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:
“subways, rivered under streets
and rivers . . . in the car
the overtone of motion
underground, the monotone
of motion is the sound
of other faces, also underground—”
—Hart Crane (1899–1932)
“When the rose reigns, and locks with ointments shine,
Let rigid Cato read these lines of mine.”
—Robert Herrick (1591–1674)