Motion Graphics — the super-skill

One home for building polished 2D motion-graphics in plain HTML (no After Effects). Distilled from launch-reel + SaaS-explainer references (Pinterest "2d motion graphics" / "saas promotional video"; YouTube "What a Story", Beyond Motion, Zelios, think3, MotionDesigners.Pro, Nadim Sheikh, Behance).

Two things live here:

1. PLATTER.md — the named menu of ~40 moves, grouped into 7 sub-skill families, each with what it looks like, its reference, and a render-safe build.
2. assets/motion.css + motion.js — drop-in building blocks (24 JS helpers + matching classes). Every effect scales by --R and is driven by logical time t, so it survives slow-clock capture.

<link rel="stylesheet" href="assets/motion.css">
<script src="assets/motion.js"></script>

Serving "the platter"

When the user asks for the platter / a menu of motion skills / what effects can you do, list the families below with their one-line looks (pull the tables from PLATTER.md). When they ask for a family letter (e.g. "give me the background ones"), list just that group. Then offer to wire any subset into their piece.

The sub-skills (families)

How to build a piece (the method the references share)

1. Pick a living background (family B) — one palette per scene + slow drift = constant subtle motion.
2. Give every scene a different text entrance (family A) — identical headings read as a slideshow.
3. Add one element/particle layer (C) tuned to the scene's meaning (rings emanate, orbs bloom, blobs drift).
4. Land the key word with a Keyword-Sweep or Gradient-Hero; sync its cue to the VO word (see vo-sync).
5. Transition with a shape/iris/dissolve (F), not a plain crossfade — the shared gradient persisting already sells it.
6. For product beats, choose from UI/data motion (G) + glass/product (D/E): counters tick, bars grow, cards deal, cursor demos.
7. Render with smooth-render: play at rate, set --R = 1/rate, drive JS by logical time.

The one hard rule (why the recipes look the way they do)

Never filter:blur() or backdrop-filter:blur() — headless Chromium/Edge software-rasterizes them and capture drops to ~5 fps. Every "soft / frosted / motion-blurred" look in the platter is faked without blur (radial-gradient falloff, translucent gradient + inset highlight, directional text-shadow smear, two-circles-plus-bridge instead of an SVG goo filter). See PLATTER.md's footer.

Production rules (from shipping a real launch video — see PLATTER.md for the full list)

Beyond the blur rule: width-lock scramble slots (glyph width jitter reflows the line); smear ≤ .15em (bigger reads as duplicate words); one static stage background (backgrounds inside a camera-transformed world expose black borders on pan/zoom); neutral shadows on brand marks (colored drop-shadows read as bleed); every transform state carries its positioning translate; cue word reveals to the SFX event times, not to a linear window.

Composes with (focused sibling skills)

• text-motion — the deep dive on family A (this super-skill's assets are the shared library).
• kinetic-typography — word-cascade + hero-push staging.
• glass-cards — a card zooms forward to demo itself then falls back (family D, camera-driven).
• smooth-render — render the HTML to a sharp MP4 without choppy motion; mux audio.
• vo-sync — set each effect's cue time from VO word timestamps so moves land on the spoken word.

Notes

• Set the palette via --tm-accent / --tm-accent2 / --tm-warm / --tm-ink / --tm-mute on :root.
• All helpers take logical time t; call per-frame updaters from your render/rAF loop, never wall-clock.
• Pause ambient loops when idle: document.documentElement.classList.toggle('tm-paused', !playing).
• This library was distilled from launch-reel / SaaS-explainer references and battle-tested on a full 2K documentary-style product launch film (10 scenes, VO-synced, homelab-rendered).