Adding zooms (auto cursor follow & manual positions)
Adding zoom blocks
Once you take a recording or import media, you will see the scene timeline populate with two blocks:
- The purple block is your media
- The orange block is a zoom
You can add as many zoom blocks as you want, or remove them altogether.
If you're in a blank scene without a default zoom block, you can also add one by clicking the "+ Zoom" button in the scene timeline:
Deleting zooms
Click an orange zoom block and the press the delete key.
Auto (cursor follow) zooms
If you recorded with Kite, when you select a zoom block, you can use Auto mode, which automatically follows your cursor, while you control the zoom level.
(If you did not record with Kite, only manual mode is available. Kite needs to be able to capture your mouse moves during the recording to make auto zooms work)
Adjusting the zoom level:
- Click the zoom block in the timeline
- Hover your cursor over the viewer and scroll up and down to zoom in and out
- Or, use the zoom preset buttons in the sidebar to jump to a specific zoom level. Or right click the block and choose the zoom level from the context menu.
Manual zooms
Manual zooms will let you control both the position and the zoom level.
Just like with auto zooms, you can scroll in the viewer window.
But in manual mode you can also drag the screen around to position it to your liking.
In order to change the position you'll need to zoom in far enough that the entire screen no longer fits in the frame (at low zoom levels, the screen will be automatically be centered):
0.5x to 2x: Media is centered
2x to 4x: Media can be dragged horizontally and vertically
Any auto block can be turned into a manual block, by simply grabbing the media and dragging it in the viewer window (as long as you are past 2X zoom level).
Combining and animating zoom blocks
You can add as many zoom blocks as you want in each scene, and you can combine manual and automatic zooms.
Each time your zoom level changes, Kite will smoothly animate between them.
Animation styles
Kite has several animation styles which can be applied to a scene (Left sidebar > Animation > Animation style)
Animation styles understand and respect the zoom blocks you've added to your scene.
Styles are one click, "what you see is what you get." Simply click the style you want and your whole scene's look will change, keeping the zoom levels roughly accurate, throughout.
Basic styles:
Basic zoom & pan: The most basic style. It keeps things fairly static: no 3D effects, just smooth zoom and pan animations every time your zoom level changes. Great for basic tutorials and walkthroughs where you want to keep things easy to follow.
There are also several flashier 3D styles which are great for marketing content:
3D skew (smooth): The most advanced style, which chooses interesting 3D skewed angles at your zoom levels and smoothly glides between them
3D skew (cuts): A more basic skew style with hard cuts between positions and zoom levels
3D orbit (cuts): A subtle constant 3D orbit effect with hard cuts between positions and zoom levels
Adding intro & outro animations
The zoom row has one more trick up its sleeve: intro and outro animations.
Click the intro and outro buttons on the side of the scene timeline:
Then choose the intro/outro you want in the sidebar.
Intro/outros can be shortened and lengthened by resizing the blocks in the timeline.
Intros/outros also respect your zoom blocks and will animate to / from wherever your zoom blocks specify.
For example, if you have an intro block followed immediately by a 3X zoom block, the intro will play at 3X zoom level:
Updated on: 17/09/2026
Thank you!