We’re proud to announce that the Digi Awards (formerly known as the Canada New Media Awards) has named Bitstrips for Schools Best in E-Learning!

We’re excited and honoured to have received this prestigious award, and want to thank all the teachers and students out there for helping to make the site what it is!

You might have noticed characters look a little different on Bitstrips today. We have released an update which makes your character’s outlines a few pixels thinner. We have also added over 30 new pieces of clothing for you to wear including…. dresses!

Q: Why make the outlines thinner?

It looks better! It might take you a few minutes but you will quickly adjust to it.

Q: Is there any way to keep using thick characters?

There is, but it will only be available for a limited time. It is only meant for users with long-standing series where the outline change would be disruptive to their style.

To edit an old comic with thick outlines, add &old_builder=1 to the URL when editing a comic. For example, add it to:

bitstrips.com/create/comic/?comic_id=JSM3P

to get:

bitstrips.com/create/comic/?comic_id=JSM3P&old_builder=1

New props

• ant
• bagof_popcorn
• beach_ball
• beach_pail
• beach_shovel
• berry_bush
• big_pretzel
• birch_tree
• bowl_of_rice
• bowl_of_salad
• bread_loaf
• cactus
• cane
• carrots
• caterpillar
• cattail
• ceiling_light
• chicken_wings
• corn_onthe_cob
• cotton_candy
• dandelions
• duck_onwheels
• fern
• fire_bell
• fire_extinguisher
• fluorescent_bulb
• fly
• frisbee
• fudgsicle
• icecream_cone
• icecream_conesoft
• icecream_sandwich
• juicebox
• ketchup_bottle
• kite
• lazyboy_chair
• lilly_pads
• magnifying_glass
• milk_carton
• mosquito
• omelette
• paddle_ball
• palm_tree
• paper_plane
• pepper_mill
• piggy_bank
• pillow
• pizza
• popsicle
• potatoes
• poutine
• power_screwdriver
• ragdoll
• roast_turkey
• rocking_horse
• rose
• saltpepper_shakers
• shish_kabob
• skateboard_long
• skis
• smartphone
• snowboard
• spaghetti
• spatula
• teddybear
• thermal_flask
• toy_dinosaur
• toy_soldier
• tulips
• venus_flytrap
• vines
• watermelon
• water_pistol
• wave_form
• wave_form02
• willow
• windup_robot
• wooden_toytrain

And the following props props have new states:

• basket_easter
• bathtub
• bunk_bed
• dog_house
• entertainment_center
• garbage_can
• hand_prop
• hotdog
• house_01
• lawn_chair01
• love_seat
• shopping_cart
• swing
• SwingTire
• toilet_paper
• trashcan
• ugly_couch
• wastebasket

Enjoy!

Blammo! You’ve left your boring old body behind. It’s time to get out there and enjoy the heady heights of your bodiless state.

Start by right-clicking on a character and selecting the “Make Avatar Swapper” option.

This will cause the character to be replaced with the user’s avatar when they remix it.

Voilà!

Once a character is a “swapper”, you can turn it off by right-clicking them again and selecting “Disable Avatar Swapping”.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, Kinect for Xbox 360 is a revolutionary new system in which YOU are the controller.  Your body movements are captured by a hi-tech sensor and translated into moves in the game!  So, we want you to explore the possibilities of this wild concept than by inventing your own crazy games and illustrating them as comics.  You can make as many entries as you like – the only limit is your imagination.

The winning comics will be selected by our panel of expert judges – these guys write about games and gadgets on some of the biggest blogs on the web: Jason Chen from Gizmodo, Ben Kuchera from Ars Technica, and Brian Crecente from Kotaku.  We couldn’t ask for a more qualified panel, so we’re thrilled to have them all on board!

So what are you waiting for – go to the contest page, and get your game on!

Which is why we’ve updated the Community Comics section on the front page, to enable anyone to create their own Theme of the Day, Remix Challenge, etc.  We’ve also added a new section – ‘In the News‘ – which is your chance to show your unique take on the top story of the day.

It’s easy to create a theme, news topic or challenge – just go to the latest theme page (or challenge, etc), and at the top you’ll see a ‘make a theme’ button.  Click that to open up the Blurb Builder and create your theme blurb.  If it’s well-designed, readable, and hasn’t been done before, we’ll add it to the list.

We’re looking forward to seeing your submissions for themes, news and challenges – so go make some!

• Make a In the News topic
• Make a Theme of the Day blurb
• Make a new Remix Challenge

By extremely popular demand, fully poseable pets have joined the Bitstrips Art Library!

Our new cat and dog are just as flexible as human characters – you can give them an amazing range of emotions and choose from a variety of preset poses. Or put them into Pose Mode and manipulate them any way you can imagine.

To turn on Pose Mode, just double-click anywhere on the cat or dog’s body. It’ll become highlighted in yellow, which means you can now click on any individual body part and position it however you want! The combinations are virtually endless.

Look for our new pet friends in the Comic Builder Art Library under the Characters tab. We have a feeling they’ll soon be more popular than people!