Sway

A relaxed, swaying stand: a bigger breath than Breathe, a slow rock, and arms that drift away from the body and back.

A cartoon person and a dog lifted a little off the grass, the person's arms held slightly out from the body.

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

What it is for

Sway suits a character who is comfortable: humming to themselves, enjoying the sun, waiting for a friend with nothing on their mind. It is livelier than Breathe, so it can hold the screen on its own for a few seconds, for example while a caption is shown. The arm drift makes it a good choice for characters whose arms show clearly, such as the person and the kid; on a four-legged body the front legs take the arm channel and shift a little.

The principle it shows: slow in and slow out

Every motion in Sway is a sine wave, and a sine wave slows down as it nears each end and speeds up in the middle. That is exactly what animators mean by slow in and slow out: a body that eases into each turn instead of bouncing off it looks heavy and relaxed. The bob uses the one-way version of the wave, so it settles softly at the bottom of each breath.

The program, line by line

when it starts
  abssin wave on dy · w 2.2 · amp -12
  sin wave on sx · w 2.2 · amp -0.012
  sin wave on sy · w 2.2 · amp 0.018
  sin wave on rot · w 1.2 · amp 1.4
  sin wave on left arm · w 1.5 · amp 5 · offset -6
  sin wave on right arm · w 1.5 · amp -5 · offset 6

when it starts — begins when the move is put on a character.
abssin wave on dy · w 2.2 · amp -12 — the body rises 12 pixels and settles, once every 1.4 seconds (the one-way abssin wave at 2.2 radians per second).
sin wave on sx · w 2.2 · amp -0.012 and sin wave on sy · w 2.2 · amp 0.018 — the width and height swing by about 1% and 2% at half the pace of the bob: taller and narrower on one breath, shorter and wider on the next.
sin wave on rot · w 1.2 · amp 1.4 — a rock of 1.4 degrees each way, once every 5.2 seconds.
sin wave on left arm · w 1.5 · amp 5 · offset -6 — offset is where the wave is centred: the left arm sits 6 degrees out from the body and swings 5 degrees either side of that, once every 4.2 seconds. A left arm turns outward with negative numbers.
sin wave on right arm · w 1.5 · amp -5 · offset 6 — the same for the right arm, mirrored, so both arms open and close together.

Try this

Rock 6 degrees each way instead of 1.4. The sway now shows from across the room, like someone listening to music in their head.
In the program: wave · amp 1.4 → 6
Shrink the bob from 12 pixels to 3. The body barely rises now, and the drifting arms become the main thing you notice.
In the program: wave · amp -12 → -3

How it differs from Breathe, Fidget and Peck

Breathe uses a 9-pixel lift, a smaller rock and leaves the arms alone (it sways claws and hands instead). Fidget is much smaller, with a lean so slow it takes 15 seconds to come back. Peck adds a side-to-side shuffle in time with the bob. Choose Sway when the character should look easy and content rather than merely awake.

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, arms
4 legs (a dog)	yes	whole body, front legs
no legs (the monster with no legs)	yes	whole body, arms

c4c:beh:hold · version 1.0.0 · CC0 (public domain) · by Jabbertoon