Trip Hazard

Thumbs too idle? Enjoy this Idle Animation

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My gran saw me playing Soul Calibur one day, years ago, and, after looking at the TV for a moment with a puzzled look on her face, she asked me "Why do the fighters keep jiggling up and down?"

 

And, you know I'd never really noticed? Whenever you're not moving, your fighter constantly raises and lowers their shoulders. I didn't know what to tell my gran, so I just said "I think it's so you know the game isn't paused".

 

There's not much of interest happening with those animations, but they are idle animations. After my gran asked me this, I got to thinking about other games with animations that play when you're not, you know, playing. I spent a long time booting up all the different games I own and just standing there, to see what would happen; I was really amused that people had presumably spent quite a long time animating a sequence that many players would never even see.

 

One of my favourite examples is Sonic's famous foot-tap. It's a really simple animation, of course, but I laughed when I saw it because it tells you a few things about Sonic's character. His look to the camera tells you that he has attitude, and is more self-aware than other game characters. His tapping foot tells you that he's impatient, and wants to keep moving. Does he fold his arms, as well? The cheeky little shit.

 

It's a simple thing, but it conveys a lot.

 

What are some of your favourite idle animations, and why?

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All the Day Of The Tentacle ones are great, but this one is my favourite. I love the embarrassed facial expression!

 

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Elenas idle from third strike is real good. elenastance.gif.a02481e32f6c37a58c760d1d69e01a20.gif

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Makotos forward walk cycle is like god tier though.

 

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Whoa, Makotos walk animation is incredible! I'm not sure it counts as idle, though :P

 

I don't think I've seen that one from DoTT before, but it's a beaut. Beaut may be the wrong word to employ, here.

 

That Jonathan Frakes thing gave me the heebie-jeebies - the human mouth should not be able to open so wide...

 

Ooh, the snark from Half-Life is so good

 

Snark. Perfect loop, from Half Life 1.. Half Life mentioned. Swell with imaginary three's.

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It seems almost churlish to refer to what Trico does in The Last Guardian as an idle animation, but my god - I could stare at him all day, even when he's not doing anything. Just hanging out. Glaring at me. The mooing noise he makes when I wander off and he can't see me. The effect of the breeze on his feathers, all in constant rippling motion. The catlike flicking of his ears. It's the kind of thing that makes me want to call somebody into the room and say 'have you seen what they've done with this? yeah I know, but have you seen it?'. It's so good it just steamrolls all the less-good stuff about the game for me.  

 

There's probably dozens of insanely good idle animations in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, but I particularly like the one where the little faerie familiar will settle on Alucard's shoulder if he stands still for too long. When he moves, she goes 'eeee' and falls off. It's great. 

 

In The Lion King video game, when you're little baby boy Simba, if you stand around for too long a little butterfly appears and he starts trying to pounce on it. That's a good one.

 

I like the way the protagonist fiddles about with his kit in Metro 2033. That had some very characterful weapon-fiddling.

 

Dark Souls: why does my character keep scratching their head? What could it mean? :o

 

And I do enjoy the all the idle animations in the Shantae games, even if they are a bit, uh...jiggly. 

 

I love a good idle animation. It feels to me like the modern tendency of games is to make such things into 'emotes' rather than just neat little easter eggs for the perceptive. A bit of a bummer, IMO. 

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I had a decent time with CBFD, but what you say is totally true, it is very uneven. Amazing idle animations, though! The sound effects and voice help to elevate some of the weaker jokes. 

 

This one from Boogerman is f'kin minging, as you'd expect

 

 

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iirc the first Discworld graphical adventure game had Eric Idle and great idle animations, but I cannot find any videos of it.

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