What does the animation-direction property do (e.g., alternate)?
Jun 24, 2025 am 12:23 AM
The animation-direction property in CSS controls the direction of an animation across cycles, offering four values: 1. normal plays the animation forward each time, 2. reverse plays it backward, 3. alternate reverses direction on every cycle starting forward, and 4. alternate-reverse starts backward then alternates; it is useful for smooth looping effects like back-and-forth motion without abrupt resets, especially in UI transitions or continuous background animations.
The animation-direction property in CSS controls the direction in which an animation plays. It determines whether the animation should run normally, reverse, or alternate between forward and backward on each cycle.
This property becomes especially useful when you want more control over how your animation behaves after its first iteration — for example, making it loop smoothly without jumping back to the start.
What Values Can You Use?
There are four main values for animation-direction, and each changes the playback behavior:
- normal – The animation plays from start to finish each time.
- reverse – Plays the animation backwards, from end to start.
- alternate – Reverses direction on every cycle. So first normal, then reverse, then normal again, and so on.
- alternate-reverse – Starts by playing the animation in reverse, then alternates direction with each cycle.
These options give you flexibility depending on the visual effect you're aiming for.
How Does alternate Work in Practice?
Using animation-direction: alternate means the animation will play forward on the first cycle, then backward on the second, forward again on the third, and so on.
Let’s say you have a simple fade-in/fade-out animation that moves an element from left to right. With alternate, the element would move left to right, then right to left, then left to right again — all without resetting suddenly.
This is great for smooth looping effects where you don’t want the animation to "jump" back to the beginning each time.
Here's a basic example:
@keyframes slide {
from { transform: translateX(0); }
to { transform: translateX(100px); }
}
.box {
animation-name: slide;
animation-duration: 1s;
animation-direction: alternate;
animation-iteration-count: infinite;
}In this case, the .box element slides right, then slides left, endlessly.
When Should You Use animation-direction?
You’ll find this property handy when:
- Creating hover animations that need to look smooth both on and off (like icons that scale or rotate).
- Designing continuous background effects (e.g., moving clouds or scrolling text).
- Making UI elements transition back and forth without abrupt resets.
For example, if you're animating a loading bar that moves across the screen, using alternate can help avoid that jarring reset at the end of each loop.
If you're not seeing the expected behavior, double-check that animation-iteration-count is set high enough (or to infinite) — otherwise, the direction won’t matter much.
Also, keep in mind that animation-direction only affects animations that have more than one keyframe — a single-frame animation won't show any directional change.
So basically, animation-direction gives you control over how your animation flows over multiple cycles. Using alternate is especially helpful when you want a seamless back-and-forth effect without extra code.
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