Hands on hips
Both hands go to the hips and stay there while the body sways and the head tilts one way, then the other. The hands are aimed at a spot, not moved by angles.
Use it in a cartoonOpen it in the block editorThe pack file (JSON)
What it is for
Hands on hips is the stance of a character who is waiting for an answer, telling someone off, or feeling confident. It suits the person, the kid, the monster and the bird, whose hands, claws or wing tips can reach their hips. A dog or a cat cannot put its front paws on its hips, so on them the reach is skipped: they stand on all four legs and only the head and the sway move. The moves library on this site says so under the stage, rather than leaving the paws in a strange place.
The principle it shows: secondary action
The main action here is the pose, hands on hips; the sway of the body and the tilt of the head are secondary actions laid on top of it. What makes it work is that the hands stay put while the body moves: the reach block keeps aiming each hand at its hip spot on every frame, bending the elbow and shoulder to get there. That is called inverse kinematics, and it lets the secondary action happen without breaking the pose.
The program, line by line
when it starts
reach hands for the hip in 0.5 s
sway 2° · every 2 s
forever:
turn head by 8° in 0.5 s
wait 0.7 s
turn head by -8° in 0.5 s
wait 0.7 swhen it starts— this move uses the skeleton's reach block.reach hands for the hip in 0.5 s— both hands move to the character's hip spots over half a second, easing out. A spot is a named place on the body (hip, chest, head, mouth); the arms bend themselves to reach it, inside their joint limits.sway 2° · every 2 s— the whole body rocks 2 degrees each way, a full sway every 2 seconds.forever:withturn head by 8° in 0.5 s,wait 0.7 s,turn head by -8° in 0.5 s,wait 0.7 s— the head tilts 8 degrees one way, holds, and tilts back past the middle, again and again: a full tilt cycle every 2.4 seconds.
Try this
Reach for the head instead of the hips. The same block now puts both hands on top of the head, an "oh no" pose, without changing a single angle by hand.
In the program:
reach · at"hip"→"head"Sway 8 degrees instead of 2. The body now rocks clearly from side to side, and the hands stay on the hips the whole time, because the reach keeps aiming at them.
In the program:
sway · deg2→8
How it differs from Wave and look and Proud
Wave and look uses the same reach block for one hand that moves, aiming at points beside the head. Proud holds the arms in by setting their angles, so it cannot keep the hands on a spot while the body moves. Hands on hips is the move that shows a reach holding still.
Works on
| Body | Moves? | What moves |
|---|---|---|
| 2 legs (a person) | yes | whole body, head, arms |
| 4 legs (a dog) | yes | whole body, head, ears |
| no legs (the monster with no legs) | yes | whole body, arms |