Advanced Animation Techniques with Framer Motion

Animation on the web used to be a choice between simple CSS transitions or complex JavaScript math. Framer Motion bridges this gap, providing a declarative API for complex physics-based animations in React.

Declarative vs. Imperative

Instead of saying "Move this div 10px right over 1 second", you declare "This div should be at x: 10". Framer Motion handles the interpolation, physics, and cleanup.

The Magic of "Layout Animations"

One of the hardest things in CSS is animating dimensions (height/width) or position changes caused by the DOM reflowing (like a list item being deleted). In Framer Motion, you just add the prop layout.

  <motion.div layout>
    {/* If this component changes size/position, it will morph smoothly */}
  </motion.div>
        

It performs FLIP (First, Last, Invert, Play) calculations automatically to make expensive layout thrashing performant.

Shared Layout Transitions

The layoutId prop is magic. If you have two different components in different parts of the React tree with the same layoutId, Framer Motion will animate the element morphing from one to the other when they mount/unmount. This is perfect for "Hero" animations where a list item expands into a full-page detail view.

Orchestration

Using Variants allows you to control the timing of children. You can define a parent container that staggers the entrance of its children by 0.1s, creating a beautiful cascading effect with minimal code.