CSS Animations.exe

CSS3 and HTML5 have arrived and have made many things easier for web developers. One of those things is addressing the matter of animation. 

CSS3 allows web developers, designers and masters to create transitions from one CSS style configuration to another.

WHY?

Using CSS animations can be very advantageous to the creator and user of a web page. 

Some advantages are:

1) Usability - Transitions are easy to use and simple animations don't require any knowledge of CSS.

2) Quality - Animations run well with CSS because the rendering engine uses technology that allows for smoother animations. 

3) Performance - By allowing the browser to control the animation sequence, it allows the browser to optimize the performance of the animation.

HOW?

Animations consist of two components, a style describing the CSS animation and a set of keyframes that indicate the start and end states of the animation's style, as well as possible intermediate waypoints along the way.

To create a CSS animation sequence, you want to animate needs to be styled with the animation property or its sub-properties. This lets you configure the timing and duration of the animation, as well as other details of how the animation sequence should progress. This does not configure the actual appearance of the animation, which is actually done using the @keyframes at-rule. 

The sub-properties of the animation property are:

animation-delay

Configures the delay between the time the element is loaded and the beginning of the animation sequence.

animation-direction

Configures whether or not the animation should alternate direction on each run through the sequence or reset to the start point and repeat itself.

animation-duration

Configures the length of time that an animation should take to complete one cycle.

animation-iteration-count

Configures the number of times the animation should repeat; you can specify infinite to repeat the animation indefinitely.

animation-name

Specifies the name of the @keyframes at-rule describing the animation's keyframes.

Lets you pause and resume the animation sequence.

animation-timing-function

Configures the timing of the animation; that is, how the animation transitions through keyframes, by establishing acceleration curves.

animation-fill-mode

Configures what values are applied by the animation before and after it is executing.

If you  are interested, here is an example of how CSS3 animations can be implemented in your websites.

Finally, it is important to know that there are a variety of ways to achieve something in web design and it is even easier to create more beautiful and interactive websites now that new technologies have emerged. Let us embrace them!