Motion Lines

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:

    “If we shall stand still
    In fear our motion will be mocked or carped at,
    We should take root here where we sit, or sit
    State-statues only.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “We joined long wagon trains moving south; we met hundreds of wagons going north; the roads east and west were crawling lines of families traveling under canvas, looking for work, for another foothold somewhere on the land.... The country was ruined, the whole world was ruined; nothing like this had ever happened before. There was no hope, but everyone felt the courage of despair.”
    —Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1968)