Pivot Stickfigure Animator
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| Pivot Stickfigure Animator | |
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 The opening screen on Pivot 3.1 Beta in Windows XP |
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| Developed by | "Peter Bone" |
| Latest release | 3.1 Beta / December 6, 2005 |
| OS | Microsoft Windows |
| Genre | Graphics software, Design tools[1] |
| License | Freeware |
| Website | Pivot website |
Pivot Stickfigure Animator (usually shorted to Pivot) is a downloadable free program aimed at creating stick figure animations that were created by Peter Bone. The software can create animations; users move sections of the stick figures, or "sticks", and create a chain of animation frames. Users can optionally set animation size and speed. The animations can be saved as GIFs[2] to be used on webpages[3]or the native PIV format, which are editable in Pivot. Users may also choose to create their own sticks, using a simple interface.
Pivot creates figures constructed with poseable joints. Because of this joint system, some effects can be difficult to create in Pivot despite being easy in animation programs where each frame is drawn individually. On the other hand, the joint system makes it so there is never a problem with size-consistency, unlike traditional animation programs.[4]
The software has received 5 star ratings from BlueSofts.com, MaxxDownload.com, and Fast-Download.com and has received other awards from sites such as Softpedia.com, SnapFiles.com, and Safe-Install.com.[5]
Unluckily, users have lost contact to Peter Bone, making it hard to find the newer version of pivot. A few Yahoo! Answers users declare that the newer version could save animations to .WMV files. But after a few researches, it is confirmed that Peter Bone won't be doing anymore further versions of the program. Even tough users tried to e-mail him to get the source code, there is still no reply.
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[edit] Versions
- Pivot 1.0
The original version of Pivot Animator had several bugs, as with most first generation programs. Stick figures were limited to the default stickman.
- Pivot 2.2
This version introduced the figure builder for user designed figures, fixed a few minor bugs as well as added buttons to bring a stick figure in front or behind other figures and a way to automatically check to make sure the user does not lose unsaved projects.[2]
- Pivot 2.24
In this version, an installation file was created, which will assure that the program will be installed properly and the associations for animation and stick figure files will be set so that they can be opened by double clicking. Other additions include Piv and Stk files being given their own icons, backgrounds now able to be loaded as jpeg, and warnings when a user tries to replace a file with the same filename.[2]
- Pivot 2.25
The "insert frame bug" was fixed with version 2.25, and the installer is now saved as .exe instead of .msi.[2]
- Pivot 3.1 Beta
In the most recent beta version of version 3, there is an improved interface, and sprites are usable. It is now also possible for users to have multiple backgrounds. When a user saves a .piv file, the frame rate is saved with it. The main criticism of Pivot 3 beta is the fact that all sticks and animations cannot be opened in Pivot 2 and it contains some bugs. Pivot 3 is under development and will include many new features such as an improved timeline editor, tweening, AVI support, etc. However, there are users[who?] who say this Pivot version makes the animations look choppy.
[edit] Animations created using Pivot
 The size of the figure can be adjusted and color may be added. |
 The animations can be rectangular, as well. |
 Sticks doesn't mean they're just stickfigures, they could be clocks and other varieties. |
