| name | oversized-cursor |
| description | House-style oversized macOS cursor technique for HyperFrames launch videos. Load whenever a scene involves cursors or a pointer-led action, when kicking off a UI scene, when igniting a morph/transition/typing run with a click, or when a scene reads as static, dead, or stale and needs a cheap high-yield source of motion to carry the viewer's eye and segment them out of the stale state. Covers cursor size/look (incl. brand-motif cursors), the off-screen entry law, tip-targeting and the click tap, click-ignites-the-next-beat, and exit / cross-scene handoff. |
Oversized Cursor — the eye-carrier
A deliberately oversized macOS-style pointer that travels the frame as a visible
protagonist: it enters from off-screen, walks the viewer's eye to the next point of
interest, clicks to cause the next thing that happens, and leaves. Production-proven
across multiple launch films.
Why it exists. Big cursor movement is one of the cheapest high-yield motion sources
in a launch video: one element, transform-only tweens, and it (1) brings the eye across
the screen on scenes that would otherwise read as dead, (2) gives causal ignition to
morphs/transitions ("the click did that"), and (3) segments the eye out of a stale
state when kicking off a new scene or a complex animation sequence. Bigger is better —
an actual-size cursor disappears at video scale.
Size & look (house convention)
- Full-frame scenes:
7cqw (≈134px at 1920). In-mock / small-frame variants:
4.6–5.5cqw. Never smaller.
- One SVG arrow geometry everywhere. Two proven fills — white body + black stroke, or
black body (
#1c1c1c) + white stroke (1.4px). Pick per scene contrast, keep it
constant per film.
- Brand-motif cursors (the power play). The macOS arrow is the DEFAULT, not a
mandate. When the subject brand has a recognizable cursor identity — a collaborative
design tool's colored multiplayer arrow with a name tag (Figma-style), a creative
suite's precision crosshair, a distinctive product pointer — use THAT cursor instead:
instantly legible brand language for anyone who knows the product. Same laws apply
unchanged (oversized scale, physical entry/exit, tip-targeting, click-ignition), and
a name-tag variant travels as one rigid unit (tag trailing the arrow). Reach for it
only when the motif is genuinely referenceable; a cursor nobody recognizes is just a
weird arrow — default back to macOS.
filter: drop-shadow(0 4px 6px rgba(0,0,0,.3)), pointer-events: none,
z-index above all scene content, will-change: transform.
#root .cursor {
position: absolute;
left: 48%;
top: 115%;
width: 7cqw;
height: 7cqw;
z-index: 20;
filter: drop-shadow(0 4px 6px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3));
pointer-events: none;
will-change: transform;
}
Entry law — physical, never revealed
The cursor always enters from off-screen (canonical: from below, top:115–120%)
and travels to its first target in one decelerating glide. It must feel like it
entered the room. Never opacity-fade it in at a resting position, never mask-reveal
it — that reads as a glitch (a real, repeatedly observed failure mode).
- Default path: straight up the y-axis to the target — no fragmented diagonals.
A diagonal is fine when it IS the story (entering toward an off-axis target), but it
is one continuous vector either way.
duration: 0.4–0.92s, ease: power3.out, immediateRender: false on the fromTo.
tl.fromTo(
cursor,
{ left: "48.6%", top: "115%" },
{ left: "48.6%", top: "55%", duration: 0.85, ease: "power3.out", immediateRender: false },
0.25,
);
Tip-targeting & the click tap
The hot-spot is the arrow TIP, not the box center. Land the tip on the target's
center, and pivot all press scaling on the tip: transformOrigin: '21% 14%' (for the
house arrow path in a 24-unit viewBox).
Click = asymmetric compress/expand (1:2 ratio reads as a real tap):
tl.to(cursor, { scale: 0.84, duration: 0.1, ease: "power2.in", transformOrigin: "21% 14%" }, t);
tl.to(
cursor,
{ scale: 1, duration: 0.22, ease: "power2.out", transformOrigin: "21% 14%" },
t + 0.1,
);
The target's reaction is a separate, parallel tween (button: scale: 0.94 + press
color/shadow, starting at the same t). Cursor-only taps (e.g. focusing a text input)
get NO target reaction. Pair with cursor-click-ripple / press-release-spring for
the target side.
The click IGNITES the next beat
Never let a morph, typing run, window transform, or scene-defining animation simply
start. Park the cursor on the trigger and let the click cause it, same-frame:
- click ▸ menu/submenu cascade, toggle flip
- click ▸ typing kickoff into an input
- click ▸ composer morph-down / window shrink
- click ▸ logo ignition / flight launch
- click ▸ play-state flip + UI-life wake in a product mock
During long beats it doesn't own (typing, narration), the cursor drifts aside
(0.5–0.9s, power2.out) — never sits frozen on top of the action, never wobbles idly.
Exit law & cross-scene handoff
Two sanctioned exits — both physical, never an opacity fade in place:
- Leave the frame: accelerate off the nearest edge with
power2.in
(left:'118%', left:'-12%', or top:'116%'), 0.5–0.7s.
- Cut-the-curve handoff: in the final ~0.3s before a hard cut, the cursor starts
accelerating (
power2.in) toward the NEXT scene's first click point, covering the
first ~1/3 of that path; the next composition gsap.sets the cursor at the
handoff pose and continues with power2.out at matched velocity. The cursor itself
becomes the carrier element that stitches the seam:
tl.to(cursor, { left: "40.7%", top: "63.7%", duration: 0.3, ease: "power2.in" }, CUT - 0.3);
gsap.set(cursorB, { left: "40.7%", top: "63.7%" });
tl.to(cursorB, { left: "22%", top: "45%", duration: 0.6, ease: "power2.out" }, 0);
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