Custom Effects with jQuery: Tutorial

1. Introduction

In this tutorial, you'll gain a deeper understanding of jQuery's capabilities by learning to create custom animation effects. We'll focus on using the animate() method to create your own animations from scratch.

What You'll Learn:

• How to use jQuery's animate() method.
• How to create custom animation effects.
• Best practices when creating animations in jQuery.

Prerequisites:

Before starting this tutorial, you should have:

• Basic understanding of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
• Familiarity with jQuery library. If not, check out jQuery Getting Started.

2. Step-by-Step Guide

The animate() method in jQuery allows you to create custom animation effects on HTML elements. It works by gradually changing CSS styles over a set duration.

Syntax: $(selector).animate({styles},duration,easing,callback);

• Styles: CSS properties you want to animate.
• Duration: speed of the animation in milliseconds.
• Easing: the speed at which the animation progresses at different times.
• Callback: the function to be executed after the animation completes.

Let's create a simple animation that changes the height and width of a div.

3. Code Examples

Example 1:

HTML:

<div id="myDiv">Hello, World!</div>
<button id="startBtn">Start Animation</button>

CSS:

#myDiv {
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  background-color: red;
}

JavaScript:

$("#startBtn").click(function(){
  $("#myDiv").animate({
    width: "200px",
    height: "200px"
  }, 2000);
});

When you click on the "Start Animation" button, the div will gradually increase its width and height to 200px over a duration of 2000 milliseconds (2 seconds).

Example 2:

Let's add easing and a callback function to our animation.

JavaScript:

$("#startBtn").click(function(){
  $("#myDiv").animate({
    width: "200px",
    height: "200px"
  }, 2000, "linear", function(){
    alert("Animation Complete!");
  });
});

Now, the animation speed is constant, and an alert box pops up after the animation.

4. Summary

We've learned how to create custom animations in jQuery using the animate() method. We've also seen how to control the speed, easing, and completion of these animations.

Next Steps:

• Experiment with animating different CSS properties.
• Learn about jQuery's built-in effects like fadeIn(), fadeOut(), slideUp(), slideDown(), toggle().
• Learn about jQuery's chaining feature.

Additional Resources:

• jQuery Official Documentation
• W3Schools jQuery Tutorial

5. Practice Exercises

Exercise 1: Create a div that changes its color over a duration of 5 seconds.

Exercise 2: Create a div that moves diagonally across the screen.

Exercise 3: Create a div that grows in size, changes color, then shrinks back to its original size. Use a callback function to alert when the animation is complete.

Solutions and Explanations:

1. Color change is not directly supported by animate(), but jQuery UI extends this functionality. Check out the Color Animation documentation.

2. You can animate the top and left css properties to make the div move diagonally.

3. Chain multiple animate() calls to create a sequence of animations. The callback function in the last animate() will execute after all animations are complete.

Happy animating!