New Version (4.0.0 – 4.0.6) – The “The Sprite Update” Update

By Ralph (Developer) 113 Comments

Unbeknownst to most of you, there has been a new Stick Nodes update long in the works – upwards of fourteen months in production, actually. I kept it very secret, and never mentioned it to anybody. Nobody ever asked about it, either. Today, this update finally goes live, and it has some very minor changes.

Since ain’t don’t nobody read no more, you can get the gist of everything I’m about to say in the Quickstart video below, but also watch my Presidents Play video for some lols:

Presidents Play: Stick Nodes Sprite Update

 Stick Nodes 4.0.0 | Quickstart Video

Changelog 4.0.6 (August 13)

  • Fix bug with camera zooming when vertical video enabled
  • Fix bug not allowing locked textfields to be selected

Changelog 4.0.5 (August 11)

  • Fix glitch when glow/pixelate filter activated together
  • Fix drop shadow blur when motion blur activated
  • Fix motion blur with transparent areas (glow, for example)
  • Fix pasting filter properties didn’t properly copy over one-direction motion blur setting
  • Fix bug involving the new cancel-drag-when-zooming, specifically when adding segments in Creation Mode

Changelog 4.0.3 (August 10)

  • Added toggle for vertical videos, for YT Shorts or TikTok (look under “Project Tools”).
  • Added new filter, pixelate. (Pro only)
  • Added proper motion blur toggle to blur filter. (Pro only)
  • Added a very important new sound, search 403. (Pro only)
  • Added “View Options” toggle to remove the default stage box outline.
  • Moved “Filter Quality” and on/off toggle to “View Options”
  • Put the export-size slider from MP4 export window onto GIF and PNG export windows as well.
  • Tweaked increment speed for sprite scale and frame delay.
  • Removed “Old Export Method” buttons from MP4 export. Modern devices should no longer be incapable of using hardware-accelerated rendering for MP4 videos.
  • (IOS) Fixed semi-transparent pixels when importing sprites.
  • Quality-of-life improvements regarding touches/dragging (see below).

Quality-of-life improvements regarding touches/dragging

First, if you now touch the dead area off-stage to the right/bottom of the stage (depending on your device), this now counts as a touch on “nothing” (use to deselect things). Secondly, if you zoom the stage around and accidentally grab a sprite or a node, it undoes the accidental move and continues zooming. And lastly, if you drag the stage, the currently-selected node/figure stays selected. Now only a deliberate tap on nothing will deselect/select “nothing”.

Changelog 4.0.2 (July 11)

  • (Android) Received all “iOS only for now” updates from changelog below
  • Added updated user splash screens
  • Fix: Various bug/crashes on startup/splash screen for some devices
  • Fix: The increment -/+ buttons stay permanently visible if the option is toggled in “App Settings”
  • Fix: Can no longer have two locked nodes per joined figure
  • Added: “Visible in onion skin” button to figures, allows you to hide large objects (backgrounds) from appearing in the onion skin
  • Changed: The toggling of visible static nodes in Creation Mode is in the order it was prior to 4.0.0
  • Changed: Made tapping in general (but specifically on a sprite) more forgiving, especially on phones
  • Changed: When in “Camera Mode”, tapping frames will keep you in that mode rather than go to “Frame Tools”
  • Changed: Stickfigure node limit raised to 400, Movieclip frame limit raised to 200

Changelog 4.0.1 (Android: June 13, iOS: June 16)

  • (Android) Fixed 100% export crash and other related issues – involved a storage permission not being properly asked for on Android versions prior to 13.
  • Reverted Creation Mode UI changes regarding static nodes.
  • Fixed crash regarding when showing node draw order
  • Fixed crash regarding pressing buttons prior to sprite image loading
  • Corrected splash screen name typos
  • (IOS) Potential fix for two crashes on startup, potentially related to first-time startup.
  • (IOS only for now) Fix crash when editing generated MC Movieclip and unjoining anything
  • (IOS only for now) Fix crash when removing existing selections from Create Sprite Dialog
  • (IOS only for now) Generated MC sprites/stickfigures are now hidden in library by default
  • (IOS only for now) Adjusted -/+ increment speed

“IOS only for now” are changes that only made it into 4.0.1 for iOS for the time being, they will come to Android soon in 4.0.2.

Changelog 4.0.0 (June 10)

  • Sprites! You can now import images into your animations. Sprite importer is also able to convert MC skins to fully-rigged stickfigures.
  • Unlimited nodes per frame can be enabled in the “App Settings” window.
  • Menu buttons with (+/-) are hidden by default, can be changed in “App Settings” window.
  • Pushing figures back/forward will push all joined figures as well.
  • You can now submit Movieclips to the website.
  • Fixed transparency issue with PNG export quality.
  • Fixed anti-aliasing with exports.
  • New splash screen, background art courtesy of Jackfly! Thanks to all who entered the splash screen competition back in…idk September or something.
  • This update broke existing custom skins. As a result, your custom skin setting has been temporarily disabled. You may re-enable it, but it is recommended you first take the new animationAtlas3.png assets and add it them your custom animationAtlas3.png file.
  • New “Memory Use” dialog breaks down how much memory the app is using, click the “?” next to the memory display in the bottom-left corner.
  • Fonts need to be loaded now, in order to save memory. It’s as simple as pressing “Load font” under the name of the font you want to use. It is recommend to unload any fonts you don’t want, to save memory.
  • In addition to the option of unlimited nodes (per-frame), the default frame node limit has been raised to 12,800 and the default node limit per-Movieclip has been raised to 256,000. Remember, using a lot of nodes will eat up memory fast, and also increase rendering time (aka lag).
  • New sounds, look for “400” in the “Sound Import” window to check them out.
  • Send files will ZIP if sending >5 files, also the app is able to open and properly handle a ZIP of all Stick Nodes related files (stknds, nodes, nodemc, mp3).
  • You can navigate through the joined figures of a node by tapping their name in the menu. Also, a joined figure will show what stickfigure it is joined to in the menu as well.
  • Some “App Settings” have moved to “View Options” including settings for showing the zoom buttons and showing the quick menu.
  • Copying certain things, like textfields and a frame camera, persist through opening projects and can be cross-pasted.
  • Creation mode buttons for “show only non-static nodes” and “show draw order” moved to “View Options”.
  • New “App Settings” option to double-click figures to convert them to Movieclip, or double-click a Movieclip to edit.
  • New “App Settings” option to briefly display the name/ID each time a figure is selected.
  • Blur filter improved around the edges of the screen.

Special Thanks

This update was long in the works. Remember when I said before Christmas?

Haha sike goteem.

But, I severely underestimated the extent of this update, and how crazy a simple idea such as “importing images” would get. I wanted to implement it in a way which allowed for greatest ease of use and flexibility, for all potential scenarios. Due to this, and general feature-creep (that Minecraft skin import idea was a random thought I had one day), the release kept getting pushed back more and more.

Shouts out to ALL the beta testers from the Discord server. If it weren’t for them this update would have been released a month or two ago, but in a severely…um, deficient state.

Also thanks to Jack for splash screen background art. What originally was just a “hey make an image for me asking users to rate the app” became one of my personal favorite pieces of art ever made with Stick Nodes. And thank you to everyone who entered their OC into the splash screen contest back a few months ago. Going through all 850 submissions was grueling and difficult, but it was eventually widdled down to a total of about 80 that made it into the app. Some honorary entrees are due to special status, like contest winners and beta testers. Sorry to anyone who may see their art did not make it, it was not an easy process!

Also special thanks to lead Node-Breaker arcionek who single-handedly delayed this update a solid 30-days probably. And also for the official 4.0.0 tutorial/quickstart guide. Oh and Squi for being lead cheerleader and general Stick Nodes enthusiast.

And as cliche as it is, thank you to everyone for actually caring enough about Stick Nodes to constantly annoy, threaten, and generally harass me for not updating Stick Nodes in the past year.

Future Plans

Over the next couple weeks I will be watching reports for any bugs, fixes, or general tweaks necessary. The beta testers did a pretty good job of stressing the app to the absolute limit, so I don’t anticipate many problems (famous last words). There are already plans for some more cool stuff (much smaller scale) coming in the subsequent 4.0.X updates.

Also, if your OC made it into the splash screen, you may submit an update for the art. There will be some sort of official place to do this soon. But it’s best to take advantage of the fixed anti-aliasing exporting in Stick Nodes, and to export a high-quality crispy PNG of your art – all filters allowed and such.

Oh, and 5.0.0 is already in the works. Some very interesting new things coming (eventually) to a node near you.

And be on the lookout for a new official collab announcement in a couple weeks…

🎄 Stick Nodes: Merry Madness Collab – Winners Announced!

By Ralph (Developer) 33 Comments

Watch the full collab: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDNo5XMMu3o

Ah yes, winter truly is a wonderful sight to behold. And also stacks of money.

With Christmas in the rear-view mirror, it’s time for everyone’s actual favorite part of the holiday season – collab winners announcement.

Choosing winners was nearly impossible. While there were less approved entries than with Treasure Trove, there were more top contenders for the top three prizes. As a result, I had to add an extra 4th place bonus to each category – and it’s still impossible to choose. Next collab there will be six or so distinct categories to make it easier to differentiate winners.

“Best Animated” winners

“Most Creative” winners

Winners will be contacted soon! Or you can DM me on Twitter now to get the ball rolling: http://twitter.com/FTLRalph

Honorable mentions

A lot of the honorable mentions were just as good as the winners. It was tough to not include them in the winners list. Upon extreme scrutiny, many of them were lacking just slightly in one department which gave the winners the edge – whether it be shortness, lack of action, repetitiveness, etc. Very nit-picky as they are still very good entries, but a winner had to be decided.

Many of the entries were absolutely great and all are worth mentioning. Thank you to all who entered, even if your entry was denied. The quality threshold was very high, hopefully you can take away some ideas after having seen the final product, and with some practice come back for the next collab!

Once again, shouts out to the Stick Nodes collab team, they really went above and beyond.

Stick Nodes News

Sprite Update still underway. I know, I too also want to bash my head in just as much as you do. All the Thanksgiving/Christmas traveling, website work for the Christmas decor, and general IRL stuff took up a lot of my time the past two months. I am pushing for a release date around my birthday, February 3rd.

🎄 Christmas Collab Announcement – Stick Nodes: Merry Madness

By Ralph (Developer) 34 Comments

Watch the finished collab here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDNo5XMMu3o

Remember the Summer collab? Well this is like that but for Christmas.

TL;DR just watch the announcement video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6dI8HOC4Y8

🎅 The Plot

This December, RalphCo™ is hosting an epic Christmas Party, with epic PRIZES! However, it seems all went wrong at the last second due to a power outage, which caused all the gifts – including YOURS – to be teleported all around the world! Now it’s your job to get them back…for some reason! Good luck, and try to stay alive long enough to retrieve your mysterious gift, in Stick Nodes: Merry Madness! Happy Holidays!

🎄 Prizes

Same idea as Treasure Trove, two categories and three winners per category!

  • Best Animated ($100 first prize, $50 for two runner-ups)
  • Most Creative ($100 first prize, $50 for two runner ups)

Payments will be made via Paypal (preferably, or some other payment processor). If not, some sort of gift card can be arranged.

You can only win one spot. The Best Animated category is simple enough, for the entries that are animated the best. Visuals such as character and background/object design will play a role in the judging as well. The Most Creative category is for entries that tackle the prompt in an interesting manner, or have a unique animation style, or are very funny/entertaining – some combination of these criteria.

🍪 Credits

Again, all entries must be submitted by December 8th. Read the rules document here. No I do not know when the Sprite Update is releasing do I really look like a guy with a plan?