Face reactions

Punchy! Moves changes the face for 119 moments: a squint in the rain, a wince after a rough landing, a smile while eating, a wide-eyed stare at a warden. This page lists every one with what turns it on and how strong it is. It then shows how a clip’s face goes over a reaction, how glances work, and how a pack or a player changes a reaction. It is for players who want to switch a reaction off, and for pack makers who want a moment to look different.

Before you start

• Install Punchy! Moves (Getting started) and look at your character in third person. First person draws no face.
• The settings sit in the Face tab of Punchy’s new menu: press F8 and click Face in the Punchy Moves group. The Faces overview shows the tab.
• Without Punchy’s new menu there is no Face tab. The reactions all play with their defaults, and the settings are the keys of config/punchy_moves/face.json (see Settings).
• Reactions are worked out on your own screen for every player you see, from what your game knows about them. Nothing is sent to a server.
• To change a reaction in a pack you need a resource pack for Punchy! Moves, or Punchy! Studio, which writes the pack for you (Punchy! Studio).

Video coming soon

How the face picks a reaction

Every reaction has a priority, a number. The higher the number, the stronger the reaction.

1. The face checks the reactions that are switched on, from the strongest down. The first one that applies and has a look sets the whole look: eyes, brows and marks.
2. The blink pace comes from the strongest applying reaction that sets one. Walking and Standing still set only a pace: they keep blinks at their usual speed. Other reactions set a pace together with their look, such as Under water (fewer blinks) and Rain (quicker blinks).
3. Gaze runs under every look. The pupils and brows follow the head, up, down and to the sides, emote clips and head aim included.
4. Most reactions that depend on a state hold while the state is true. A reaction for a single moment holds for a set time after it, as the Holds column says. Twenty ticks make a second.
5. A new look eases in over 3 ticks, and a change of eye shape passes through a quick blink. A stronger look also stays up to 4 ticks after its reaction stops, so two reactions never swap tick by tick.

A reaction that has no look of its own (Gaze, Walking and Standing still) never wins the look. It only sets the blink pace, or in Gaze’s case, moves the eyes. Give one a look in a pack and it plays like any other.

Five lasting moods show only now and then, so they do not stay on your face all the time: Long run, Hungry, Cold places, Hot places and Night. Each one shows for 4 seconds in every 30 second cycle, at a moment of each avatar’s own, while its cause lasts. Their Holds column reads 4 s in every 30 s. The Test tab shows them all the time.

The From column tells you where the reaction reads its moment:

The game never sends your client other players’ food or level. Those reactions say Your avatar only in the table and play on you alone. Moves also sees firework boosts, block use, throws, shears, fire lighting and shots only on you. Other players’ effects, such as Nausea, show as they were when the player came into view.

Priority at a glance

Try a reaction

The face editor’s Test tab plays any reaction on every face you can see, yours included, the way its moment would show it.

Video coming soon

The preview plays only the reaction you picked, together with the gaze. It ignores your switches, and no clip face or look hold is part of it. The Look: box below shows any look as it is, and Blink, Look left, Look right and Raise brows try single moves.

The reactions

Each table gives the reaction’s name as it appears in the Face tab and in Punchy! Studio, then its id in code. The id is what you write in faces/triggers.json and in face.json. Reactions are listed in the order of the Face tab’s sections.

Always

Runs under everything else.

Standing about

Standing still and walking. These sit low, so almost anything else takes over.

Running and crouching

Runs, crouches, crawling and balancing, from Moves’ own run and crouch.

A run counts as held once the sprint has started with a horizontal speed at or above the run stop speed, or a sprint blend of half or more. Running, Starting a run, Stopping a run and Long run all read that.

Jumps and falls

Jumps, falls by their weight, landings, dives and a few rides through the air.

Moves rates a fall in three steps. A fall past the trigger distance shows Falling. A long fall, from 7 blocks or at 0.72 blocks a tick, and Moves’ hard fall, from 13 blocks or at 1.05 blocks a tick, both show Long fall.

Flying

Elytra and creative flight.

Climbing

Ladders, vines and scaffolding.

Water and weather

Swimming, lava, rain and lightning.

Riding

Mounts and vehicles, and being ridden.

Combat

Swings, hits taken, shields, bows, crossbows, spears and tridents.

The hurt startle is an animated look of 12 ticks. In play it follows the game’s own hurt countdown, which is 10 ticks after a normal hit, so its last two ticks, when the brows settle, do not show. In lava and in fire it starts again with every burn.

Items and tools

What the hands are doing with items and blocks.

Fishing

The line going out, a bite, the line coming in.

Body and effects

Fire, cold, sleep, effects, food and levels.

Places and music

Time of day, dimension, biome, a campfire and a jukebox. These sit low, so they show when nothing stronger does.

Creatures and people

Mobs and players around the avatar.

Emotes

Moves’ emotes. The look comes from the emote’s entry in a pack’s compat file (see Keys and emotes).

How clip faces and reactions combine

Reactions are the face’s own behavior. A clip can take the face over for a while: it can hold a look for its whole length with face, or key single parts with face_ bones. The two always meet in the same order.

1. The reactions pick a look, as described above.
2. If a clip with face data is playing, its face goes over that look, but only when the winning reaction’s priority is 1135 or lower.

Seven reactions are stronger than that, so they show over a clip’s face: Creeper (1140), Warden (1150), Hurt (1160), Hit from behind (1165), In lava (1170), Asleep (1180) and Dying (1190). A clip’s face covers everything else, up to a Long fall at 1130. The limit is checked against the winner’s priority as a pack set it.

For each part of the face (lids, brows, pupils, marks and the rest), the result is:

(1 minus face_mix) of the reactions’ look, plus the parts the clip keys, plus each look the clip holds at its weight.

• face_mix is how much of the reactions’ look the clip takes away, from 0 to 1. Without it the reactions’ look stays whole and the clip’s parts add to it.
• face_look_<name> is the weight of a look the clip holds. The look is added at that weight.
• Keyed parts such as face_brows or face_lid_right add to the part of the same name.
• An eye takes the clip’s strongest keyed shape while that shape’s value is above 0.5. When no shape is keyed and face_mix is above 0.5, the eye takes the shape of the strongest look the clip holds (the painted eye when it holds none). Otherwise it keeps the reaction’s shape.
• Blinks: face_blink_off above 0.5 stops them. Otherwise, with face_mix above 0.5 the pace comes from the clip’s strongest look (the usual pace when that look sets none or the clip holds no look), and at or below that it stays with the reactions.
• The clip’s face blends and fades with the clip’s own layer, so it eases in and out with the clip.

The face shorthand writes two of these bones for you: face_mix at the mix you give (1 if you give none) and face_look_<look> at 1, held for the whole clip. So "face": "proud" replaces the reactions’ look with Proud. With "mix": 0.5, half of the reactions’ look stays and Proud is added in full on top. For a smooth cross fade, key face_mix and the look’s weight yourself.

Hold a look, or add to the reaction

This pack has two clips and an emote file. Make this folder in your resourcepacks folder:

Face Over Reactions/
  pack.mcmeta
  assets/
    punchy_moves/
      animations/
        face_over_reactions.json
      compat/
        face_over_reactions.json

pack.mcmeta, at the top of the folder. The three 75s are the resource format of Minecraft 1.21.11. On another version, put that version’s number from the table on Resource packs in their place:

{
  "pack": {
    "description": "Face over reactions demo",
    "pack_format": 75,
    "min_format": 75,
    "max_format": 75
  }
}

hold_proud holds a look and shuts out the reactions. quick_wink keys only a lid, so the reaction’s look carries on and the right eye winks over it. Save the clips as assets/punchy_moves/animations/face_over_reactions.json:

{
  "format_version": "1.8.0",
  "animations": {
    "hold_proud": {
      "animation_length": 2.0,
      "face": { "look": "proud", "mix": 1 },
      "bones": {
        "head": { "rotation": { "0.0": [0, 0, 0], "1.0": [-6, 0, 0], "2.0": [0, 0, 0] } }
      }
    },
    "quick_wink": {
      "animation_length": 0.6,
      "bones": {
        "face_lid_right": { "position": { "0.0": [0, 0, 0], "0.15": [0, 1, 0], "0.45": [0, 1, 0], "0.6": [0, 0, 0] } }
      }
    }
  }
}

Put both on the emote wheel with this file at assets/punchy_moves/compat/face_over_reactions.json. quick_wink names the look Sly, which the Emotes reaction plays under the wink:

{
  "format_version": 2,
  "emotes": {
    "entries": [
      { "id": "proud_pose", "display_name": "Proud pose", "animation": "hold_proud" },
      { "id": "quick_wink", "display_name": "Quick wink", "animation": "quick_wink", "face": "sly" }
    ]
  }
}

In the game, open Options, then Resource Packs, move Face Over Reactions to the right-hand list and press Done. If the game was already running, press F3+T to reload. Stand still in third person and press C to open the emote wheel. Click Proud pose: the Emotes reaction would show Happy, because the entry names no look, but the clip’s face covers it and the whole face is Proud for two seconds. Click Quick wink: the face is Sly, the look the entry names, and the right eye winks over it. An emote’s face is matched exactly as typed against the built-in look names, in lower case; a look that only a pack defines plays Happy.

Video coming soon

Every face bone, with its units, is on Faces in packs and clips.

Glances

A glance is a short spell in which the pupils look to one side, rest, cross quickly and rest on the other side, with the lids drooping a little. Between spells the brows drift up and down very slowly. Together they are the face’s idle life: they make a standing player look alive instead of frozen.

A spell comes about every 40 seconds, lasts 2 to 4 seconds and fades in and out over 6 ticks. Each player has their own timing, so a crowd does not glance in step. A glance shows only when all of these are true:

• Glances is switched on in the Face tab. Switching it off stops the glances and the brow drift.
• The avatar has stood still for 2 seconds.
• No reaction above priority 300 is winning. The calm reactions that allow glances are Music, Campfire, Watched, Invisible, Glowing, Light at night, Idle moments, Daydreaming, Standing still and the places, or no reaction at all. Crouching, fighting, eating and the rest keep the eyes on what you are doing. Walking stops glances too, because you are not standing still.
• The head has not been turning faster than 1.5 degrees a tick, yaw and pitch together, for the last 12 ticks. While you look around, the glances wait.

The reactions that belong to standing about work next to glances:

• Standing still (priority 260) starts at the same 2 seconds. It has no look: it keeps blinks at their usual pace. The glances themselves come from the Glances setting, not from this switch.
• Idle moments (270) is one of Moves’ idle moments: every 20 to 45 seconds by default, a playful look for 60 ticks (Sly, Curious, Bored, Wink, Smug or Happy).
• Daydreaming (265) droops the lids and slows the blinks (the Sleepy look) once you have stood still for the Time before daydreaming, 30 seconds by default.

In the Test tab, Look left and Look right hold the pupils to one side for about a second and a half. They are not the glance spell and work with Glances off.

Video coming soon

Change a reaction in a pack

A resource pack can give a reaction another look, or another priority, with faces/triggers.json. Several layers can have an opinion, and they apply in this order:

1. The player’s pick, made in the face editor’s Test tab with Plays:. It is stored in face.json and it is a look only.
2. The highest pack’s entry in faces/triggers.json, a look and a priority.
3. The reaction’s own look and priority, built into Moves.

A reaction’s switch still applies first: a reaction that is switched off in the Face tab never plays, whatever any pack says.

In Punchy! Studio

Studio’s Face workspace lists every reaction under Reactions and writes faces/triggers.json for you.

Faces overview and Faces in packs and clips cover making the looks a reaction can play.

By hand

Create faces/triggers.json in your pack, at assets/punchy_moves/faces/triggers.json. If you have no pack yet, the folder and pack.mcmeta are the ones under Hold a look, or add to the reaction. This file is valid as it stands, with built-in looks only:

{
  "kickoff": "proud",
  "shear": { "look": "smug" },
  "munch": { "look": "zen", "priority": 915 },
  "wounded": { "priority": 1000 },
  "stride": "relaxed"
}

What each entry does:

• kickoff plays Proud when a run starts, in place of Excited. A bare name changes only the look.
• shear is the same change written as an object: Smug in place of Happy.
• munch (Eating) plays Zen and moves from 850 up to 915, so it now beats Charging a throw, Loading a crossbow, Aiming and Shield up. It still sits under Emotes at 920.
• wounded (Low health) keeps its own Sad look but climbs from 670 to 1000, so it shows over eating, mining and casting. It still sits under Hurt.
• stride (Walking) has no look of its own. With a name it plays Relaxed whenever you walk and nothing stronger applies.

Rules to know:

• Every pack’s copy of the file is read. The higher pack wins per reaction, and its entry replaces the lower pack’s entry whole. If a lower pack set a priority and the higher pack gives only a look, the priority goes back to the reaction’s own.
• A triggers.json that does not parse, or has a value the game cannot read (a priority that is not a number, say), is skipped whole. The game’s log names it in a warning that contains Face:. A look file that fails is left out and the other files still load.
• A look file with a built-in name, such as happy.json, replaces that look wherever a reaction plays it as it is. A reaction that adjusts the look keeps the built-in one: Rain, Under water, Low health, Riding, Banking, Climbing down, At the edge, Balancing, Strafing, Music, Campfire, Watched, Light at night, Cold places, Eerie places, Night, Nether, Frozen, Monster nearby, Map view, Reading and Brushing. See Faces overview.
• Hurt, Hit from behind, In lava and Burning play an animated startle. A look you give them replaces the startle with a still look.
• Priorities only matter between reactions that apply at the same moment. Raising Walking above Crouching changes nothing while you are not walking.
• A priority above 1135 stops a clip’s face from covering that reaction. A priority of 300 or below lets glances play under it, and a priority above 300 stops them.

Limits a pack can change

Reactions that read Moves’ moments use the same limits as Moves’ clips. A compat file changes them, and the reactions follow. The defaults are what Moves uses when a pack leaves a setting out. Settings go inside the action, under defaults.animations, and an item group or an item can override the map_view and trident ones. A clip is not needed: a setting on its own is valid.

This compat file is valid as it stands. It makes falls count later, hard landings need more height, idle moments rarer and the jukebox reach longer. Save it as assets/punchy_moves/compat/face_limits.json:

{
  "format_version": 2,
  "defaults": {
    "animations": {
      "falling": {
        "trigger_distance": 8,
        "free_fall_distance": 10,
        "free_fall_velocity": 0.8,
        "effect_distance": 16,
        "effect_velocity": 1.2
      },
      "landing": {
        "medium_distance": 5,
        "medium_velocity": 0.6,
        "heavy_distance": 10,
        "heavy_velocity": 1.0
      },
      "water_dive": { "trigger_distance": 4 },
      "lava_dive": { "trigger_distance": 4 },
      "elytra": { "high_speed_threshold": 1.0, "bank_degrees": 25 },
      "idle_events": { "min_interval_seconds": 30, "max_interval_seconds": 60, "chance": 0.5 },
      "music_listening": { "radius": 16, "scan_interval_ticks": 20 },
      "cold": { "trigger_progress": 0.1 },
      "map_view": { "look_down_enter": 45, "look_down_exit": 35 },
      "trident": { "minimum_charge_ticks": 15 },
      "run_stop": { "minimum_speed": 0.1 }
    }
  }
}

These limits also move Moves’ own clips, which use the same moments. A compat file with a layout error is dropped whole, so read Compat files before you write a long one.

Settings

Most of these are in the Face tab (the look picks, trigger_looks, are made in the face editor’s Test tab). They save as soon as you change them and are also keys in config/punchy_moves/face.json.

Each switch has a title and a short description, and the titles are the names in the tables above. This file switches off two reactions that some players find busy and picks two looks. It is valid as it stands:

{
  "reactions": {
    "noticed": false,
    "fidget": false
  },
  "trigger_looks": {
    "kickoff": "joyful",
    "shear": "wink"
  }
}

Close the game before you edit the file: it is read once, when the settings are first used. The keys are read in this order: over_hat, blinking, glances, blink_seconds, daydream_seconds, sparkle, sparkle_color, line_color, reactions, trigger_looks. A value that cannot be read, such as a color that is not hex in sparkle_color, stops the read at that key, and the keys after it keep their defaults. A file that does not parse keeps every default.

Video coming soon

Things that go wrong

• A reaction never shows. Its switch is off, or a stronger reaction is winning. Open the Test tab and play it: if it shows there, something outranks it in play. A few reactions say Your avatar only, and some need Moves’ own moment, such as a run held at the run stop speed.
• The reaction shows in the Test tab but not in the game. The Test tab ignores your switches, a clip’s face and the look hold. Check the switch in the Face tab and whether a clip is covering the face.
• A clip’s face does not show. The winning reaction’s priority is above 1135. Creeper, Warden, Hurt, Hit from behind, In lava, Asleep and Dying always show over it.
• triggers.json does nothing. The file is not at assets/punchy_moves/faces/triggers.json, it does not parse or has a value the game cannot read (look for a warning that contains Face: in the log), a higher pack has an entry for the same reaction, your own pick in the Test tab wins, or the reaction’s switch is off. A look name that does not exist also does nothing: the reaction plays its own look.
• A priority change did nothing. Reactions only compete when they apply at the same time. Walking, Standing still and Gaze have no look, so their priority never changes the face. For Walking and Standing still it can change the blink pace.
• Glances never happen. Glances is off, a reaction above priority 300 is winning (crouching, fighting, eating), the head has turned in the last 12 ticks (0.6 seconds), or you have stood still for less than 2 seconds (walking resets that).
• My switches or picks in face.json do not load. A bad color in sparkle_color or line_color stops the read before reactions and trigger_looks, so they keep their defaults.
• Edits to face.json have no effect. The file is read once. Close the game, edit it and start again.
• First person shows no face. Moves draws none there.

Related pages

• Faces overview: the face, its looks and eye shapes, and your own settings.
• Faces in packs and clips: every file, folder and face bone of a face pack.
• Face editor: the Face tab, and marking eyes and testing looks and reactions in the game.
• The face marker: for skin makers, marking where the face sits.
• Compat files and Keys and emotes: the limits a pack can change, and the emote that names a look.
• Punchy! Studio and Game view: making a pack and trying it on your player.
• Troubleshooting and the FAQ.