In comics, motion lines (or movement lines or action lines or speed lines) is a term that refers to the abstract lines that appear behind a moving object or person to make them look like they're moving quickly. The use of motion lines may have been inspired from both mathematical vectors, which are used to indicate direction and force, and from long-exposure photography, where a camera can capture lights as they move through time and space, blurred along the direction of motion.
Famous quotes containing the words motion and/or lines:
“All the phenomena which surround him are simple and grand, and there is something impressive, even majestic, in the very motion he causes, which will naturally be communicated to his own character, and he feels the slow, irresistible movement under him with pride, as if it were his own energy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There they lived on, those New England people, farmer lives, father and grandfather and great-grandfather, on and on without noise, keeping up tradition, and expecting, beside fair weather and abundant harvests, we did not learn what. They were contented to live, since it was so contrived for them, and where their lines had fallen.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)