# Zooms that land where you clicked > Lumae reads the clicks in a recording and turns them into zooms that lead in before the first click and settle after the last. Every one stays editable. *Source: https://lumae.app/features/automatic-zoom.md. This page in HTML: https://lumae.app/features/automatic-zoom.* A flat screen recording asks the viewer to find the thing that matters. Lumae already knows where it is: the recording carries every click. Press Automatic Zoom and those clicks become camera moves, or place each one yourself on the zoom track. ## At a glance - **Cluster window:** 2.2 s between clicks - **Cluster radius:** 0.3 of the frame - **Lead-in:** 0.6 s before the first click - **Hold:** 1.1 s after the last - **Easing:** 0.65 s / 0.45 s / 0.3 s - **Follow dead zone:** 40 % of the half-window ## Clicks become clusters, clusters become zooms Clicks that fall within 2.2 seconds of each other and within 0.3 of the frame belong to the same moment, so Lumae groups them into one cluster rather than one zoom apiece. Each cluster becomes a single zoom that leads in 0.6 seconds before the first click and holds 1.1 seconds after the last, which is roughly the time a viewer needs to see what the click did. Zooms that end up touching merge, and a cluster spread wide across the screen zooms less, because framing six scattered clicks tightly would crop half of them out. The result is a set of ordinary zooms on the timeline, not a locked-in automatic mode. Run it, then drag the ones you disagree with. ## A camera move, not a crop The zoom is applied to the whole framed canvas, after the backdrop, the padding and the window's rounded corners are composed. So pushing in scales the frame and slides its edges out of view, the way a camera moving towards a screen would, instead of magnifying the video inside a frame that stubbornly stays put. The visible window travels **as a rectangle**. Lumae interpolates the full frame towards the zoom's final window with a single smoothstep weight, so all four edges move in straight lines and arrive together. Interpolating the focus point and the scale separately was tried first: whenever the target sat near a border, one edge overshot and came back. ## Or let the zoom follow the cursor Turn on Follow Cursor and the zoom becomes a camera operator. It holds still while the pointer moves inside a dead zone of 40 % of the window's half-size, and moves only by the amount that brings the pointer back inside. The whole path is then smoothed with a Gaussian of 0.22 seconds, which makes every move ease in and out and, usefully, start slightly *before* the cursor reaches the edge, the way an operator anticipates. The project stores the intent, not the path, so re-recording the clip re-follows the new cursor. Centering continuously on the smoothed cursor was rejected on paper: it turns every small hand movement into camera motion. ## Placed and shaped by hand Add a zoom at the playhead, drag its edges on the zoom track, and aim it by dragging the preview itself. Three easing shapes cover the range from gentle to snappy, and because a softer curve has to cover the same distance in less of its time, each one carries the length that gives it its feel: 0.65 s, 0.45 s and 0.3 s. Pick a shape and the length follows, in one undo step; the slider is yours afterwards. Zooms are keyed to the clip's own media time, not the timeline's. Trim a clip, split it, reorder the sequence, and every zoom stays on the content it was aimed at. ## Questions ### Can I edit the zooms Lumae generates? Yes. Automatic Zoom writes ordinary zooms onto the timeline in one undo step. Move them, retime them, re-aim them, or delete the ones you disagree with. ### Do zooms survive trimming and reordering? Yes. A zoom is stored against its clip's own media time rather than the timeline's, so trims, splits and reorders carry it along with the content it was framing. ### What if the recording has no clicks? Then there is nothing to cluster, and Automatic Zoom produces nothing rather than guessing. Place zooms at the playhead instead, or turn on Follow Cursor so the camera tracks the pointer. ## Related - [Smooth cursor](https://lumae.app/features/smooth-cursor.md): The pointer, redrawn: smoothed, tilted, and pressed on every click. - [Motion blur](https://lumae.app/features/motion-blur.md): Camera moves sampled across a shutter, the way a lens does it. - [Backgrounds and framing](https://lumae.app/features/backgrounds.md): Backdrops, padding, and corners measured from the window itself.