Stand and look about (bird)

The idle of the game cycles for birds: a slow breath and a small sway, with the head adding its own sharp, repeated bob on top, wings settled, looping every 4 seconds until a game switches it for another cycle.

A cartoon person and a dog standing at rest on the grass, the head snapping into a sharp little bob.

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

What it is for

Stand and look about (bird) is the idle of the nine game cycles, written for the bird set: two legs of one bone with wings or arms (birds, and blobs and monsters on stubby legs). Only the bird and many-legged sets get their own idle; the hop and fours sets reuse Stand and breathe instead, since a short-legged or four-legged body needs nothing different at rest.

The principle it shows: secondary action

Underneath everything, the breath and the small sways run on smooth sine waves exactly like the upright idle's own. On top of that, the head gets a second, different kind of motion: a triangle wave, which moves in a straight line out and back rather than easing like a sine does, once a second. That sharp, linear snap riding on top of the slower, smoother sway is what reads as a bird's alert little head-bob rather than a person's gentle drift.

The program, line by line

settings: h = 540, leg = 0.05
when it starts
  show the side view
  sin wave on sy · every 4 s · amp 0.012
  sin wave on sx · every 4 s · amp -0.006
  tri wave on head · every 1 s · amp -5
  sin wave on head · every 4 s · amp 3 · phase 0.8
  sin wave on left arm · every 4 s · amp -2 · phase 0.4
  sin wave on right arm · every 4 s · amp 2 · phase 1
  sin wave on tail · every 2 s · amp 6
  possin wave on blink · every 4 s · amp 1 · phase 1.2 · power 40

show the side view — the move is drawn in profile.
sin wave on sy · every 4 s · amp 0.012, sin wave on sx · every 4 s · amp -0.006 — a slow breath, the body stretching and narrowing a little.
tri wave on head · every 1 s · amp -5 — a sharp, linear head-bob, once a second, the bird's own alert little snap.
sin wave on head · every 4 s · amp 3 · phase 0.8 — a slower, smoother head sway riding underneath the snap.
sin wave on left arm · every 4 s · amp -2 · phase 0.4, sin wave on right arm · every 4 s · amp 2 · phase 1 — the wings settle with a small sway, each at its own offset.
sin wave on tail · every 2 s · amp 6 — the tail sways on its own, faster rhythm.
possin wave on blink · every 4 s · amp 1 · phase 1.2 · power 40 — a sharp blink once every 4 seconds.

Try this

Bob the head 12 degrees instead of 5. The idle reads as a much more alert, jumpy bird, constantly snapping its gaze around.
In the program: wave · amp -5 → -12
Sway the tail 15 degrees each way instead of 6. The sway becomes a conspicuous tail flick rather than a quiet settle.
In the program: wave · amp 6 → 15

How it differs from Stand and breathe and Waddle (bird, in place)

Stand and breathe is the same idea for the upright set, with no sharp head-bob at all. Waddle (bird, in place) is the cycle a game switches to the instant the bird starts walking.

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, turns, head
4 legs (a dog)	yes	whole body, head, tail, ears
no legs (the monster with no legs)	yes	whole body, turns, tail

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