Motion-primitive catalog — the free-compose menu
The atomic layer: one anchor → one micro-move. When no template fits a group, free-compose by naming primitives from here. Scan anchor + best span + what it does, then pick the smallest set that carries the group.
Timing & latency (applies to every primitive)
- Hard hits are 0ms. Cuts, palette flips, content swaps, freezes are
tl.set(...)with no duration — the percussion is the motion. Easing a hit kills it. - Lead the anchor. A move that must land on a beat (a wipe covering the frame, a count-up locking, two blocks colliding) starts ~40–190ms early so it completes ON the anchor. Reactive entrances (something appearing because of the hit) fire 0–45ms after.
- Eased entrances: 300–500ms (scale punch, slides, camera pushes). Macro builds: 800–2000ms spanning a whole roll / silence.
- Per-bar caps: one accumulating element per hit (not a burst); a camera move at most once per phrase, never per beat; a dense flip/strobe system runs ≤2–3s.
- Tension-builds lock. A count-up / sequential build / morph must resolve on a downbeat or hard_stop, never trail off mid-bar.
- Best span means active motion. The catalog's span guidance is not a license to stretch one primitive over a whole frame. If a free-composed group runs longer than the listed span, add a hold / bed / next primitive, or split the frame into another group at the next musical anchor.
Catalog
| id | anchor | best span | what it does |
|---|---|---|---|
hypercut-whip |
beat / hard_stop | 0.18-0.45s | fast whip-pan hard cut between frames |
kinetic-letter-in |
downbeat / phrase | 0.4-1.2s | per-letter kinetic entrance |
braam-punch |
drop / surge | 0.2-0.9s active | big impact: scale + weight slam |
chromatic-split |
snare / glitch / surge | 0.1-0.6s | RGB channel split / glitch on a word |
mask-reveal |
section_start / downbeat | 0.5-1.2s | clip-path mask wipe reveal |
screen-shake |
drop / crash / kick | 0.1-0.5s | camera / screen shake jitter |
binary-decrypt |
roll / build | 0.8-2.5s | scramble→decode text (binary → word) |
dolly-zoom |
phrase / build | 1.2-2.5s | vertigo dolly-zoom (scale vs perspective) |
iris-open |
section_start / reveal | 0.6-1.2s | circular iris-open reveal |
electric-arc |
accent / glitch | 0.1-0.6s | electric arc / lightning accent |
neon-flicker |
hold / texture | 0.5-2.5s | neon-sign flicker |
chrome-sweep |
downbeat / reveal | 0.6-1.4s | metallic specular sweep across text |
slot-machine-reveal |
roll → downbeat | 0.8-2.0s | slot-machine spin-to-land character reveal |
liquid-morph |
phrase / transition | 1.0-2.5s | liquid / blob morph |
gooey-metaball |
build / drop | 1.5-3.0s | gooey metaball merge field |
3d-card-flip |
downbeat / swap | 0.8-1.6s | 3D card flip (rotateY) |
crash-zoom-in |
drop / surge | 0.2-0.8s | violent crash zoom-in |
spotlight-sweep |
reveal / hold | 0.8-2.0s | spotlight / gradient sweep over text |
outline-to-fill |
downbeat / reveal | 0.8-1.8s | stroke outline → solid fill |
counting-punch |
roll → downbeat | 1.0-2.5s | number count-up that punches & locks |
particle-burst |
drop / crash | 0.2-1.2s | particle explosion burst |
radial-burst-lines |
drop / surge | 0.2-0.8s | radial speed-lines burst |
pixel-dissolve |
transition / hard_stop | 0.5-1.5s | pixelated dissolve |
datamosh-smear |
glitch / transition | 0.4-1.2s | datamosh / motion smear |
text-wave-distort |
hold / texture | 1.0-2.5s | wavy text distortion |
bg-flow-field |
energy / whole span (bed) | 4-12s bed | generative curl-noise background bed; compose any foreground move over it |
blur-resolve |
stop / final hold | 0.7-2.0s | blur-in to crisp focus, then blur-out on the cut |
chromatic-pressure |
snare / glitch | 0.1-0.5s | RGB split / digital tension on a transient |
color-grid-shuffle |
onset | 0ms hits; ≤2s run | grid of cells recolored by a deterministic index per onset |
content-swap |
beat | 0ms hits; ≤3s run | 0ms swap of stacked nodes: the workhorse percussive move |
directional-fill |
beat / reveal | 0.3-1.0s each | directional wipe-fill (scaleX) sweeping across bars |
flash-cut |
drop / crash | 0-0.6s | full-frame flash masking a word / color state change |
freeze-hold |
hard_stop | 0ms in; 0.5-2s | freeze the moving system and hold it |
hard-cut |
beat / hard_stop | 0ms in; 0.3-2s | sample-accurate color-block + word cut |
mosaic-pack |
beat / build | 1.5-3.5s | scattered tiles fly in and pack into a grid |
negative-space-hold |
silence / hard_stop / final hold | 1-6s hold | kill busy layers, hold one readable mark in empty space |
overlay-pop |
accent | 0.2-0.6s in | badge / lower-third overlay pops in over a base |
palette-flip |
section change | 0ms flip; 0.5-4s | same layout re-skins via 0ms palette-variable flips |
staggered-exit |
phrase / transition | 0.4-1.2s | ordered cascade-out clearing the frame |
staggered-reveal |
build | 0.8-2.5s | ordered cascade-in of a stack / list |
system-replace |
drop / regime change | 0ms cut | hard-cut the entire visual system, then boot the new one |
text-spectral-rays |
phrase / sweep (hero text) | 2.5-5s | volumetric light-rays cast by a wordmark toward a sweeping light cursor |
tile-mosaic |
build / reveal | 1.5-3.5s | grid of tiles revealed in a diagonal sweep, assembling a poster |
typewriter-reveal |
roll / build | 1.0-3.0s | character / word type-on with caret |
value-counter |
roll → downbeat | 1.0-2.5s | count-up that locks on a downbeat / hard_stop |
word-grid-burst |
onsets → downbeat | 1.8-3.2s | grid of words revealed per onset, refocus one on a downbeat |
How to combine
- One dominant system per group; layer at most one texture primitive over one structural primitive.
- Structure on strong beats (cuts, camera,
system-replace→ downbeat / phrase / section_start); texture on weak / syncopated hits (content-swap, typewriter letters, chromatic accents). - A roll is an accumulation container — build during it, hard-cut to a clean layout on the downbeat that ends it.
drop≠downbeat: a downbeat is a cut within the regime; a drop is a regime change (system-replace, total clear, element-count jump).- Let silence remove density (
negative-space-hold). - Background beds are a layer, not a move: one bed at a time, under foreground primitives.
text-spectral-raysis the hero wordmark treatment; do not stack another visible copy of the same word on top.