Add Zoom to a Bar Chart Race

Zoom is an optional section, so it is not in the panel until you add it. Scroll the bar chart race settings to Zoom and click the plus button on the right of the header.

Adding the section does not change the video on its own — it just gives you the controls.

Mode is the first decision, and it changes every other control in the section.

Manual lets you place each zoom yourself, at a time you choose, on an item you choose. Use it when you already know which moments matter — a record being broken, a specific overtake — and you want them framed exactly.

Automatic reacts to the race as it plays, zooming when the ranking changes. Use it for long races, where it will catch overtakes you would otherwise have to find and time by hand.

In manual mode each zoom is a card with four settings. Selected Item is the column the camera centres on. Scale is how far in it pushes, from x2 to x6. Zoom Start is when it begins, and Zoom Duration is how long the whole move lasts.

Add as many windows as you need and place them in order, earliest first.

In automatic mode you describe the behaviour instead of the timings.

Baseline Target is where the camera rests: Only #1 follows the leader, Top 3 frames the front of the pack, and Hero item follows one column you nominate — choosing it reveals a Hero Item picker.

Zoom on Rank Change decides which overtakes are worth a move: Off, Only #1, Top 3, or All. On a crowded race, All is usually too busy.

Scale caps how far any automatic zoom pushes in. Two toggles finish the section: Zoom on milestones reacts to round-number moments in the data, and Zoom to winner closes on whoever finishes first.

Every window eases in and eases out over one second at each end. That framing is what makes a zoom feel like a camera move rather than a cut — but it also means a short window is all ramp.

A three second zoom spends one second pushing in, one second held, and one second pulling back. Drop below about 2500 ms and there is no hold left at all: the camera arrives and immediately leaves, which reads as a twitch.

Scrub the timeline through each window before rendering — zoom is easier to judge in motion than from the settings.

One practical limit: zoom is baked into the bar sprites rather than applied to the finished frame, so a very large race at x6 uses noticeably more memory than the same race at x3. If a long project struggles to render, lowering the scale is the first thing to try.