How to make a stick figure fight animation (step by step)

Think in fight beats, not moves

A good screen fight isn't a list of attacks — it's a rhythm: approach → exchange → turning point → finisher. One fighter presses, something reverses the momentum, and the ending lands hard. Before you type anything, decide those four beats for your fight. This is the single biggest difference between a fight that reads like a story and two characters flailing at each other.

Step 1 — Prompt the choreography in beats

Write the fight the way you just planned it, as a sequence:

Each beat becomes its own motion clip on the timeline: the approach, the combo, the stumble, the finisher, the aftermath. Words like "quick", "huge", and "stumbles" translate into speed and character; "in from the left" sets the travel. The generator draws on a large library of strikes, kicks, flips, dodges, and reactions — you don't need to name techniques, just describe intent.

Step 2 — Add the second fighter

A one-sided fight needs an opponent. Add an extra character from the Character panel — extras get their own prompt, so you write the opponent's side of the choreography: "blocks twice, dodges backward, gets hit and flies back, slowly gets up". Position the fighters facing each other, then play the scene and adjust: attack clips and reaction clips need to overlap on the timeline so a punch and its impact happen together. Sliding one fighter's clip a few frames is usually all the sync a brawl needs — and it's the same drag-to-move editing as everything else in the timeline editor.

Step 3 — Sell the hits

Here's the professional secret: the hit doesn't make the impact — the reaction does. Four cheap tricks, all drawing-free:

• Camera push. Add a camera clip that zooms in right on the finisher. Wide for footwork and spacing, tight for the money hit.
• Impact effects. The particle library has flashes, sparks, and dust — drop one at the contact moment and trim its clip short so it pops instead of lingering.
• Faces. Expression clips turn a hit into a moment: determination on the wind-up, shock on the receiver. Faces are what make people care who wins.
• The beat after. Leave a short still moment after the finisher — stretch the aftermath clip a little. Every great fight scene breathes after the last hit.

Step 4 — Polish the key pose

If one pose in the whole fight deserves to be perfect, it's the finisher's contact frame. Frame-edit mode (✏️ Edit frames on the timeline) lets you grab any joint in any frame and drag it — deepen the lunge, throw the head back further, straighten the punching arm. Edits blend into neighboring frames automatically, so an exaggerated pose doesn't pop. This is the closest the workflow gets to classic animation, and it's optional — but 30 seconds here is the difference between good and screenshot-worthy.

Step 5 — Location, costumes, sound

Stage dressing is picker work: a rooftop or dojo background, distinct outfits so the fighters read at a glance (or a custom drawing on each so they're your characters), and — if you want trash talk before the brawl — Dialogue mode handles the exchange with voices and subtitles.

The whole fight in six steps

1. Plan four beats: approach, exchange, turning point, finisher.
2. Prompt fighter one's choreography as that sequence.
3. Add an extra character and prompt the opponent's blocks, dodges, and reactions.
4. Overlap attack and reaction clips on the timeline until the hits sync.
5. Sell the finisher: camera push, impact particle, expressions, and a beat of stillness.
6. Optionally sculpt the contact frame in frame-edit mode, then export.