mirror of
https://github.com/heygen-com/hyperframes.git
synced 2026-09-13 15:49:53 +00:00
James RussoandJake Moran
e96ebd74de
Packages Jake Moran's changelog-video pipeline (v1, validated end-to-end
by Home on the Jun 23-29 range) as a repo-native skill set that Claude
Code (.claude/skills/) and Codex CLI (.agents/skills/) auto-discover the
moment the repo is opened. No install step; run the skill against a
changelog markdown for a given git range and it produces a lint-clean,
seam-gate-green 1080x1080 MP4 (~45-60s, Annie VO, mock-UI visualizations,
caption rail) end-to-end.
Six skills added byte-identical in both mirror dirs:
- changelog-video (pipeline entry point)
- motion-doctrine (carries seam-stamp.mjs + seam-gate.mjs)
- cut-the-curve, captions-overlay, seam-craft, oversized-cursor
Layout:
- .claude/skills/ - Claude Code project-local auto-discover
- .agents/skills/ - Codex CLI project-local auto-discover (verified via
Magi's clean-home Codex 0.144.3 repro; NOT .codex/skills/)
Fonts, animated background (12 MB), house BGM (5 MB), lexicon, and
align-captions ship inside the skill dirs. .gitattributes routes only
.claude/skills/**/*.{mp4,mp3} + .agents/skills/**/*.{mp4,mp3} through
LFS — narrowly scoped so unrelated Player, Studio, registry, and
marketplace media stay put. HeyGen CLI auth is the one credential the
skill needs; Node >= 22, ffmpeg, and headless Chrome are documented
alongside in both READMEs.
.gitignore: rewrites .claude/ and .agents/ blocks to keep agent-installed
skill hygiene while re-including the six repo-native skill dirs plus
README.md.
CI:
- Extends changes.skills filter to match .claude/skills/**,
.agents/skills/**, scripts/lint-skills.ts, and scripts/check-skill-mirror.mjs.
- New 'Skills: project-native lint + mirror' job runs the extended
lint-skills.ts (schema-driven; required { name, description } + optional
{ license, allowed-tools, metadata }, name pattern check, description
length check) plus a new check-skill-mirror.mjs byte-integrity script
(24 mirrored files must match; README.md deliberately per-CLI).
- Wired into 'bun run lint' locally.
Frontmatter validator:
- Rejects unsupported top-level keys (catches category:-style drift).
- Requires name + description.
- Validates name pattern (^[a-z][a-z0-9-]{0,63}$) and description shape
(non-empty, <=1024 chars).
- Missing frontmatter block itself is a first-class error.
Also strips unsupported top-level 'category:' frontmatter from Jake's
motion-doctrine and cut-the-curve SKILL.mds (both mirrors), rewrites the
TTS invocation from ~/.claude/skills/media-use/... to the tracked
skills/hyperframes-media/scripts/heygen-tts.mjs, swaps npx hyperframes@latest
for the repo-local CLI in the gate step, and fixes a lint issue in Jake's
seam-gate.mjs (ternary-for-side-effect -> if/else).
Validated end-to-end by Home on Jun 23-29 (MP4 posted in C0ACCNHLG3U
thread 1784181166.041319). Independently reviewed R1/R2/R3 by Magi.
Co-authored-by: Jake Moran <jake@heygen.com>
259 lines
18 KiB
Markdown
259 lines
18 KiB
Markdown
---
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name: cut-the-curve
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description: "The technique catalog: five velocity-matched SEAMS (zoom-through, INVERSE zoom-through, cut-the-curve, waterfall cut, rack-focus blur-cut) plus the two in-scene techniques — waterfall ENTRY (staggered arrival cascades for title cards / segment openers) and the nudge curve (slow-fast-slow three-phase group slides). Covers partial-travel (~12% of frame) velocity matching via mirrored power4 eases, the Z scale-sign rule, size-scaled blur (10px text / 18-20px full-frame), word-by-word staggered cuts, cascade pacing by element weight, and the 10/65/25 slide ratio. Read before authoring any transition, text-beat handoff, kinetic text entry, or group reposition. [depth, zoom, inverse-zoom, scale-sign, mirrored-zoom, rack-focus, pacing, velocity, cut-the-curve, waterfall, stagger, cascade, kinetic-text, title-card, segment-opener, nudge, slide, easing, group-motion, z-depth, motion-graphics, cinematic, transition, blur, directional-continuity]"
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---
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# Cut the Curve — the technique catalog
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Five SEAM techniques, one principle: **cut at peak velocity, match direction and speed
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on both sides of the cut** — plus the two in-scene techniques (§6 arrivals, §7 slides).
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The seam LAW — vector law, the current, the ledger, the Seam Gate — lives in
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`motion-doctrine`; read it first. This skill is the parameters and mechanics.
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All GSAP code templates (worker + registry): `examples/gsap-implementation.md`.
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## Catalog
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| # | Technique | Scope | Axis | Use for |
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| --- | -------------------------- | ------------------------------ | ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
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| 1 | **Zoom-Through** (forward) | Within-scene text swap | Z, toward viewer | progressing deeper into the same thought |
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| 2 | **Inverse Zoom-Through** | Arrival / payoff beat | Z, away from viewer | something bigger lands |
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| 3 | **Cut the Curve** | Between scenes | X / Y | the default boundary, the film's current |
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| 4 | **Waterfall Cut** | Text-to-text seam | X, per-word | word-level handoff between big-text beats |
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| 5 | **Rack-Focus Blur-Cut** | Same-surface state swap | X / Y / Z | the one cut you want SEEN — a DSLR focus-pull flourish |
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| 6 | **Waterfall Entry** | In-scene ARRIVAL (no seam) | Y, from below | title cards, segment openers, list intros |
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| 7 | **Nudge Curve** | In-scene group slide (no seam) | X / Y | repositioning a composed group to make room |
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## Z direction is a sign
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"Same axis" is not enough on Z — the sign of d(scale)/dt must match across the cut:
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| Z vector | Exit scale | Entry scale | Variant |
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| -------------- | ------------------- | -------------------- | -------------------- |
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| Push (forward) | growing `1 → 1.2` | growing `0.75 → 1` | zoom-through |
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| Pull (back) | shrinking `1 → 0.8` | shrinking `1.25 → 1` | inverse zoom-through |
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Banned mirrors: a receding exit answered by a grow-from-small entry (pull flips to push —
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the common one, since grow-from-small is the default element entrance), and a push exit
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answered by an oversized retraction. This binds the incoming scene's OWN entrances during
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the seam window (cut + ~0.5s), not just the wrapper tween: hold the incoming frame
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composed, or author its entrance to match the sign. Verify per Seam Gate rule 7.
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## Blur logic (all Z variants)
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| Subject | Peak blur | Why |
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| --------------------------------------------- | ----------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| Text-scale (headline, word group) | **10px** | 20px smears letterforms — the cut reads as a glitch, not speed |
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| Full-frame surface (window, card, screenshot) | **18–20px** | lighter blur on a big surface reads as a rendering hiccup |
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Same peak blur on both sides at the swap frame. Blur the WRAPPER, never children.
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---
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## 1. Zoom-Through (forward)
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Z-axis velocity-matched cut; **never both texts visible.** Everything GROWS: the outgoing
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text accelerates toward camera, a hard swap hides at peak blur, the incoming text keeps
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growing into the focal plane. Headlines and short phrases only. Total ≈ 0.4s.
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| Phase | Scale | Blur | Opacity | Ease | Duration |
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| -------------- | -------- | -------- | ----------------- | ------------------------------------------ | -------- |
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| Exit | 1 → 1.2 | 0 → 10px | 1 → 0.15 | power3.in (opacity: separate `none` tween) | 0.2s |
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| Cut (`tl.set`) | in: 0.75 | 10px | out: 0 / in: 0.15 | — | — |
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| Entry | 0.75 → 1 | 10 → 0px | 0.15 → 1 | expo.out | 0.5s |
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Exit opacity MUST be its own linear tween — `power3.in` holds opacity near 1 too long.
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On entry all properties share `expo.out`.
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## 2. Inverse Zoom-Through (backward)
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The pull-back mirror: the outgoing element RECEDES; the incoming arrives OVERSIZED (as if
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just behind camera) and retracts into the focal plane. Everything SHRINKS. Spend on
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ARRIVAL/payoff beats — a payoff line, a giant reply, a held end-state — never ordinary
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boundaries. Total ≈ 0.7s (30% exit / 70% entry).
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| Phase | Scale | Blur | Opacity | Ease | Duration |
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| -------------- | -------- | -------- | ----------------- | ------------------------------------------ | -------- |
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| Exit | 1 → 0.8 | 0 → 10px | 1 → 0.15 | power3.in (opacity: separate `none` tween) | ~0.2s |
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| Cut (`tl.set`) | in: 1.25 | 10px | out: 0 / in: 0.15 | — | — |
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| Entry | 1.25 → 1 | 10 → 0px | 0.15 → 1 | expo.out | ~0.5s |
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Blur is 10px text-scale; 18–20px only when both sides are full-bleed surfaces.
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**Sign discipline:** the incoming scene arrives as a composed frame inside the retracting
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wrapper — no grow-from-small intro in the seam window. Staged entrances happen after the
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retraction settles, or start ≥1 and retract.
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## 3. Cut the Curve (default scene boundary)
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X/Y velocity-matched cut — the default for ALL scene-to-scene boundaries, in the film's
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current, not an accent. The outgoing hero accelerates in one direction, the cut lands
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mid-motion, the incoming hero continues the SAME direction and decelerates. Total ≈ 0.6s;
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directions LEFT / RIGHT / UP / DOWN (default LEFT).
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**Partial travel:** ~12% of frame (≈230px at 1920) — never full off-screen moves.
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| Direction | Exit | Entry start → end |
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| --------- | ------------- | ----------------- |
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| Leftward | `x: 0 → −230` | `x: +230 → 0` |
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| Rightward | `x: 0 → +230` | `x: −230 → 0` |
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| Upward | `y: 0 → −230` | `y: +230 → 0` |
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| Downward | `y: 0 → +230` | `y: −230 → 0` |
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Mechanics:
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- **Mirrored eases:** exit `power4.in` + entry `power4.out`, same distance and duration —
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the two halves of one `power4.inOut`, so velocity matches exactly at the cut.
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- **The fade trick:** exit opacity completes at ~25–30% of its travel (fade ≈ 0.18–0.3s
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vs motion 0.3–0.34s); entry ignites at ~0.35 opacity mid-path. Time the last fading
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element to die right at the cut — a gap where nothing moves reads as dead air.
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- Exit 0.2–0.4s; entry ≥ exit. Optional blur 8–10px.
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- **Stage ground:** `#root` must be opaque
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(`background: var(--canvas-deep, var(--canvas, #000))`) — the mid-window cut opens a
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summed-opacity < 1 window that flashes white otherwise (see `seam-craft`).
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`push-slide` exists but violates partial-travel and mid-motion phase; prefer cut-the-curve.
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## 4. Waterfall Cut (word-by-word cut-the-curve)
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Cut-the-curve at WORD granularity — the strongest leftward cut for text-to-text seams.
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Outgoing words ramp out on their own curves; incoming words cascade in mid-flight — a
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wave the eye rides across the seam.
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**Scope:** worker-authored inside one multi-beat comp (stacked full-frame `.beat` layers),
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NOT a registry/injector type — it tweens word spans, not clip wrappers. The boundary into
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and out of the text-beat block still gets a normal registry transition. Does not count
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against the 2–3 transition budget.
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| Parameter | Value | Why |
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| ------------------- | --------------------- | ------------------------------------------- |
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| Travel | ±230px (~12% frame) | partial travel + velocity > full-frame push |
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| Exit | 0.34s `power4.in` | the acceleration IS the cut |
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| Exit fade | 0.18s, starts with x | word gone by ~25–30% of travel — no smear |
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| Exit stagger | +0.022s reading order | the line peels, not a block slide |
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| Entry | 0.3s `power4.out` | back half of the composite — velocity match |
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| Entry start opacity | 0.35 | mid-path ignition; binary 0→1 pops |
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| Entry gaps | 0.05s × 0.84 decay | accelerating cascade, resolves composed |
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Rules:
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- One direction per chain, riding the current. Inverse zoom is the chain's ARRIVAL beat only.
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- Pre-set all words to `x: +230, opacity: 0` at build time — `immediateRender: false`
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alone leaves un-started words visible at rest.
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- A short first beat may exit whole-line: its fade ends ~0.02s before the cut so it is
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still streaking when the next words ignite — no dead gap.
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- Transform/opacity only (seek-safe); opaque stage ground applies.
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## 5. Rack-Focus Blur-Cut (the visible cut)
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The one variant where the cut is SEEN: a defocus blur SPIKE hides a single-frame hard
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swap — a handheld-DSLR focus-pull. Use as an occasional flourish for a state swap of the
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SAME surface within one visual theme; never the default boundary.
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Differences from the others: outgoing stays FULLY OPAQUE until the cut (the blur hides
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the swap — no early fade); eases `power2.in` / `power2.out` (soft optics, not momentum).
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Rules:
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- Fire only at a narrative beat, ≤ once per ~8s; never mid-caption or during a hold.
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- Cut at PEAK blur (≥6px; peak 8–12px, ≤16–18px max) — swapping on the way up shows the cut.
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- A subtle scale (~1.06 lens-breathing) sells it as optics.
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- Same direction on both sides — the vector law still holds. Entry ≥ exit duration.
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- Blur the wrapper; never blur + opacity in one tween on one element (headless
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compositing bug); never blur a `<video>` directly (wrap it).
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---
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## 6. Waterfall Entry (in-scene arrival — not a seam)
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Staggered ARRIVAL cascade: words/elements whip in from below (one consistent direction),
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each starting before the previous settles — an accelerating wave that resolves into a
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composed layout. Title cards, segment openers, list/feature intros. The seam sibling is
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§4; do not mix their rules:
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| | §6 Entry (arrival) | §4 Waterfall Cut (seam) |
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| ------------- | --------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- |
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| Opacity | BINARY 0→1 via `tl.set` at entry — never fade | ignites at 0.35 mid-path — the fade IS the velocity trick |
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| Axis default | Y, from below | X, riding the current |
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| Outgoing side | none | words ramp out on mirrored power4.in |
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Choreography:
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- **Overlap, don't queue** — next element starts within ±2 frames of the previous
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settling; gaps SHRINK across the cascade; the last element snaps.
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- **Velocity varies by weight** — heavy/anchor elements travel further and longer;
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light words/punctuation snap in tight:
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| Parameter | Anchor/heavy | Normal word | Light/punctuation |
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| --------- | ------------ | ----------- | ----------------- |
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| Y offset | 60–80px | 40–50px | 30–48px |
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| Duration | 0.16–0.20s | 0.13–0.16s | 0.10–0.13s |
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| Overlap | 0–2f gap | 1f overlap | 1–2f overlap |
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- Ease `power4.out` (expo.out for extra snap); never `.inOut` on an entry.
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- One direction per cascade.
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- Split the FINAL word into fragments to extend the climax; fragments travel further.
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- Post-settle, the group usually slides to make room for the next beat — that's §7.
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## 7. Nudge Curve (in-scene group slide — not a seam)
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Slow-fast-slow repositioning of a composed group (word rows, card stacks, lists) to
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reveal content or make room. No single built-in ease produces it — `power4.inOut`
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smacks to a stop. Chain three tweens on one property:
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| Phase | Ease | Distance | Time | Feel |
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| --------- | --------------- | -------- | ---- | ---------------------------------------- |
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| 1 ramp-in | `power3.in` | ~10% | ~20% | barely moves — motion registers, no jolt |
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| 2 burst | `none` (linear) | ~65% | ~18% | ~2× average px/frame — purposeful |
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| 3 tail | `power4.out` | ~25% | ~62% | decaying creep to rest — kills the smack |
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Rules:
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- The tail is ≥3× the ramp-in in TIME. If it still smacks: extend the tail's time (not
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distance) or use `power5.out`.
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- Phase 2 stays linear — easing it loses the burst contrast.
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- Reveal new content DURING phase 2 — the burst masks its appearance.
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- Same ratios vertical; scale distances proportionally, keep the time ratios.
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---
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## Choosing a Variant
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| | Zoom-Through | Inverse Zoom | Cut the Curve | Waterfall Cut |
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| ------------- | ---------------------------- | ---------------------------- | ---------------------- | ---------------------- |
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| Scope | Within-scene text swap | Arrival/payoff beat | Between scenes | Text-to-text seam |
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| Z sign / axis | growing (push) | shrinking (pull) | X / Y | X, per-word |
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| Travel/scale | 1→1.2, then 0.75→1 | 1→0.8, then 1.25→1 | ±230px | ±230px |
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| Peak blur | 10px text / 18–20 full-frame | 10px text / 18–20 full-frame | 8–10px optional | none |
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| Eases | power3.in / expo.out | power3.in / expo.out | power4.in / power4.out | power4.in / power4.out |
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| Feel | progressing through | arriving at | carried sideways | a wave across the seam |
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## Anti-Patterns
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| Don't | Instead |
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| -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| Two texts visible during a zoom-through | Hard cut at blur peak, one text at a time |
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| 20px blur on text-scale subjects | 10px text; 18–20px only full-frame |
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| Inverse-zoom exit → grow-from-small entry (or push → oversized retraction) | Match the scale-velocity SIGN; verify at cut±0.1s |
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| Incoming comp's own scale-up intro under a Z-seam wrapper tween | Arrive composed; stage entrances after the seam settles or match the sign |
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| Mismatched blur/opacity at the swap | Identical values at the cut frame |
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| Gentle entry easing (`power2.out`) | Mirror the exit: `power4.out` / `expo.out` |
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| Full off-screen exits/entries | Partial travel (~12%) + early fade |
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| `.inOut` eases on either side of a cut | Mirrored `power4.in` / `power4.out` |
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| Lone element fading long before its cut | Fade ends ~0.02s before the cut, or word-cascade |
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| Equal gaps across a waterfall cascade | Shrink gaps ×0.84 per word |
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| Zoom-through on body text | Headlines and short phrases only |
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| Scene cuts without cut-the-curve | It is the default boundary |
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| Consecutive boundaries in opposing directions | One current; reserved vectors spent on meaning |
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| Unpainted `#root` behind a mid-window cut | Opaque stage ground |
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| Queued entries (each waits for the previous to settle) | Overlap ±1–2 frames — the cascade is a wave, not a queue |
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| Same offset/duration for every cascade element | Vary by weight: anchors travel further, punctuation snaps |
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| Gradual opacity fade on a §6 arrival | Binary 0→1 via `tl.set` — fading fights the snap (seam cuts fade; arrivals don't) |
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| Single ease for a group slide (`power4.inOut`, `slow()`) | The §7 three-phase chain |
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| Nudge tail shorter than 3× the ramp-in | Extend the tail's TIME, not its distance |
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## Code
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All GSAP templates — worker-authored versions, registry `gsap_template`s, the combined
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cut-the-curve + zoom, waterfall DOM/CSS/JS, rack-focus — live in
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`examples/gsap-implementation.md`.
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