The Complete Guide to CSS Animations and Transitions

CSS animations bring your web pages to life. Transitions handle simple state changes (hover effects, color changes), while keyframe animations handle complex multi-step sequences.

Transitions are defined with the transition property: transition: property duration timing-function delay. Common timing functions include ease, linear, ease-in, ease-out, and cubic-bezier() for custom curves.

Keyframe animations use @keyframes to define the animation sequence, then apply with the animation property. You can control iteration count, direction, fill mode, and more.

For best performance, animate only transform and opacity properties — these are GPU-accelerated and don't trigger layout recalculations. Avoid animating width, height, top, left as they cause expensive reflows.

Create animations in CompileZ's HTML editor. Start with simple hover transitions, then build up to complex keyframe animations.