What is gsap?
GSAP (GreenSock Animation Platform) is a powerful JavaScript library for creating high-performance animations that work in all major browsers. It is widely used for animating web elements, SVGs, and more, providing a rich set of features for developers to create complex animations with ease.
What are gsap's main functionalities?
Basic Tweening
This feature allows you to animate any property of an element over a specified duration. In this example, the element with the class 'element' will move 100 pixels to the right over 1 second.
gsap.to('.element', { duration: 1, x: 100 });
Timeline Animations
Timelines allow you to sequence multiple animations. In this example, 'element1' will move 100 pixels to the right, and then 'element2' will move 100 pixels down, each over 1 second.
const tl = gsap.timeline();
tl.to('.element1', { duration: 1, x: 100 })
.to('.element2', { duration: 1, y: 100 });
Stagger Animations
Staggering allows you to animate multiple elements with a delay between each start. In this example, each element with the class 'elements' will move 100 pixels to the right, starting 0.2 seconds after the previous one.
gsap.to('.elements', { duration: 1, x: 100, stagger: 0.2 });
ScrollTrigger
ScrollTrigger allows you to create animations that are triggered by scrolling. In this example, the element with the class 'element' will move 100 pixels to the right when it enters the viewport.
gsap.registerPlugin(ScrollTrigger);
gsap.to('.element', { scrollTrigger: '.element', x: 100 });
Other packages similar to gsap
animejs
Anime.js is a lightweight JavaScript animation library with a simple, yet powerful API. It supports CSS properties, SVG, DOM attributes, and JavaScript Objects. Compared to GSAP, Anime.js is more lightweight but may lack some of the advanced features and plugins that GSAP offers.
velocity-animate
Velocity is an animation engine with the same API as jQuery's $.animate(). It works with and without jQuery. Velocity is known for its performance and ease of use, but it doesn't offer as many features and plugins as GSAP.
popmotion
Popmotion is a functional, flexible JavaScript animation library. It provides a range of tools for creating animations and interactions. While it is highly modular and flexible, it may require more setup and understanding compared to GSAP's more straightforward API.
GSAP (GreenSock Animation Platform)
Professional-grade animation for the modern web
GSAP is a robust JavaScript toolset that turns developers into animation superheroes. Build high-performance animations that work in every major browser. Animate CSS, SVG, canvas, React, Vue, WebGL, colors, strings, motion paths, generic objects...anything JavaScript can touch! GSAP's ScrollTrigger plugin lets you create jaw-dropping scroll-based animations with minimal code. No other library delivers such advanced sequencing, reliability, and tight control while solving real-world problems on over 10 million sites. GSAP works around countless browser inconsistencies; your animations just work. At its core, GSAP is a high-speed property manipulator, updating values over time with extreme accuracy. It's up to 20x faster than jQuery! See https://greensock.com/why-gsap/ for what makes GSAP so special.
What is GSAP? (video)
GSAP is completely flexible; sprinkle it wherever you want. Zero dependencies.
There are many optional plugins and easing functions for achieving advanced effects easily like scrolling, morphing, or animating along a motion path.
Docs & Installation
View the full documentation here, including an installation guide with videos.
CDN
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/gsap/3.7.1/gsap.min.js"></script>
Click the green "Get GSAP Now" button at greensock.com for more options and installation instructions, including CDN URLs for various plugins.
Every major ad network excludes GSAP from file size calculations and most have it on their own CDNs, so contact them for the appropriate URL(s).
NPM
See the guide to using GSAP via NPM here.
npm install gsap
The default (main) file is gsap.js which includes most of the eases as well as the core plugins like CSSPlugin, AttrPlugin, SnapPlugin, ModifiersPlugin, and all of the utility methods like interpolate(), mapRange(), etc.
import gsap from "gsap";
import ScrollTrigger from "gsap/ScrollTrigger";
import Draggable from "gsap/Draggable";
import { gsap, ScrollTrigger, Draggable, MotionPathPlugin } from "gsap/all";
gsap.registerPlugin(ScrollTrigger, Draggable, MotionPathPlugin);
The NPM files are ES modules, but there's also a /dist/ directory with UMD files for extra compatibility.
Download Club GreenSock members-only plugins from your GreenSock.com account and then include them in your own JS payload. There's even a tarball file you can install with NPM/Yarn. GreenSock has a private NPM registry for members too. Post questions in our forums and we'd be happy to help.
Getting Started (includes video)
ScrollTrigger
If you're looking to do scroll-driven animations, GSAP's ScrollTrigger plugin is the new standard.
Resources
Get CustomEase for free
Sign up for a free GreenSock account to gain access to CustomEase which lets you create literally any ease imaginable (unlimited control points). It's in the download zip at GreenSock.com (when you're logged in).
What is Club GreenSock? (video)
Sign up anytime.
Advanced playback controls & debugging
GSDevTools adds a visual UI for controlling your GSAP animations which can significantly boost your workflow and productivity. (Club GreenSock membership required, not included in this repository).
Try all bonus plugins for free on Codepen
https://codepen.io/GreenSock/full/OPqpRJ
Need help?
GreenSock forums are an excellent resource for learning and getting your questions answered. Report any bugs there too please (it's also okay to file an issue on Github if you prefer).
License
GreenSock's standard "no charge" license can be viewed at http://greensock.com/standard-license. Club GreenSock members are granted additional rights. See http://greensock.com/licensing/ for details. Why doesn't GreenSock use an MIT (or similar) open source license, and why is that a good thing? This article explains it all: http://greensock.com/why-license/
Copyright (c) 2008-2021, GreenSock. All rights reserved.