Before you post your question to the wider community, check to see whether it's already been answered down here. These are all the most commonly asked questions. If you need something specific it might be quicker to use ctrl+f than to read the list. Feel free to ask more questions below and I'll add them to the list.

[SIZE="3"]What If I Can't Find My Question Here?[/SIZE]


[SIZE="4"]The Forums[/SIZE]
I'm new to the forums and can't find a thread that I just made, where did it go?
How do I make an image into a link?
Why do some people have different colour names?

[SIZE="4"]My Profile[/SIZE]

How do I get a picture to appear under my name (as my avatar)?
How do I get an animation to appear under my name (as my avatar)?
How do I get something to appear under all my posts (as my signature)?
How do I get a flash animation in my signature?
Where can I get images for my avatar/sig?
How do I set a profile picture?
How do I set it not to show me other peoples signatures?
How can I change my name?

[SIZE="4"]Messages[/SIZE]

How do I leave visitor messages?
Why is no one responding to my visitor messages?
How do I send private messages?
Can I send the same message to more than one person?
Why is no one responding to my private messages?
How do I empty my inbox?
How do I know if my message is received?
How do I send a read receipt?
What are folders for, and how do I use them?

[SIZE="4"]Animation[/SIZE]

Where can I find stick figure animations?
How can I make my own animations?
Where do I download the animation programs?
Which animation program is best for me?
Where can I learn to get better at animating?
Can I download the animations on Stickpage?
What is the music from [animation/game] and where can I download it?
How do I show people my animations?
Can I put my own animations on Stickpage's front page?
I know a cool animation that I didn't make. Where can I show that?
Where can I find .stks for pivot?
Where can I get sound effects?
How can I edit my sounds and music?
Why won't flash let me import sounds?
How do I make a game?

[SIZE="4"]Groups[/SIZE]

What are groups, how do I join one, how do I use one, and how do I make one?

Stick Empires

Stick Empires?

Firstly, state which programme the animation is done in. If you can't do this, you cannot have an animated avatar.

Pivot
Easytoon
Flash

[SIZE="4"]Pivot:[/SIZE]

If you have made your animation with the standard dimensions, then you will need to save it in a special way. Firstly, go to File -> Save Animation, as usual. Select .gif from the drop down menu:



Now, you will get one of these boxes, depending on which version you have. Set the information in them to the way I've got it set up here:



Now upload it and set it as you would set any avatar, as shown here.

If you have changed the dimensions at some point then you will need to set the "resize", or "shrink frames by" option differently. The way you work it out is like this:

For the "shrink frames by" option:

[The largest of the two dimensions (usually width)] divided by 150.

For the "resize" option:
100 divided by [SIZE="4"]([/SIZE] [The largest of the two dimensions (usually width)] divided by 150 [SIZE="4"])[/SIZE]

Those brackets mean that you have to do the bit in the brackets before you do the other bit.

[SIZE="4"]Easytoon:[/SIZE]

Select 'new animation' and this box will open:



Ensure that neither of the numbers is bigger than 180. The standard dimensions are fine so unless you changed them before starting it will probably be ok to use an existing animation.

Make your animation (the frame rate should be about 18fps. Many browsers can't handle more, and much less just looks bad):



Now go to File -> Export -> animated gif:



And name it however you like and click 'open':



Now go to your upload site of choice and upload it. Copy the direct link and use that as the URL for your avatar in the usual way.

[SIZE="4"]Flash:[/SIZE]

Create your animation. Then go to file -> export movie:



Select the format "animated .gif":



This box will open:



Neither of the top two options can be bigger than 185. Everything else should be left as you find it.

The result will be something like this:



Because, as you may have noticed if you were especially observant, I tried this at 24 fps and few browsers will allow that with an animated .gif, the quality is bad. You will need to make your animation at about 18fps for it to run smoothly here.

Save it and upload it to imageshack.us or photobucket.com or whatever your upload site of choice is.

Copy the direct link and set it as the URL link to your avatar in the usual way.

You can follow 2-D's instructions to a certain point:

Quote from 2-D

Alright, you have your animation.

Amazing! good work.

Now, go to File > Export > Export Movie


Name it, or don't, and save it.


Now upload it to www.filebox.me
Then copy the direct link:
http://filebox.me/files/47tqa4xd5_super_cool_animation.swf
and fill in the blanks.

[swf=DIRECT LINK HERE]height=* width=*[/swf]

example:

[swf=http://filebox.me/files/47tqa4xd5_super_cool_animation.swf]height=400 width=550[/swf]

And you'll get it to show up like a picture.

If you don't know the height and width of your animation, check it in the properties of your animation

Once you've done that, copy the entire code into your signature.
Note: If you make one as big as this example you will be asked to take it down. You should make your animation no bigger than height=150 width=600. You should set this before you start animating otherwise your animation will look very squashed.

First, go to General Settings:



Then scroll down until you see this bit:



Uncheck the "show signatures" box.

You can also set it not to show avatars or images, but I don't know anyone that does that.

Good question. I'm glad you asked.

The first port of call is a little beauty I like to call "Google images". You type in a keyword, and Google finds a picture to match. Take the background of my current sig, f'rinstance:



For this little baby, I Googled "green" and looked through until I found something appropriate:



I then copied the image into MS Paint:



And went Image -> stretch/skew



And kept at it until it looked about right:





At this point I copied the image into Flash and added text, which you probably can't do, but hey, it's a start. If you have photoshop you can probably use that.

The important thing is that your image can't be too big. The most efficient way to shrink it down is to go to My Pictures and open the image from there. This should open it with InfranView and look like this:



You then go to Image -> Resize/Resample:



And that opens up this:



If you want your image stretched at all you uncheck "lock aspect ratio". If you don't want it stretched, leave it checked. The important thing is this:
The maximum size for a sig is
Height - 150
Width - 600
The maximum size for an avatar is
Height - 185
Width - 185

Any more and you will be asked to take it down. Avatars won't even work bigger. Sigs can have more stuff around them, like member awards, userbars, quotes, messages, whatever. Just don't get out of hand.

Another way to get an image for your sig/avvy is to make it yourself from scratch. I can't advise you on this. If you know how, then you can. If you don't, you can't. There may be some drawing tuts out there somewhere.

The final way is to ask someone to make one for you. There will occasionally be people in the art section just bumming around asking for work. Sometimes people will offer in the chat thread. If you become well known in the community someone might offer via PM or VM. They will tell you what they need of you if such a situation arises.

First, you have to go to the person's profile, like so:



If they have visitor messaging enabled you will come to a screen like this:



If they do not have visitor messaging enabled, you cannot leave a message.

If they do, simply type in that box and click "post message". They will be notified that there is a message and may reply.

There are a number of possible explanations. The most usual one is that you have not got visitor messaging enabled. To enable visitor messaging, go to General settings:



and scroll down until you see this:



Check the "enable visitor messaging button" and await your replies. If the person you're talking to is not on your contacts list you will need to make sure that you have the "don't limit" option checked too.


Another possible explanation is that what you are saying over the visitor messages is really really dumb. Check your messages for proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar, and make sure they have some meaning to them; not just "HI!!!!!1111!!1!". Also, only send one at a time. If you're completely clogging up their message board they are unlikely to reply as you are just spamming. Also make sure that you know the person you're talking to. Very few people like to get messages from people when they have no idea who they are.

Yes, as is shown half way down Paperclip's guide on how to send a PM.

When you get a private message, if the sender has requested a read receipt a box will pop up in the middle of it, like so:



To send the receipt, simply click "ok" and the rest will be done for you.

If the other person has not requested a receipt then the box will not appear. If you want to let this person know that you have received his message you will have to reply.

If you click the "cancel" button then your message will appear to be unread as far as the sender is concerned. I don't know why you would do this, but you can.

[SIZE="3"]Includes where to download and which one is best for you.[/SIZE]

Before you can make an animation you need an animation program. The most common one are these:

Pivot

Easytoon

Flash

Which one is best for you? Well, let's have a look at each of them and see, shall we?

Pivot

Pivot is often considered the most basic animation program. It has a simple and intuitive user interface which looks something like this:



You move the dots and when everything's where you want it you press "next frame". When you press "play" it all whirs through quickly and the illusion of movement is attained. An average pivot animation looks something like this, although good animations are also possible.

Pivot is best for you if you want something that you can open up for half an hour occasionally and not make anything serious with, or if you want to learn the basics of animating, or if you can't draw and can't afford flash.

Easytoon

Easytoon is quite different. Instead of moving things from the last frame, you will be redrawing the entire thing. There is no colour. It is simple, but very effective. A good easytooner will get a lot more respect than a good pivoteer. A typical easytoon animation will be similar to this (by Moch12). The interface is like this:



Easytoon is best for you if you can draw but can't afford flash, and if you like the style of easytoon animations. It's also a decent program to learn to redraw on, and it's not impossible to learn the basics with it.

Flash

Flash is the best animation program we use here. That is undisputed. You can do everything with it that you can do on either of the other programs and so much more. It can be quite daunting but there are a great deal of tutorials available, as you can see here. The interface:



The drawback is that it is quite expensive. I think $500 was what I last saw it at although I haven't checked for a while. You can and should get the 30 day free trial before making any further decisions. There is absolutely no way to get an unlimited version for free so don't even ask. It's impossible. Can't be done. 100% nono. Flash animations are what you find on the Stickpage front page, and often look like this.

You want flash if you ever want to make a game (because it's the only one that can do that) and if you want to animate seriously. It's also ok to learn the basics on, although you can get distracted by the huge number of features. If you can afford it, get it.

There are essentially two methods of improving.

Option one is to look at tutorials. Most of the good ones can be found here, although google and youtube might turn up something nice if you search. There are also a number of tutorials here on SPP in the "Tutorials" section which are not linked from that page.

Option two is to post your animation and receive criticism. Every time you post an animation (which you should do here by the way, in beginners sections before posting your own thread) people will look at it and tell you what you need to work on to improve. They might, for instance, point out that your animation is shaky and that you need to be more careful with your spacing. You should take this criticism on board and improve in your next animation.

What you do not need is a mentor. There is no reason that a mentor will ever help you more than posting your animations in the community will. Everyone should always be willing to give you constructive criticism, and since everybody looks for different things you will get a more balanced criticism from the community than from just one person.