Flipnote Studio
Developer(s)	Nintendo EAD Tokyo Group No.2
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Director(s)	Hideaki Shimizu
Producer(s)	Yoshiaki Koizumi
Platform(s)	Nintendo DSi, Nintendo 3DS (3D version)
Release	JP: December 24, 2008 NA: August 12, 2009 EU: August 14, 2009 AU: August 14, 2009
Genre(s)	Memo/Notepad/Animation
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayeronline and locally

Flipnote Studio, originally released in Japan as Moving Notepad (うごくメモ帳, Ugoku Memochō), was a free downloadable application for the Nintendo DSi's DSiWare digital distribution service. Developed by Nintendo EAD Tokyo,^[1]Flipnote Studio allowed the user to create both word and picture-based notes with the stylus, add sound, and put them together to create frame-by-frame flipbook-style animations. Though referred to as Moving Notepad by Nintendo in prior English-language keynote addresses and conferences,^[2] the application was announced at E3 2009 officially as Flipnote Studio.^[3] It was released in Japan on December 24, 2008, in North America on August 12, 2009, and in Europe and Australia on August 14, 2009. It was also included as a preloaded program on the Nintendo DSi LL/XL and Nintendo DSi with firmware 1.4. An online service, titled Flipnote Hatena (うごメモはてな, Ugomemo Hatena) allowed users to download flipnotes created by other users. Users were also able to post stills from flipnotes to the sharing site Miiverse.

Flipnote Studio is not available to be downloaded or transferred onto the Nintendo 3DS.^[4] As a successor, Flipnote Studio 3D, was developed specifically for the system.

Sudomemo: Flipnote Hatena is back! Sudomemo is the place to share flipbook animations - called Flipnotes - created and posted from Flipnote Studio on the Nintendo DSi and 3DS. Learn how to Join! Sign in Help Center. Welcome to Flipnote Frenzy! To get your flipnotes posted, go to the flipnote 'Blogs' on Hatena at Flatron's Creator room. Next post a comment and tell me which flipnote you want me to post! Everyone can have an unlimited amount of flipnotes posted. I will not post any inappropriate flipnotes! Enjoy, and watch other peoples flipnotes.

The online Flipnote Hatena (うごメモはてな Ugomemo Hatena) service officially retired on May 31, 2013. However, users were previously able to transfer the Flipnotes from their Flipnote Hatena account to the new online service provided with Flipnote Studio 3D, until the Flipnote Gallery World service was shut down on April 2, 2018.^[5] After the Nintendo DSi Shop closed on March 31, 2017, the original Flipnote Studio was no longer available for download.

Features[edit]

Open Flipnote Studio and tap on Flipnote Hatena, and then tap OK. Once you’ve connected, tap Get Started (or, if you’ve connected previously, Creator’s Room) to get started! ⚠ IMPORTANT: Resetting (formatting) your console or uninstalling Flipnote Studio will cause you to permanently lose access to your Sudomemo account.
Flipnote Hatena was a website where users could upload and share their creations from the free downloadable application for the Nintendo DSi, Flipnote Studio, which allowed users to create both word and picture-based notes with the stylus, add sound, and put them together to create frame-by-frame flipbook-style animations.Other users could comment on them either by text, or by creating a Flipnote.
Kaeru Team homepage. Kaeru Discord guild. DSi Library - Hatena archive. Flipnote Player & Video Converter. Flipnote.js by jaames. Flipnote Studio 3D reverse engineering docs. IPGFlip (a DSi Flipnote server) Sudomemo (a DSi Flipnote server).

The Japanese logo of Moving Notepad (Flipnote Studio)

Flipnote Studio offers the user three main tools with which to create drawings: a pen, an eraser, and a paintbrush (each heavily customizable) . With these tools, the user may create frames for short or long animated sketches, called Flipnotes. Additional features such as layering, shrinking, enlarging, moving, copying, cutting, pasting, etc. are also available, as well as the option to import black-and-white images via the DSi Camera Album (though not limited to black and white) . The Japanese version of the software allows the user to take photos directly from Flipnote Studio itself.^[2]^[6] One animation may consist of hundreds of frames (maximum 999), and to go along with the animation itself, the user may choose to record up to 4 different sound banks (each holding up to 2 seconds of sound) with the DSi microphone OR importing from DSi Sound, then save it as a 'mastered' soundtrack (which can hold up to 1 minute of sound).^[6] The speed ranges from 0.5 - 30 FPS.

When newly started, Flipnote Studio is set to right-hand mode. When drawing, the left and right buttons on the depad cycle through the pages. Pressing down will play the animation, and the up button will take the user to the tools section. The L button can trigger advanced tool options, such as enlarging the drawing instead of shrinking it. If the user uses left-hand mode - an option in the settings - the buttons will switch places, and mirror. Once activated, the R button will take place of the L button and so on.

Flipnote Hatena[edit]

Overview[edit]

Shortly before the release of Moving Notepad in Japan, Nintendo announced that they were partnering with Japanese web services provider Hatena to provide the means to share works created with the software. Speaking for Nintendo, Yoshiaki Koizumi stated they chose to work with Hatena because 'it takes a special skill set to maintain the User Generated Contents (UGC) site, and we don't have that skill. We rely on Hatena on that part.' ^[7]

The homescreen of Flipnote Hatena, through the DS interface.

Flipnote Hatena is the name of both the portion of the Flipnote Studio application that connects to the Flipnote Hatena website as well as the website itself (the Japanese version of the program differentiates between the two, but not the English version). Through the DSi portion of the application users were able to download Flipnotes to their DSi, add stars to Flipnotes uploaded by others, and upload their own. Users could also 'spin off' another user's Flipnote, by downloading it and editing it. Flipnote Hatena was shut down on May 31, 2013.^[6]

Description[edit]

As for the website itself, Flipnote Hatena offered the ability for users to rate and comment on the works of others, as well as to embed their animations into other webpages.^[6] Users could also flag submissions as inappropriate; flipnotes thus flagged will not be viewable via the DSi's Flipnote Hatena^[8] and may be removed from the website altogether.^[9]

Channels[edit]

When uploaded, Flipnote animations were placed into specific categories by their creators. These categories, known as 'channels,' included general classifications such as 'Musical' and 'Comedy,' as well as more specific categories suggested by popular Flipnote users and accepted by Hatena.^[10] For example, the categories 'Stick Figures,' 'Spoof,' and 'Birds' were added at the request of users.

Stars[edit]

Flipnote Hatena also had its own economy of 'stars.' Stars were used to rate Flipnotes (similarly to YouTube's 'like' function), and users could add as many stars as they desired to any Flipnote. In addition to the regular Stars, users could purchase or earn Color Stars. In increasing rarity, these colors were green, red, blue, and purple. Users could earn Green Stars by reporting inappropriate Flipnotes, using other Hatena services, posting Flipnotes frequently (based on the number of days they posted Flipnotes), or managing a popular Channel. Red Stars were given to creators whose Flipnotes were featured in the Weekly News. In addition, users could purchase 'boxes' containing a certain num