Stick figure
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The stick figure is a very simplistic type of drawing, generally of the human form, although stick figures of other types of animals are possible (for example, a stick figure dog). In a stick figure, the head is represented by a circle, sometimes embellished with details such as eyes or crudely-scratched-out hair. The neck, arms, legs and torso are all represented by single straight lines (thus the name). The neck and torso are different segments of one straight line.
Generally, stick figures are drawn by hand with a pen or pencil and have hard, defined edges. Though not displaying very much detail, what is drawn is generally required. For instance, if one was to draw a person, the person's eyebrows would generally only be drawn to provide a sort of facial expression, be it of anger or shame.
Stick figures have proven effective as a source of advertising, entertainment and as a form of storyboarding and practice for filmwork. This is especially crucial for creating "animatics", as a film special effects team is then able to visually display the outcome of a scene by using stick figures, but saving in money, time and effort of providing a completed shot, but only having to have the necessary information provided.
Contents |
[edit] Animation
[edit] Flash
Stick figures are often used in Adobe Flash animations. Stick figures are easy to draw and can be traditionally animated a lot quicker than full drawings. Well known stick figure Flash animations include Xiao Xiao and Joe Zombie.
[edit] PowerPoint
Microsoft PowerPoint has also been used to make stick figure movies. By creating a slide with a stick figure in it, copying and pasting a new slide and changing the new slide users can create a movie, although it is a much more laborious process.
[edit] Pivot
Pivot Stickfigure Animator is an animation program that allows easy animation of stick figures.[citation needed]
[edit] Cutout Pro
Cutout Pro Stickman can be used to create stick figure movies.[citation needed] The program is not only limited to stick figures because it is designed for cutout animation.
[edit] See also
- PowerPoint animation
- The Order of the Stick - Web comic in stick figure style
- Kingdom of Loathing - Humorous multiplayer RPG web game with stick figure artwork.
- Stick Figure Death Theatre - Flash entertainment site featuring sticks meeting their doom
- TISFAT, stick figure animation software.
- xkcd - Webcomic created by Randall Munroe
- Killing Spree (flash series) - an animation by Master_Samus (Sam Green)
[edit] External links
- Stick Figure Deaths at the Open Directory Project (suggest site)
- Stick Page, a variety of stick-figure cartoons and movies
- Stick Death directory of stick death animations
- PictoMation, an example of a PictoMation, created on the Nintendo DS
