CSS animations and transitions are essential tools that allow web developers to add dynamic visual effects to their web pages. Both animation and transition can alter the appearance, position or size of an element on a webpage gradually or suddenly.
CSS Transition:
CSS Transitions are used to change the state of an element with a smooth transition from one state to another. We define an initial state, an end state, and the property that we want to animate.
CSS Animation:
CSS Animations are more complex transitions which can make elements move in any direction, change their colors, enlarge or shrink in size, and more. One of the big differences between transition and animation is that animations require the use of keyframes to define the complete sequence of animation steps or movements.
These CSS properties help developers improve the user experience by adding animations and transitions that feel natural and intuitive, helping users understand the relationship between different elements on the page and making the page look more visually appealing.
Importance:
CSS Animation can be important in web design because it:
Attracts user attention - Moving or changing elements can draw user attention to the important parts of your website.
Improves the user experience - visual effects can help users understand the relationship between different elements on the page.
Creates a dynamic feeling - Animations can add a web page with a sense of life, making it feel more dynamic and interactive, and contributing to the overall aesthetic of the site.
Helps to brand a website - Animations that complement or reflect the brand of a website can be a valuable tool in creating and maintaining brand recognition.
In short, CSS animations and transitions help developers to easily improve website UI, create engaging web content, and enhance the user experience.
CSS Animation properties
CSS Animations allow developers to create animations with more complex effects than transitions. Animations consist of a series of keyframes, which specify what styles should be applied at specific points of the animation.
Here are the CSS animation properties and their use cases:
animation-name: specifies the name of the animation that is defined using
@keyframes. For example,animation-name: my-anim;will apply the animation defined in the@keyframes my-animrule.animation-duration: specifies the duration of the animation, in seconds or milliseconds. For example,
animation-duration: 2s;will make the animation last for 2 seconds.animation-timing-function: specifies the speed curve of the animation. It has the same values as the
transition-timing-functionproperty. For example,animation-timing-function: ease-in-out;will make the animation start slowly, speed up in the middle, and slow down at the end.animation-delay: specifies how long to wait before the animation starts playing, in seconds or milliseconds. For example,
animation-delay: 0.5s;will delay the start of the animation by half a second.animation-iteration-count: specifies how many times the animation should be played. For example,
animation-iteration-count: 3;will play the animation 3 times before stopping.animation-direction: specifies whether the animation should play forwards, backwards, or alternate between forward and backward. For example,
animation-direction: alternate;will play the animation forwards and then backwards.animation-fill-mode: specifies what styles should be applied before and after the animation. It has values such as
none,forwards,backwards, andboth. For example,animation-fill-mode: forwards;will apply the styles at the end of the animation to the element.animation-play-state: specifies whether the animation is running or paused. It has values of
runningandpaused. For example,animation-play-state: paused;will pause the animation.
Developers can use CSS animations to create a wide variety of effects, such as loading animations, menu transitions, and image animations. Here is an example of a loading animation using CSS animations with infinite scrolling:
.circle {
width: 50px;
height: 50px;
border-radius: 50%;
border: 3px solid #ccc;
animation: spin 1s linear infinite;
}
@keyframes spin {
0% {
transform: rotate(0deg);
}
100% {
transform: rotate(360deg);
}
}
In the above example, the .circle element will spin clockwise indefinitely using the @keyframes rule defined inside the animation property. Animations can create many more complex effects, but understanding the above properties is essential for getting started with CSS animations.
CSS Transition properties
CSS transitions allow developers to smoothly animate changes in CSS property values. This means that when a CSS property value changes, developers can specify a transition for it, and the change will be animated smoothly over a specified duration.
Here are the CSS transition properties and their use cases:
transition-property: allows developers to specify the CSS property that they want to apply the transition to. For example,
transition-property: background-color;will apply a transition to the background color of an element.transition-duration: specifies the duration of the transition effect, in seconds or milliseconds. For example,
transition-duration: 1s;will make the transition last for 1 second.transition-timing-function: specifies the speed curve of the transition, and it has values such as
ease,linear,ease-in,ease-out, andease-in-out. For example,transition-timing-function: ease-in-out;will make the transition start slowly, speed up in the middle, and slow down at the end.transition-delay: specifies how long to wait before the transition starts, in seconds or milliseconds. For example,
transition-delay: 0.5s;will delay the start of the transition by half a second.
Developers can use CSS transitions to create a wide variety of effects, such as hover effects, menu transitions, and image transitions. For example, a hover effect can be created on a button by applying a transition to the background-color property of the button when it's hovered over:
button {
background-color: blue;
transition: background-color 0.5s ease-in-out;
}
button:hover {
background-color: red;
}
In the above example, when the button is hovered over, its background color changes smoothly from blue to red over 0.5 seconds.
Transitions can also be applied to transform properties such as translate, rotate, and scale to create more complex animations.
Practice
Sage-Code Laboratory (our website) is using very few animations. We look forward to making use of transitions and animations to improve website aspects. For now, the buttons on the first page are changing the background color slowly when you hover over them.
Disclaim: I'm learning so this article is not by far perfect. It was created by ChatGPT. Enjoy free learning and don't criticize. If you have ideas to improve this article comment below.