A well-chosen animation makes an interface feel alive, but writing keyframes by hand means juggling percentages, timing functions, and iteration counts until the motion looks right. This generator removes the guesswork: pick an effect such as fade, slide, bounce, or spin, set the duration and easing, and watch a live preview play it back immediately. It then prints the complete keyframes block plus the animation shorthand to apply it, so you can copy both into your stylesheet and have the same motion on your own elements. The effects are deliberately simple and reusable, the kind of motion that suits buttons, cards, badges, and loaders, rather than showpiece animations that distract from content.
Quick Answer: Pick an animation effect, set duration and easing, preview it, and copy the keyframes CSS.
Free Online Tool
CSS Animation Generator
Motion you can preview before you commit it to CSS.
How to Use the CSS Animation Generator
- Choose an animation effect: fade, slide, bounce, or spin.
- Set the duration in seconds.
- Pick an easing curve such as ease, linear, or ease-in-out.
- Press Preview to play the animation on the demo box.
- Copy the keyframes and animation CSS into your project.
Key Features
- Four reusable effects: fade, slide, bounce, and spin.
- Duration and easing controls with instant preview.
- Live preview box that replays the animation on demand.
- Complete keyframes output, not just the shorthand.
- Copy-ready CSS that works in any modern browser.
Best Practices and Tips
- Keep durations between a quarter of a second and one second for interface feedback; longer animations feel sluggish.
- Ease-out suits entrances because motion starts fast and settles gently, while ease-in suits exits.
- Infinite animations belong on loaders and indicators, not on content that should settle and stay still.
- Test animations on a real device as well as a desktop; a spin that looks subtle on a monitor can dominate a phone screen.
- Respect users who prefer reduced motion by pairing animations with a prefers-reduced-motion fallback in production.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Animating every element on the page, which turns feedback into noise.
- Using linear easing for everything, which makes motion feel mechanical instead of natural.
- Forgetting that the demo box uses the animation name from the output; renaming one without the other breaks the link.
- Setting a duration in milliseconds in a field that expects seconds, producing a flash instead of an animation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a keyframes block?
A keyframes block defines the stages of an animation, from a starting state to an ending state, with optional stops in between. The animation property then names that block, sets how long it runs, and how it repeats, and the browser interpolates between the stages automatically.
How do I apply the generated CSS to my own element?
Copy the keyframes block into your stylesheet unchanged, then copy the animation shorthand onto the selector for your element, changing the animation name only if you also rename the keyframes. The element will then play the same motion as the preview box.
What does easing do?
Easing controls how the animation accelerates through its duration. Linear moves at a constant speed, ease starts fast and slows, ease-in starts slow and speeds up, and ease-in-out does both. The same keyframes can feel completely different under different easing, which is why the preview lets you compare.
Can I make the animation repeat forever?
Yes, set the iteration count to infinite in your own stylesheet; the generated shorthand uses a single play by default so the preview settles. Infinite repetition suits loaders and pulsing indicators, but avoid it on ordinary content.
Why does the preview replay only when I press Preview?
Because the animation is applied fresh each time you press the button, restarting it from the beginning. In your own project, the animation plays when the element first appears or when the class is added, and replays whenever that class is re-applied.