# camera-journey — Camera Journey

**intent**: The real viewport camera is the STORYTELLER — a multi-leg journey (dive in → a mid-journey beat fires → travel to the consequence / reposition → landing push, at rest) across ONE continuous world, where the travel itself carries the narrative. Two folded sub-shapes: **(A) action roundtrip** — the camera dives into a UI panel, a cursor/typed action fires, and the camera swoops/pans to another region where the consequence renders as element motion; **(B) cursorless flight** — pure cinematic 3D flight (motion blur, depth-of-field, tilt-to-flatten rotations) over static or self-animating content, no cursor anywhere.

**boundary**: This is NOT `cursor-ui-demo` — there the camera _chases_ the cursor (a servo following the actor); here the camera IS the actor, moving on its own narrative motivation, and in sub-shape A the cursor acts only at the leg hinge (in B it never appears). This is NOT `device-surface-showcase` — there one DEVICE/surface is hero and the camera merely presents it; here no single surface is hero — the journey traverses multiple regions/panels/depth planes and the traversal is the story. This is NOT `spatial-pan-stations` — there pre-placed stations on a flat canvas are visited by repeated pans of the same type; here the legs are heterogeneous (push-in, swoop, pull-back-rotate, whip, dive) and each leg is _motivated_ (by a fired action, or by the reveal it lands on).

**roles served**

- Benefits (from `camera-swoop-panel-action-roundtrip`): when the benefit IS a cause→effect round trip — "do this small thing here, get this big thing there" (comment → chart morphs; agent finding → verified commit; chat message → receipt + ledger). The camera physically connects the action to its payoff, so the viewer _travels_ the value chain instead of being told it.
- Key_Feature (from `cursorless-camera-flight`): when the feature should feel cinematic and inevitable — a payout form or a generated content-plan calendar explored by a flying camera (dives, whip sweeps, tilt-to-flatten, violent final push onto the CTA/hero card), the content acting by itself (a dropdown self-selects; keyword cards simply exist in depth) with no hand on the wheel.

**duration**: 5.6–11.1s (sub-shape A 5.6–9.0s: 001 5.6s · 066 8.6s · 004 9.0s; sub-shape B 6.3–11.1s: Outrank 6.3s · 094 11.1s)

**shot structure** (one oversized `[world]` — a `[UI canvas: design tool / GitHub + agent panels / phone + desktop ledger]` (A) or a `[3D-laid-out space: floating form card / calendar grid with standing keyword cards]` (B) — wrapped by a single virtual camera; content animates as elements _inside_ the world while the camera travels; every leg is a sequential tween on the same camera state)

- **Scene 0 (optional, 0.0–~1.8s) — static prologue.** Camera locked on a `[prologue beat: static promo card with a floating 3D product card / typed headline with an accent word / wide establishing shot of the app]`. A typewriter line may finish (`[headline]` types on, accent word in `[accent color]`). The prologue BREAKS by a hard cut or by the headline shrinking and slipping away as the first dive begins — the stillness exists to make the journey's launch land.

- **Scene 1 (~0.5–2.0s) — LEG 1: dive in.** The camera pushes in FAST and TIGHT onto `[the focal element]`:
  - _Sub-shape A_: a flat whole-viewport push onto `[an actionable element: comment box / agent panel / chat bubble]` where `[typed text]` finishes typing or `[response text]` streams in. The header/context leaves the frame — commitment, not a polite zoom.
  - _Sub-shape B_: the push lands at an ANGLE — a tilted 3D close-up of `[the form region / the calendar grid]`, foreground elements motion-blurred during the travel, neighbors soft under depth-of-field. A huge `[foreground prop: date number / field label]` may dominate the frame, blurred by speed.

- **Scene 2 (~1.5–6.0s) — LEG 2: the mid-journey beat (the hinge).** The camera holds, drifts, or pulls slowly while the content ACTS:
  - _Sub-shape A — the action fires_: a `[cursor]` clicks `[Send / Create PR]` (or a `[message]` sends implicitly) and the acted element CLEARS/vanishes. Optional theater before the click: a `[status spinner]` cycles `[status words]`, `[to-do items]` strike through, `[response text]` streams. The click is the hinge that _motivates_ the next leg.
  - _Sub-shape B — the content self-acts_: a `[dropdown]` expands by itself (pushing `[the field below]` down), shows a `[row hover highlight]` with no cursor, and collapses with the new value selected; OR the flight decelerates INTO FOCUS on `[one card]` — its `[metrics]` sharp, neighboring cards blurred.

- **Scene 3 (~4.0–8.0s) — LEG 3: travel to the consequence / reposition.**
  - _Sub-shape A_: the camera pulls back / swoops / pans to `[region B]` while the CONSEQUENCE builds as element motion — `[bars shrink into the baseline while a node-dotted line draws left→right / a verified commit row slides into the timeline + a reaction pill pops / a receipt card expands row-by-row from a skeleton]`. An optional SECOND leg extends the trip: `[pan up-right to a toolbar → a dropdown cascades open / match cut into an extreme close-up → a fast decelerating zoom-out reveals a ledger table]`.
  - _Sub-shape B_: a repositioning move — a slow pull-back that ROTATES the world flat and centered (3D → straight-on 2D), or a heavily motion-blurred WHIP SWEEP that resolves into a flat lateral pan across `[a month calendar / the full card]`. On the flat hold, quiet element beats may play: a thin `[focus outline]` fades in around one `[field]` and sweeps down to the next; the card keeps a near-imperceptible tilt/scale drift so the hold never dies.

- **Scene 4 (final ~1–2s) — LEG 4: landing.** The journey resolves on the payoff:
  - _Sub-shape A_: the camera comes to REST; the `[cursor]` hovers or drifts toward `[the payoff: an open Export menu item / the commit link / the View-transaction button]`; ends still, on the changed state — the world is visibly different from where the trip began.
  - _Sub-shape B_: a sudden VIOLENT push-in/dive (motion-blurred) onto `[the CTA button scaled huge in frame / the hero keyword card]`, ending holding tight — or holding MID-DIVE (the last frames are still traveling; the flat overview is explicitly not the final image).

**motion vocabulary**: whole-viewport camera push-in (fast/tight and slow/subtle); camera pull-back reframe; camera pan up/right/down; dive/swoop between stacked panels; fast decelerating zoom-out to rest; sudden violent push-in onto a button scaled huge; continuous 3D flight through a card grid; dive into an angled 3D close-up; slow pull-back that rotates/flattens the world to straight-on; heavily motion-blurred whip sweep; motion blur on camera travel; depth-of-field with blurred neighbors; decelerate-into-focus; hard cut / match cut into extreme close-up; near-imperceptible tilt/scale drift on holds; typed text finishing in an input; typewriter headline; headline shrinks and slips away as the camera dives; streaming AI response text; status-word spinner cycling labels; to-do strikethrough draw; cursor click; clicked element clears/vanishes; dropdown cascades open / self-expands and collapses with a row hover highlight (displacing the field below); bar-to-line chart morph (bars shrink into the baseline while a node-dotted line draws left→right, labels persist); commit row slide-in on a timeline; reaction pill appears; skeleton→content card build; receipt/label rows expand row-by-row; thin focus outline fades in and sweeps between fields; camera drift toward a button; 3D card subtle float; cursor hover at rest.

**rule mapping**

- the multi-leg camera itself — sequential push / pull-back / pan / dive phases on one wrapper, plus the micro-drift that keeps holds alive → `multi-phase-camera` (phase sequencing + drift) over `viewport-change` (the base virtual-camera primitive: single `.world` wrapper, one `cam {scale,x,y}` state — one source of truth for every leg)
- diving TIGHT onto an off-center element (comment box, chat bubble, Send button, one keyword card) → `coordinate-target-zoom` (scale + counter-translate; measure the target, don't hand-derive — a journey amplifies centering error on every leg)
- fast decelerating zoom-out from an extreme close-up to rest (066's ledger reveal) → `coordinate-target-zoom` zoom-out variation / `multi-phase-camera` (pull phase, hard `power4.out`)
- motion blur on camera travel (dive, whip sweep, violent final push) → `motion-blur-streak` (Camera-travel carve-out — the blur envelope rides the `.world` wrapper during a leg: the world never leaves frame, the blur peaks at peak velocity and resolves sharp at each landing)
- depth-of-field on neighbors while one card is in focus; decelerate-into-focus → `depth-of-field-blur` (focal pull + blur-the-cluster-while-pushing-in are explicitly in scope; run the DoF tween at the same position as the camera leg)
- the 3D flight itself (sub-shape B's core) — a perspective camera traveling with `rotateX/rotateY/translateZ` through a 3D-laid-out world: the dive into an angled calendar grid, the tilt-to-flatten pull-back (angled 3D → straight-on 2D), the continuous flight between standing cards → `3d-camera-flight` (perspective wrapper + preserve-3d; the 2D camera rules keep owning any flat legs)
- whip sweep → composition: `nudge-curve` (burst-dominant tuning of the slow-fast-slow slide, applied to the world) + `motion-blur-streak` (camera-travel carve-out) on the same window
- typed text finishing in an input; typewriter headline; streaming AI response text; status spinner cycling `[status words]`; skeleton→content state swap → `discrete-text-sequence` (+ `gsap-effects` typewriter; `context-sensitive-cursor` for the input caret)
- which content appears per leg / receipt rows and findings arriving on script windows → `dynamic-content-sequencing`
- cursor click on `[Send / Create PR]` (sub-shape A's hinge) → `cursor-click-ripple` + `press-release-spring` (or `physics-press-reaction` for a weightier press)
- clicked element clears/vanishes; panel state A → B on the return leg → `scale-swap-transition` / `card-morph-anchor`
- to-do strikethrough draw; row hover highlight → `css-marker-patterns` (strike-through) · `asr-keyword-glow` (accent glow on the hovered/selected row)
- bar-to-line chart morph → composite, decomposes cleanly: `stat-bars-and-fills` (bars `scaleY` → baseline) + `svg-path-draw` (node-dotted line draws left→right) at the same timeline position — no single rule names the coordinated chart-type morph, but no new rule needed
- commit row slide-in; reaction pill appears; receipt rows expand row-by-row → `spring-pop-entrance` (single arrivals) / `waterfall-entry` (the row-by-row cascade)
- dropdown self-expands, displacing the field below (094) → `anchored-layout-expand` (the masked edge-anchored expansion of the dropdown body — never tween `height`) + `reactive-displacement` (the expansion tween drives the sibling's displacement)
- focus-ring travel between fields (094: a thin outline fades in on `From`, then sweeps down onto `Amount`) → `ai-tracking-box` restyled as a plain outline (offsets baked at setup; size morphed via scale, never width/height)
- 3D card subtle float; near-imperceptible tilt/scale drift on holds → `sine-wave-loop` (+ `multi-phase-camera`'s drift for the camera-side micro-motion; the _tilt_ component of the drift belongs to `3d-camera-flight`)
- camera drift toward a button; slow subtle zoom-ins riding a hold → `multi-phase-camera` (steady-push mode, tiny spread)

**camera grammar** (the defining layer — this blueprint IS its camera): every leg is a tween on ONE camera state (`viewport-change`'s single `.world` wrapper / `cam` object), sequenced by `multi-phase-camera`, aimed by `coordinate-target-zoom`. Legs must be _motivated_: sub-shape A moves because an action fired (click → swoop to the consequence); sub-shape B moves because the next reveal demands it (dive → focus → reposition → final dive). Vary the leg verbs — a journey of four identical pushes reads as a slideshow. Ease law: hard `out`-family on dives and landings (`power4.out` — violent arrival, sharp settle), `power2.inOut` on repositioning legs; spring/back easing on a camera feels wrong (per `multi-phase-camera`). Sub-shape B layers `3d-camera-flight`'s perspective wrapper under the same single-state discipline.

**Seek-safety (non-negotiable for this much camera):** the entire journey — every leg, every blur envelope, every DoF pull — lives on the ONE paused GSAP timeline, so any frame seek reproduces the exact mid-leg camera pose. One camera state object, transform composed in a single writer (`applyCamera()`), no CSS `transition` anywhere near the wrapper, blur via proxy-tweened attributes / `--dof` vars (both seek-safe), and ending mid-dive is fine — a seek to the last frame just lands mid-tween. Per-leg targets are measured ONCE at setup (after `fonts.ready`) and baked; never `getBoundingClientRect` in `onUpdate`.

**Overflow (required for a clean `check`):** a traveling camera deliberately moves world content past the frame edges on every leg. Keep `overflow: hidden` on the scene root AND mark the moving `.world` wrapper with `data-layout-allow-overflow` — otherwise `check` reports `text_box_overflow` / `container_overflow` for every panel the journey leaves behind (see the same note on `device-surface-showcase`).