The Figure Builder
Change what a figure is made of in Build: add an arm, build a sword from nothing, and choose whether every copy updates.
Build is where you change what a figure is made of: its parts, their length, colour and thickness. By the end of this page you can add an arm to Blue, build a sword from nothing, and decide what happens to the copies of a figure you changed.
- Animate changes a figure’s pose. Build changes its design: the parts themselves.
- Select a figure, click Build at the top, draw with Line L or Circle C out of a joint, and change the selected part in Properties.
- Click Done. If you changed something, choose Update figure (every copy changes) or Import as new figure (the original stays).
Three words you need
- A joint is a red dot. The orange dot is the figure’s origin: the point everything hangs from.
- A part is the line or circle that ends at a joint. Selecting a joint selects the part that ends there.
- A branch is a part and everything that hangs from it. The upper arm’s branch is the upper arm, the forearm and the hand.
Every figure is a tree of parts that starts at the origin. More words are in the glossary.
Open Build
- In Animate, click the figure you want to change, so it is selected.
- Click Build in the workspace switch at the top of the window (the one with the green dot). Or right-click the figure and choose Edit in Build.
- You should see the Build tool bar on the left of the stage, Test rig and Done at the top right, and the figure’s name at the top of Properties.
Build stays tied to that figure until you click Done. If nothing was selected when you opened Build, you start a new figure instead (see Build a sword).
What you see in Build
| Where | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Tool bar, first group | The tools: Edit joints, Select figure V, Line L, Chain pen, Circle C, Polygon and Pan canvas H. |
| Tool bar, second group | Commands for the selected part: Whole branch B, Split part S, Duplicate branch, Flip branch horizontally, Flip branch vertically and Delete part Delete. |
| Stage header | Drag chooses what Edit joints does (Move joint or Rotate branch). On the right: Grid, Handles, Highlight, the construction background, zoom and Fit. |
| Left edge | The folded Structure panel (every part as a tree), Fit figure and Smart snapping. |
| Properties | The figure, or the selected part: its colour, width, shape, angle, length and more. |
Add an arm
Blue below has lost his right arm. You will draw a new one in two parts, then make it as thick as the other arm.
- Click Line in the tool bar, or press L. The stage header now says Drag from a joint to add a line.
- Press on the joint at the top of the torso (the neck) and drag down and out to where the elbow should be. Let go. The new part is selected, and Properties shows it with a name like Line 11.
- Drag again, this time from the new elbow joint down to where the hand should be. That is the forearm.
- The new parts are 16 px wide, because a new line copies the colour and width of the part it grows from (the torso). Click Whole branch in the tool bar (or press B), click Edit joints, then click the new elbow joint to select the upper arm.
- In Properties → Style, type 12 in Width and press Enter. Both new parts change, because Whole branch is on.
- Click Test rig and drag the new hand around. The arm bends at the elbow. Click Return to builder.
- Click Done, then Update figure.
Untitled animationSaved- Pick Line L.
- Drag from the neck joint to draw an upper arm.
- Drag from the new elbow to draw a forearm.
- Turn on Whole branch B and set Width to 12 on the new arm.
- Click Test rig and drag a joint.
- Click Done and keep your changes.
Start the drag on a joint and the new part hangs from that joint. Start it anywhere else and it hangs from the selected joint, or from the origin when no part is selected. So if a line appears in the wrong place, undo with Ctrl+Z and start the drag right on the red dot.
Select and change a part
- Click Edit joints (the first tool). Click a red joint: the part that ends there is selected, and its joints turn light red.
- Properties shows the part’s name and its sections: Style (colour, Width, Opacity, Shape), Geometry (Angle, Length, Bend, Static) and Arrange (the layer and the part’s draw Order).
- Type a value and press Enter. Each change is one step you can undo.
- Double-click the name at the top of Properties to rename the part. Good names (“Sword blade”, “Left hand”) make big figures easier to edit.
- Click an empty spot on the stage, or press Esc, to select the whole figure again.
With nothing selected, Properties shows the figure: Appearance recolours every part at once, Colours lists the colours the figure uses (click one to replace it everywhere), and Transform places the figure on the stage.
Move a joint or rotate a branch
With Edit joints, the Drag menu in the stage header decides what dragging a joint does:
| Drag | What happens | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Move joint | Only that joint moves. The joints around it stay where they are, so the parts on both sides get longer or shorter. | Moving an elbow without moving the shoulder or the hand. |
| Rotate branch | The part and everything below it turn around the part’s start. Lengths stay the same. | Pointing a whole arm or leg in a new direction. |
Smart snapping (on the left edge, on by default) pulls a joint onto other joints and lines it up with them. Hold Alt while you drag to place it freely.
Both workspaces let you drag joints, but they do different things. In Animate a drag poses the figure on one frame. In Build a drag changes the figure’s design, so every frame and every copy of the figure changes.
Whole branch
Whole branch B makes your changes apply to the selected part and everything below it. With it on, setting a colour on an upper arm colours the forearm and the hand too, and Delete deletes the whole arm. While it is on, Properties says how many parts you are editing. Press B again to go back to one part.
Split, duplicate, flip and delete
These commands are in the tool bar, in the selected part’s quick actions at the top of Properties, and on the part’s right-click menu.
For example, to give Blue a second pair of arms: select his upper arm, click Duplicate branch in the tool bar, then click the neck joint. The copy hangs from the neck with the same shape.
Build a sword from nothing
Props are figures too. A sword is three or four parts: a grip, a blade and a crossguard. Its origin goes at the bottom of the grip, so it turns around the hand that holds it.
- In Animate, click an empty part of the stage so no figure is selected, then click Build. The stage header says Drag on the canvas to draw the figure’s first line and the Line tool is on.
- Drag a short line upwards. That is the grip. Where you pressed becomes the orange origin.
- Drag from the top of the grip far upwards. That is the blade.
- Drag from the same joint (the top of the grip) a little to the left, and again a little to the right. That is the crossguard.
- Click Edit joints, click the tip of the blade to select it, set Shape to Square line, Width to 10, and pick a grey with the colour field.
- Click Test rig to swing it, then Done and Import into scene.
Untitled animationSaved- Drag up: the grip and the origin.
- Drag up from the top joint: the blade.
- Drag left and right from the same joint: the crossguard.
- Make the blade a Square line.
- Give a part a new colour.
- Test rig: swing it.
- Done → Import into scene.
To hold the sword, go back to Animate and join it to Blue’s hand with J. To use it in other projects, add it to your library or use File → Save figure… (a .stkz file).
The Structure panel
Click Structure on the left edge to see every part as a tree, in the order they hang from each other. Click a row to select that part, and rename the figure in the box at the top. The footer has Snap (smart snapping) and Fit (Fit figure, Shift+2). Badges show special parts: S is a static part.
The tree shows what hangs from what. The draw order (which part is painted in front) is separate: change it with Arrange → Order in Properties.
Building aids
Test and finish
Test rig opens a preview of the figure. Drag a joint to turn its branch, Ctrl-drag to stretch it, or pick a Joint and type its Length and Angle. Reset puts the preview back. Nothing you do in the preview changes the design: Return to builder closes it.
When you click Done (or Animate in the workspace switch) and something changed, StykAnimate asks what to keep:
Every copy of this figure in your animation changes.
The original stays as it was. Your version is added to the scene as a new figure.
Everything you did in Build is undone. Keep editing takes you back to Build.
For a new figure the choice is Import into scene or Discard changes. If nothing changed, Done goes straight back to Animate.
All copies of a figure share one design. If your scene has five copies of Blue, Update figure changes all five. To change only one of them, choose Import as new figure, then delete the old copy you no longer need.
Build is Pivot’s Figure Builder, inside the main window: the same red joints, orange origin, static joints (grey), F9, F10 and F12. The difference is that you never leave your animation, and you choose at the end whether the copies update.
Common questions
I changed a part and every copy changed.
They share one design. Undo, or reopen Build, make the change again and finish with Import as new figure.
My change applied to the whole arm, not one part.
Whole branch is on. Press B to turn it off.
Clicking a line does not select it.
With Edit joints, click the joint at the end of the part, not the line itself. The Select figure tool V selects and moves the whole figure.
A new line attaches somewhere other than where I pressed.
An off-joint drag attaches to the selected joint, or the origin. Select the right parent first, or start the drag exactly on its joint.
How do I start a brand-new figure?
Go back to Animate, click an empty part of the stage so nothing is selected, then open Build and draw a line or circle.
How do I move the orange origin to another joint?
Right-click the joint and choose Set as origin. Do it before you add rig rules.
Keep going
Still stuck?
Ask the community, or tell us what’s missing from the docs.