Keyframe wildcards: Step-by-step tutorial

Introduction

The Wildcard Keyframes example shows how to create interruptible hover animations using Motion's wildcard keyframe feature.

A "wildcard" keyframe is any keyframe that is null.

When the initial keyframe is null, Motion will use the current value of the property as the starting point. This allows even keyframe animations to be interruptible, unlike CSS keyframes.

Get started

Let's start with a basic component:

export default function WildcardKeyframes() {
    return (
        <div
            style={{
                width: 100,
                height: 100,
                backgroundColor: "#c678dd",
                borderRadius: 5,
            }}
        />
    )
}

Let's animate!

Import from Motion

First, we'll import Motion:

import * as motion from "motion/react-client"

Creating the wildcard animation

First, let's create a basic hover animation with wildcard keyframes:

<motion.div
    style={box}
    whileHover={{
        scale: [null, 1.1, 1.6],
        transition: { duration: 0.5 },
    }}
    transition={{
        duration: 0.3,
        ease: "easeOut",
    }}
/>

The scale array starts with null, which means "use whatever the current scale value is". The animation then progresses through two stages: first from the current value to 1.1, then from 1.1 to 1.6.

Controlling keyframe timing

Now, let's add precise control over when each keyframe occurs. By default, keyframes are evenly spaced throughout the duration of the animation.

By adding a times array, we can control the exact timing of each keyframe:

<motion.div
    style={box}
    whileHover={{
        scale: [null, 1.1, 1.6],
        transition: {
            duration: 0.5,
            times: [0, 0.6, 1],
            ease: ["easeInOut", "easeOut"],
        },
    }}
    transition={{
        duration: 0.3,
        ease: "easeOut",
    }}
/>

The times array gives us fine-grained control:

• 0: Start from the current scale (our null value)

• 0.6: Reach scale of 1.1 at 60% of the animation

• 1: Finish at scale 1.6 at the end of the animation

We can also specify different easing functions for each segment:

• "easeInOut" for the first segment (current scale to 1.1)

• "easeOut" for the second segment (1.1 to 1.6)

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learned how to:

• Create interruptible hover animations using wildcard keyframes

• Define multi-step animations with precise timing control

• Use different easing functions for different segments of an animation

• Create smooth transitions back to the initial state