Tail sweep

A creature with a long tail crouches, lifts its tail and curls it to one side, then whips it across behind it as its body twists the other way. It hits as the tail sweeps through.

Use it in a cartoon Change it in the move maker The pack file (JSON)

What it is for

A dragon, a lizard or a sea serpent keeping you off its back in a game, or a cartoon cat lashing its tail when it is cross. In a game it is the creature's answer to someone behind it or at its side: give it to a creature's fight as its tail, and when you stand where its jaws cannot reach, it crouches and spins round once, its tail sweeping everything around it. Saltwing's dragons and its sea serpent do this, so walking round behind a dragon is not a safe place to stand.

The principle it shows: the turn goes one way, the tail the other

A whip gets its speed from the body turning first. So the body twists one way and the head looks back over the shoulder, the tail is curled the opposite way and lifted (the wind-up, 0.32 s); then the body turns back hard and the tail, last in the chain, whips across behind it (ease in). The hit is marked at 0.5 s, as it sweeps through. In a game the whole creature also spins once round while it plays, so the tail reaches all the way round.

The program, line by line

when it starts
  show the side view
  at the same time:
    — 1:
      glide dy 0 over 0 s
      glide dy 9.375 over 0.32 s (out)
      glide dy 3.125 over 0.18 s (in)
      glide dy 0 over 0.55 s
    — 2:
      glide dx 0 over 0 s
      glide dx 6.25 over 0.32 s (out)
      glide dx -9.375 over 0.18 s (in)
      glide dx 0 over 0.55 s
    — 3:
      glide torso 0, part:torso~twist 0 over 0 s
      glide torso -4, part:torso~twist -14 over 0.32 s (out)
      glide torso 0, part:torso~twist 18 over 0.18 s (in)
      glide torso 0, part:torso~twist 8 over 0.22 s
      glide torso 0, part:torso~twist 0 over 0.33 s
    — 4:
      glide neck 0, part:neck~twist 0 over 0 s
      glide neck 6, part:neck~twist 22 over 0.32 s (out)
      glide neck 0, part:neck~twist -12 over 0.18 s (in)
      glide neck 0, part:neck~twist 0 over 0.55 s
    — 5:
      glide tail 0, part:tail~out 0 over 0 s
      glide tail 12, part:tail~out -50 over 0.32 s (out)
      glide tail -4, part:tail~out 65 over 0.18 s (in)
      glide tail 0, part:tail~out 35 over 0.22 s
      glide tail 0, part:tail~out 0 over 0.33 s
    — 6:
      look angry
      wait 0.5 s
      set flag_hit to (tau)

0 s — the body up 0, the body forward 0, torso 0 twist 0, neck 0 twist 0, tail 0 out 0, the face angry.
0.32 s — the body up -3, the body forward 2, torso -4 twist -14, neck 6 twist 22, tail 12 out -50.
0.5 s — the moment marked hit, the body up -1, the body forward -3, torso 0 twist 18, neck 0 twist -12, tail -4 out 65.
0.72 s — torso twist 8, tail 0 out 35.
1.05 s — the body up 0, the body forward 0, torso 0 twist 0, neck 0 twist 0, tail 0 out 0.

Try this

Take 0.5 s to curl the tail instead of 0.32 s: a slower sweep, easier to dodge.
In the program: ramp · over 0.32 → 0.5
Twist the body further back first, to -18.2 instead of -14: a bigger wind-up.
In the program: ramp · to.part:torso~twist -14 → -18.2

How it differs from the others

Whip Tail swings the tail round and round for show; this is one hard sweep with a hit. The Claw Swipe and the Bite are for what stands in front. On two legs, a person does a Sweep instead.

Works on

The two in the film above, and what the move turns on each: worked out by the build, which plays the move on each body and checks what moves. Nobody types this table.
Who	Moves?	What moves
Sunny (one of the six people)	yes	whole body, turns, body, head, arms
Grump (an animal on four legs)	yes	whole body, body, head, front legs, tail, ears

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