History Main / IdleAnimation

* In ''{{Bionicle}} Heroes'' your character would either knock on the screen, nod off to sleep, or play hacky sack with his head.

* Rather than an animation, standing still for a while in ''{{Blood}}'' caused the character to start singing showtunes. The others got into it in the sequel; one of them throws out random "yo mama" jokes when left alone.

* In ''AeroTheAcroBat'', the title character bobs his head to the music or does a handstand when idled.
* ''SlyCooper'' had several varying idle animations for each of the player characters throughout the trilogy.

** Bentley will often pull out a set of blueprints, look around nervously, perform a stationary wheelie in his wheelchair (in ''Sly 3''), or sneeze so hard that it causes him to double over (yet [[ConspicuouslySelectivePerception doesn't draw the attention of any nearby guards]], interestingly enough).

*** The characters also have idle animations that play during the character selection screen; Sly's include balancing his cane on his hand, twirling his cap, and (in ''Sly 2'' and ''3'') pulling out his family book, the ''Thievius Raccoonus'' and reading it for a few moments, sometimes appearing surprised by what he reads. Bentley will look at blueprints and sometimes whip out a calculator and crunch some numbers. Murray will occasionally doze off briefly before startling back awake, and sometimes produce a slice of pizza [[HiddenSupplies from behind his back]], scarfing it down in nearly one bite.

* ''ToejamAndEarl'' has a particularly awkward one where your character would fall asleep and you would have to spend several seconds ButtonMashing to get the characters to wake up again.

* ''AmericanMcGeesAlice'' has a number of different idle animations for Alice -- a few for each of her toy weapons. Most are harmless, like performing a card trick with her deck of cards, but a few showcase Alice's more destructive side, such as accidentally hitting herself in the head with her croquet mallet or dropping her jackbomb on her foot.

* ''{{Ristar}}'' had a different one for each world, such as snapping his fingers and tapping his toes in the music-themed world.

* In ''CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'', Alucard's idle animation works with one of his familiars: he stands in a relaxed, yet regal pose (all the hip young vampires do it), and she lands on his shoulder. If he moves even an inch, she falls, complete with "Oof!" (but she doesn't hit the ground, being a fairy).
** ''Order of Ecclesia'' does this with the Owl familiar.
** In the UpdatedRerelease of Symphony, you could also equip Alucard with a specific accessory to make the fairy sing a song for you while she's sitting on his shoulder.
** Most of the later games in the series have "poses" for the characters triggered by holding up on the d-pad. ''Portrait of Ruin'' has additional idle animations if you press it long enough.
*** For example, in PortraitOfRuin, holding up for ten seconds with Jonathan will make him do a MJ spin complete with hip thrust while with Charlotte it has her do a sexy spin and chest thrust toward the camera (If you're getting any ideas remember, she's 16). Holding down the button longer has them do another variation of their pose but after a while they become visually bored and return back to their normal stance.

* ''VideoGame/{{Discworld}}'' probably has the greatest IdleAnimation ever which also [[BreakingTheFourthWall breaks the fourth wall]]. After a few minutes of inactivity the screen shifts to an extreme close-up of the protagonist Rincewind as he shouts "HELLOOOOO!!" and he taps the screen whilst looking around for the player. Amusingly, Rincewind in this game was voiced by none other than... Eric Idle. Idle animation, indeed.

** Many if not all of the mecha units in ''Tiberium Wars'' and ''Kane's Wrath'' had various idle animation. Special mentions go to the [[{{ChickenWalker}} Juggernaut]] (not the Steel Talons Behemoth unfortunately) pecking the ground with it's cannon barrels or the Nod Redeemer spinning it's torso around in a crazy fashion.

** The Ork Pile O' Gunz building has a funny one: when researching something, two Gretchins are seen diving in the pile [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Scrooge McDuck]] style, digging out weapons and throwing them.

** Blood Mages will throw back their shoulders, hands on hips, and... laugh?

* As early as the pre-Windows-era, ''StarFlight'' would have the spaceman in Starport start tapping his foot if left idle for more than a minute.

* In ''{{Half-Life}}'', when the player has the Snark selected but doesn't actually use it, it occasionally tries to bite at Freeman's or Shephard's finger. Another animation has Gordon/Adrian try to calm down the agitated thing by violently shaking it.

* In ''VideoGame/LaMulana'', when the game is paused, Lemeza sits down, eats curry, and falls asleep. Since you can pause in mid-jump, you can use this to defy the laws of physics. You can also use it to solve a certain puzzle.

* When the game is paused, Lemeza of ''{{La-Mulana}}'' sits down, eats, and falls asleep. Since you can pause in mid-jump, you can use this to defy the laws of physics.
** His sleep animation [[spoiler:[[ChekhovsGun becomes important in later parts of the game]]; some puzzles require Lemeza to go through his sleep animation to be completed.]]

** In one of the post-NES titles, if you call Rush, but don't use the utility he was called for, Rush will lie down and fall asleep.

* The party characters of ''MassEffect'' will look around, stretch their necks/backs, and occasionally wander off if left alone. Shepard will look around and stretch, but remains where you left him/her. When it was released for PC, characters got their own unique idles in the infamous lift loading sequences. Except Shepard, that is.

* In ''DoubleDragon Neon'', Billy and Jimmy will go into various idle animations if left alone long enough: these seem to differ somewhat in a two-player game and they also tell the other player to "hurry up, butt<insert random object here>" if standing in front of a doorway. They also have a dedicated "dance" move that serves no real purpose but is funny to see regardless.

* Many if not all of the mecha units in ''Tiberium Wars'' and ''Kane's Wrath'' had various idle animation. Special mentions go to the [[{{ChickenWalker}} Juggernaut]] (not the Steel Talons Behemoth unfortunately) pecking the ground with it's cannon barrels or the Nod Redeemer spinning it's torso around in a crazy fashion.

* ''DeBlob'' has various different animations, including one for each type of mission you're on (granted you have enough time to see that, since most missions have a short time limit). His standard animations include being a mime, laying down and giving a thumbs up, and looking around and pointing to his arm to tell the player to hurry up. On Bif's missions, Blob will be putting up his dukes, and then he flexes. On Arty's missions, he looks like he's inspecting the area. On Zip's missions, he's sorta jogging in place, and then stretches. For Prof's missions, he doesn't appear to have any changes, but when his idle animation kicks in, he'll rub his hands together like he's planning something. But that's not all. If you're standing nearby Raydians, he might wave to them, or make a "run along now" motion with his hands.

** Videogame/MetroLastLight also has them. Several of them are recycled from the first game, such as breaking off the fire selector. But there are a few new ones, like Artyom catching his finger in the hammer of the shotgun pistol, or getting his finger trapped in the hinge of the double barrel shotgun when he accidentally opens it.

'''[[VideoGameCharacters Rumble]] [[RefugeeFromTVLand [=McSkirmish=]]]:''' ''[[AC:This is as [[AccentOnTheWrongSyllable STILL...as I can STAY!]]]]''\\
-- ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls''

* Elizabeth in ''BioshockInfinite'' has a ''crap-ton'' of these, WordOfGod is that special effort was intentionally focused on it to make her more realistic. During the peaceful moments she will inspect and interact with almost everything in her environment in a very realistic way.