Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, Stykz is completely free. You may use Stykz in any way you like, and you don't need any kind of license, so long as you abide by these two rules:

• You may redistribute Stykz, so long as you distribute the whole .dmg file (Mac) or .zip file (Windows) that you get when you download it from the Stykz web site. Do not distribute individual parts and pieces of the original download to others (simply because there are dependencies between certain files and so if you distribute part and not the whole the recipient may not be able to run Stykz).
• You may not sell Stykz in any form (this includes bundling it with something one would pay money to receive) without first getting prior consent from us in writing.

And certainly anything you make with Stykz - the animations, the individual stick figure files, etc. - are yours and yours alone, so you can do what you want with them.

Each platform has its own requirements, but in general it is Windows XP/OS X 10.4.2 or higher with 1GB of RAM. For specific requirements refer to the download pages for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

That is a common question posed to applications that deploy to multiple platforms. The answer is "no"; Stykz was developed using LiveCode (which used to be called "Revolution"), a cross-platform rapid application development tool, so there's no need to download an engine of any kind.

Stykz was designed to be a superset of Pivot, attempting to incorporate all (or most) of the features that Pivot has to offer, plus adding additional features and making it available on multiple platforms. Pivot has not been upgraded for several years, and our understanding is that the author has been busy with other endeavors and hasn't had any time to upgrade it. Combine that with the fact that many Mac users who have been using Parallels or Boot Camp to run Pivot have been looking for a way to create stick figure animations with a native Mac application, and can you see why Stykz was developed.

For a more in-depth comparison of the two programs, see the comparison page.

Stykz can import both Pivot 2 and Pivot 3.x .stk files. We are still looking at whether to import Pivot 2 or 3 .piv files (if you feel strongly that we should, contact us and let us know).

No. Stykz supports exporting animations in QuickTime Movie and Animated GIF formats. Exporting to SWF is on the list of features we’d like to add to Stykz, but it probably won’t happen until we add sound support to Stykz.

Not in 1.0, but this feature will be included in the next major release of Stykz, which should be Stykz 1.5.

Not at present. This feature is planned for a future version of Stykz; currently targeted for Stykz 2.0.

No, but transitions and sound are planned for Stykz 2.0.

Yes, simply select a segment that should be static and set the "Static" checkbox in the Properties palette.

Absolutely!

Yes! Using the PolyFill tool, you can create filled regions in a figure by clicking on the desired nodes until you have created an enclosed polygon; set the color, and you’re done!

It's hard to look far into the future, and it's possible that one day we might split off one or more specialized versions of Stykz that may become commercial applications. But one thing we can say - there will always be a free version of Stykz available for download, even if there are other commercial spin-offs that are developed in the future.

We are currently targeting the official release of Stykz for Linux 1.0 at the end of Q3 2010 (end of September). Of course, we all know how time schedules work, so we can't promise that date, but we will work hard to hit it (or at least come close).

Wow... that's a good question. Here's a small sampling of what we have on "The List":

• Sound effects / Background sound
• Transitions / Visual effects
• Sprites (imported images)
• Merging figures (useful for creating figures that are vertically symmetrical - for example creating one side of a sword, copy it, flip it, and merge it to make a full sword)
• Inbetweening
• Draw objects (polygons, ovals, arrows, etc.)
• Text boxes / word balloons
• Drag-reordering of frames
• Grouping of frames into "clips"
• Automatic uploading/downloading of .styk files to/from the Forum (or other sharing area for Stykz files)

For a full list of what we have on "The List", see this post at the Stykz forums.