# .animate()

Categories: Effects > Custom

## .animate( properties [, duration] [, easing] [, complete] ) Returns: jQuery

Description: Perform a custom animation of a set of CSS properties.

- #### version added: 1.0.animate( properties [, duration] [, easing] [, complete] )

  propertiesA map of CSS properties that the animation will move toward.

  durationA string or number determining how long the animation will run.

  easingA string indicating which easing function to use for the transition.

  completeA function to call once the animation is complete.

- #### version added: 1.0.animate( properties, options )

  propertiesA map of CSS properties that the animation will move toward.

  optionsA map of additional options to pass to the method. Supported keys:

  - `duration`: A string or number determining how long the animation will run.
  - `easing`: A string indicating which easing function to use for the transition.
  - `complete`: A function to call once the animation is complete.
  - `step`: A function to be called after each step of the animation.
  - `queue`: A Boolean indicating whether to place the animation in the effects queue. If `false`, the animation will begin immediately. As of jQuery 1.7, the `queue` option can also accept a string, in which case the animation is added to the queue represented by that string.
  - `specialEasing`: A map of one or more of the CSS properties defined by the properties argument and their corresponding easing functions (added 1.4).

The `.animate()` method allows us to create animation effects on any numeric CSS property. The only required parameter is a map of CSS properties. This map is similar to the one that can be sent to the `.css()` method, except that the range of properties is more restrictive.

#### Animation Properties and Values

All animated properties should be animated to a single numeric value, except as noted below; most properties that are non-numeric cannot be animated using basic jQuery functionality (For example, `width`, `height`, or `left` can be animated but `background-color` cannot be, unless the jQuery.Color() plugin is used). Property values are treated as a number of pixels unless otherwise specified. The units `em` and `%` can be specified where applicable.

In addition to style properties, some non-style properties such as `scrollTop` and `scrollLeft`, as well as custom properties, can be animated.

Shorthand CSS properties (e.g. margin, background, border) are not supported. For example, if you want to retrieve the rendered margin, use: `$(elem).css('marginTop')` and `$(elem).css('marginRight')`, and so on.

In addition to numeric values, each property can take the strings `'show'`, `'hide'`, and `'toggle'`. These shortcuts allow for custom hiding and showing animations that take into account the display type of the element.

Animated properties can also be relative. If a value is supplied with a leading `+=` or `-=` sequence of characters, then the target value is computed by adding or subtracting the given number from the current value of the property.

> Note: Unlike shorthand animation methods such as `.slideDown()` and `.fadeIn()`, the `.animate()` method does not make hidden elements visible as part of the effect. For example, given `$('someElement').hide().animate({height:'20px'}, 500)`, the animation will run, but the element will remain hidden.

#### Duration

Durations are given in milliseconds; higher values indicate slower animations, not faster ones. The strings `'fast'` and `'slow'` can be supplied to indicate durations of `200` and `600` milliseconds, respectively.

#### Complete Function

If supplied, the `complete` callback function is fired once the animation is complete. This can be useful for stringing different animations together in sequence. The callback is not sent any arguments, but `this` is set to the DOM element being animated. If multiple elements are animated, the callback is executed once per matched element, not once for the animation as a whole.

#### Basic Usage

To animate any element, such as a simple image:

    <div id="clickme">
      Click here
    </div>
    <img id="book" src="book.png" alt="" width="100" height="123"
      style="position: relative; left: 10px;" />

To animate the opacity, left offset, and height of the image simultaneously:

    $('#clickme').click(function() {
      $('#book').animate({
        opacity: 0.25,
        left: '+=50',
        height: 'toggle'
      }, 5000, function() {
        // Animation complete.
      });
    });

Note that the target value of the `height` property is `'toggle'`. Since the image was visible before, the animation shrinks the height to 0 to hide it. A second click then reverses this transition:

The `opacity` of the image is already at its target value, so this property is not animated by the second click. Since the target value for `left` is a relative value, the image moves even farther to the right during this second animation.

Directional properties (`top`, `right`, `bottom`, `left`) have no discernible effect on elements if their `position` style property is `static`, which it is by default.

> Note: The jQuery UI project extends the `.animate()` method by allowing some non-numeric styles such as colors to be animated. The project also includes mechanisms for specifying animations through CSS classes rather than individual attributes.

> Note: if attempting to animate an element with a height or width of 0px, where contents of the element are visible due to overflow, jQuery may clip this overflow during animation. By fixing the dimensions of the original element being hidden however, it is possible to ensure that the animation runs smoothly. A clearfix can be used to automatically fix the dimensions of your main element without the need to set this manually.

#### Step Function

The second version of `.animate()` provides a `step` option — a callback function that is fired at each step of the animation. This function is useful for enabling custom animation types or altering the animation as it is occurring. It accepts two arguments (`now` and `fx`), and `this` is set to the DOM element being animated.

- `now`: the numeric value of the property being animated at each step
- `fx`: a reference to the `jQuery.fx` prototype object, which contains a number of properties such as `elem` for the animated element, `start` and `end` for the first and last value of the animated property, respectively, and `prop` for the property being animated.

Note that the `step` function is called for each animated property on each animated element. For example, given two list items, the `step` function fires four times at each step of the animation:

    $('li').animate({
      opacity: .5,
      height: '50%'
    },
    {
      step: function(now, fx) {
        var data = fx.elem.id + ' ' + fx.prop + ': ' + now;
        $('body').append('<div>' + data + '</div>');
      }
    });

#### Easing

The remaining parameter of `.animate()` is a string naming an easing function to use. An easing function specifies the speed at which the animation progresses at different points within the animation. The only easing implementations in the jQuery library are the default, called `swing`, and one that progresses at a constant pace, called `linear`. More easing functions are available with the use of plug-ins, most notably the jQuery UI suite.

#### Per-property Easing

As of jQuery version 1.4, you can set per-property easing functions within a single `.animate()` call. In the first version of `.animate()`, each property can take an array as its value: The first member of the array is the CSS property and the second member is an easing function. If a per-property easing function is not defined for a particular property, it uses the value of the `.animate()` method's optional easing argument. If the easing argument is not defined, the default `swing` function is used.

For example, to simultaneously animate the width and height with the `swing` easing function and the opacity with the `linear` easing function:

    $('#clickme').click(function() {
      $('#book').animate({
        width: ['toggle', 'swing'],
        height: ['toggle', 'swing'],
        opacity: 'toggle'
      }, 5000, 'linear', function() {
          $(this).after('<div>Animation complete.</div>');
      });
    });

In the second version of `.animate()`, the options map can include the `specialEasing` property, which is itself a map of CSS properties and their corresponding easing functions. For example, to simultaneously animate the width using the `linear` easing function and the height using the `easeOutBounce` easing function:

    $('#clickme').click(function() {
      $('#book').animate({
        width: 'toggle',
        height: 'toggle'
      }, {
        duration: 5000,
        specialEasing: {
          width: 'linear',
          height: 'easeOutBounce'
        },
        complete: function() {
          $(this).after('<div>Animation complete.</div>');
        }
      });
    });

As previously noted, a plugin is required for the `easeOutBounce` function.

### Additional Notes:

- All jQuery effects, including `.animate()`, can be turned off globally by setting `jQuery.fx.off = true`, which effectively sets the duration to 0. For more information, see jQuery.fx.off.
- Because of the nature of `requestAnimationFrame()`, you should never queue animations using a `setInterval` or `setTimeout` loop. In order to preserve CPU resources, browsers that support `requestAnimationFrame` will not update animations when the window/tab is not displayed. If you continue to queue animations via `setInterval` or `setTimeout` while animation is paused, all of the queued animations will begin playing when the window/tab regains focus. To avoid this potential problem, use the callback of your last animation in the loop, or append a function to the elements `.queue()` to set the timeout to start the next animation.

### Examples:

#### Example: Click the button to animate the div with a number of different properties.

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <head>
      <style>
    div {
    background-color:#bca;
    width:100px;
    border:1px solid green;
    }
    </style>
      <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
      <button id="go">&raquo; Run</button>

    <div id="block">Hello!</div>
    <script>

    /* Using multiple unit types within one animation. */

    $("#go").click(function(){
      $("#block").animate({
        width: "70%",
        opacity: 0.4,
        marginLeft: "0.6in",
        fontSize: "3em",
        borderWidth: "10px"
      }, 1500 );
    });
    </script>

    </body>
    </html>

#### Demo:

#### Example: Animates a div's left property with a relative value. Click several times on the buttons to see the relative animations queued up.

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <head>
      <style>
    div {
      position:absolute;
      background-color:#abc;
      left:50px;
      width:90px;
      height:90px;
      margin:5px;
    }
    </style>
      <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
      <button id="left">&laquo;</button> <button id="right">&raquo;</button>
    <div class="block"></div>

    <script>
    $("#right").click(function(){
      $(".block").animate({"left": "+=50px"}, "slow");
    });

    $("#left").click(function(){
      $(".block").animate({"left": "-=50px"}, "slow");
    });

    </script>

    </body>
    </html>

#### Demo:

#### Example: The first button shows how an unqueued animation works. It expands the div out to 90% width while the font-size is increasing. Once the font-size change is complete, the border animation will begin. The second button starts a traditional chained animation, where each animation will start once the previous animation on the element has completed.

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <head>
      <style>
    div {
      background-color:#bca;
      width:200px;
      height:1.1em;
      text-align:center;
      border:2px solid green;
      margin:3px;
      font-size:14px;
    }
    button {
      font-size:14px;
    }
    </style>
      <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
      <button id="go1">&raquo; Animate Block1</button>
    <button id="go2">&raquo; Animate Block2</button>
    <button id="go3">&raquo; Animate Both</button>

    <button id="go4">&raquo; Reset</button>
    <div id="block1">Block1</div>
    <div id="block2">Block2</div>
    <script>

    $( "#go1" ).click(function(){
      $( "#block1" ).animate( { width: "90%" }, { queue: false, duration: 3000 })
         .animate({ fontSize: "24px" }, 1500 )
         .animate({ borderRightWidth: "15px" }, 1500 );
    });

    $( "#go2" ).click(function(){
      $( "#block2" ).animate({ width: "90%" }, 1000 )
         .animate({ fontSize: "24px" }, 1000 )
         .animate({ borderLeftWidth: "15px" }, 1000 );
    });

    $( "#go3" ).click(function(){
      $( "#go1" ).add( "#go2" ).click();
    });

    $( "#go4" ).click(function(){
      $( "div" ).css({ width: "", fontSize: "", borderWidth: "" });
    });

    </script>

    </body>
    </html>

#### Demo:

#### Example: Animates the first div's left property and synchronizes the remaining divs, using the step function to set their left properties at each stage of the animation.

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <head>
      <style>
    div {
       position: relative;
       background-color: #abc;
       width: 40px;
       height: 40px;
       float: left;
       margin: 5px;
    }
    </style>
      <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7rc2.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>

    <p><button id="go">Run »</button></p>
    <div class="block"></div> <div class="block"></div>
    <div class="block"></div> <div class="block"></div>
    <div class="block"></div> <div class="block"></div>

    <script>
    $( "#go" ).click(function(){
      $( ".block:first" ).animate({
        left: 100
      }, {
        duration: 1000,
        step: function( now, fx ){
          $( ".block:gt(0)" ).css( "left", now );
        }
      });
    });
    </script>

    </body>
    </html>

#### Demo:

#### Example: Animates all paragraphs to toggle both height and opacity, completing the animation within 600 milliseconds.

    $( "p" ).animate({
      "height": "toggle", "opacity": "toggle"
    }, "slow" );

#### Example: Animates all paragraph to a left style of 50 and opacity of 1 (opaque, visible), completing the animation within 500 milliseconds.

    $( "p" ).animate({
      "left": "50", "opacity": 1
    }, 500 );

#### Example: An example of using an 'easing' function to provide a different style of animation. This will only work if you have a plugin that provides this easing function. Note, this code will do nothing unless the paragraph element is hidden.

    $( "p" ).animate({
      "opacity": "show"
    }, "slow", "easein" );

#### Example: Animates all paragraphs to toggle both height and opacity, completing the animation within 600 milliseconds.

    $( "p" ).animate({
      "height": "toggle", "opacity": "toggle"
    }, { duration: "slow" });

#### Example: Animates all paragraph to a left style of 50 and opacity of 1 (opaque, visible), completing the animation within 500 milliseconds. It also will do it outside the queue, meaning it will automatically start without waiting for its turn.

    $( "p" ).animate({
      left: "50px", opacity: 1
    }, { duration: 500, queue: false });

#### Example: An example of using an 'easing' function to provide a different style of animation. This will only work if you have a plugin that provides this easing function.

    $( "p" ).animate({
      "opacity": "show"
    }, { "duration": "slow", "easing": "easein" });

#### Example: An example of using a callback function. The first argument is an array of CSS properties, the second specifies that the animation should take 1000 milliseconds to complete, the third states the easing type, and the fourth argument is an anonymous callback function.

    $( "p" ).animate({
      height:200, width:400, opacity: .5
    }, 1000, "linear", function(){ alert("all done"); });