Body Shape

The Body shape adds animated characters to your model. Characters move, rotate, and change state according to the equations you define, bringing physical simulations to life.

Overview

A Body shape is an animated sprite placed inside a Referential. Its position (x, y) and rotation are driven by expression terms. As the simulation runs, the character moves according to the mathematical model — walking, running, jumping, or performing custom animations.

Toolbar

• Character picker — Choose from available animated characters
• Flip horizontal — Mirror the character direction
• Color/tint — Adjust character coloring
• Delete — Remove the body from the board

Motion Binding

The Body shape position is controlled by binding terms to its coordinates:

Orientation

The Orientation row of the terms menu names a pair — a horizontal term or value and a vertical one — read together as a vector in the referential's own coordinates. The character is turned to point along it, so binding a velocity to the pair makes the character face the way it moves, and binding any other pair makes it face wherever that pair points. Both selectors are read in the case the row names, and either one may be left empty, which counts as zero.

Left empty, the body keeps to the way it behaved before: a character marked as rotating turns to the direction it travels, and any other body is mirrored left or right as it changes direction.

Animation States

Characters have multiple animation states that change based on movement:

• Idle — Character is stationary
• Walking — Slow movement detected
• Running — Fast movement detected
• Jumping — Vertical motion without ground contact

Properties Panel