Glossary

Where all of a figure’s joints are on one key.

How many frames a drawing or pose is shown for; “on twos” means every pose lasts two frames.

The smooth easing: the move starts gently, flows through the keys and slows into the last one.

The easing that moves at one even speed from key to key.

Ease in starts slowly and speeds up; Ease out starts fast and slows down at the end.

An easing whose speed curve you shape yourself with two handles.

A small move the other way before the main action, like crouching before a jump.

Parts that keep moving a little after the main action stops, which makes motion feel heavy.

Holding the impact pose for a few extra frames when a hit lands, so the viewer feels it.

A tool that makes a new in-between pose by dragging sideways on the stage between two keys.

A switch that decides whether changing a figure on a frame without a key adds a key there; press K.

Where your frames live: Simple shows a card per frame like Pivot, Advanced shows layers with keys on a ruler.

One frame in the Simple timeline, with its picture and a bar that shows how long it holds.

A row of the Advanced timeline that holds figures; hide it with the eye, lock it with the lock.

The blue line that marks the frame you are on.

Dragging the playhead to move through the animation and check the motion.

Makes the pose at the playhead last one frame longer; press Shift+A.

A switch that applies your change to every selected frame at once.

A row of sound clips under your layers, with its own volume, mute and solo.

One line, circle or shape of a figure, between two joints.

Keeps an IK hand or foot planted while you move the rest of the body.

Changing a segment’s length instead of turning it: Ctrl-drag a joint.

Curving a straight segment: drag a joint with the right mouse button (or the pen’s barrel button).

Hold R while dragging to move one point without turning the rest.

Hold Caps Lock to turn one segment without turning the ones attached after it.

A grey joint you can’t drag while posing; it moves with its parent.

Attaching one figure to a joint of another, like a sword to a hand; press J.

A copy that shares its figure with the original, so a change in Build changes every instance.

Turning a figure around, left to right (Shift+H) or upside down (Shift+V).

Type a joint’s exact angle and length; point at the joint and press I.

The workspace where you make and change figures: draw parts, split them, colour them.

A figure with extra rules that make posing easier, such as parts that slide, stretch or follow each other.

A rig rule that stretches connected parts together along an axis when you stretch one control.

A link between two anchor joints, with a slider that can drive other parts of the rig.

The length a stretchy part counts as 100%.

A filled shape drawn point by point; press Enter to finish it.

A fill that blends from one colour to another.

A picture, like a PNG, added to a figure or to the scene.

Your whole stage: its size, frame rate and background.

The big area in the middle of the window where you pose and draw.

A camera move that shakes the view on a hit; you can bake it into keys and fine-tune them.

Glows, outlines, shadows, blur and colour changes on a part, a figure or the whole scene.

Effects made of many small moving bits: fire, smoke, sparks, beams and explosions.

A layer you paint on with brushes, frame by frame, in the Draw workspace.

How hard you have to press with a pen for a thick or dark line; Soft, Linear or Firm.

A figure with its own little animation inside, like a flame; every copy shares one clip.

Animate, Draw or Build: three sets of tools you switch in the top bar.

The panel with the settings of whatever is selected: a figure, a key or the scene.

One of the boxes around the stage (Properties, VFX, Library) that you can dock, stack, float or fold.

The thin 40 px column a folded panel waits on; click its icon to open the panel.

Folds every panel away so the stage gets the room; press Ctrl+\ again to bring them back.

A saved arrangement of the panels, like Animate, Timing or Review, or one of your own.

A search box for every command, figure, layer and setting; press Ctrl+P.

A key or key combination that runs a command; you can change them in Settings → Shortcuts.

Where a shortcut works, like Editor, Drawing workspace or Canvas focused.

The size of the editor’s buttons and text, in Settings → Interface.

The layout for phones and tablets, with bigger controls, sheets and a swipeable timeline.

The round button on a touch screen that stands in for Ctrl, Alt, Shift, R or the right mouse button.

Your saved figures and movieclips, ready to drop into any project.

Figures and animations other people shared, which you can browse and use.

A StykAnimate project file; it keeps everything, sound included.

One StykAnimate figure (.stkz) or movieclip (.stykmov), to reuse or share.

Pivot Animator files, an animation (.piv) and a figure (.stk); StykAnimate opens and exports both.

A safety copy of unsaved work, kept every 2.5 seconds by default, that you can restore after a crash.

Turning your animation into a video, a GIF, pictures or a Pivot file to share.