A subtle idle animation of a character sprite, which can be seen to breathe and move its arms slightly
In video games, idle animations are character movements that occur when the player character is not performing any actions.[1] They serve to give games personality, as an Easter Egg for the player, or for realism.
History
One of the earliest games to feature an idle animation was Android Nim in 1978. The androids blink, look around, and seemingly talk to one another until the player gives an order.[2] Another two early examples are Maziacs and The Pharaoh's Curse released in 1983. Idle animations grew in usage throughout the 16 bit era.[3] Incorporating idle animations was done to give personality towards games and their characters [4] as they are the only in-game actions aside from cutscenes where the characters are free to act independent of the player's input.[5] The idle animation length and details can depend on interaction between the player and character, such as third person player idle animations are longer to avoid looking robotic on repeated viewing. In modern 3D games idle animation are done to give realism. For games targeting towards younger audiences the idle animations are more likely to be complex or humorous. In comparison games targeted towards older audiences tend to include more basic idle animations.
Examples
Maziacs - The sprite character will tap his feet, blink, and sit down.
^Totten, Chris (2012). Game Character Creation with Blender and Unity. Indianapolis Sybex. pp. Chapter 8: Creating an Idle Animation. ISBN978-1118172728.
^Reed, Matthew (2022). "Android Nim". Matthew Reed's TRS-80.org. Retrieved May 21, 2022.
