Table of Contents

How to Create and Customize Animations in CSS

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CSS lets you create animations using the @keyframes rule. It has the following syntax:

css

@keyframes <animation_name> {
  from {
    <style_rule_1>;
    <style_rule_2>;
    /* . . . */
  }
  to {
    <style_rule_1>;
    <style_rule_2>;
    /* . . . */
  }
}

For instance, in the following example, the animation is named change-bg-color, and it changes the background-color from white to darkviolet:

css

@keyframes change-bg-color {
  from {
    background-color: white;
  }
  to {
    background-color: darkviolet;
  }
}

And next, to apply this animation, specify the animation-name and animation-duration properties:

css

div {
  animation-name: change-bg-color;
  animation-duration: 4s;
}

Animation duration

The animation-duration determines how long it takes for the animation to finish. In this example, the animation completes in 1 second:

css

div {
  animation-name: change-bg-color;
  animation-duration: 1s;
}

Animation Duration

Duration: 1s

Compare the animations at 0.5x, 1x, and 2x speed.

0.5x

Multi-step animation

Instead of using the keywords from and to, it is also possible to use percentage values when setting keyframes. This allows you to create multi-step animations:

css

@keyframes change-bg-color {
  0% {
    background-color: white;
  }
  25% {
    background-color: bisque;
  }
  50% {
    background-color: crimson;
  }
  100% {
    background-color: darkviolet;
  }
}

Take a look at this example:

html

<div class="four-kf-animation">4 Keyframes Animation</div>

css

@keyframes change-bg-color-4kf {
  0% {
    background-color: #ffffff;
  }
  25% {
    background-color: #fff4e8;
  }
  50% {
    background-color: #e65a63;
  }
  100% {
    background-color: #5b2a86;
  }
}
 
.four-kf-animation {
  padding: 10px;
  margin: auto;
  border: 2px solid darkviolet;
  border-radius: 10px;
  font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Grande",
    "Lucida Sans", Arial, sans-serif;
 
  color: darkviolet;
  width: 200px;
 
  animation-name: change-bg-color-4kf;
  animation-duration: 5s;
}

Timing function

Just like transitions, animation allows you to define a animation-timing-function, which works exactly the same as their transition counterparts.

css

div {
  /* . . . */
 
  animation-name: change-bg-color;
  animation-duration: 4s;
 
  animation-timing-function: ease-in-out;
}

Animation Timing Function

Timing function

ease-in-out

Timing function

linear

Animation delay

By default, the animation starts playing the moment the element is loaded. Using animation-delay, you can decide how long to wait before starting an animation.

css

div {
  /* . . . */
 
  animation-name: change-bg-color;
  animation-duration: 4s;
 
  animation-timing-function: ease-in-out;
  animation-delay: 2s;
}

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  <title>Document</title>

  <link rel="stylesheet" href="/styles.css">
</head>

<body>
  <div class="two-kf-animation">2 Keyframes Animation</div>

  <div class="four-kf-animation">4 Keyframes Animation</div>
</body>

</html>

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