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| Pivot Animator | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Pivot Animator 4 running onWindows Vista | |
| Developer | Peter Bone |
| Initial release | June 13, 2001; 24 years ago (2001-06-13) |
| Stable release | 5.2.11 / May 13, 2025; 9 months ago (2025-05-13) |
| Written in | Delphi |
| Operating system | Windows |
| Type | Graphics software |
| License | Freeware |
| Website | pivotanimator |
Pivot Animator (formerlyPivot Stickfigure Animator and usually shortened toPivot) is a freeware application that allows users to createstick-figure andspriteanimations, and save them in the animatedGIF format for use on web pages and the AVI format (in Pivot Animator 3 and later).[1]
Pivot provides a simple, easy to useinterface with a few features. It uses fixed-length 'sticks' to ensure size consistency during animation.
The first version of Pivot Animator had severalsoftware bugs. Stick figures were limited to one type of stick figure, the defaultstick figure. Animations could be saved in the PIV (Pivot Project File) or exported as Animated.GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) files. Users were given few options of image optimization, compression or resizing when saving their animation. This was one of the first animation programs available on the computer.
The second major release of the Pivot Stickfigure Animator. This version implemented the 'Stick Figure Builder', which allowed users to create their own stick figure designs saved in the STK format. This allowed a much wider scope of animation choice for Pivot users. It also fixed a few minor bugs, added the buttons to the main interface to bring a stick figure in front or behind other figures, and could automatically check to make sure the user did not lose any unsaved projects.
This release was sent intentionally to thePivot Animation groups for testing but the version was leaked from various unofficial sources to the general public. There was an improved interface, with new icons, a better default stickman with a thicker body, and a reorganization of the features. New features included the ability to import any image into the animation. Another added feature was the ability to have multiple backgrounds in an animation. When a user saves a .piv file, theframe rate is saved with it.
Pivot 4.1 beta was released on January 2, 2013, with new features including:[2]
Pivot Animator 4.1.10 was released as the "stable" version of 4.1 and is still the latest non-beta version so far (as of October 2015).
Pivot 4.2 was announced on December 23, 2014 followed by a beta release on January 1, 2015.[3]New features include copying and pasting selected stick figures and sprites, a transparent figure builder window,[4] and the ability to export images in theScalable Vector Graphics format.
Pivot 5.1 beta was released in July 2021, with several new features including:
Pivot Animator 5 requiresWindows 10 and aGPU.
