Squash and stretch a bouncing character so it never looks like it gains or loses material

Stretching a jumping blob along its movement and flattening it on landing gives weight and life, but scaling one side alone makes it look like it inflates or shrivels, and it lifts off the floor when squashed. Here is how to keep the size right and the feet on the ground.

Why this works

The eye judges a soft body by how much of it there is. If one direction grows, the other must shrink by the matching amount, or the shape seems to inflate. Basing the amount on real speed ties the effect to what the body is doing.

When not to use it

Wrong for hard things: a crate, a robot or a stone that stretches looks broken, not lively. It also clashes with pixel art on a strict grid, where half-pixel scaling blurs. Use a small hop, a flash or a shake instead.

In the full entry

• What to build, step by step
• Starting values and the reason for each
• 4 common mistakes and the fix
• 25 lines of example code with 4 checks that pass
• How your AI shows you that it works

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Use the Spielerando entry "Squash and stretch a bouncing character so it never looks like it gains or loses material" (read_entry squash-and-stretch-that-keeps-the-volume) in my game. Build it step by step, and show me how you checked that it works.

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