Duck

The body squashes down to 72% of its height in 0.15 seconds, arms up to shield the head, holds there for well under half a second, then stretches straight back up.

Use it in a cartoonOpen it in the block editorThe pack file (JSON)

What it is for

Duck is for dodging something overhead: a ball, a swing, a low branch. The body drops fast and low, holds for less than half a second, then pops back up on its own — good right before or during a line like "look out!"

The principle it shows: squash and stretch

The character doesn't just move down, it squashes to 72% of its own height while the arms come up to shield the head, so the drop reads as a compression, not a slide: the body gets visibly shorter for the length of the duck, then stretches back to its full height as it pops back up.

The program, line by line

when it starts
  glide right arm 30, right forearm 50, left arm 20, left forearm 50, sy 0.72, dy 2, rot 4 over 0.15 s (out)
  wait 0.4 s
  glide right arm 0, right forearm 0, left arm 0, left forearm 0, sy 1, dy 0, rot 0 over 0.2 s

• when it starts — begins the moment the move is put on a character.
• glide right arm 30, right forearm 50, left arm 20, left forearm 50, sy 0.72, dy 2, rot 4 over 0.15 s (out) — both arms come up to shield the head as the whole body squashes down to 72% of its height, shifts a little and tilts 4 degrees.
• wait 0.4 s — holds the duck.
• glide right arm 0, right forearm 0, left arm 0, left forearm 0, sy 1, dy 0, rot 0 over 0.2 s — the body stretches back to full height and the arms come down.

Try this

1. Squash to half height instead of 72%. The duck now drops much lower, as if dodging something close overhead rather than ducking a little out of caution.

   In the program: ramp · to.sy 0.72 → 0.5

2. Hold the duck for 1.2 seconds instead of 0.4, three times as long. The character stays down as if waiting for more than one thing to pass overhead.

   In the program: wait · s 0.4 → 1.2

How it differs from Block and Side step

Block guards against a hit without ducking or squashing, and never comes back up by itself; Duck is over and reset in well under a second. Side step is the other dodge here, moving the character sideways instead of squashing it down.

Works on

c4c:beh:duck · version 1.0.0 · c4c-free · by Jabbertoon