CSS3

Space CaCSS - Animated CSS3 background patterns. Let’s get trippy.

Space CaCSS - Animated CSS3 background patterns. Let’s get trippy.

Tried to make a Brushed Metal style in CSS3. The texture is done by using 3 repeating-gradients with different length. That makes it look somewhat random. For the linear version, browser support is pretty ok, but for the radial one it’s not quite there yet. I think only in Safari 5.1 and Chrome Windows. In addition I tried to add a conical gradient for the circle with just faking it with ellipse gradients. It’s ok for low contrasts and if you cover the middle part with an icon or so.. hehe.. ;-P A much more real looking technique is used in this experiment, but I believe it currently only works in Safari and Chrome Windows. Let’s hope that CSS4 will add support for real conical gradients. See live Demo.

Tried to make a Brushed Metal style in CSS3. The texture is done by using 3 repeating-gradients with different length. That makes it look somewhat random. For the linear version, browser support is pretty ok, but for the radial one it’s not quite there yet. I think only in Safari 5.1 and Chrome Windows.

In addition I tried to add a conical gradient for the circle with just faking it with ellipse gradients. It’s ok for low contrasts and if you cover the middle part with an icon or so.. hehe.. ;-P A much more real looking technique is used in this experiment, but I believe it currently only works in Safari and Chrome Windows. Let’s hope that CSS4 will add support for real conical gradients.

See live Demo.

The Cursor Monster is a little CSS3/JS toy that you can play around with. Using cursor:none can be fun, but also super confusing if you abuse it. So be careful. Update: Apparently Chrome will disable it in a future release, so enjoy while you can.  Feed the monster.

The Cursor Monster is a little CSS3/JS toy that you can play around with. Using cursor:none can be fun, but also super confusing if you abuse it. So be careful. Update: Apparently Chrome will disable it in a future release, so enjoy while you can. 

Feed the monster.

The Letter-Heads is a Firefox 4 demo that lets you experience interactive shadow art. Meet different characters made with letters and text-shadow. Animated with CSS3+JS. It’s mainly inspired by shadow artist Kumi Yamashita.  My role: Concept, Art direction, Illustration, Design and Code. Project: Firefox 4 Demo Client: Mozilla

The Letter-Heads is a Firefox 4 demo that lets you experience interactive shadow art. Meet different characters made with letters and text-shadow. Animated with CSS3+JS. It’s mainly inspired by shadow artist Kumi Yamashita. 

My role: Concept, Art direction, Illustration, Design and Code.

  • Project: Firefox 4 Demo
  • Client: Mozilla
ZEN is a HTML5-CSS3 Audio Player. I’m really happy how the little details turned out. Like how it morphs from a circle to a square button and the swirl at the beginning. But what I like most.. At the beginning, there is just a big simple button. You click it, and it shows its fancy pants. You click it again, back to the simple. It’s like the visuals match the sound. From a relaxing Zen garden into a crazy club and back. See the demo.

ZEN is a HTML5-CSS3 Audio Player. I’m really happy how the little details turned out. Like how it morphs from a circle to a square button and the swirl at the beginning.

But what I like most.. At the beginning, there is just a big simple button. You click it, and it shows its fancy pants. You click it again, back to the simple. It’s like the visuals match the sound. From a relaxing Zen garden into a crazy club and back.

See the demo.

:toggle - A while ago I worked on a project where I needed just a simple toggle button to show and hide some content. The obvious way would be to use JavaScript for that functionality. But then I thought: Is it possible to create a toggle button with only HTML and CSS3? See the result: Live Demo.

:toggle - A while ago I worked on a project where I needed just a simple toggle button to show and hide some content. The obvious way would be to use JavaScript for that functionality. But then I thought: Is it possible to create a toggle button with only HTML and CSS3?

See the result: Live Demo.

My flirts with CSS3

At my day job I mostly work with Flash, AfterEffects, Photoshop. About a year ago I wanted to try something new and created Shitty Day using HTML, jQuery and CSS. And a couple months later, after I discovered that CSS3 can do animations, I did a photo-only tumblr theme called Organ. Nobody really cared until Cameron Moll (thanks) posted it on his blog and I got asked to create an official theme. It got featured in the theme garden and I was like.. wow.. it seems people really like this CSS3 stuff. So I kept on experimenting and created some more CSS3 demos.

I’m really happy that most people enjoy them. But there are also some concerns. If you look at all the demos, you’ll see that most of them only work correctly in -webkit and some just in Safari. And they also lack a graceful degradation. There are people like Paul or Divya that have been pushing me to make them more cross-browser. Thanks and sorry, for letting you down so often. I can understand that some say: If it’s not cross-browser it doesn’t “count”. And Web Designers have a responsibility and so on..

Well, this is just a hobby for me. I do it only for fun. Doing cross-browser support is the exact opposite of fun. Some might get a kick out of it, but for me, I would just be kicking the wall non-stop. That’s why I usually don’t even try and jump right to the next demo. Or call me lazy, that’s fine too.

But I guess the main reason why all my experiments work best in Safari is the tool I’m using: CSSEdit. If you don’t know about it, there’s one killer feature that changed everything. I would say, if it wasn’t for that feature, I probably would’ve never started doing CSS. It’s the Live Preview! Every change you make in your CSS get’s instantly updated. It’s like Firebug. Because I like to try out new stuff, I don’t know upfront how to do things.. I kinda just throw properties in there and start tweaking the numbers till I get to some interesting result. Without Live Preview, I would have to save the file, switch to the browser, refresh, switch back to the editor and start over. For the basic stuff you get things usually right without having to see a preview, but not if you’re trying to do Photoshop-like styles with CSS. Can you imagine having to save for web your Photoshop design just to see your changes? Insane right? So because CSSEdit uses Safari to render the Live Preview it automatically will work best in Safari, so there you have it.. blame them. ;-)

Unfortunately I’m still waiting desperately till CSSEdit get’s updated to support CSS3. I’m puzzled what they are waiting for, if browsers already start dropping prefixes. They could have such a nice head-start before the big guys like Adobe start to add it. Heck, there are tons of online CSS3 generator tools and there is even and app for the iPad. But nothing for desktop? WTF?

Wait a minute.. online tools. Online? Damn, that’s it! This will solve everything! A complete HTML/CSS editor in the browser with live editing. Something like jsfiddle, but with auto-complete and a GUI. Things like box-shadows, text-shadows, gradients just scream to be manipulated with sliders. But the best part by far.. you could do your cross-browser hacking right there in any browser you want to support. Maybe such an online editor is technically not possible with older browsers? Or extremely hard to do. Or just have limited features. I have no idea. But trying to add all possible web rendering engines into a desktop editor sounds way harder. The term designing in the browser would get a whole new meaning, because you’re literally designing in the browser.

Also all files are kept in the cloud. After doing changes, you could just save it, push it to your live server or commit it to something like GitHub or so. Also some kind of SVN or collaboration feature with co-workers could be build in.

Who is gonna do it? Is somebody already working on it? Is that why CSSEdit doesn’t get updated? Or maybe Adobe? Will they move to a subscription model with a “Dreamweaver Live”? I also would love if 37signals would give it a try. They have the cloud experience, they do web stuff, they have the customers already paying with a subscription model. And how awesome would that be with some integration with their current products. Let’s see.

Thanks for reading. Tweet your Comment.

PS. What’s next? There probably won’t be any new demos for a while. No, not because I gave up on CSS3.. because I’m already working on the “next big thing”. ;-)

Update: Here a couple tools that go into that direction. Thanks for sharing. Symbiote, LiveReload, CSS3 auto-complete for CSSEdit, Akshell

umbrUI is a demo of HTML input elements made with CSS3. So far they include a range slider, checkbox and radio button. I’m pretty happy with the outcome. They just use minimal markup, no JavaScript and thanks to the Pictos Font Icons, no images. The sad part, so far only Safari can render it correctly. Chrome looks ok but without the 3D perspective. I haven’t tried the rest of the browsers. I guess for now, using images is still far easier and gives you less headaches. I also tried to add animations, but unfortunately they don’t work on :before/:after pseudo classes and on the range slider, they don’t even exist. Also trying to animate gradients, box-shadows, text-shadows, borders is still really buggy. See the demo (Safari or Chrome).

umbrUI is a demo of HTML input elements made with CSS3. So far they include a range slider, checkbox and radio button. I’m pretty happy with the outcome. They just use minimal markup, no JavaScript and thanks to the Pictos Font Icons, no images.

The sad part, so far only Safari can render it correctly. Chrome looks ok but without the 3D perspective. I haven’t tried the rest of the browsers. I guess for now, using images is still far easier and gives you less headaches. I also tried to add animations, but unfortunately they don’t work on :before/:after pseudo classes and on the range slider, they don’t even exist. Also trying to animate gradients, box-shadows, text-shadows, borders is still really buggy.

See the demo (Safari or Chrome).

Guess the Stars ★★☆ is a little game demo using some 3D perspective, animation and reflections. They are just flat images from IMDb that get rendered with CSS3 into DVD cases. Unfortunately it only works in Safari. And sometimes even a little buggy. Anyways, another interesting thing.. the :target pseudo class. Notice that when you click on a movie it stays in that state. You can also use the back button and deep linking works out of the box. Copy/Paste the URL into a new window and it will open at the same state all without any JavaScript. See the live demo or if you don’t have Safari, here a screenshot.

Guess the Stars ★★☆ is a little game demo using some 3D perspective, animation and reflections. They are just flat images from IMDb that get rendered with CSS3 into DVD cases. Unfortunately it only works in Safari. And sometimes even a little buggy.

Anyways, another interesting thing.. the :target pseudo class. Notice that when you click on a movie it stays in that state. You can also use the back button and deep linking works out of the box. Copy/Paste the URL into a new window and it will open at the same state all without any JavaScript.

See the live demo or if you don’t have Safari, here a screenshot.

BonBon Buttons - My goal was to create good looking CSS3 buttons with minimal markup. They use only one PNG for the background noise, everything else is rendered by the browser.. well, so far only Safari, Chrome and Firefox. I’m quite happy how they turned out, but of course, the lack in cross-browser support makes them just another demo.. for now. ;-) If you are interested in more details, I wrote some sort of tutorial and of course you can click them. See them live.

BonBon Buttons - My goal was to create good looking CSS3 buttons with minimal markup. They use only one PNG for the background noise, everything else is rendered by the browser.. well, so far only Safari, Chrome and Firefox. I’m quite happy how they turned out, but of course, the lack in cross-browser support makes them just another demo.. for now. ;-)

If you are interested in more details, I wrote some sort of tutorial and of course you can click them. See them live.

ZEPPELIN is an experiment trying to create a glass text effect (refractive index) with CSS3. Yes, another useless CSS3 demo. But I always try to keep the markup as minimal as possible.. this time there is only one extra <p> tag needed. I tried to use the :after pseudo-element, but somehow the animation didn’t work. The refractive index effect is achieved by using two background images on top of each other. The underlying one get’s scaled down a bit and the top one get’s cutout by the text using -webkit-background-clip: text. For the embossing effect a -webkit-text-stroke with a low opacity is used. Something to keep in mind, animating clippings, text-shadows, transparency can make your CPU spike, it’s not just Flash, CSS can be misused too. So make sure you don’t loop the animation forever. This experiment is inspired by Trent Walton’s example. See the live demo.

ZEPPELIN is an experiment trying to create a glass text effect (refractive index) with CSS3. Yes, another useless CSS3 demo. But I always try to keep the markup as minimal as possible.. this time there is only one extra <p> tag needed. I tried to use the :after pseudo-element, but somehow the animation didn’t work.

The refractive index effect is achieved by using two background images on top of each other. The underlying one get’s scaled down a bit and the top one get’s cutout by the text using -webkit-background-clip: text. For the embossing effect a -webkit-text-stroke with a low opacity is used. Something to keep in mind, animating clippings, text-shadows, transparency can make your CPU spike, it’s not just Flash, CSS can be misused too. So make sure you don’t loop the animation forever.

This experiment is inspired by Trent Walton’s example.

See the live demo.

Where are the trees is an experiment trying to create a Tilt-Shift effect on Text using CSS3. Once again text-shadow was my best friend. By adding a bigger offset-y and blur-radius to the top and bottom edge, the text appears to have a lens blur that is typical for tilt-shift effects. There is also some rotate, rotateX and skewX to make the text match the perspective of the background image. See the live demo → Update: Good news for blur fans. CSS filters are coming and you can add blur to any DOM element.

Where are the trees is an experiment trying to create a Tilt-Shift effect on Text using CSS3.

Once again text-shadow was my best friend. By adding a bigger offset-y and blur-radius to the top and bottom edge, the text appears to have a lens blur that is typical for tilt-shift effects. There is also some rotate, rotateX and skewX to make the text match the perspective of the background image.

See the live demo →

Update: Good news for blur fans. CSS filters are coming and you can add blur to any DOM element.

CSS3D creates a stereoscopic 3D effect with CSS3 only. First I just created this red and cyan effect because I thought it looks cool. But then I got some 3D glasses and was shocked that it actually works. Basically you just need one line of CSS. A text-shadow with a red and cyan offset. The trick is to use &#8220;em&#8220;s for the text-shadows. That way, if you change the font-size, the text-shadows change in the same proportion. text-shadow: -0.06em 0 red, 0.06em 0 cyan; See the Demo → Note: Actually you are not limited to text only. You can use the same technique with box-shadows. It even works when you add some of webkit&#8217;s 3D transforms like rotateY. Update: Wow! I submitted this to Smashing Magazine&#8217;s CSS3 Design Contest and it made it on 3rd place, which makes me incredible happy. Thanks! For comments please use twitter.

CSS3D creates a stereoscopic 3D effect with CSS3 only. First I just created this red and cyan effect because I thought it looks cool. But then I got some 3D glasses and was shocked that it actually works. Basically you just need one line of CSS. A text-shadow with a red and cyan offset. The trick is to use “em“s for the text-shadows. That way, if you change the font-size, the text-shadows change in the same proportion.

text-shadow: -0.06em 0 red, 0.06em 0 cyan;

See the Demo →

Note: Actually you are not limited to text only. You can use the same technique with box-shadows. It even works when you add some of webkit’s 3D transforms like rotateY.

Update: Wow! I submitted this to Smashing Magazine’s CSS3 Design Contest and it made it on 3rd place, which makes me incredible happy. Thanks!

For comments please use twitter.

CSS3 Image Blur. Is it possible to create a blur effect with just one source image and CSS? Well, kind of: You stack the same image a couple times on top of each other and apply a combination of shifting, scaling and low opacity. The more blurry it should look the more stacking it would need. And there we already have the problem: It&#8217;s ugly markup and not really recommended. It probably also makes the browser super slow. Therefore, I&#8217;ll leave it at this and wait for CSS4. ;-) See the Demo → Update: Some people on twitter pointed out that it&#8217;s possible to apply SVG filters to HTML elements. I guess that&#8217;s the much better approach.

CSS3 Image Blur. Is it possible to create a blur effect with just one source image and CSS? Well, kind of:

You stack the same image a couple times on top of each other and apply a combination of shifting, scaling and low opacity. The more blurry it should look the more stacking it would need. And there we already have the problem: It’s ugly markup and not really recommended. It probably also makes the browser super slow. Therefore, I’ll leave it at this and wait for CSS4. ;-)

See the Demo →

Update: Some people on twitter pointed out that it’s possible to apply SVG filters to HTML elements. I guess that’s the much better approach.

CarveMe tries to simulate an inset text-shadow with CSS3. Since Safari5 is out, we now can finally use box-shadow: inset for all our shiny buttons. But what about an inset shadow on text? Unfortunately text-shadow: inset doesn&#8217;t work. But there is a technique that kinda simulates the same effect. background-color: rgba(82,96,117,0.5);-webkit-background-clip: text;color: transparent;text-shadow: rgba(255,255,255,0.5) 0 5px 6px; So instead of having a dark inset shadow on top of the bright text, we use a bright text-shadow on the dark background. See the Demo →

CarveMe tries to simulate an inset text-shadow with CSS3. Since Safari5 is out, we now can finally use box-shadow: inset for all our shiny buttons. But what about an inset shadow on text? Unfortunately text-shadow: inset doesn’t work. But there is a technique that kinda simulates the same effect.

background-color: rgba(82,96,117,0.5);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
text-shadow: rgba(255,255,255,0.5) 0 5px 6px;

So instead of having a dark inset shadow on top of the bright text, we use a bright text-shadow on the dark background.

See the Demo →

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