Chris Pirillo » draw

How to Create Stick Figure Animations

Chris — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:43:44 +0000

How to Create Stick Figure Animations is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I am definitely not an artist. I have trouble even drawing a simple stick figure! Thank goodness there’s software out there that will help me. It’s a lot of fun, too! Stykz is cross-platform, and won’t cost you anything.

Stykz is frame-based, letting you to work on individual frames of your animation. Figures can be rotated, scaled, flipped, duplicated, colorized, and relayered. Figures can be created and edited directly in place; no separate “editor” window is required. Stykz’s PolyFill tool lets you fill shapes with just a few clicks! You can individually adjust the line segments in a figure, setting their length, width, color, and angle.

As you can see, it’s not just some boring old software that lets you make simple designs. Oh no! Stykz is full-featured, allowing you to create very complex little stick men and women!

Windows and Mac versions can be downloaded now, but sadly, the Linux version is still in beta form, so it’s not available just yet. The Linux public beta is coming soon – so stay tuned! The program is awesome, and a lot of fun!

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Give a Sketch, Get a Sketch

Chris — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:55:43 +0000

Give a Sketch, Get a Sketch is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Do you doodle? I do – I’ve always been a doodler. I can draw my own caricature, and my dogs. That’s about it though. If you like to sketch, you may be interested in a pretty cool website I found – Sketch Swap.

When you first get to the website, you aren’t going to see much of anything. That’s because in order to see the sketches of others, you must first submit one of your own! Let’s say you’re not interested in what someone else has sketched. Heck, maybe you can’t sketch anything to save your life.

In that case, you may be interested in the sister site, which is Sketchory. There are currently over 250,000 drawings there that have been submitted via Sketch Swap.

There are some really good artists out there! You’ll be quite surprised at what you see. You can view the picture as it is, or view it as an animation! See it being “drawn” right before your very eyes, so that you can learn.

You can help add tags to sketches you come across, discover more drawings, or just browse through thousands of pictures.

Let the artist inside of you be known! Submit your sketches and look for something you can learn to draw!

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Are You an Aspiring iPhone Animator?

Chris — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:49:48 +0000

Are You an Aspiring iPhone Animator? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Here’s a happy face that I created. It’s not just any happy face though. It’s a happy face that animates into a puddle of good. And out of that puddle of goo comes some pink puss. Ok, so I made that up. Basically this is a Flip Book Application for the iPhone. You may remember that recently I reviewed a similar App, called the FlickBook. This one costs $10.00, compared to $5.00 for the FlickBook. Now, you may be already asking whether double the price is worth it. I’m here to tell you, it is. The tool set that comes with FlipBook is just awesome.

Drawing hand held animation gets easier, and more fun using FlipBook on the iPhone. FlipBook makes it easy to create colorful animations with your fingertips, and share them with your friends and family. Getting started is easy, simply download the $9.99 application from the app store and start animating. Use anything from eraser to onion skinning to layered drawing. Draw on top of images from your photo album including images taken with your iPhone’s camera. Touch play when you’re ready to see how your movie looks, and use the accelerometer to control how fast your movie plays then upload it to flipbook.tv and share it with everyone. FlipBook puts animation into your hands.
FlipBook has easy to use drawing controls and is available for iPhone and iPod Touch. Some of its features include customizable brush and eraser sizes, an advanced color picker, layer-based drawing, and a move tool, enabling you to create beautiful drawings. Use one finger to draw and two fingers to control. Bring up the toolbar by tapping with two fingers. Pinch with two fingers to zoom in and out or slide two fingers around the screen to pan. When zoomed out, swipe with two fingers to go forward and back through your frames. FlipBook allows you to choose between varying your movie’s speed with the accelerometer or use a fixed-frame rate. While paused, swipe your finger to change frames.

You can easily upload movies you create using FlipBook, or email them to friends. Create layer-based drawings using customizable brushes and multiple colors. There are just so many cool things you can do with this App, that you’ll find you used more than $10 worth in the first sitting alone.

This App is very clean, and very advanced. It’s quite intuitive, which is great for most people. If you do enjoy flip books, art or animation, be sure to give FlipBook a shot. I give it a huge thumbs up!

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Satan is a Dork

Chris — Tue, 30 May 2006 01:19:14 +0000

Satan is a Dork is a post from Chris Pirillo

I was going through my spam folder, and this headline caught my eye. I was then compelled to draw it on my Wacom tablet (which doesn’t get much use around here). Consider this my homage to Spamusement.com. “Satan is a Dork” inspired this pencil sketch:

I have no idea if the Devil really is a dork, but if he was a dork – this is probably what he’d look like. I hope I don’t offend any devil worshipers out there by doing this. The devil-worshipping demographic is highly prized, after all. Have you hugged your devil worshipper today? I wouldn’t recommend doing so, anyway. Here’s to hoping I never get inspired by any other spam subject line. I won’t quit my day job, and I promise not to doodle anything else again without first getting my mother’s permission. She’s a devil worshipper, ya know?

How to Handle Remote Tech Support

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

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Get Your Own Web Site

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

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VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

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