Stickman Studio

A Godot 4.4 editor tool for creating and assembling stick figures. Stickman Studio lets you draw individual body-part shapes, edit vertices, assemble them into a whole stickman, and save/load your figure to a JSON file (.stk) for later use or animation scripting.

Overview

The editor is organized as 11 sub-windows in a 3-column layout:

• Left column (5) — Head, Left Upper Arm, Left Lower Arm, Left Upper Leg, Left Lower Leg
• Center column (5) — Torso, Right Upper Arm, Right Lower Arm, Right Upper Leg, Right Lower Leg
• Right column (1) — Whole Stickman preview

The editor is driven by three menus: File (Save / Load / Clear), Edit (Configure Grid... / Snap to Grid), and View (Reset Views).

Each body-part panel is an independent vector drawing surface with per-panel zoom and panning (middle-mouse drag). A configurable background grid helps align vertices, and snap-to-grid can be enabled for both vertex dragging and whole-figure assembly. Each panel supports multiple shapes with Z-ordering controls (Send Back / Bring Forward) and shape-level Copy/Paste and Mirror operations. The Whole Stickman panel assembles every part into one figure — treating all shapes in a panel as a single unit — and lets you reposition, rotate, and scale each part, reorder the parts (Z-order), and mirror them.

Drawing surfaces clip their content to the panel bounds: shapes and parts no longer render outside a panel's borders when dragged or panned. A selected shape can be dragged to reposition it within its panel.

Requirements

Item	Version
Engine	Godot 4.4 or newer
Addon	Scalable Vector Shapes 2D (addons/curved_lines_2d/)

The legacy stick.tscn scene (a rigged walk animation using Skeleton2D + IK) remains in the project root for reference but is no longer the main scene.

Running the project

No CLI build, test, or lint commands are used. Run the project from the Godot editor:

1. Open the project folder in Godot 4.4.
2. Press F5, or open and run res://scenes/stickman_editor.tscn.

The main scene is configured as run/main_scene="res://scenes/stickman_editor.tscn" in project.godot.

Quick Start

1. Create a body part

1. Locate one of the 10 body-part panels (e.g. Head).
2. Right-click anywhere inside its drawing area to open the context menu.
3. Choose a starter shape:
   • Line — a 120 px horizontal segment (2 vertices, open shape).
   • Rectangle — a 100 × 60 px rectangle (4 vertices, closed shape).
   • Circle — a 12-segment polygon (12 vertices, closed shape, radius 40).

The shape draws immediately and syncs to the Whole Stickman panel.

Rendering behavior:

• Closed shapes (closed: true) fill their interior with the chosen color (draw_colored_polygon) and draw a 2 px outline.
• Open shapes (closed: false) render as an outline-only segment with no fill.

Body-part panels expand vertically to fill their column height.

2. Edit vertices

Each panel supports vertex-level editing:

1. Select a shape — Left-click anywhere inside a shape to select it. The outline turns white.
2. Create a vertex — With a shape selected, right-click on its outline and choose "Create Point". A new vertex (shown as a hollow rectangle) is added at the nearest edge midpoint.
3. Drag vertices — Left-click on any vertex handle (filled circle = original, hollow rectangle = user-created) and drag to reshape. The shape conforms in real time. Release to apply. With Snap to Grid enabled, the dragged vertex jumps to the nearest grid intersection.
4. Delete a vertex — Right-click on a vertex handle and choose Remove Point (see Deleting below).
5. Deselect — Left-click outside the shape or select a different panel. Only one shape is selected at a time.

Move a whole shape (Phase 5):

1. Left-click a shape not on a vertex handle and drag to reposition the entire shape within the panel.
2. Release to commit. All vertices translate together; the shape's Z-order is unchanged.
3. With Snap to Grid enabled, the dragged shape jumps to the nearest grid intersection on release.

3. Zoom & Pan

Scroll the mouse wheel inside any body-part panel or the Whole Stickman preview to zoom. Pan the view with the middle-mouse button:

• Wheel up — zoom in by 10%
• Wheel down — zoom out by 10%
• Middle-mouse drag — pan the view in any direction
• Range — 30% (minimum) to 300% (maximum)
• Vertex handles remain visible at all zoom levels.
• Each panel has independent zoom and pan offset.
• Panning takes priority over vertex dragging (middle-mouse press cancels any in-progress drag).
• Content is clipped to the panel bounds (Phase 5) — shapes, grid, and gizmos cannot render outside a panel's drawing area, even when panned or dragged beyond its edge. This keeps each panel self-contained.
• Use View → Reset Views to restore all panels to 100% zoom and the origin pan offset.

4. Assemble a stickman

1. Create shapes for every part you want in the figure.
2. In the Whole Stickman panel, drag any part to reposition it in the figure.
   • Parts get a generous hit area and show a yellow highlight while being dragged.
   • A short label (H, T, LUA, RUA, LUL, RLL, …) marks each part.
   • Use the mouse wheel to zoom in/out and middle-mouse to pan for precise positioning.
   • With Snap to Grid enabled, the mouse pointer snaps to the nearest grid intersection and the part follows.
3. Optionally type a name in the Stickman Name field at the top.
4. Right-click a selected part (Phase 5) to reorder or mirror it:
   • Send Back / Bring Forward — change the part's draw order in the preview.
   • Mirror X / Mirror Y — flip the part around its bounding-box center.

5. Grid & Panning

All 10 body-part panels and the Whole Stickman preview share a global background grid (default cell size 15 px, Phase 5; previously 5 px):

1. Click Edit → Configure Grid... and set the grid size.
   • SpinBox accepts 1–100 px per cell.
   • The setting is applied to every panel simultaneously and persists to user://settings.json.
2. Toggle Edit → Snap to Grid to enable snapping (Phase 5: the checkable menu item now reliably shows its ✓ checkmark when toggled):
   • On vertices — while dragging a vertex handle, it jumps to the nearest grid intersection.
   • On assembly — while dragging a part in the Whole Stickman preview, the pointer snaps and the part follows.
   • On shape drag — while dragging a whole shape (Phase 5), it snaps on release.
   • Existing vertices are not retroactively snapped; snapping only applies to new drags.
3. Pan — hold the middle-mouse button and drag anywhere in a panel to pan the view.
   • Panning uses the same transform as zoom, and each panel keeps an independent offset.
   • View → Reset Views restores 100% zoom and the origin offset on all panels.
4. Grid lines are drawn behind shapes and scale with pan/zoom, so they stay aligned to world coordinates.

6. Changing Colors

Colors are easy to change on any existing shape:

1. Right-click on a shape (either selected or with the cursor over it) and choose Color....
2. A ColorPicker popup appears with the shape's current color pre-loaded.
3. Adjust the color — the shape updates live as a preview.
4. Click OK to commit the change or Cancel to revert to the original color.

The chosen color is stored in the shape's color field and is saved/loaded with the .stk file.

7. Deleting

Two levels of deletion are available:

Delete an entire shape:

1. Right-click on a shape (either selected or with the cursor over it) and choose Delete.
   • Delete is only offered when a shape exists and the mouse is over it.
2. The shape is removed from the panel and the Whole Stickman preview.

Remove a single vertex:

1. Right-click on a vertex handle and choose Remove Point.
2. If 2 vertices remain, the shape becomes an open line (closed = false).
3. If 1 vertex or fewer remains, the entire shape is cleared.

8. Multiple Shapes & Z-Ordering

Each body-part panel can contain more than one shape. New shapes are created via the standard right-click context menu and are drawn on top of existing shapes. Shapes are drawn in Z-order (last in the list = frontmost).

Z-ordering controls:

• Right-click on a shape and choose Send Back to move it one step behind (earlier in draw order).
• Right-click on a shape and choose Bring Forward to move it one step ahead (later in draw order).

Z-order is preserved in the .stk save file (shapes are stored in draw order within the shapes array).

Only one shape within a panel can be selected at a time for vertex editing. Left-click a shape to select it; right-click also selects the shape under the mouse for context menu operations.

Shape Copy & Paste (Phase 5):

1. Right-click on a shape and choose Copy to place a deep copy of the shape on the editor-wide clipboard.
2. Right-click (on empty space or a shape) and choose Paste to insert the clipboard shape at the click position.
   • Paste only appears while the clipboard is populated.
   • The clipboard persists after pasting and is shared across all 10 body-part panels — a shape copied in one panel can be pasted into any other.
   • The pasted shape becomes the newly selected (topmost) shape.
   • Copy → Clear → Paste semantics: the clipboard survives figure clear.

Shape Mirroring (Phase 5):

1. Right-click on a selected shape and choose Mirror X or Mirror Y.
2. The shape's vertices are mirrored around the shape's bounding-box center.
3. Mirroring recomputes the points array in place — no extra fields are stored; the result is saved as normal vertex data.

9. Whole Stickman Manipulation (Selection, Rotation, Scale)

The Whole Stickman preview treats all shapes in a body-part panel as one combined object. Each part can be independently translated, rotated, and scaled.

Selection:

• Left-click on any part in the Whole Stickman preview to select it.
• A white bounding box appears around the selected part, along with manipulation gizmos.
• Click empty space to deselect.

Translation:

• Left-click and drag a selected part to reposition it. Snap-to-grid applies to the pointer position when enabled.

Rotation:

• When a part is selected, a filled circle appears centered below the bounding box.
• Click and drag the rotation circle to rotate the part around its center.
• Hold Ctrl while rotating to snap to 15-degree increments (relative to the original 0° position).
• Rotation is absolute: 0° always means the original orientation the object was created with.
• The accumulated rotation value is saved in the .stk file.

Scale:

• When a part is selected, cross/plus markers appear at all four corners of the bounding box.
• Click and drag any corner cross to freely scale the part.
• Hold Ctrl while scaling to lock the aspect ratio (scale uniformly).
• Grid snapping snaps the corner position to the nearest grid intersection.
• Scale is relative to the created size: (1.0, 1.0) = original size.
• The scale value is saved in the .stk file. Scale may be negative for mirrored parts.
• Part mirroring (Phase 5) — right-click a selected part and choose Mirror X or Mirror Y to mirror it around its bounding-box center. This is implemented by negating the part's scale factor along the chosen axis (no vertex data is changed).

Part Z-ordering (Phase 5):

• Right-click a selected part and choose Send Back or Bring Forward to move it one step within the preview's draw order.
• Selection respects Z-order: hit-testing runs front-to-back, so the frontmost part under the pointer is selected.
• Part Z-order is saved in the .stk file as the top-level part_order array.

10. Save

1. Click File → Save.
2. Choose a location and name. The default extension is .stk (appended automatically if omitted).
3. Click Save. The figure is written as JSON.

11. Load

1. Click File → Load.
2. Select a .stk file.
3. On success, all body-part panels and the Whole Stickman preview are populated. On failure, an error dialog reports the problem (missing file, parse error, or unsupported version).

v1.0, v1.1, and v1.2 files are automatically migrated to v1.3 on load (v1.0/v1.1 single shapes wrapped in a shapes array, rotation defaults to 0, scale defaults to (1,1); files without part_order fall back to the default part order).

12. Clear

1. Click File → Clear.
2. A confirmation dialog warns that the current stickman will be cleared.
3. Confirm to reset all panels and the preview (zoom resets to 100%, pan offset to origin).

File format (.stk)

Files are UTF-8 JSON, pretty-printed with tab indentation. The format is versioned and designed to remain backward/forward compatible — new fields can be added without breaking older files.

{
  "version": "1.3",
  "stickman_name": "Bob",
  "part_order": [
    "head",
    "torso",
    "left_upper_arm",
    "left_lower_arm",
    "right_upper_arm",
    "right_lower_arm",
    "left_upper_leg",
    "left_lower_leg",
    "right_upper_leg",
    "right_lower_leg"
  ],
  "body_parts": {
    "head": {
      "shapes": [
        {
          "shape_type": "circle",
          "closed": true,
          "points": [
            { "x": 120, "y": 40 },
            { "x": 124, "y": 39 }
          ],
          "color": "#000000",
          "vertex_flags": [0, 0, 1, 0]
        }
      ],
      "position": { "x": 150, "y": 40 },
      "rotation": 0.0,
      "scale": { "x": 1.0, "y": 1.0 }
    }
  },
  "metadata": {
    "created_at": "2026-08-05T12:00:00",
    "modified_at": "2026-08-05T12:00:00"
  }
}

Root object

Key	Type	Description
version	string	Format version. Currently "1.3". Loading supports "1.0"–"1.3" (auto-migrated).
stickman_name	string	Optional display name for the figure.
part_order	array[string]	Phase 5. Render/Z-order of parts in the Whole Stickman preview, front-to-back semantics per array position (first = back, last = front). Absent on v1.0–v1.2 files; defaults to the internal part-key order when missing.
body_parts	object	Map of body_part_name → shape objects. Keyed by the 10 internal part names below.
metadata.created_at	string	Timestamp written on save.
metadata.modified_at	string	Timestamp written on save.

Part keys

head, torso, left_upper_arm, left_lower_arm, right_upper_arm, right_lower_arm, left_upper_leg, left_lower_leg, right_upper_leg, right_lower_leg

Part object

Each body part is an object with the following keys:

Key	Type	Description
shapes	array	Array of shape objects (see below). Draw order = array order (first = back, last = front). Wrapped as a single-element array when migrating v1.0/v1.1 files.
position	object	{ "x": float, "y": float } position of the part within the Whole Stickman preview.
rotation	float	Rotation in degrees. 0.0 = original orientation. Defaults to 0.0 for v1.0/v1.1 files.
scale	object	{ "x": float, "y": float } scale factors relative to created size. 1.0 = original size. May be negative (Phase 5) to represent mirroring along an axis. Defaults to { "x": 1.0, "y": 1.0 } for older files.

Shape object

Each entry in the shapes array:

Key	Type	Description
shape_type	string	"line", "rectangle", "circle", or "" (empty). Descriptive tag only — rendering uses closed.
closed	bool	Whether the polygon is closed (filled) or open (outline-only).
points	array	Array of { "x": float, "y": float } vertex positions local to the drawing area.
color	string	Hex colour, e.g. "#000000". Changeable in-app via right-click → Color... (Phase 3).
vertex_flags	array[int]	Same length as points. 0 = original vertex, 1 = user-created via "Create Point". Controls handle appearance.

On load, parts missing from the file fall back to built-in default preview positions. v1.0 files have closed inferred from shape_type and vertex_flags default to all zeros. v1.0/v1.1 files have their single shape wrapped in a shapes array and default rotation/scale applied. Files without part_order (v1.0–v1.2) use the default part-key order. Note that shape mirroring (Phase 5) rewrites the points array in place, so no new shape fields are required — the resulting vertices load identically across all supported versions.

Settings file (user://settings.json)

Phase 3 introduces a global settings file stored in Godot's user data directory (user://), separate from the .stk figure files. It persists the grid configuration and is versioned for future extensibility:

{
  "version": "1.0",
  "grid_size": 15,
  "snap_to_grid": false
}

Settings keys

Key	Type	Default	Description
version	string	"1.0"	Settings file version (for future extensibility).
grid_size	int	15	Grid interval in pixels, applied equally to width and height. Default changed from 5 to 15 in Phase 5. Clamped to 1–100 on load.
snap_to_grid	bool	false	Whether snap-to-grid is active.

Behavior:

• Load — read on editor startup; if the file is missing or fails to parse, defaults (grid_size = 15, snap_to_grid = false) are used silently (no error dialog).
• Save — written whenever the user changes the grid size or toggles Snap to Grid.
• Scope — global; all body-part panels and the Whole Stickman preview share the same grid size and snap setting.
• Pan offsets are NOT persisted — they reset on load, clear, and "Reset Views".

Project structure

Path	Purpose
res://project.godot	Engine config; sets main scene to the editor and enabled features.
res://scenes/stickman_editor.tscn	Main scene — editor layout, File/Edit/View menu bar, dialogs (GridConfigDialog + SpinBox), column containers (unique-name nodes).
res://scenes/body_part_panel.tscn	Reusable single body-part editor panel (title, drawing area, context menu, ColorPickerPopup); expands vertically in its column.
res://scripts/stickman_editor.gd	Editor controller — File/Edit/View menu actions, save/load/clear, JSON v1.3 serialization with multi-shape/rotation/scale and part_order, settings.json load/save, editor-wide shape clipboard (Copy/Paste across panels), broadcast of grid/snap settings to panels, Reset Views, populates panels, coordinates selection across panels.
res://scripts/body_part_panel.gd	Multi-shape creation, vertex editing, shape dragging, per-panel zoom & pan, grid drawing & snap-to-grid, ColorPicker, shape/vertex delete, Z-ordering (Send Back / Bring Forward), shape Copy/Paste, shape Mirror X/Y, drawing (fill + outline for closed shapes).
res://scripts/whole_stickman_preview.gd	Assembly preview, drag-to-reposition, part selection with white bounding box, rotation gizmo (circle below box) with Ctrl 15° snap, scale gizmo (corner crosses) with Ctrl aspect lock, part Z-ordering (Send Back / Bring Forward) via part_order, part Mirror X/Y (scale negation), zoom & pan, grid drawing & snap-to-grid, part hit-bounds, labels.
res://addons/curved_lines_2d/	Scalable Vector Shapes 2D addon (v2.27.7) — required dependency.
res://stick.tscn	Legacy rigged/animated stick figure scene (Skeleton2D + IK). Not used by the editor.
res://AGENTS.md	Guidance for AI agents working in this codebase.

Menu bar structure

File          Edit                  View
────────────  ────────────────────  ───────────
Save          Configure Grid...     Reset Views
Load          ─────────
────────      Snap to Grid  (check)
Clear

• File — Save, Load, Clear (Phase 1).
• Edit — Configure Grid... (dialog with a 1–100 SpinBox) and the checkable Snap to Grid toggle (Phase 3).
• View — Reset Views (resets zoom to 100% and pan offset to origin on every panel) (Phase 3).

Context menu (per body-part panel)

The right-click context menu is context-sensitive. Item IDs:

ID	Label	Shown when
0	Line	Empty space right-click
1	Rectangle	Empty space right-click
2	Circle	Empty space right-click
3	Create Point	Shape under mouse, near outline
4	Color...	Shape under mouse
5	Delete	Shape under mouse
6	Remove Point	Right-click on a vertex handle
7	Send Back	Shape under mouse
8	Bring Forward	Shape under mouse
9	Copy	Shape under mouse (Phase 5)
10	Paste	Shape or empty space right-click; shown only when the clipboard is populated (Phase 5)
11	Mirror X	Shape under mouse (Phase 5)
12	Mirror Y	Shape under mouse (Phase 5)

Context menu (Whole Stickman preview)

Right-clicking a selected part opens the preview's context menu:

ID	Label	Description
0	Send Back	Move the selected part one step back in part_order (Phase 5)
1	Bring Forward	Move the selected part one step forward in part_order (Phase 5)
2	Mirror X	Mirror the selected part around its bounding-box center (scale X negated) (Phase 5)
3	Mirror Y	Mirror the selected part around its bounding-box center (scale Y negated) (Phase 5)

Signal flow

BodyPartPanel.shape_changed(data) ---(bound to part_name)---> stickman_editor
        |                                                           |
        |  _on_body_part_shape_changed                                |
        +--------------------------> WholeStickmanPreview            |
                                       .set_body_parts(all_data)       |
                                             ^                         |
        WholeStickmanPreview.part_moved(name, pos)  (drag handling) --+

BodyPartPanel.shape_selected() ---(bound to part_name)---> stickman_editor
                                                              |
                                      _on_body_part_shape_selected
                                         (deselects all other panels)

• BodyPartPanel emits shape_changed(shapes_array) whenever a shape is created, a vertex is dragged (on release), a color is committed via the ColorPicker (on OK), a shape is deleted, a vertex is removed via "Remove Point", or Z-order changes via "Send Back"/"Bring Forward". The signal carries the full Array[Dictionary] of all shapes in the panel. Note: clear_shape() does not emit the signal; the editor's Clear flow refreshes the preview directly.
• BodyPartPanel emits shape_selected when left-clicked; the editor deselects all other panels.
• stickman_editor.gd collects shape data from all 10 panels and forwards it to WholeStickmanPreview.set_body_parts().
• WholeStickmanPreview emits part_moved(part_name, new_position) during translation drags. Rotation and scale are stored internally and polled by the editor at save time via get_part_rotation() / get_part_scale(). Part Z-order is polled the same way via get_part_order() and saved to the top-level part_order field (Phase 5).
• Shape Copy/Paste (Phase 5) is owned by the editor: _copy_shape() stores a deep duplicate in _shape_clipboard, _broadcast_clipboard_state() tells every panel whether Paste should be offered, and _paste_shape() inserts the clipboard into the target panel at the click position. The clipboard persists after pasting and is shared across all panels.

Phase 4: Each body part can have multiple shapes in Z-order. The Whole Stickman preview treats all shapes in a panel as one combined object, with selection (white bounding box), rotation (circle gizmo below box), and scale (cross gizmos at corners). The .stk format evolved to v1.2 with a shapes array per part plus rotation and scale fields. Rotation snaps to 15° with Ctrl; scale locks aspect ratio with Ctrl.

Phase 5: Adds drawing-surface clipping, shape dragging, an editor-wide shape clipboard (Copy/Paste across panels), shape Mirror X/Y (vertex recompute), and preview object Z-ordering (Send Back/Bring Forward) with Mirror X/Y (scale negation). The format evolved to v1.3: a new top-level part_order array stores preview Z-order; scale may be negative for mirrored parts; shape mirroring stores no new fields because it rewrites points. The default grid size changed from 5 px to 15 px, and the Snap to Grid checkmark now renders correctly when toggled. v1.0–v1.2 files remain backward compatible and are migrated on load.