10 CSS3 Animation Tools You Should Bookmark

By Anna Monus. in Toolkit. Updated on October 14, 2022.

As people tend to more easily perceive things that move, smartly used animations can enhance the user experience of a site by drawing attention to important elements users need to quickly notice.

CSS3 has introduced a new animation syntax that can help you achieve many interesting things in your designs. Building cool animations can sometimes be complicated and time-consuming, though, that’s when animation libraries and generators can be excellently used.

Check out some of the animations made possible with CSS:

In this post we will take a look at 10 brilliant tools that can make it easier and faster to create your own animations.

1. CSS3Gen CSS3 Animation Generator

CSS3Gen provides you with an easy-to-use animation generator that allows you to quickly generate basic animations. Although you won’t make complicated artwork with this tool, it’s a great choice if you want to create a standard animation without too much fuss.

You don’t have to make your hands dirty with code, as you can set the properties on a form, preview the result, then simply copy and paste the code into your own CSS file.

2. CSS Animate

If you need more complicated animations, you may find CSS Animate useful. It has a more mature UI, you can set slightly more properties, and you can follow, stop, and restart the animation with the help of an intuitive timeline.

There are also Example animations, such as “Bounce”, “Shake”, and “Swing”, that you can load into the generator and modify the code according to your needs.

3. Coveloping CSS Animation Generator

Coveloping‘s animation generator is probably the best choice if you are new with CSS3 animations, and want to quickly understand how they work. This simple but powerful tool allows you to test the different types of animations CSS3 has to offer, and easily check out what is the difference between them.

You only have to set 4 parameters: animation type, animation function, duration in secs, and if the animation is infinite. When you are ready, you only have to get and grab the generated HTML and CSS code.

4. Magic Animations

Magic Animations is a cool CSS library that makes it possible to easily place animations with special effects on your site. For example, you can make elements vanish in and out, open to the left or right, then return, rotate down, up, left, or right, and many others

All you have to do is to download the code, include the CSS file into your HTML page, and add the appropriate class with the help of jQuery in the following way:

$('.yourdiv').hover(function () {
  $(this).addClass('magictime puffIn');
});

You can also change the settings of the timer and make the animation infinite with the help of jQuery (for more details, see the readme file).

5. Animate.css

Animate.css provides you with a set of cool, cross-browser CSS3 animations. The animations are divided into groups such as Attention Seekers, Bouncing Entrances, Bouncing Exits, Fading Entrances, and many others, so you really can’t complain about a lack of choice.

You can download the code from Github, then you only have to add the CSS file to your HTML page, and the relevant CSS classes to the HTML elements that you want to animate.

6. Bounce.js

Bounce.js is a handy JavaScript library that enables you to create complicated animations. Bounce.js has a mature user interface that allows you to either add different components – such as easing, duration, delay, and a number of bounces – manually to your animation, or select a ready-to-use preset, then play the animation and fine-tune the properties if it’s necessary.

7. AniJS

AniJS is a supercool JavaScript library that allows you to add CSS3 animations to your designs, and to build sophisticated UI components such as animated tabs, accordions, modals, sliding menus, mobile app notifications, scroll reveals, and many more.

It works with all modern browsers including iOS and Android, doesn’t need any third party libraries, and has a spectacular showcase called AniCollection where you can easily experiment with the different effects provided by the library.

8. Single Element CSS Spinners

Have you ever wanted to enhance your designs with animated loading spinners? If the answer is yes, this cute CSS spinner library may be an excellent choice for you. The CSS code for the spinners is written in LESS. There aren’t any settings, the code is ready-made, and you only have to insert it into your own HTML and CSS files.

9. Odometer

Odometer is a brilliant tool to place cool animated meters onto your site. It’s a CSS and JavaScript library, the CSS part is written in Sass, and you can choose from different themes such as “Digital”, “Train Station”, and “Car”.

To use Odometer, you have to add the JavaScript file and the chosen theme file to your HTML page, then the class="odometer" selector to the element you want to make into an animated meter. Ideal choice to visually represent data or to make a “Coming Soon” page more eye-catching.

10. Snabbt.js

Snabbt.js is a minimalistic animation library that helps you easily move things around. If you need a little inspiration, take a look at the demos to see what you can achieve with this smart animation tool, the animated periodic table on the screenshot below is just one of the many possibilities Snabbt.js makes easy to implement.

You need to write a little JavaScript if you want to use this library, but as the result is quite spectacular, so it’s probably worth the trouble.