Plugin installs: Before setup or freshness commands, follow plugin execution rules when this skill is inside a HyperFrames plugin. Standalone installs keep the update instructions below.

HyperFrames Animation

All motion knowledge in one skill: rules (atomic recipes), blueprints (multi-phase scene templates), transitions (scene-to-scene), techniques (broader motion-design patterns), and adapters (per-runtime APIs).

For the composition contract (data attributes, sub-compositions, determinism) see hyperframes-core.

Default: compose atomic rules

Pick 2-4 rules from rules-index.md, glue them together with a single paused GSAP timeline, done. This is faster and produces less code than starting from a blueprint.

Load a blueprint when

• The scene matches an existing pre-designed multi-phase template (brand-reveal, social-proof, etc.) and reusing its phase pipeline saves real authoring time
• You want runnable ground-truth code for a complex 4-5 phase choreography

Blueprints live in blueprints-index.md. Each entry points to blueprints/<id>.md (recipe). Do not read it speculatively; load it when you've already decided you need scene-level orchestration.

Routing

Want to…	Read
Pick an atomic motion pattern by trigger / tag	rules-index.md
Read one rule's full HTML / CSS / GSAP recipe	rules/<name>.md
Pick a multi-phase scene template	blueprints-index.md
Read one blueprint's full recipe	blueprints/<id>.md
Author a scene transition (CSS-driven, between two clips)	transitions/overview.md, transitions/catalog.md
Look up a broader motion-design technique	techniques.md
Motion blur — shutter smear on an element, and when not to use it	references/motion-blur.md
Analyze an existing composition's animation map	scripts/animation-map.mjs
GSAP API — timeline / tweens / position parameters	adapters/gsap.md
GSAP — drop-in effect recipes	rules/gsap-effects.md
GSAP — transforms / perf	adapters/gsap-transforms-and-perf.md
GSAP — eases / stagger	adapters/gsap-easing-and-stagger.md
GSAP — timeline / labels	adapters/gsap-timeline-and-labels.md
Lottie / dotLottie (After Effects exports, window.__hfLottie)	adapters/lottie.md
Character animation (walk cycle, mascot, jointed puppet, gestures)	adapters/lottie.md → Characters
Three.js / WebGL (3D scenes, AnimationMixer, hf-seek)	adapters/three.md
Anime.js (window.__hfAnime)	adapters/animejs.md
CSS keyframes (animation-delay / play-state / fill-mode)	adapters/css-animations.md
Web Animations API (element.animate(), currentTime seek)	adapters/waapi.md
TypeGPU / WebGPU (navigator.gpu, WGSL, compute pipelines)	adapters/typegpu.md
HTML-as-texture + WebGL/GLSL post-fx (capture live DOM via drawElementImage)	adapters/html-in-canvas-patterns.md
Named text-animation effects (24 IDs via external animate-text skill)	adapters/animate-text.md

Picking a runtime

• GSAP is the default for 95% of motion work — covers timeline orchestration, transforms, easing, stagger. All atomic rules in this skill are GSAP-based.
• Lottie when an asset has its own pre-baked timeline (typically After Effects exports), including characters that walk, gesture or react.
• Three.js for 3D scenes, camera motion, shader-driven visuals.
• Anime.js for lightweight tweening when GSAP is overkill.
• CSS for simple repeated motifs, decoration, shimmer — no JavaScript animation cost.
• WAAPI for native browser keyframes without a GSAP dependency.
• TypeGPU / WebGPU for GPU-rendered canvases (particles, liquid glass, custom shaders).

Multiple runtimes can coexist in one composition. Each registers its instances on the runtime-specific global so HyperFrames can seek all of them in one pass.

Critical Constraints

Prerequisite: hyperframes-core → One paused timeline + Non-negotiable rules (single paused timeline, data-duration governs length, no Math.random / Date.now / performance.now, no repeat: -1 without a finite root data-duration, no page-load gsap.set on later-scene clips, no display or raw visibility tweens, and register the timeline only after it is fully built, including when the build runs inside an async callback such as document.fonts.ready). GSAP autoAlpha and zero-duration visibility sets at explicit timeline boundaries remain allowed by core. Use those exceptions only on non-clip elements or wrappers inside a clip; the framework owns .clip lifecycle. Don't restate the full contract here.

Animation-craft additions on top of core's contract:

• Pre-calculated layout constants — never derive positions from getBoundingClientRect() at tween time. Tween-time DOM measurements desync because the renderer samples in parallel; compute coordinates once at composition setup and reuse.
• Spatial motion uses GSAP transform aliases only (x, y, scale, rotation). Core's allowlist also permits opacity / color / backgroundColor / borderRadius for non-spatial property tweens — but never width / height / top / left for layout changes.

Scripts

node <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/animation-map.mjs <composition-dir> \
  --out <composition-dir>/.hyperframes/anim-map

Reads every GSAP timeline registered on window.__timelines, enumerates tweens, samples bboxes, computes flags, outputs animation-map.json. Use it to audit choreography (dead zones, stagger consistency, lifecycle warnings) after authoring.

animation-map.mjs resolves helper packages from the current project first, then can bootstrap the bundled HyperFrames package version. Set HYPERFRAMES_SKILL_PKG_VERSION=<version> only when running the skill outside the bundled CLI/skill install and you need to pin that bootstrap version explicitly.

See Also

• hyperframes-core — composition structure, data attributes, sub-compositions, deterministic render contract
• hyperframes-creative — palettes, typography, narration, beat planning (non-animation creative direction)
• hyperframes-cli — npx hyperframes lint / check / snapshot / preview / render