Everyone at least once has seen parallax effects on a website. They could’ve been simple. Such as a static background on a specific spot while scrolling. On the other hand, these effects can be extremely complex. However usually visually this effect looks impressive.
Parallax always amazed me. How it’s done in web development. It seemed to me so complex and unachievable. Then after a couple of years of contemplation of beautiful websites using this technique I decided to give it a try.
What is parallax?
The meaning of the word “parallax” refers to a specific technique used in computer graphics. Multiple layers move at different speeds, while the user scrolls a webpage. This number of movements creates an optical illusion. To be honest the technique is not new. It was used in the early 1980’s Super Mario Bros game to create the sensation of depth. Then this graphic trick got a second life in web design.
Tech stack
As already mentioned above here I used vanillaJS (pure JavaScript). Pug templating language was used to accelerate work with HTML. As well as SCSS instead of pure CSS.
What was created and how it works?
It started as an experiment. Though at the end turned into a small library. It requires a small HTML and a few Javascript functions. We have specific classes. Each .prlx-item-inner
can have an animation. Also, each one can have multiple animations. So you can combine for instance zoom with spinning.
This code can be used on any HTML website. Javascript (function () {} )
wrapping will prevent conflicting with any other library.
Reusable classes list
Directional movements classes: let, right,top,bottom
speed- — Can have any number. Ex.:
speed-3
spin — spinning object
zoom — zooms out
To structure
The basic elements needed for this are the container and the number of inside elements which gonna is moving on scroll.
Here is the HTML code:
#prlx-container
.text-top
p Scroll down to see the parallax effect
.row
.prlx-item
.prlx-item-inner.left.speed-3
.prlx-item
.prlx-item-inner.top.speed-2.spin
.prlx-item
.prlx-item-inner.right
.prlx-item
.prlx-item-inner.left.speed-5
.prlx-item
.prlx-item-inner.zoom.speed-2
.prlx-item
.prlx-item-inner.right.speed-5
.prlx-item
.prlx-item-inner.left
.prlx-item
.prlx-item-inner.bottom
.prlx-item
.prlx-item-inner.right.spin
.side-dots
In this example I set .row
element as position:fixed;
. So it’s always will be visible.
.prlx-item-inner has to be position:absolute; this way we can control it with x,y (top, left) coordinates. It’s parent .prlx-item is position: relative;. That way it’s children will move relatively to the parent instead moving relatively the whole viewport.
Javascript
There are three functions responsible for movements. zoom()
, spin()
, move()
respectively.
checkMovement()
check which direction, speed and animation type is set to an element. ThenbindMovementsToElement()
binds specific animations to an html element.
At the end of the file we have window.addEventListener(‘scroll’, ()=>{})
event which triggered each time scrolling happens and activates animations on html elements.
That’s it. Nothing more. The code is simple and quick.
Here is the code itself:
Conclusion
It started as an experiment. Though at the end turned into a small library. Maybe one day I will publish it on github. At the moment anyone can try it on codepen and use on his own website.
Top comments (8)
Yes, right thing. In this inline styles do the job.
Checked your website from mobile. Looks minimalistic and nice.
Looked on your steam account. Rare collection of achievements :) Did you try gamify web apps interfaces?
Looks awesome! Thank you.
I'm not a big fan of inline styles. Though in this case it seems the most optimal.
Why not. I will be glad to see an improved code.
You'll become the first official contributor to this small opensource
Amazing. Is it possible with plain HTML, CSS and JS or Jquery?
Thanks.
It's JS, HTML,CSS. No need it Jquery
Cool 👍
It’s amazing! Thanks a lot
Thank you for reading