Porting cool animation into HTML5

[Michael71 59 Likes (Contributor)]

Hello, 

 

One of my blog readers recently asked me about this animation and how we could achieve this without flash.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/interactive/2011/sep/05/england-riots-timeline-interactive?CMP=twt_gu

 

I have a gut feeling that this can be done with GSAP, but haven't really put anything into action yet.

 

How do you think it could be done? Would you use Canvas or simple HTML5? Would some CSS3 be needed or we can do everything with GSAP?

 

Let me know what you think.

[Rodrigo 2,662 Likes (Superhero)]

Hi Michael,

 

That's a good one and you're right, it can be done with GSAP. Take a look at this codepen of the GreenSock collection:

 

See the Pen rjdkK?editors=001 by GreenSock (@GreenSock) on CodePen

 

Now this one won't work in IE10-11, because of the preserve3D value in transform-style. But I'm sure that with some extra code that could be supported for IE.

 

Finally if you add Draggable and ThrowProps to the mix that one would look very nice and smooth.

 

Happy Tweening!!

[Michael71 59 Likes (Contributor)]

Yes I see. that is really cool. However since the animation I posted was rather extensive would we fall under some html5 limitation or performance drop?

[Carl 9,066 Likes (Superhero)]

It would be tough to give an accurate answer without testing. 3D stuff typically runs quite well due to hardware acceleration. I'd guess with lots of experimenting it would be possible to re-create that using GSAP with admirable performance.