30 Cool CSS Animations For Your Inspiration

CSS is one of the most versatile programming languages in popular use. From layouts and text effects to colour and size of your content, the possibilities are endless. One of the most interesting uses of CSS is to create animations. And this is what this post is all about.

This post lists some of the most creative CSS animations you’ll find on the web. From transition effects to character animations, you’ll find some really cool examples here that you can either directly use in your project or take inspiration from. So, take a look and pick your favorite.

10 CSS3 Animation Tools You Should Bookmark

10 CSS3 Animation Tools You Should Bookmark

As people tend to more easily perceive things that move, smartly used animations can enhance the user experience... Read more

CSS Loading Animation

Creator: patrikhjelm

Seven animated dots shift left and right to signify a loading action.

Animated Shopping Cart Icon

Creator: jonitrythall

Cute animated effects for when groceries are added to the shopping cart. Scroll down for more.

Hamburger CSS3 only animation

Creator: Dawid Krajewski

Built with pure CSS, no JS or anything else.

404 animated Character

Creator: With An Es

At least with this error page, a developer is working on it. Even if it is a 404.

CSS Mars Landing

Creator: mgitch

We have landed on Mars! Made with CSS.

The Avenger

Creator: mariosmaselli

Can you hear hulk’s anger shake through the screen? Cool, right?

Day / Night toggle

Creator: jsndks

Now, you can toggle day and night with CSS. Genius idea!

Google Now 3rd party app

Creator: codecalm

Google Now third party apps, animated.

Clo clo

Creator: judag

Does a rooster move like that? You bet it does, complete with the jiggy neck. Great CSS3 practice.

Another CSS Preloader

Creator: Maseone

An awesome CSS rhythmic loading animation. Hypnotic, isn’t it?

Submit button

Creator: auginator

Click to submit, and the button animates the loading process until submission is complete!

Elastic SVG Sidebar Material Design

Creator: suez

Drag the white bar to the right to see an elastic sidebar effect.

Particle button

Creator: igcorreia

Do what the button says: hover for awesomeness.

Gooey button

Creator: Lucas Bebber

Click for the Gooey effect. You’ll get it once you see it, and you will click on it a few times more. Amirite?

Flipside button

Creator: hakimel

Click on any side of the Delete button and the button will flip according to where you click.

True hamburger menu!

Creator: CharlesSmart

A truly delicious hamburger menu. Click the hamburger for effects

Cruisin’

Creator: yy

See motorbike go.

3D cube wave

Creator: waddington

Holy 3D Cube-sicles!

Signature animation

Creator: drygiel

Here’s a signature that is not actually a GIF animation, but instead a PNG sequence animated with CSS3.

Background gradient animation

Creator: quasimondo

This trick changes the background gradient from one color to the other in a smooth, continuous form.

Star wars toggle icon

Creator: rss

A hamburger menu gets transformed into lightsabers in battle (a cross).

GIF Style animation

Creator: jascha

Watch as a photo materializes from the midst of pixel art.

Focus in/out input animation

Creator: fluxus

A little animated pen animated writes atop the forom you are filling in.

Chromatic triangle

Creator: felipedefarias

An awesome optical illusion, yes, done with CSS3.

Coffee maker

Creator: thisisroger

Here’s a reminder to take your daily dose of coffee. Like you need one.

Chrome Dinosaur

Creator: nickspiel

Can’t reach the page you want beacuse of a dropped connection? Here’s the dinosaur you always see when that happens, only this time it is running from a meteorite!

CSS shake

Creator: elrumordelaluz

Hover over each effect to watch the little guy shake.

Newton’s Cradle Loader

Creator: All Things Smitty

If you know physics, you certainly know Newton’s cradle, but probably not like this.

Launch the Modal

Creator: koolhaus

Click to see the nice and smooth modal window animation.

Walking Robot

Creator: P233

This robot just keeps walking, and walking, and walking, around the Y axis.

Flexing Pagination Arrows

Creator: Hakim

From the first page to the last, this pagination animation shows clearly how if you are faring, pagewise.

Here’s more:

Animated 3D Helix

First one in the list is an incredible animation made by Marcofolio.net, using CSS3 3D transforms. The animation looks like magic itself, but you can actually learn to create a similar effect with the tutorial in the article!

animated 3d helix
Animated Buttons

A must-see for web designers, as the demo not only shows the possibilities of CSS3 animation but also provides very cool and practical button effects for inspiration!

animated buttons
Animation Menus

Trying to spice up your animation menus to make them look really cool and creative? This demo is for you.

animation menus
Big Deal

It’s the smooth and nice animation that made this demo a big deal.

big deal
CSS3 Man

Look out, here comes the CSS3 man! A perfect example to showcase the true potential of CSS3 animation.

css3 man
Dribbble Ball Bouncing

With the little use of graphic tricks comes to a nice and amusing CSS3 animation.

dribbble ball bouncing
Frame by Frame Animation

Frame by frame animation with CSS3? No problem!

frame by frame animation
Graph Animation

A simple but powerful animation for you to show/explain the graph in your site, learn to make it!

graph animation
Hover Effects

The future of the hover effect comes with CSS3. Sleek and promising.

hover effects
Infinite Zoom

Smooth animation; it’s also a nice way to show off your portfolio. The total zoom for the 26 images is 67108864:1.

infinite zoom
Kinect and CSS3

“14 body joints are tracked and converted into a short CSS animation using Xbox Kinect. The body data is brought into the browser where it is parsed and converted into CSS animations with animatable.com.”

kinect and css3
Matrix

Want to be as cool as Matrix? With the CSS3, you’re able to make it.

matrix
Morphing Cubes

Experimental demo exploring the CSS3 using 3D transforms, animations and transitions. The interesting part here is you can still select the text on the elements, even when they are still rotating.

morphing cubes
Our Solar System

You don’t need expensive standalone software to help students explore solar systems anymore.

our solar system
Duff Roll

“Mmmmmm….Homer would love the never-ending supply of beer.”

duff roll
Poster Circle

A simple yet interesting example showing you how to use CSS transformation and animation to achieve an interesting effect.

poster circle
Star Wars Crawl

Star Wars opening’s crawl effect! Just as epic as CSS3.

star wars crawl
Typography Effects

Besides button, menu, and hover effects, you can also achieve creative typography effects with CSS3. jQuery is also involved in this demo to style the letters of the words.

typography effects
Walking With Andrew Hoyer

Best of all, you can also learn to walk with Andrew Hoyer in the article!

walking with andrew hoyer
Wonder Webkit

A wonderful use of CSS3 3D transformations with JavaScript Matrix library. Sounds technical, but the outcome is rockingly cool.

wonder webkit
Zoetrope

What else you can’t do with CSS3 when Zoetrope is possible with it?

zoetrope

More:

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