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Animation Playback

Play transitions, control speed, use Play All, and understand ball handoff animation.

Playback Controls

The animation playback controls appear at the bottom of the visualizer:

Control	Action
Play/Pause	Start or stop the animation loop
Timeline slider	At the bottom of the screen — scrubs through the animation and shows your current position within the phase (0 = start of phase N, 1 = arrival at phase N+1)
Speed slider	Located under the navigation buttons — adjust playback speed (0.1x to 3x)

Playing a Single Transition

Switch to Transition mode on any phase (except the last).
Click Play to start the animation.
Items move along their configured paths from their current position to the next phase position.
The animation plays once and stops at the end of the transition.

Tip: Use the slider to scrub through the transition frame-by-frame. This is useful for analyzing a specific moment in the play.

Play All

The Play All button animates through every phase in sequence:

Click Play All in the phase navigation area.
The animation starts at Phase 1 and plays each transition in order.
Each phase plays for its configured duration (in seconds, set in the phase card). A phase with duration 7 takes 7 seconds to animate.
When a transition completes, it automatically advances to the next phase.
The animation stops after the last phase.

Note: Play All runs each transition once (no looping). The total playback time is the sum of all phase durations. The global Speed slider acts as a multiplier — at 2x speed, each phase takes half its configured duration.

Speed Control

There are two types of animation timing control:

Global Playback Speed

Use the Speed slider (located under the navigation buttons) to control how fast the overall animation plays:

1x — Normal speed (default)
0.1x — Slow motion, ideal for detailed analysis
3x — Fast forward for quick previews

Per-Item Offset

Each item's path settings include an Offset range slider with two knobs (0.0–1.0) that define when the item starts and finishes its movement during the phase transition. The item stays at its start position before the range, moves during the range, and waits at its destination after. See Per-Item Offset in the Transitions tutorial for details.

Animation and Path Types

The animation follows the path type configured for each item:

Basic — Straight line from A to B
Curve — Curved path with a smooth sin(πt) motion (items ease in and out naturally; no manual easing)
Manual — Follows the custom waypoint spline

Each item moves independently along its own path, so you can mix different path types in the same transition.

Ball Handoff Animation

When a ball is attached to a player and switches to a different player in the next phase, a 3-zone handoff animation applies:

Before offset — Ball follows the source player's live position (including their movement curve and facing direction).
During offset — Ball follows its own registered transition curve, respecting the path type (curve with direction/bend/height, manual waypoints, or basic straight line).
After offset — Ball follows the destination player's live position.

The offset range on the ball controls when the handoff begins and ends within the phase transition. If the ball is detached (not attached in the next phase), it follows its own path after the offset. If the ball was independent and becomes attached, it follows its own path before the offset, then snaps to the player.

Tip: When the ball stays with the same player across both phases (a "carry"), the offset doesn't apply — the ball simply follows the player for the entire transition.

Viz Toggle & Animation

The Viz toggle controls arrow visibility, but it does not affect animation playback:

Viz on — Arrows and path visuals are shown. Play animates items along their paths.
Viz off — Arrows are hidden for a clean view. Play still animates items along their configured paths — only the visual arrows are hidden.

Tip: Use Viz off during presentations to show smooth player movement without distracting arrows, then toggle it back on when editing paths.

Bloom Effect

The visualizer includes an optional bloom post-processing effect that makes glowing elements (arrows, flow particles, selection rings) emit light. Toggle it on/off with the bloom button in the top-right area.

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