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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.

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