diff --git a/renderer/README.md b/renderer/README.md
index 645c785..b6372dd 100644
--- a/renderer/README.md
+++ b/renderer/README.md
@@ -31,8 +31,16 @@ Response is `image/gif` with winner metadata headers:
 
 `X-Wheel-Winner` is URL-encoded so non-ASCII labels are safe in HTTP headers.
 
-The GIF includes a winner celebration with a deterministic confetti burst
-during the hold phase, using colors from the chosen theme palette.
+The GIF ends on a winner celebration: the wheel settles, the winning slice is
+outlined, the winner's name appears over the hub, and a deterministic two-cannon
+confetti burst crosses the wheel. Each theme carries its own confetti palette,
+chosen for contrast against that theme's background rather than reusing the
+slice colors. The celebration starts a few frames before the wheel
+mathematically settles, so it lands on the perceived stop.
+
+Labels stay radial but flip where needed so every name reads upright in the
+final frame, which is the frame most chat clients show as the GIF's poster
+image.
 
 ## Local
 
diff --git a/renderer/docs/render-benchmarks.md b/renderer/docs/render-benchmarks.md
index 4db845a..32620fc 100644
--- a/renderer/docs/render-benchmarks.md
+++ b/renderer/docs/render-benchmarks.md
@@ -10,5 +10,81 @@ pnpm render:fixtures
 |---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---|
 | smoke | 384 | 12 | 3.5s | 315661 | 13917ms | Docker `pnpm render:smoke` on 2026-07-06 |
 | api-smoke | 384 | 12 | 3.5s | 298374 | 4100ms | Docker `pnpm api:smoke`, after startup bundle warm-up |
-| vietnamese | 512 | 15 | 7.7s | TBD | TBD | label readability |
-| sixteen-options | 512 | 15 | 7.7s | TBD | TBD | dense wheel |
+| smoke | 384 | 12 | 3.5s | 1495369 | 3608ms | Windows dev box, 2026-07-25 |
+| vietnamese | 512 | 15 | 7.7s | 2894104 | 3416ms | Windows dev box, 2026-07-25, label readability |
+| sixteen-options | 512 | 15 | 7.7s | 4930088 | 3516ms | Windows dev box, 2026-07-25, dense wheel |
+
+The Docker rows and the dev-box rows are not comparable to each other: different
+hardware, and the Docker rows predate the celebration rework below.
+
+## Celebration rework, 2026-07-25
+
+Measured on the same Windows dev box, immediately before and after the change,
+so these pairs are comparable:
+
+Bytes grew and render time did not. Measured back to back on one machine,
+covering both the celebration rework and the motion refinement that followed:
+
+| Case | Bytes before | Bytes after | Time before | Time after |
+|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|
+| smoke, 384 @12fps, 4 options | 1251208 | 1495369 | 3730ms | 3608ms |
+| classic, 512 @15fps, 8 options | 2066068 | 2623039 | 4359ms | 4830ms |
+| vietnamese, 512 @15fps, festival | 2286771 | 2894104 | 3065ms | 3416ms |
+| sixteen-options, 512 @15fps | 3834855 | 4930088 | 3368ms | 3516ms |
+| mono, 512 @15fps, 6 options | 1745305 | 2564362 | 4173ms | 3775ms |
+| schema max: 32 options, 20fps, 12.5s | 10825678 | 11998202 | 9079ms | 7800ms |
+
+The dense cases moved least, and the schema maximum actually shrank, because the
+turn count now scales with the frame budget: a 32-option wheel spins 2 turns
+instead of 5, so there is far less rotation to encode.
+
+## Where the bytes went
+
+Isolated by rendering with one change removed at a time, 512 @15fps, 8 options:
+
+| Build | Bytes | vs baseline |
+|---|---:|---:|
+| baseline, before any of this work | 2066068 | — |
+| everything except grayscale label AA | 2133986 | +3.3% |
+| everything, AA included | 2597190 | +25.7% |
+
+The confetti rework, winner pill, spin retune, palette reorder and SVG pointer
+together account for **+3.3%**. Grayscale label antialiasing accounts for
+**+22.4%** on its own, because it affects every spin frame rather than only the
+celebration.
+
+That AA cost buys a real fix. Chromium's default LCD sub-pixel text
+antialiasing emits saturated color fringes on every glyph edge: in the
+all-grayscale `mono` theme 2178 pixels of frame 0 carried a visible color cast,
+and frame 0 used 255 of 256 palette entries, so everything else in the image had
+to dither. Both drop to 0 fringe pixels and 204 colors. Grayscale AA spends more
+distinct gray levels per glyph, which costs bytes but stops starving the palette.
+
+Promote the one rotating container, not each label. Per-label promotion gives the
+same visual result and doubles render time on a dense wheel — 18112ms against
+8999ms for the 32-option case, which would breach the default
+`RENDER_TIMEOUT_MS` of 15000. `-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased` does not work
+here; Chromium only honors it on macOS.
+
+## Levers, measured
+
+Particle count is not a lever. Measured at 512 @15fps, 8 options:
+
+| Change | Bytes | vs default |
+|---|---:|---:|
+| `Confetti` `count` 70 to 40 | 2568902 | -1.1% |
+| `holdMs` 1200 to 500 | 2492491 | -4.0% |
+| `holdMs` 1200 to 2500 | 2859979 | +10.1% |
+| drop grayscale AA | 2133986 | -17.8% |
+
+Cutting 43% of the particles changes the file by about one percent, so reach for
+`holdMs` or the AA trade instead. Keeping grayscale AA is a decided trade, not an
+oversight.
+
+## Measurement note
+
+Render times on this machine varied by more than 2x across repeat runs of an
+identical input — one 512 render took 23.5s against a 4.3s median — depending on
+background load. Byte counts are deterministic and comparable; treat any single
+timing figure as indicative and take a median of at least three runs before
+concluding anything from it.