UC badge now have tiers, similar to Featured Lvl1, Lvl2, and so on. Currently, there is nobody ranked UC Winner Lvl4.

Animation Spotlights

The Animation Spotlights were probably the biggest “thing” I had to update, outside of the CSS design in general. Before, Animation Spotlights were not “posts”, by WordPress standards. They were just blocks of text in one page. So I had to meticulously go through all 200+ of the past Animation Spotlights, copy all the pieces of data (author, link, image, title) and manually create new “actual” posts for them.

Why?

Well now, each Animation Spotlight can have its own page and comment area! Also, each one had a robust rating system where users can rank the animation’s visuals, humor, plot, and “overall goodness”. So that’s pretty neat.

(Note, I tried to link as many past Animation Spotlights I could find to user accounts on the website. I’ve likely missed a lot, so if your animation is an Animation Spotlight and it’s not linked to your account, let me know.)

Notifications

Speaking of individual pages, authors of animation spotlights and authors of stickfigures – as long as they have an account on the website – will receive email notifications when their pages receive any comment activity. This can be disabled on any of your stickfigure/Animation Spotlight pages, check the top of the page.

Reporting

Found a smeckled stickfigure? Use the big-ass red button at the bottom of the file’s listing where you can report it directly to the admins. This will make tracking stolen stickfigures, or even stickfigures that need to be edited/taken down, much easier.

DemonBot

The weirdest thing. So as I’m here updating the website, I noticed a new user was created… But, since all users are currently locked out while the site is undergoing maintenance, I don’t know how that could be?

I can’t even delete the account, it’s locked. But honestly, whoever this is, he’s just logging noteworthy website events in the Activity section of the website, live, as they occur. I get whoever is doing this is just playing up the (fake) “Stick Nodes Demon” meme but…he’s doing a good job with his notifications, so I’ll leave him be.

And more

Many pages have been revamped, my favorite being the Roles & Badges page which is much cleaner and each role-page has well-organized lists.

The profile information under your profile page and stickfigure-author page has been refreshed as well.

Custom SN-themed avatars are now used in place of those weird monster figures, the log-out time has been increased from 14-days to 365-days so no more random logouts, and probably a lot of other minor things I forgot. Go just have a look around.

What’s Next?

Since this post is already too long let me make it short.

Next up I will return to the app and get out a new update. Some fixes and tweaks, a couple new features, and also a new language – Russian (shouts out to HauntedOne, who has joined the ranks of Stick Nodes Translators).

Then I will return to the website and push out the backend tweaks required to accept “movieclip” submissions. Maybe also add some new website stuff I have planned (monthly theme-based stickfigure competitions?). I also intend on updating the Activity section of the website, which was largely skipped over in this massive website redesign.

Finally, back to the app again where I will get out another update actually enabling these movieclip submissions, among other planned things.

This will definitely take a few months… Why do I keep doing this to myself.

Polls

Oh yeah. During the maintenance period, a static page full of polls was available for users to vote on. For no reason at all.

Here are the results of those polls, for the lols: https://strawpoll.com/user/ralph

Edit April 1st – Thanks to our goood sponsor Raid: Shadow Legends we will be able to keep the site up for whooping 7 hours! What is Raid: Shadow legends you may ask? Raid is a turn based rpg done right. In case you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t heard, raid is a badass mobile game that changes everything. The game is crazy popular, with almost 15 million downloads in the last 6 months. Raid is an epic dark fantasy done right. A hero collecting turn based game with over 400 champions to collect and customize. In raid you can get knights orcs undead and more. Raid with friends in a clan, claim glory in the pvp arena. Some other cool features are multi battle auto mode, set battles to run in auto mode while you do something else. Spend less time grinding and more time developing your team and finding the fun stuff. They also have weekly tournaments and events, such as fighting in the arena, running special dungeons, or leveling up your hero’s. There’s always a way to compete and win extra prizes every week. The game is growing super fast, check out this road map they’ve published. They actually have huge plans for updates over the next 6 months. There’s Infinite content for you to enjoy no time to get bored. A new faction, a tag team arena feature, and even a new clan boss you’ll be able to fight with your clan mates. You can find me under the name (insert name here) and you can even join my clan. Go to the link in the description and you’ll get 50,000 silver and a free epic champion as part of the new player program. Start your journey today!
DOWNLOAD FOR FREE RIGHT NOW!!!
Hyun Dojo small pp

We knew this day would come one day… So it came. Arc overtook the site and now is branding the site as his starting tommorow. The website will be rebranded to ArcNodes, featuring his own broke ass that won’t afford to keep up the servers for 3 hours. Should have honestly waited for Ralph to pay us first for doing Admin job…

Changelog (3.6.9)

• Arc took the site.
• Stick Nodes Pro price has been raised to 20$.
• Whoever disobeys my command will be immediately disposed into SMEG.
• To make stick nodes take up less space, default stickfigure has been replaced to the glorious face of arc, consisting of one segment and two circles.
• Due to official rebranding to arc’s, every segment will now be curved.
• Jim is officially my NSFW alt, no the bee isn’t getting lewded still.
• Stick Nodes PC has been cancelled due to lack of interest, Stick Nodes for Game Boy Color coming 2023.
• The version numer isn’t a coincidence either! Introducing the all-new .sx file extension, more info coming in the next days.
• Updated name of arc nodes demon.
• Shadow the Hedgehog pissed on my wife.

Okay I ran out of ideas now. Planned this 2 weeks after becoming an admin but never really prepared specific ideas, which then forgot about the whole prank until today. Happy April Fools and Ralph is gey.