Animation and effects

Entrance Animation and Exit Animation control how a layer arrives and leaves, each with a Movement Direction, Duration, and Delay. Exit also carries Animation Timing.

Delay is what makes a sequence feel composed rather than simultaneous. Staggering entrances by a couple of hundred milliseconds reads as deliberate; everything arriving at once reads as a jump cut.

The Reveal panel controls how a chart's items first appear: Reveal Duration, Reveal Order, and Item Animation Duration.

This matters most on long tables and dense charts. Twenty rows appearing at once is a wall; the same rows building in order is watchable, and buys a moment for viewers to orient before the race starts.

The Animation panel on race layers carries Animation Type, Animation Duration, Animation Timing, and Overtake Animation Duration.

Overtakes are the moments viewers actually watch for, so giving them enough time to register is worth more than most styling. If your race feels jumpy, this is the first setting to check — a longer overtake duration turns an abrupt swap into a visible pass.

Bar races carry two panels for drawing attention to what matters.

Rank emphasis has Emphasize top and #1 size, which enlarge the leading bars so the top of the chart reads as the important part.

Effects carries Apply effects to, Hero item, Hero glow size, Overtake grow, and Sound effects volume. Designating a hero item is how you make one entity followable through a crowded race — useful when the story is about a specific competitor rather than the field.

Use one emphasis mechanism, not all of them. Glow plus growth plus enlarged ranks plus sound is noise.

Continuous Animation loops an effect with an Animation Type and Duration, running for the layer's whole visible span.

It suits decorative elements — a slowly drifting logo, a pulsing accent. On anything carrying information it is a distraction, since motion draws the eye away from the data that should hold it.