Yep same, I let out an audible "nooooo....".

Maybe it was 3D the entire time. :)

Same. What a beautiful plot twist.

Thanks a lot! That was my goal. It's a trick I learned: if you zoom in from a distance, everything appears flat. The effect is achieved by zooming out while simultaneously moving the camera closer to the subject!

Could you not just use a parallel projection (which should be the default for this kind of 3d scatter plot)?

Yes, I could have been using THREE.OrthographicCamera(), however, it makes the effect way less cinematic, and most importantly, it makes the depth harder to see (particularly for a scatter plot).

In cinematography that is called a dolly zoom [1] and it is best known for being used in Vertigo [2] and Jaws [3].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_zoom

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7YJkBcRWB8

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eO_5q5dR9M

I love how that transition is relative to the scroll position rather than working off a breakpoint. Did you consider doing the same thing with the first bar chart? I think it would be nice to slowly reveal the standings :)

Honestly, I was so impressed.