motion-animate

Design decides whether a frame is good. Motion decides whether it looks expensive. The same composition animated with linear easing and simultaneous entrances reads as generated; animated with the vocabulary below it reads as authored.

Engine recipes: Appendix A, Appendix B.

The four laws

1. Nothing is linear. Every property moves on an ease. Linear motion does not exist in the physical world and the eye knows it instantly.
2. Nothing enters at once. Elements arrive in a deliberate order with 60–120ms between them. Simultaneous entrance is the loudest motion tell.
3. The camera is never fully still. A slow continuous push or drift under every composition. Static frames read as slides.
4. Nothing is metronomic. Vary durations and cut spacing. Uniform 1s beats feel automated no matter how good each beat is.

Timing table

Values at 30fps; scale for 60fps. Times in ms.