Gait

tap on the rebound. the spring does the rest.

a bounding animal of triangles and three muscles. one tap is one bound, always the same bound -- but land it on the rebound and it carries nearly twice as far. beat the ghost of your own last run and the spine grows a segment

Every bound this animal makes is identical: the same scripted contraction across the hind legs, the spine and the front legs, the same energy. What is not identical is the body it lands in. After each landing the whole creature compresses and springs back, and for a handful of frames around the top of that rebound its legs are already extending. A bound fired then adds to a spring that is already pushing; a bound fired into the compression fights one that is pushing the other way, and travels about 60% as far. That is the entire difference between a gallop and a shuffle in a real animal too, and it is why a horse at the wrong rhythm is slower than the same horse at the right one without being any weaker.

Concepts: locomotion, timing, soft-body.

An interactive you play with one thumb, on Wundr.