If you're new to Stick Nodes or stickfigure animation in general, check out some of the tutorials below to hopefully have some of your questions answered!
Also keep in mind, these are just some tutorials picked over the years. There are countless tutorials made by community members all over Youtube. Just search "Stick Nodes tutorial" or, more specifically, "Stick Nodes walk tutorial" etc...
Youtuber Mr Onyx has a channel full of well-made and concise Stick Nodes tutorials. Video topics range across many different aspects of Stick Nodes and animation in general, including easing, camera movements, close-ups, and everyone's favorite - blood!
Community-Made Tutorials
These are tutorials I've seen on Youtube made by Stick Nodes users trying to help out other Stick Nodes users. There are many more not listed here, so just search "Stick Nodes tutorial" on Youtube!
How To Make Polyfill Hair (by TriZZby)
Me Making a Background Timelapse (by TriAnims)
How to Use FILTERS (by AutoAngel / Stick Nodes Tutorials)
Creating a Face (by Mici Animations)
How to Download Packs on Android (by Napalm)
How to Animate a Run Cycle (by Napalm)
Creating Boxing Shoes (by Mici Animations)
Creation Of The M4A1 Reciever Time Lapse (by Explosive Bullet)
Learning the Basics (by Mr Onyx)
Tips and Techniques 2020 Edition (by VariousPond)
Community-Made Skin/Mod Tutorials
Applying a skin to SN is something relatively new that some people don't know about. Good thing there's some neat tutorials on the subject. Also, see @arcionek's page on skins for more information.
Stick Nodes Tutorial: How to Make Custom Themes on iOS (without iTunes) (by Squi)
How to Make Your Own Stick Nodes Theme (by Kaido Mation)
Online Guide
Check out FrostBite Productions well-made online guide (with pictures!) on how to do some of the basics in Stick Nodes.
Link: https://giogioboi.wordpress.com/
Anything else you'd like to see a tutorial about?
Also if you have a tutorial you made and would like featured here, leave that in the comments too!
If you have QUESTIONS, its best to ask on either the FAQs page or better yet, make a post on the Activity section of the website.
How to put in our characters after downloading
Hey Samuel, after you download them, find and copy the file, then go access the /Stick Nodes/stickfigures/ folder and move your file to it.
You can do this via PC or a third-party app (EZ File Explorer) for Android. If on IOS, you need a PC with iTunes.
Hope this helps!
Thanks big big help
howcanyoudownload a stickfigure???
i wonder
Hey spyro.
Check the https://sticknodes.com/stickfigures/ page. The instructions are at the top of the page. It’s different if you’re using Android or iOS, so the instructions vary. Check it out.
How do I save my whole thing? I can’t find anything.
Hey Anonymous.
To save the project, just click “Save” or “Save as” near the top of the left-side menu. It’s under “Project Tools”.
To get a gif file to share, click “Export gif” – this will create an animated gif of your animation for others to see.
Its good to finally get my ios animations working on my ios ipad. (Sent from Ipad)
Yeah it’s great, it’s awesome to see your animations finally getting put up over on Animation Alpha, keep doing the great work, Blue!
>_>
Yeah! You should check out Stick Nodes on Android or on – wait, nvm, I don’t need to do that here…
Lmao, yeah I figured if you can do shameless self-promotion, so can I.
when you went ‘nmv’ that was about to make me sick with laghing and yea i know i have bad gramar
oh hi.
wondering how you know the “GIF image sequence static” iOS thing.
I’m on iOS by the way
You need to view the GIF in a browser or an IOS app that can play them, currently the default Gallery app cannot play them.
Hope that helps!
oh
so u mean like a eMAIL attachment
Yeah, an email attachment should work, I don’t have an IOS device so I can’t say for sure if there are other ways to view it through Safari or something.
oh yeah its just a picture oh yeah…
yea good idea
If you want to submit your animation on ANiMATION ALPHA (IOS TIP), I recommend using dropbox for this one ios users. Step 1- Export animation to camera roll. Step 2- Export animation to dropbox then export it back. It’ll Make the animation a gif. Then submit it at http://animationalpha.com/submit-animation/. Sean will approve it an upload it on animation alpha.
Hey Blueleaf.
I edited out Sean’s email and put the submit page on AnimationAlpha instead.
I want to ask though, why do you need the extra step of uploading/downloading from Dropbox? Stick Nodes exports the animated .gif, uploading and downloading it from Dropbox doesn’t make it into a gif.
Its because when I export it first then send it without dropbox, Sean says this is a still picture… When I export then send to dropbox and send it to Sean, it works perfectly.
I was actually just talking with someone else who had a similar issue.
How were you sending the files to Sean?
The person I was speaking with was sending it through yahoo.com, but after they used the built-in Mail app in iOS, it properly sent as a gif file.
Hey Ralph, love the app!
I’m brand new to stickfigure animation and I was wondering, being the experienced gentleman you clearly are, whether you might be able to do a tutorial on how to make it as ‘smooth’ as you do in your examples? I’ve been looking around and I just don’t get it… If you could, that would be great! Or if not, maybe if you could link me somewhere which might have like a “beginners guide” to stickfigure animation or something…
Also, probably more importantly, I’m having trouble importing stickfigures… When I scroll the notification bar downwards and click on the file, it says “Can’t open file” even though I have a third party downloaded… Help please!
Ps. I’m using a Sony Xperia Z1, if that helps 🙂
Well.. I’m clearly not Ralph, but he’s sleeping at the moment… So lazy.
Anyway, there is a few tutorials for a program called Pivot that is very similar, if you follow those ones, you’ll be able to transfer those skills straight to this app.
Here’s one to get you started: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFaAuj7HIeI
But the main thing is to just make small movements, and when you need them to go faster, put a bit more space in-between movements and don’t forget to ease in and out of speed (slow and speed up incrementally)
Also, your other problem; The third party app cannot open the files, it can only move them. You need to use that app to move the stickfigure from the downloads folder to the Stick Nodes/stickfigures folder.
Then you can go into Stick Nodes and import that figure.
Hope that helps, good luck!
Wow, thanks!
Thanks for the link and advice, I’ve heard animation requires a lot of patience, so yeah I guess that makes sense. But for certain moves like punches and kicks etc. I’m finding it quite difficult… Seeing a lot of Pivot animators who chain together awesome combos which is basically my ultimate goal; that smooth fluid movement and flow that usually goes with animation.
As far as the download thing goes I still haven’t had any luck, instead of giving me the option to save and move the file when I click on it, it just says can’t open file… 🙁
No problem Charlo, glad I could help!
Alright, have you tried long-pressing the file? That usually gives options to move (or copy) depending on the app.
Hey Charlo.
As for animation, Sean pretty much nailed it. You want to keep your movements small between frames. Couple that with a high FPS (and tweening if you like) and you’ll get silky-smooth movements.
Of course with faster movements like punches, you’ll need to simulate the speed by making the movements between frames much larger than you would with a simple walk. (For example, one frame he’s winding up the punch, the next frame the arm is fully extended, makes it seem like he swung his arm very fast.)
As for moving the files. The basic idea is you download your stickfigure file(s). Then, go and open your file-explorer app, whichever one you installed. Once opened, there should be a way to get into your /downloads/ folder. Go in there, find the stickfigure file(s) you downloaded, and copy them. Then, navigate to the /Stick Nodes/stickfigures/ folder and paste them there. After that, just open the Stick Nodes app and import them like normal.
Wall of text. Sorry.
Hey Ralph!
GAH… The download thing isn’t working! I’m using a Sony Xperia Z1 and whenever I go to notifications, if I hold the download, it just says “app info” and nothing else!! So frustrating!!! Any help?!
Thank you so much for the advice! I actually downloaded Pivot and actually I think stick nodes is better (wwell, easier and more fun, until I get used to the whole animating thing XD) than sitting at a computer and moving segments with a mouse. (Ssh, don’t tell Peter!)
Anyway, I was wondering…
For a future update, I was wondering whether you could change the UI a bit to make it a bit easier to find things. I mean at least for me, having a tablet and a phone, both of which I use this app on, I find scrolling through the menu a little confusing And time consuming… I know of course as a dev “changing the UI” will probably take a lot more time than it sounds, but if it’s not too difficult, it might be worth looking into.. Nothing major, just maybe a few more of the important tools like add frame, add stickman or save might be better off sitting somewhere separate from the “main” menu?
Just a thought 😛
Anyway thanks for the swift reply, always love to see a developer who keeps in touch!
Ps sorry wall of text wow
Hey there Charlo, I’ll just answer your first problem, I’ll leave the rest in Ralph’s capable(ish) hands.
Okay, so the reason you’re having problems is because you’re trying to do this from the notifications page. You can’t do that, you must open a program like FX File Explorer, and go to your downloads folder, copy the stickfigure file, and move it to the Stick Nodes/stickfigures folder.
This is all now explained on the FAQ page that Ralph finally got around to writing.
Alright, good luck!
Hey Charlo.
Yeah, pretty much what Sean said. You can’t “open” a stickfigure file, you need to place it in the right directory and then import it from within the Stick Nodes app.
As for your second question, it’s actually something that annoys me too. I’ve tried a method of “cleaning” it up (by having each section be “closed” except for the current active one) – it didn’t function as I expected though, wasn’t a good idea.
I hate to say that there’s really not much more I can try, I’m limited greatly by the vast majority of screen sizes and resolutions.
I know what you’re saying though, and I hope to come up with a solution as well.
How do you upload a video on YouTube cause I can’t upload pls reply
Hi Crubix.
I get lots of questions repeated, so I created an FAQs page. Check out the section on uploading to Youtube here.