Rusty Arcade

The stick figure is the first thing we learn to draw. It’s simple and looks very accurate to the morphology of a human being.  But what makes then so popular in flash games and why do we all love them? Well, it's because they look cool! If this answer is too short and simple for you, then you can take a look for yourself in the examples below -

Fancy pants adventure

Using a very simple stick figure, given some anime style hair and very fancy orange pants, this character looks very unique and simple.

Johnny Rocket Fingers

Very cool stick figure with a white head. He is given some sun glasses to give him that little bit extra hint of "cool".

Sift Heads

Similar to Johnny Rocket Fingers, Vinnie is given an all black apperance, but with white sun glasses and a cigarette. In some of the games you can customise his clothes and apperance.

From an artist point of view thesecharacters have the main principle of the design theory “Where less is best”. As you can see they just have minor details that makes them look pretty awesome, like sunglass or a nice hear style, remaining simple and with stick figure style!

Another advantage to keep in mind about using stick figures if you are going to make a game or a flash animation is that if you aren’t very good making art and animation, this can be a straight forward solution to your problem. Stick figures are easier to animate with motion tweens and still looks very smooth and real. Just put some cool details on the protagonist to make it stand out from the rest of characters in the animation or game and you will definitely have a bonus. Another thing to consider when you are using stick figures is that since you are using a simple character, you should put some extra effort on the backgrounds to make the whole thing look better and feel more professional. Another thing is keeping the whole thing with some sort of “style” for example, most of the stick figures flash animations and games are black and white or draft looking. This had proved to work because it gives a uniform look to the entire idea of using simple art forms.

Using a stick figure with a blackand white background is fine because too many colors would take away the magic of the whole simplistic style. Using two colours is sometimes not enough though, that’s why sometimes the artist has to use a third bright color (like red or bright blue) to add drama in the artwork (for example emphasising blood splatters or weapons).  Another thing to keep in mind is that stick figure don’t stand out in a cluttered background. For this reason, line backgrounds, black and white backgrounds and rough style art work well.

Another thing you should keep in mind when doing stick figures is they should look natural and perhaps have a smooth flow in the animation and natural pose when standing.

So, if you are thinking in making some artwork and are not sure about which style use or if you are simply not very good at drawing, try considering a stick figure with some badass sunglasses and a natural pose.