The document discusses the use of CSS, JavaScript, and SVG for interface animations, highlighting their respective strengths and weaknesses. CSS is ideal for simpler, defined state transitions while JavaScript excels in complex, dynamic animations. SVG is beneficial for responsive, animated illustrations and infographics, making each tool suitable depending on the animation requirements.

1. Choose
Your
Animation
Adventure
Val Head • @vlh
Author of Designing Interface Animation
Design Advocate, Adobe

2. Choose
Your
Animation
Adventure
Val Head • @vlh
Author of Designing Interface Animation
Design Advocate, Adobe

4. You have encountered an interface that requires animation.
What would you like to use?
(1) CSS?
(2) JavaScript?
(3) SVG?
(4) …?

6. CSS
Key
Frames
Transitions

7. What CSS is great at:
• Well-defined state transitions
• Loading animations, looping animations
• Animations on :hover, :focus and similar
CSS

13. Pros:
• No external library needed
• Great potential for performance without much
effort
• Keyframes are reusable
• Can adjust properties in media queries for
responsive animation when needed
CSS

14. Cons:
• Access to limited events
• Defined entirely ahead of time
• Can’t separate transform properties*
CSS

15. CSS + JS = 🙌

18. CSSIn Summary
Where it shines:
• Animated interactions with defined states
• Simple interactive animations
Biggest Pro:
• Nearly effortless performance
• No additional requests

19. CSS is pretty great, but it might be
time to move to JavaScript if:
• You’ll be chaining more than 3-ish animations in a
sequence
• The animation needs to change dynamically at runtime
• Need to animate transform properties separately
• Physics or other complex easing structures are required

20. VanillaCanvas Web GL
react
Libs
Web Animation
API
JS

21. What javascript is great at:
JS • Complex animated interactions
• Narrative or immersive animation
• Dynamic state transitions

27. requestAnimationFrame

28. Vanilla JS - requestAnimationFrame
JS function moveCat() {
. . .
currentValue = changeInValue * progress;
cat.style.transform ="translateX("+currentValue+"px)";
. . .
requestAnimationFrame(moveCat);
}
moveCat();

29. Vanilla JS - requestAnimationFrame
JS function moveCat() {
. . .
currentValue = changeInValue * progress;
cat.style.transform ="translateX("+currentValue+"px)";
. . .
requestAnimationFrame(moveCat);
}
moveCat();

30. Vanilla JS - requestAnimationFrame
JS function moveCat() {
. . .
currentValue = changeInValue * progress;
cat.style.transform ="translateX("+currentValue+"px)";
. . .
requestAnimationFrame(moveCat);
}
moveCat();

31. Vanilla JS - requestAnimationFrame
JS function moveCat() {
. . .
currentValue = changeInValue * progress;
cat.style.transform ="translateX("+currentValue+"px)";
. . .
requestAnimationFrame(moveCat);
}
moveCat();

33. JS animation libraries

34. Comparing JavaScript animation libraries…

36. TweenMax.to( box, 1,
{opacity:0.5, x:800, ease:Power2.easeIn}
);
Velocity(box,
{opacity: 0.5, translateX:"+=800"},
{duration: 1000, easing:"easeInQuad"});
anime({
targets: box,
opacity:0.5,
translateX: 800,
duration: 1000,
easing: 'easeInQuad'
});

38. ~9 - 29kb ~14.4kb ~4.7kb
back to IE8* back to IE8 back to IE10
Docs + forums Docs + SO Docs
drawSVG, morphSVG, Draggable drop-in replacement for jQuery very lightweight
Some features and licensing
requires $
MIT licenseMIT license

39. JavaScript
In Summary
Where it shines:
• Complex UI animation
• Animation with dynamic states
• Immersive animation
Biggest Pro:
• Lots of options for how to get it done
• Can animate DOM, SVG, canvas

40. SVG

43. What SVG is great at:
SVG • Animated illustrations
• Animated icons
• Infographics and dataviz
• Fluidly scaling, responsive animation

49. SMIL
• Tag-based animation within
SVG
• No IE or Edge support
• Being deprecated in Chrome
😕 🙂 😁
CSS
• Transitions and keyframe
animations can be applied to
SVG elements
• Limited number of properties
are exposed to CSS
• Transforms not supported in
IE or Edge
JS
• Can access/animate native
SVG properties
• Can do motion along path,
shape morphing and more just
like SMIL*

51. airbnb.design/lottie/

52. lottiefiles.com

53. github.com/airbnb/lottie-web

54. SVGIn Summary
Where it shines:
•Animated illustrations & infographics
•Shape morphing
•Motion along a path
Biggest Pro:
•Responsive by nature
•Potential for tiny file sizes

55. PERFORMANCE

56. size - transform: scale()
position - transform: translate()
rotation - transform: rotate()
opacity

57. compositepaintlayoutstyle

58. csstriggers.com

61. CSS JavaScript
• CSS is declarative
(whole animation is known ahead of
time)
• CSS animations with transform &
opacity won’t be impacted by the
main thread
• JS is imperative
(browser only really aware of the
current frame)
• Hardware acceleration isn’t
automatic

62. SVG & Hardware Acceleration?
• Not all browsers support it
• Good performance in general without it though

63. Don’t be afraid to run your own tests

65. You have encountered an interface that requires animation.
What would you like to use?
(1) …?

66. Designing Interface Animation
designinginterfaceanimation.com

67. Thank you!
Newsletter: uianimationewsletter.com
Let’s chat on twitter: @vlh
Typeface: Brandon Text | Illustrations by Rachel Sager