Spin

Arms out, then a fast spin right round through the side, the back, the side again and the front, written entirely with the skeleton's turning block.

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

What it is for

Spin is a quick, showy turn: a character twirling with excitement, modelling an outfit, or just showing off. It is fast, under a second for the whole turn, so it suits a beat of music or a quick flourish rather than a slow reveal. Because it is built from view changes rather than a drawn rotation, it looks like the same full spin on every character, legs or no legs.

The principle it shows: squash and stretch

Every turn block works by squeezing the character's width to nothing and opening it back out in the new view, the cartoon's standard cheat for a turn. Spin chains four of these squash-and-open turns back to back, so the whole spin is really a fast flicker of squashes rather than a drawn rotation, which is why it works even on a body with no side view at all.

The program, line by line

when it starts
  glide right arm 70, left arm -70, right forearm 10, left forearm -10 over 0.1 s (out)
  turn to the side in 0.2 s
  turn to the back in 0.2 s
  turn to the side in 0.2 s
  turn to the front in 0.2 s
  glide right arm 0, left arm 0, right forearm 0, left forearm 0 over 0.1 s

• when it starts — begins when the move is put on a character.
• glide right arm 70, left arm -70, right forearm 10, left forearm -10 over 0.1 s (out) — both arms swing out to the sides, easing into place.
• turn to the side in 0.2 s — the first turn: the character squashes to nothing and opens out side-on.
• turn to the back in 0.2 s — and again, to its back.
• turn to the side in 0.2 s — and again, side-on, the other way round.
• turn to the front in 0.2 s — and a last turn back to facing you: a full spin in four quick turns.
• glide right arm 0, left arm 0, right forearm 0, left forearm 0 over 0.1 s — the arms return to rest.

Try this

1. Fling the right arm out to 150 degrees instead of 70. The arms spread almost flat out to the sides, a bigger, showier spin.

   In the program: ramp · to.part:arm:1 70 → 150

2. Slow the last turn, back to the front, from 0.2 s to 0.6 s. The spin now eases to a graceful stop instead of snapping to a sudden halt.

   In the program: turnView · over 0.2 → 0.6

How it differs from Look around and Twirl

Look around holds each view for a moment so you can see it clearly; Spin runs through all four with no pause at all, to look like one continuous turn. Twirl uses the same four turns but adds a kicked-back leg, an exaggerated dance shape Spin does not hold.

Works on

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