CSS animation

The CSS animation property is a shorthand property for setting multiple animation properties in one place.

To create an animation using CSS, use the animation property in conjunction with the @keyframes keyword/at-rule, which allows you to define visual effects for your animation.

The CSS animation property is a time-efficient way of coding your CSS animations. It allows you to set values for the following properties: animation-name, animation-duration, animation-timing-function, animation-delay, animation-iteration-count, animation-direction, animation-fill-mode, and animation-play-state.

Syntax

Here's the official syntax for this property.

Note that order is important within each animation definition. In particular, the first "time" value is treated as animation-duration, and the second is treated as animation-delay.

Possible Values

Here's a brief explanation of the possible values.

animation-name

The name of the animation.

animation-duration

Defines the length of time that an animation takes to complete one iteration.

animation-timing-function

Specifies how an animation progresses between keyframes.

animation-delay

Defines when an animation starts.

animation-iteration-count

Specifies the number of times an animation iterates.

animation-direction

Determines whether the animation should play in reverse on alternate iterations.

animation-fill-mode

Allows you to define what values are applied by the animation outside the time it is executing.

animation-play-state

Defines whether the animation is running or paused.

In addition, all CSS properties also accept the following CSS-wide keyword values as the sole component of their property value:

initial

Represents the value specified as the property's initial value.

inherit

Represents the computed value of the property on the element's parent.

unset

This value acts as either inherit or initial, depending on whether the property is inherited or not. In other words, it sets all properties to their parent value if they are inheritable or to their initial value if not inheritable.

Basic Property Information

Example Code

Basic CSS

This is the shorthand equivalent to:

Working Example within an HTML Document

CSS Specifications

• This property is defined in CSS Animations Level 1 (W3C Working Draft)

Browser Support

Browser support for CSS properties can vary, particularly for newer or experimental features. Check current browser compatibility before using a property in production, especially when supporting older browsers.

The following table provided by Caniuse.com shows the level of browser support for this feature.

Initial Value

CSS properties have an initial value that applies when the property has not been explicitly set. The initial value is different from the value inherited from a parent element and may vary between properties.

Inheritance

Some CSS properties inherit their computed value from their parent element by default, while others do not. The inherit, initial, unset, and revert keywords can also be used to control how a property gets its value.

Vendor Prefixes

Most modern CSS properties use the standard, unprefixed syntax. Vendor-prefixed properties such as -webkit- are mainly relevant to older browser versions or specific features and should only be used when required by your browser support targets.