Adding Sounds to Pivot Stick Figure Animator, Using Windows Movie Maker, and Uploading to Youtube

This tutorial shows you how to upload sounds to Pivot and even upload multiple sounds at one time and narrate. Even experts of Pivot can learn from this. Even if you don’t use Pivot and just using Movie Maker, it’s usefull.

Everybody keeps asking, “How do I put music and sounds to a pivot?” Look no further. You’re questions will be answered here.

In this tut I will show you.

  • Making a Pivot file to a gif
  • Puttuing on Windows Movie Maker and Using Movie Maker
  • Tips: Using WMM Better
  • Putting it on YouTube
  • I don’t have Windows Movie Maker
  • Faq

Making a Pivot file to a gif

First, save you’re pivot file to a gif file. A gif file is a moving picture file. Doing this will enable you to put it on Movie Maker. To do this, when you save you’re animation click the dropdown box and select gif. The tutorial to saving as a gif is located here.

The following below is for Windows Users. Don’t go down if you have windows, Instead, go to An Alternative Way Section.

Putting on Windows Movie Make and Using Movie Maker

 Movie Maker is very simple to use. Here’s a screen shot of it to familerize yourself. Open up Windows Movie Maker (we’ll call it WMM for short) and start looking around the screen to familerize yourself again. To begin, find your gif by clicking on the left hand on what’s called “Movie Tasks” and click “Import Pictures”. Remember were you saved your gif, find it and import it. It will be added to the “Collections” and highlighted.

 Drag your gif to the bottom where it says Drag Media to the storyboard/Timeline to begin Making your movie. I would leave it at the timeling setting because you have more control and professionalism added to your movie, click the button near the timeline/storyboard to do it.

You can add music, sounds, titles, transitions, and effects to your movie. Click on the any of the buttons on “Edit Movie” in the task bar to add titles, transitions, and effects. AutoMovie makes a random stupid thing, ignore it unless you want something random. To add music/sound do just like you did to import the gif except click “Import Audio or Music”. Drag it to the timeline where you put your sounds/music, you can’t put two at the same time, you can only “merge” two clips by moving one clip onto another (sliding it on the other clip). To put two clips you have to make to save it as a movie, then Import the movie and add more sounds (you’ll learn latter).
4. With more practice and curiosity, you will get better and better with WMM.

To save it as a movie, go to the task area where it says “Finish Movie” and click “Save to My Computer”. Follow the instructions, and it will save as a WMA so it can be added to YouTube. Just clicking save on the top will save it as WMMP so you can save the project and edit it latter. If you wanted to add a song and all you have are sound effects, save it as a WMA (following Finsih Movie insrtuctions), open up a new prject, import the video you saved and BAM, you can add more sounds to it.

Tips: Using WMM Better
Alot of people take advantage of WMM and mess up their movie. Here are a few examples of poor WMMing.
Sorry Leo
No HyperCam
Crappy Titling

If you’re doing titles, don’t use the default blue screen and font. To change font, click below the typing box where it says “More Options” and has two highlighted buttons. Click “Change the Text Font and Color”. Be Imaginative

Title animations also count. Alot of noobs/newbs use the “Moving Titles, Layered” option. This gets the viewer really bored. Try using something that will match the movie. Ex. 

Incase you think I’m perfect heres my first and crappiest, most boring, stupid movie I’ve ever made.

Transitions are you’re friend, don’t be afraid to use them. The best and most simple of all is the Fade. Simple yet dynamic and pro. If all else fails, use Fade. Don’t start using so many different transitions or else they don’t work. Make sure transitions fit what you’re doing,
Ex. Action Sequences don’t need fades unless a completly different scene follows
Ex. The Shatter transition can be used for lets say explosions. You can figure out how to use it properly. That’s what editing’s all about.

Never use HyperCam unless you’re filming a computer sequence. The Unregistered HyperCam thing at the top makes anyone look stupid.

Go with the music if you’re using it. Sounds simple huh. Some people don’t know like here 

If you’re doing narration please don’t do this s*** . If you have a crappy voice use Voice Changer 6.0 Diamond. 

Putting it on YouTube 1. Have a YouTube account ready and upload a video, find your video and it will upload when you follow the instructions. In a few minutes after downloading, your movie will be on YouTube!

I don’t have WMM
For some reason if you lost WMM (happens sometime) there is always another way to edit your gifs.
YouTube also has an editing program called YouTube Remixer. You must have it video file to edit it tough and the video uploaded to YouTube. You can add extra music if you want too. Make the video you’re going to edit a private one not public so everybody doesn’t see you used the Remixer (which is still a beta but usable)

The result of professional movie making adds up to this. My best work
This will be updated with more pictures and ideas. Stay put, hope you like it!

Ask Questions about WMM and I’ll answer them and put them in an FAQ for you.

FaQ

Q. I’m trying to make an Xaio Xaio movie with punches and music at the same time. When I put in the music, it goes after a punch/doesn’t mix in. How do people do that?

A. I’ve already had that questioned answered but I’ll tell you in better terms. First just have the movie with the regular sounds effects no music. Save it to your computer as a video Ex: Xaio Xaio Pivot Remake Base 1. Base 1 is the name for a movie that is uploadable to YouTube or watchible but still needs work. Open up WMM and click “Import Video”. Find Base 1, and add it to the timeline. Then drag your music and you’re done, save the movie again to your computer. The reason why you have to do this is because the audio box on the top is for other videos and is intended for editting Home Videos, not just gifs. You can do as many Base videos as you want to add extra stuff, but keep in mind your computer will slow down and the movies take up space. Delete the Bases as soon as your done.

Q. I want to add voices to my pivot but I can’t get anything good on FindSounds.Com. Can you tell me a site or recommend me a good mic?

A. Good question. There is a site called MovieWavs.com. You can get voices that are from movies and tv shows (if you wanted Homer Simpson saying “Doh!” you can get it there). If you want a specific sentence or phrase and you don’t care who the voice is, type in your phrase/word in the serch box and you’ll find it. A good microphone can be bought at BestBuy or CircutCity .Never go to those little electronic stores that overprice things, many of the things are used or rejected from stores (sometimes japanese). The microphone I have is a Logitech USB Desktop Microphone for only $31.99 USD. Works great and can be used for instant messaging also.

I hope you have enjoyed and learned from this Pivot Tutorial. More Soon!

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38 Comments

  1. aaron
    Posted February 26, 2008 at 8:09 pm

    do you no another way to get sounds onto pivot without useing findsounds.com?!?!

  2. Jammi
    Posted March 19, 2008 at 1:17 pm

    When i put my gif. file in wmm, it comes up with a messege saying that it couldn’t import it. catastrophic failiur.

    what do i do?

  3. Matthew
    Posted March 31, 2008 at 4:17 am

    but i cant import stick pivot, it stays saying dat i cant import the file because the codec is not installed and i dont know how to install it! pleeease help! :( *_*

  4. Matthew-again
    Posted March 31, 2008 at 4:19 am

    I’m having problems up loading Pivot Stick Animator fils onto windows movie maker. Every time I try to this messege appears:

    The file C:Program FilesPivot Stickfigure Animatorstick figuresCricket Game gone bad!.piv cannot be imported because the codec required to play the file is not installed on your computer. If you have already tried to download and install the codec, close and restart Windows Movie Maker, and then try to import the file again.

    It says I need to download a codec, but I’m not sure were to find it. Can someone give me some help please. It will be greatly appreciated!

  5. Christopher
    Posted April 6, 2008 at 4:17 pm

    Wow?

  6. austin
    Posted April 29, 2008 at 5:54 am

    in my movie i have 4 boxes at the botton used and alot left and
    wont let me import any more and pops up a message that seys like a catastrofic falure.

    can some one help

  7. help!!!!!!!!!!
    Posted May 15, 2008 at 5:47 pm

    wen i play my movie on pivot it looks kewl, but when i put it onto WMM it goes soooo slow!how do i make it faster?

  8. ME
    Posted May 31, 2008 at 6:05 am

    I’m having problems up loading Pivot Stick Animator fils onto windows movie maker. Every time I try to this messege appears:

    The file C:Program FilesPivot Stickfigure Animatorstick figuresCricket Game gone bad!.piv cannot be imported because the codec required to play the file is not installed on your computer. If you have already tried to download and install the codec, close and restart Windows Movie Maker, and then try to import the file again.

    It says I need to download a codec, but I’m not sure were to find it. Can someone give me some help please. It will be greatly appreciated!

  9. keeping it real
    Posted June 26, 2008 at 9:25 pm

    yo i got the pivot sticks to import but it wont play

  10. help wanted
    Posted July 8, 2008 at 11:04 am

    everytime i try and do what it says i put my pivot on my timeline and then it makes it 24 hours long and it just shows the very first slide through out the entire vid i need help what do i do!

  11. mac
    Posted July 8, 2008 at 7:24 pm

    i go on a file on wmm and i find something in import pictures called “pivit”. i press it and it says “wmm can not let you import “pivit”.

  12. lol
    Posted August 9, 2008 at 3:55 am

    noobs

  13. imao
    Posted September 10, 2008 at 7:35 am

    how do u make some effects which go across your pics or your video like whoooosh u know what i mean and this sparkly thing goes across it and changes to another picture how do i make that or like make the bakground colourful and make it flash while the music is playing?

  14. Noobs? Hardly.
    Posted September 27, 2008 at 4:09 pm

    It seriously does come up with “catastrophic failure” lol. What are we supposed to do?? Help!!!!!

  15. pro nub
    Posted October 4, 2008 at 5:28 pm

    i need help to find a good stick figure yell
    of a boy

  16. wierd!
    Posted October 7, 2008 at 9:32 pm

    Whenever I watch the wid on WMM it turns out to be all wierd and it like goes through all of the frames randomly….DIFFERENT ORDERS!!!!!!

    I don’t get it….

  17. how to put it onto wmm w/o webcam
    Posted October 8, 2008 at 7:13 pm

    when you save it, type in w/e the name of it is, and then click the save as down arrow and choose .gif and save it as that. it should be able to import onto wmm.

    it also just tells the same thing on the section that says “Making a Pivot file to a gif”

  18. person
    Posted October 17, 2008 at 1:57 am

    i rekon the long pivot animations that people are strying to put on wmm are saying catastrophic failure because they are too long

  19. jace83
    Posted November 20, 2008 at 6:07 pm

    how you download new stuff on pivot!?

  20. Has a problem
    Posted December 1, 2008 at 10:57 pm

    How in the crap do I do this? I got the catastrophic failure error:

    C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersDocumentsBack-Up (Bomb Shelter)Pivot Animationssmash.gif could not be imported. Catastrophic failure

    I even tried importing a video with only two frames, and it still didn’t work. PLEASE HELP!!

  21. zazers
    Posted December 8, 2008 at 11:24 am

    Matthew, did you save your pivot file as gif because you said:”C:Program FilesPivot Stickfigure Animatorstick figuresCricket Game gone bad!.piv.” and you saved as piv file so save as gif!

  22. zazers
    Posted December 22, 2008 at 2:57 pm

    to download objects et. go on to droidz.org

  23. Ike99
    Posted January 22, 2009 at 3:12 pm

    When I save it as gif. file, it only lasts 5 seconds, even though it has 357 frames! Someone please help me. :(

  24. Duke Of Valhalla
    Posted January 30, 2009 at 12:36 am

    yea droidz.org is the bomb

  25. frank lemon
    Posted February 12, 2009 at 6:36 pm

    u need to change the gif opitons to something different to make it go faster but i dont remember what… but gifs dont work good if u dont do it before you put it on windows movie makers..

  26. omgwtf
    Posted February 25, 2009 at 7:24 pm

    not working. i want to know exactly wat kind of codec i should use. i went on google, youtube, and wikepedia and answers.com and ask.com but nothing came up that i wanted and the information was useless!!!!!! please i downloaded like 4 billion codecs but every time i go to windows movie maker i always get this note:

    The file C:Program FilesPivot Stickfigure Animatorstick figuresCricket Game gone bad!.piv cannot be imported because the codec required to play the file is not installed on your computer. If you have already tried to download and install the codec, close and restart Windows Movie Maker, and then try to import the file again.

    please tell me wat i should use. im an 11 year boy that knows alot about computers but this isnt easy!!!!!!!!!!!! help. i have like the best animation ever i just need sound i just need sound!!!!!!!!!!!

  27. the hero of the day!
    Posted March 4, 2009 at 3:02 pm

    did u ever even read trhought the post? save it as a f***ing .gif file, if it goes to fast or to slow edit the framerate,wich is done either in the saving process or u can change the animationspeed in WMM, from there u should be able to import it to WMM, stop whining for not even trying, and btw flare tnx for the advise, it actualy worked out pretty good

  28. omg help
    Posted April 9, 2009 at 6:23 am

    i have over 1000 frames in my vid and its 10 secs! what do i do?

  29. William_the_gamer_....
    Posted April 27, 2009 at 9:22 am

    another way to find sounds is called moviewav.com

    also when i try to put a video in windows movie maker(a pivot 3 beta video) it wont work
    it has stuff from cartoon quotes to move to etc. i have pivot 3 beta and pivot 2.2 and neither of them will get put into windows movie maker. i c people in youtube import the videos but i can not . how do u do that?

  30. Harvy28
    Posted May 11, 2009 at 1:27 pm

    I am tring to import my gif file (from pivot) into moviemaker, but keep getting the message that the file is invalid or corrupt. What codec do i need? I have downloaded ad installed ffdshow but the problem did not go away.

  31. Connor
    Posted May 26, 2009 at 9:52 am

    Everytime I put my pivot animations on WMM it doesn’t play all of it and it goes super fast, I change framerate and everything but it doesn’t work!

  32. thomas
    Posted July 17, 2009 at 10:22 pm

    what……..weird…….cause i cant seem to find my thing what i made…..CAN YOU HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE

    thomas_babic@hotmail.com

    add me then we can go over it cause it very confusing..

  33. james
    Posted July 19, 2009 at 8:34 pm

    Hey, everyone, if ur having trouble with hypercam or have any questions just ask me at skate_rat_9@yahoo.com and if u have unregistered hypercam, just go on youtube and look up free hypercam register code and people will have it.

  34. cloake
    Posted August 29, 2009 at 10:13 pm

    my thing goes super fast even though it has 200 frames help mme at cloakeslayer@aol.com

  35. RJ
    Posted September 12, 2009 at 2:48 am

    I get my pivets to work but If I do a seizure vid it laggs and youtube won’t accept it why is that????

  36. Arrietty Clock
    Posted September 19, 2009 at 1:26 am

    This is great. Thank you for your tutorial.

    I\’ve saved it as a gif file, put it into WMM, but unfortunately, it only saves the first 5 frames then nothing more. I know it must be something simple that I\’ve missed. Can you or anyone help?

    thanks.

  37. Arrietty Clock
    Posted September 19, 2009 at 1:56 am

    Further to my question, I found out the answer. I needed to just click on the right-hand edge of the gif and stretch it out to the desired length.

    Thanks again for your great tutorial.
    Arrietty

  38. In help?
    Posted November 4, 2009 at 4:26 am

    what websites do you get the music from ? How do you save?

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