Motion by intent

Choose motion from communication intent before choosing presets or keyframes. Motion spends attention; an element should move because the beat needs it, not merely because it can.

This recipe uses three evidence labels:

• scene fact — behavior defined by the format, validator, resolver, or authoring tools.
• Motion heuristic — a useful starting rule that must be judged in the actual scene.
• Project choice — a local style decision that should stay consistent inside one piece.

Do not present a heuristic or project choice as something scene enforces. Exact starting values below are trials, not universal constants.

Decide in this order

1. Communication goal — what must the viewer understand or notice?
2. Visual leader — which one element owns the beat, and what stays subordinate?
3. Spatial relationship — reveal, replace, connect, emphasize, orient, or resolve.
4. Timing and sequence — what precedes, overlaps, follows, and holds?
5. Motion character — direct, soft, restrained, playful, urgent, or continuous.
6. Settle and readable hold — what must become still, and for how long?
7. Evaluation — did the result communicate the original goal without added competition?

Only after these decisions should an author choose scene properties, presets, or keyframes. Concrete syntax is picsart_scene_recipe scene-animation-reference; reusable realizations are picsart_scene_recipe motion-pattern-library. When the question spans consecutive beats or a scene boundary, route the relationship and seam decision to picsart_scene_recipe motion-scene-continuity.

1. Communication goal

Motion heuristic: one verb is usually enough for one beat. If the goal needs “reveal, emphasize, spin, and celebrate,” split it into beats or choose the one communication job that matters.

2. Visual leader

Name the leader before assigning motion. Supporting elements may prepare for it, follow it, or remain still. A useful hierarchy trial is:

These are motion heuristics, not amplitude requirements. A leader can also win through isolation, contrast, or timing while moving less than its support.

For repeated items, decide whether the group is one idea or a reading order. Move the group together for one idea; stagger its children when order itself communicates something.

3. Spatial relationship and property

scene fact: layer Placement can animate position, scale, rotation, opacity, and anchor; audio can animate volume. Transform components add independently editable motion outside Placement. Exact catalogs and content-kind restrictions live in scene-animation-reference.

Choose the minimum property set that carries the relationship:

Motion heuristic: one or two coordinated properties are easier to read than several unrelated ones. When opacity and a transform describe one arrival, try ending them together first; offset them only for a deliberate two-stage read.

Shared-element continuity

For an element that exists in consecutive arrangements, first try keeping one layer on screen and animating its delta. This often reads as continuity better than cross-fading two copies. A cross-fade remains valid when identity is intentionally ambiguous, continuity is unimportant, or the states cannot share one authored layer.

4. Timing and sequence

scene defines time values; it does not define an ideal pace. These are for ambient or emotional pacing; a UI element move (a button, a card, a list row) stays at motion-design-craft's 200–400 ms. Build a small project-choice palette from the brief, then test it in context. These are example starting palettes:

The names and values above are not format registers. Replace them when the project's pacing, frame rate, travel, density, or audience calls for something else.

Useful heuristic trials:

• Longer travel often needs more time; preview rather than applying a fixed distance multiplier.
• Try exits shorter than entrances when removal should spend less attention, but keep them long enough to remain legible.
• For siblings, start with roughly 0.05–0.12s between items and keep the whole cascade compact; compress or expand it to match density and reading order.
• Very short spatial moves can read as pops at common video frame rates. Around 0.15s is a useful warning threshold, not a minimum enforced by scene.
• A hold should cover comprehension or reading, not satisfy a fixed ratio to motion duration.

Write the chosen palette beside the scene as a project decision. Consistent values can create a register, but variation is justified when distance, hierarchy, or meaning changes.

5. Motion character and easing

scene fact: if an animatable keyframe segment omits easing, interpolation is linear. State easing explicitly whenever constant-rate motion is not intended.

Motion heuristic: purpose and continuity choose easing; direction is only a starting clue.

Overshoot is a design choice, not a separate scene semantic. Start with none, add it only to the leader when the requested character needs it, and judge the rendered peak rather than equating a Bézier control ordinate with an overshoot percentage. A single overshoot and a damped multi-cycle spring communicate different things; patterns for both are in motion-pattern-library.

6. Settle and readable hold

Anticipation, action, reaction, and resolution are optional choreography tools—not mandatory phases. A practical sequence is:

1. anticipate only when it clarifies a strong directional action;
2. perform the action;
3. let a subordinate react only if the reaction adds meaning;
4. resolve or intentionally cut away;
5. hold only as long as recognition or reading needs.

Starting with 0.1–0.2s of stability can reveal whether a beat felt unfinished, but the correct hold depends on frame rate, edit rhythm, and content. A hard cut at the action endpoint can also be the intended punctuation.

7. Evaluate against the goal

Treat perceptual diagnoses as hypotheses and change one variable at a time.

Layout and validation can prove authored structure; they cannot prove that motion feels confident, playful, elegant, or restrained. Those remain contextual judgments.

Before authoring, write a short acceptance card: goal, target IDs/scopes, root-clock events, expected outcome, tolerance, sample schedule, numerical check, visual check. Pick the matching pattern from picsart_scene_recipe motion-pattern-library and fetch its Validation by pattern reference; it maps each construction to existing tools and states what they cannot establish. Set targets from the design, not from the output being tested. After execution, record measured / visually inspected / unchecked evidence separately. Fix a failed beat and rerun its window and adjacent seams; do not widen tolerances merely to obtain a pass.

Before calling a beat done

• The communication goal is one sentence, not an effect name.
• One leader is named; support and ambient motion are intentional, including intentional stillness.
• The property choice communicates the relationship.
• Numerical values are identified as project choices or heuristic trials unless the format defines them.
• Easing is explicit unless constant-rate motion is intended.
• The beat resolves or cuts intentionally, with enough reading time for its content.
• Validation/layout evidence does not prove a subjective feeling; describe the actual visual observation separately.
• The selected pattern's numerical and visual checks ran, or the missing evidence is explicitly listed.

Emotion-to-motion starting points and symptom diagnosis are in references/emotion-and-diagnosis.md.

The existing goal/register/emotion framing was adapted for video from LottieFiles' motion-design skill (MIT © 2025 LottieFiles) and re-derived in scene vocabulary; that attribution remains for the material already derived from it.

Research note: the evidence-boundary and choreography guidance added here is independently authored for scene from general motion-design principles and local evaluation. Hyperframes was reviewed as research inspiration; its wording, code, examples, and organization were not adopted.