Laugh

Both hands settle on the chest, and the head rocks back hard and only partway forward again, fast and unevenly, over and over, for as long as the move plays.

Use it in a cartoon Open it in the block editor The pack file (JSON)

What it is for

Laugh is for genuine amusement: both hands come to rest on the chest — the tummy, as the pack's own description puts it — and the head rocks back and forth fast, over and over, for as long as the move plays.

The principle it shows: exaggeration

The head doesn't rock evenly: it throws back hard to 14° in 0.16 seconds, then only comes forward to 6° in the same time, an uneven, lopsided shake rather than a smooth back-and-forth. That unevenness, repeated fast, is what reads as an uncontrolled fit of laughing rather than a polite chuckle.

The program, line by line

when it starts
  reach hands for the chest + -0.16 up (× its height) in 0.2 s
  forever:
    glide head -14, dy -5, rot 2 over 0.16 s (out)
    glide head -6, dy 0, rot -2 over 0.16 s (in)

when it starts — begins the moment the move is put on a character.
reach hands for the chest + -0.16 up (× its height) in 0.2 s — both hands reach for a point 0.16 below the chest; the offset is counted × its height, the character's own height, so the hands settle on the tummy, higher on a tall character and lower on a short one, over two tenths of a second.
forever: — the laugh repeats for as long as the move plays.
glide head -14, dy -5, rot 2 over 0.16 s (out) — the head throws back 14 degrees, the body lifting a little and tilting 2 degrees.
glide head -6, dy 0, rot -2 over 0.16 s (in) — and only partway forward again, to 6 degrees, tilting the other way: an uneven rock, not a smooth swing.

Try this

Throw the head back 30 degrees instead of 14. The laugh becomes a much bigger, more uproarious shake.
In the program: ramp · to.part:head -14 → -30
Throw the head back in six hundredths of a second instead of 0.16. The laugh shakes much faster, closer to a cackle than a chuckle.
In the program: ramp · over 0.16 → 0.06

How it differs from Cry and Shake head no

Cry uses the same reach-then-loop shape and even timing, for sadness instead of joy. Shake head no also shakes the head repeatedly, but as a deliberate gesture rather than an uncontrolled laugh.

Works on

Worked out by the build: it plays the move in the engine on each body and checks what moves on screen. Nobody types this table.
Body	Moves?	What moves
2 legs (a person)	yes	whole body, head, arms
4 legs (a dog)	yes	whole body, head, front legs, ears
no legs (the monster with no legs)	yes	whole body, arms

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