FolioTier 2

@sprite-pop

Scale a sprite up then back to base by slug - emphasis pop, reaction beat.

@sprite-pop scales a sprite up and then snaps it back to its resting size, producing a quick visual pulse that draws the viewer's eye without displacing the character on screen. It is the go-to tool for giving a spoken line physical weight - a gasp, a realization, a punchline landing - when you want the character to feel reactive rather than inert.

The default factor is subtle by design. Keep it close to that value for naturalistic emphasis and push it higher only when the moment calls for something overtly comic or outsized. Very short durations read as a sharp snap; longer ones begin to feel like a breathing motion rather than a pop, so match the duration to the energy of the beat.

Because wait defaults to false, pops on separate sprites can run simultaneously, which lets you choreograph an ensemble reacting at once without chaining delays. Set wait to true when the script needs to hold before the next line or a scene transition until the animation has actually finished.

The target must be a sprite that is already visible on stage. Calling @sprite-pop on a hidden sprite produces no visible result and no error, so if a pop goes missing during playback, confirming the sprite was shown before the call is the first thing to check.

Parameters

Parameter	Kind	Required	Default	Notes
target	string	yes	""	Sprite tag to target.
factor	number	no	1.1	0.5-2 × multiplier. Default 1.1.
duration	number	no	0.3	0.05-2 seconds. Default 0.3.
wait	boolean	no	true	Block for the effect's duration when true; false fires and continues so effects can overlap.

Canonical example

sprite show ada
say "Ada": "Are you serious?!"
@sprite-pop(0.3, target=ada, factor=1.12)

@sprite-pop scales a sprite up to (base × factor) over the first half of duration, then returns it to base scale over the second half. The sprite ends at the scale it started at - the pop is a transient emphasis beat, not a permanent resize.

When to use

Reach for @sprite-pop on reaction beats - a character's first sight of something surprising, a punchline, the moment a stat unlocks. factor=1.1 is the everyday "nudge"; factor=1.25-1.35 is dramatic. Going beyond 1.5 reads as cartoon - useful occasionally, overdone when stacked.

Mid-flight pre-emption

If a second @sprite-pop fires while one is in flight on the same sprite, the new pop's base captures the current (mid-pop) scale, multiplies by factor, and runs from there. The result reads as a chained or stacked pop. To avoid this, space pops by at least their duration.

Notes

@sprite-pop runs on the Pixi stage.