Stack Motion Hover Effects

Today we’d like to share some tiny hover effect ideas with you. The concept stems from the hover effect seen on Merci-Michel which has a really nice feel to it because of its fluidity. The idea is to show a stack behind the hovered thumbnail that has the same main color as the image and then animate the elements in a swift motion. We are using the JavaScript library anime.js for the animations.

Stack Motion Effect Markup & Styles

The markup for the items is as follows:

<div class="grid grid--effect-vega">
	<a href="#" class="grid__item grid__item--c1">
		<div class="stack">
			<div class="stack__deco"></div>
			<div class="stack__deco"></div>
			<div class="stack__deco"></div>
			<div class="stack__deco"></div>
			<div class="stack__figure">
				<img class="stack__img" src="img/1.png" alt="Image"/>
			</div>
		</div>
		<div class="grid__item-caption">
			<h3 class="grid__item-title">anaerobic</h3>
			<div class="column column--left">
				<span class="column__text">Period</span>
				<span class="column__text">Subjects</span>
				<span class="column__text">Result</span>
			</div>
			<div class="column column--right">
				<span class="column__text">2045</span>
				<span class="column__text">133456</span>
				<span class="column__text">Positive</span>
			</div>
		</div>
	</a>
	<a href="#" class="grid__item grid__item--c2"><!-- ... --></a>
	<a href="#" class="grid__item grid__item--c2"><!-- ... --></a>
</div><!-- /grid -->

We use a specific class for the grid to create individual effects. The four stack__deco divisions are the decorative elements that we animate along with the stack__figure and the image. The grid itself is the container that has perspective. The grid caption has a title and two columns that optionally get animated, too.

For the grid we use a flexbox layout (see demo.css). For the decorative cards of the stack and the figure with its image will have the following styles:

.stack {
	position: relative;
	width: 100%;
	height: 200px;
	transform-style: preserve-3d;
}

.stack__deco {
	position: absolute;
	top: 0;
	left: 0;
	width: 100%;
	height: 100%;
	background-color: currentColor;
	transform-origin: 50% 100%;
}

.stack__deco:first-child {
	opacity: 0.2;
}

.stack__deco:nth-child(2) {
	opacity: 0.4;
}

.stack__deco:nth-child(3) {
	opacity: 0.6;
}

.stack__deco:nth-child(4) {
	opacity: 0.8;
}

.stack__figure {
	position: relative;
	display: flex;
	justify-content: center;
	align-items: center;
	overflow: hidden;
	width: 100%;
	height: 100%;
	cursor: pointer;
	transform-origin: 50% 100%;
}

.stack__img {
	position: relative;
	display: block;
	flex: none;
}

For some effects we want some special styles:

/* Individual effects */

/* Vega */
.grid--effect-vega .column {
	opacity: 1;
}

/* deneb */
.grid--effect-deneb {
	perspective: none;
}

.grid--effect-deneb .stack__figure,
.grid--effect-deneb .stack__deco {
	transform-origin: 50% 50%;
}

.grid--effect-deneb .column {
	opacity: 1;
}

/* ... */

And here is an example for an effect animation (hovering in and out):

HamalFx.prototype._in = function() {
	var self = this;

	this.DOM.stackItems.map(function(e, i) {
		e.style.opacity = i !== self.totalItems - 1 ? 0.2*i+0.2 : 1
	});

	anime({
		targets: this.DOM.stackItems,
		duration: 1000,
		easing: 'easeOutExpo',
		translateY: function(target, index) {
			return -1*index*5;
		},
		rotate: function(target, index, cnt) {
			if( index === cnt - 1 ) {
				return 0;
			}
			else {
				return index%2 ? (cnt-index)*1 : -1*(cnt-index)*1;
			}
		},
		scale: function(target, index, cnt) {
			if( index === cnt - 1 ) {
				return 1;
			}
			else {
				return 1.05;
			}
		},
		delay: function(target, index, cnt) {
			return (cnt-index-1)*30
		}
	});
	
	anime({
		targets: this.DOM.img,
		duration: 1000,
		easing: 'easeOutExpo',
		scale: 0.7
	});

	anime({
		targets: [this.DOM.columns.left, this.DOM.columns.right],
		duration: 1000,
		easing: 'easeOutExpo',
		translateX: function(target, index) {
			return index === 0 ? -30 : 30;
		}
	});
	
};

HamalFx.prototype._out = function() {
	var self = this;

	anime({
		targets: this.DOM.stackItems,
		duration: 500,
		easing: 'easeOutExpo',
		translateY: 0,
		rotate: 0,
		scale: 1,
		opacity: function(target, index, cnt) {
			return index !== cnt - 1 ? 0 : 1
		}
	});

	anime({
		targets: this.DOM.img,
		duration: 1000,
		easing: 'easeOutElastic',
		scale: 1
	});

	anime({
		targets: [this.DOM.columns.left, this.DOM.columns.right],
		duration: 500,
		easing: 'easeOutExpo',
		translateX: 0
	});
};

We hope you like these hover effects and find them inspirational!

References and Credits

• Idea based on the effect seen on the projects page of Merci-Michel
• Anime.js by Julian Garnier
• Images made with a design by Freepik.com
• Typeface Overpass Mono by Delve Withrington