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web api instance method

Element: animate() method

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The Element interface’s animate() method is a shortcut method which creates a new Animation, applies it to the element, then plays the animation. It returns the created Animation object instance.

[!NOTE] Elements can have multiple animations applied to them. You can get a list of the animations that affect an element by calling getAnimations().

Syntax

animate(keyframes, options)

Parameters

  • keyframes
    • : Either an array of keyframe objects, or a keyframe object whose properties are arrays of values to iterate over. See Keyframe Formats for more details.
  • options
    • : Either an integer representing the animation’s duration (in milliseconds), or an Object containing one or more timing properties described in the KeyframeEffect() options parameter and/or the following options:

      • id Optional

        • : A property unique to animate(): A string with which to reference the animation.

      • rangeEnd Optional

        • : Specifies the end of an animation’s attachment range along its timeline, i.e., where along the timeline an animation will end. The JavaScript equivalent of the CSS animation-range-end property. rangeEnd can take several different value types, as follows:

          • A string that can be normal (meaning no change to the animation’s attachment range), a CSS length-percentage representing an offset, a <timeline-range-name>, or a <timeline-range-name> with a <length-percentage> following it. For example: "normal", "entry", or "cover 100%".

            See animation-range for a detailed description of the available values. Also check out the View Timeline Ranges Visualizer, which shows exactly what the different values mean in an easy visual format.

          • An object containing rangeName (a string) and offset (a CSSNumericValue) properties representing a <timeline-range-name> and <length-percentage>, as described in the previous bullet. For example: { rangeName: "entry", offset: CSS.percent("100") }.

          • A CSSNumericValue representing an offset, for example: CSS.percent("100").

      • rangeStart Optional

        • : Specifies the start of an animation’s attachment range along its timeline, i.e., where along the timeline an animation will start. The JavaScript equivalent of the CSS animation-range-start property. rangeStart can take the same value types as rangeEnd.

      • timeline Optional

Return value

Returns an Animation.

Examples

Rotating and scaling

In this example we use the animate() method to rotate and scale an element.

HTML

<div class="newspaper">Spinning newspaper<br />causes dizziness</div>

CSS

html,
body {
  height: 100%;
}

body {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
  background-color: black;
}

.newspaper {
  padding: 0.5rem;
  text-transform: uppercase;
  text-align: center;
  background-color: white;
  cursor: pointer;
}

JavaScript

const newspaperSpinning = [
  { transform: "rotate(0) scale(1)" },
  { transform: "rotate(360deg) scale(0)" },
];

const newspaperTiming = {
  duration: 2000,
  iterations: 1,
};

const newspaper = document.querySelector(".newspaper");

newspaper.addEventListener("click", () => {
  newspaper.animate(newspaperSpinning, newspaperTiming);
});

Result

Interactive exampleOpen the canonical MDN source to run this embedded demo.

Down the Rabbit Hole demo

In the demo Down the Rabbit Hole (with the Web Animation API), we use the convenient animate() method to immediately create and play an animation on the #tunnel element to make it flow upwards, infinitely. Notice the array of objects passed as keyframes and also the timing options block.

document.getElementById("tunnel").animate(
  [
    // keyframes
    { transform: "translateY(0px)" },
    { transform: "translateY(-300px)" },
  ],
  {
    // timing options
    duration: 1000,
    iterations: Infinity,
  },
);

Implicit to/from keyframes

The browser can infer the start or end state of an animation by using the current state. By default, if a single keyframe is provided, it’s treated as the end state, and the start state is inferred from the element’s current computed style. However, you can specify the offset to indicate where the provided keyframe should be placed in the animation timeline.

<div>
  <img
    id="logo"
    src="/shared-assets/images/examples/firefox-logo.svg"
    alt="Firefox logo" />
</div>
<button id="run">Animate - use current as start</button>
<button id="run2">Animate - use current as end</button>
<button id="run3">Animate - use current as both ends</button>

div {
  width: 100%;
}

#logo {
  width: 200px;
  height: 200px;
}

const logo = document.getElementById("logo");
document.getElementById("run").addEventListener("click", () => {
  logo.animate({ transform: "translateX(300px)" }, 1000);
});
document.getElementById("run2").addEventListener("click", () => {
  logo.animate({ transform: "translateX(300px)", offset: 0 }, 1000);
});
document.getElementById("run3").addEventListener("click", () => {
  logo.animate({ transform: "translateX(300px)", offset: 0.5 }, 1000);
});

We specified a single frame in the timeline, and the start and/or end states can be filled in to create a complete animation.

Interactive exampleOpen the canonical MDN source to run this embedded demo.

timeline, rangeStart, and rangeEnd

Typical usage of the timeline, rangeStart, and rangeEnd properties might look like this:

const img = document.querySelector("img");

const timeline = new ViewTimeline({
  subject: img,
  axis: "block",
});

img.animate(
  {
    opacity: [0, 1],
    transform: ["scaleX(0)", "scaleX(1)"],
  },
  {
    fill: "both",
    duration: 1,
    timeline,
    rangeStart: "cover 0%",
    rangeEnd: "cover 100%",
  },
);

Specifications

SpecificationsStandards references are available on the canonical MDN page.

Browser compatibility

Browser compatibilityCompatibility data is available on the canonical MDN page.

See also