If cave paintings are anything to go by, stick figures could be what man first learned to draw. They are so simple, we barely pay attention to them, and we move on to make our figures more fleshed out.
But the best thing about stick figures is that they are straight and simple. Even the most artistically inept guy could draw one. Well, a lot of people do draw stick figures.
From toilet door signs to Flash games, from cartoon strips to movie posters, stick figures are there where nothing else quite fits in. There’s no doubt that stick figures are universal symbols. You just have to do a search on YouTube to see how virally popular they are.
If it’s so simple then how do we make a few stick figure animations for ourselves? We can use it in a PowerPoint presentation, use it for education, or just do it for animated fun. We start out with an idea. Then we look at the free software available that can help us give it life.
Let’s take a look at three free stick figure animation programs that can help us draw a story in straight lines.
Pivot Animator
Pivot Stickfigure Animator is the oft-quoted stick figure animation software when it comes to freewares. The Windows freeware is used to make animated stick figures which can be saved in the GIF format. Stick figure animations can be used in webpages or converted to videos.
The interface is very simple. It opens with a default stick-man figure. You can create one from scratch using the Stick Figure Builder. Stick figures are easily created by adding line segments for the body parts and a circle for the head. Line and circles can be toggled.
您可以通过更改棍棒人，添加颜色，以任意方式修改每个Pivot Animator框架。或更改大小。可以将背景插入帧中，但每个帧都不能有其各自的背景。
单击播放按钮并设置速度以查看动画效果。
Stykz
Stykz is very similar to Pivot Stickfigure Animator apart from a few differences. The interface is as simple but the stick-men can be drawn in place as Stykz has done away with a separate editor and everything is done on the stage.
Stykz和Pivot几乎是表亲。您可以将数据透视文件导入Stykz。 Stykz提供了比Pivot更多的导出选项（GIF，PNG，透明PNG，MOV）。它缺少的一件事是添加图形背景的功能。
Stykz缺少帮助文件，但它有一个非常活跃的论坛。
TISFAT
TISFAT (This Is Stick Figure Animation Theatre) a free stick figure animation tool that you don’t need to install. It comes with a slew of tools, a timeline, and more options that make creating stick figure animations a more controlled process than the previous two freewares. For instance, the finished stick figure animations can be saved as GIF, BMP, Flash, and AVI movie files.
TISFAT（版本0.67）是一个1.2MB的下载文件，可通过WINE在Windows和Linux或MacOS上运行。有任何动画经验。该软件带有详细的帮助文件。它还有一个用户社区。
TISFAT引入了一些前两个免费软件所没有的丰富功能。
时间轴是每个
层非常类似于透明塑料板，一次可以容纳一个对象。可以操纵图层以隐藏，显示或更改对象的排列顺序。
关键帧和框架集是对象的位置动画中的时间点。框架集是关键帧的集合。
它是时间轴上的图层，关键帧和框架集的组合，可以创建动画。
TISFAT’s tools can be used to create shapes, readymade stick figures, or curved lines to give more definition to the animation.
添加了洋葱皮功能，可以帮助您查看前一帧的模糊幽灵图像，因此您可以放置下一帧的图稿变得更加容易。 TISFAT还支持背景，并且在下一版本中有望提供声音支持。
The three stick figure animation programs featured here are great for going through the basics of animation. Pivot and Stykz are dead simple, while TISFAT is a bit more feature laden.
Stick figures are great for quick animations. They can be learnt by kids, by teachers who have no previous experience in animation. Put in some more patience and you can make your stick figures dance to your tune.
您会说这是启动动画事业的好方法吗？
< small>图片：Beat Machine
图片来源：Trueffelpix via Shutterstock.com
