For animation purposes, however, it is recommended to use the CSS transform property. Most of us are used to setting the top and left property or using margins. There are a few different ways to position and object in CSS. Let’s start with defining the HTML element that we want to animate: We will do that by updating its CSS properties using JavaScript. In our simple example, we want to move an HTML element.
Framebyframe website how to#
Now we know how interpolation works, but before we jump into details on how to implement this, we need to talk about DOM elements and the CSS properties that we want to animate. As you will see later, there are some big advantages to having the time expressed in the 0-1 range instead of just keeping its value in seconds. This operation will return a value between 0 and 1, where 0 is the beginning of the animation sequence and 1 is the end. Please take a moment to notice how the time is divided by the duration, as in 0.5sec / 2sec. Here’s an example of the same equation with a start value of 50 and end value of 100 pixels: valueAtTime = 50px + (100px - 50px) * (0.5sec / 2sec) If we want to calculate the position of the object 0.5 sec after the animation started, we simply plug those values into the formula, and we get this: valueAtTime = 0px + (200px - 0px) * (0.5sec / 2sec) As time progresses, you get further from the start value and closer to the end value. What the basically does is allow you to calculate how far from start you are at any given time. The formula we will use is the following: valueAtTime = start + (end - start) * (time / duration) Thanks to interpolation we can find that value. To make it move we need to know where the object is at any given time. In other words at the beginning the object is at 0 pixels, then it starts to move and 2 seconds later it ends up at 200 pixels. Let’s take a practical example: we want to move an object on the screen by 200 pixels to the right in 2 seconds. To understand how to it works, first you need to get familiar with the concept of interpolation.
Framebyframe website code#
The technique of frame-by-frame animation consists of JavaScript code used to change the value of a property over time. Ok, now let’s dive right in! Interpolation You also don’t need to know any animation related math. All the code listed below is assumed to be inside a script tag added at the end of the document, right before the closing body tag. If you typically use jQuery and put all you script in the head of the document, don’t do it this time. No advanced JavaScript knowledge is required. This article assumes that you have basic knowledge of web development, enough so that you can create a properly formatted HTML document and add some JavaScript to it. Getting familiar with the concepts presented in this article will allow you to make animations with JavaScript, but also to understand how animation works in general – so you can consider this an introduction to the subject. You will learn how easy it is to create an animation loop in JavaScript using the requestAnimationFrame function and animate the CSS properties of HTML elements inside it using simple math. This tutorial focuses on the first technique – frame-by-frame animation. Meanwhile, shader animations offer the possibility of animating milions of particles with a decent framerate! SVG and WebGL animation are kid of a niche, but both are very interesting nonetheless. CSS based animation is available in most browsers these days and offer a very smooth perofmance. The frame-by-frame technique is universal. Finally things can be moved around with GLSL shaders in WebGL. Next, there are animation functions availabe in SVG. Another way to animate things is using CSS Transitions or CSS Animations (which are not the same thing). The first one is frame-by-frame animation written in plain JavaScript. There are five ways to animate things on the web. Modern browsers support animations quite well, but there are so many different ways of animating HTML elements that it often confuses even experienced developers. Good animations enhance the user interface, make navigation feel smoother and offer a superior esthetic experience (bad animation does the opposite, so be careful). Animations can make your project stand out from the crowd.