When I wanted to do trick descriptions, I noticed how difficult it is, to draw a trick diagram or to photograph a trick at the right moment. So I made a set of stylized hands and a model yo-yo, that enable me to easily make a set of pictures illustrating a trick. This is a short description of how to read them. If you are interested in how to make them, look at The Making of YoYoGrams (contains big pictures (~400k)).
Sidestyle[]
Sidestyle YoYoGrams usually show the action as a right handed player would see it looking into a mirror. The Elements of a YoYoGram for sidestyle are as follows.
The two hands are shown as two semicircles, a green - for starboard :-) - right hand and a red left hand. Each hand has a thumb (green), index finger (red), and middle finger. Should we ever need more than that, I will have to redesign the hand.
The string is tied to the right middle finger. From there it goes to the little blue round thing I hope is recognizable as a yo-yo.
Yo-yo movement is shown as red arrows, hand movement as yellow arrows.
Frontstyle[]
The frontstyle diagrams are basically the same as the sidestyle ones, except that the right hand is mirrored. Sidestyle trick YoYoGrams usually show the trick from the viewpoint of an observer, who stands to the left of a right handed player. The finger colors are the same as for frontstyle. Example:
