Animation
Movement applied to elements that brings interfaces to life and guides user attention through visual storytelling. Thoughtful animation improves usability by providing feedback, showing relationships between elements, and making interactions feel responsive. Framer offers powerful animation tools including appear effects, scroll-based triggers, and component variants with smooth transitions.
Appear Effect
Framer
An animation that plays when an element first becomes visible on screen, typically as the user scrolls down the page. These effects add polish and draw attention to content as it enters the viewport. Framer provides various appear effects like fade, slide, scale, and blur that can be customized for timing, delay, and easing.
Bezier Curve
Motion
A mathematically defined curve used in vector graphics and animation, controlled by anchor points and handles that determine its shape. Understanding bezier curves helps create smooth, natural-feeling animations and custom easing functions. Framer’s animation curves use bezier mathematics to control the acceleration and deceleration of motion.
Code Component
Framer
A custom React component written in code that extends Framer's capabilities beyond built-in features. Code components enable advanced functionality like custom animations, API integrations, and complex interactive elements. They live alongside visual components and can accept properties that designers control without touching code.
Easing
Motion
The rate of change in an animation over time, controlling acceleration and deceleration for natural-feeling motion. Linear easing feels mechanical while ease-out mimics physical objects slowing from friction. Framer provides preset easing curves and custom bezier options to fine-tune animation feel. See Mastering transitions and easing in Framer.
Flow Effect
Effects
A type of animation that creates fluid, continuous motion between states or along scroll, often used for page transitions. Flow effects add polish and help users maintain context during navigation. Framer's transitions support various flow effects between pages and component states.
Framer Motion
Framer
Framer Motion is now Motion, a high-performance animation library for React and JavaScript. The old name still appears in tutorials and search results, but current docs and packages use Motion.
If you are building a website in Framer, you do not need to install Motion or write Framer Motion code. Framer has Motion-powered animation tools built into the canvas, so you can create polished animations visually: appear effects, scroll animations, hover and tap states, transitions, and component variants. That gives you Framer Motion-style results without setting up npm, importing an animation library, or maintaining custom React animation code.
Bringing websites to life with animation in Framer
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If your goal is to build a website, start with Framer instead of reaching for animation code first. You can design the page, add motion, and publish from one visual workflow — then use custom code only when a project truly needs it.
Use Motion directly when you are building a custom React or JavaScript app and need code-level animation control. Use Framer when you want to design, animate, and publish a site visually.
To learn the no-code path, explore Framer’s Academy, or open the Framer homepage to start building visually.
Interaction
Interaction
Any way users engage with your interface, from clicks and hovers to scrolls and gestures. Well-designed interactions feel responsive and intuitive while providing clear feedback. Framer enables complex interactions through triggers, animations, and state changes without coding.
Keyframe
Motion
A point in an animation timeline that defines specific property values, with the software interpolating values between keyframes. Keyframe animation gives precise control over complex motion sequences. Understanding keyframes helps you create sophisticated animations in Framer's advanced motion tools.
Lottie
Motion
A JSON-based animation format that renders Adobe After Effects animations on the web with small file sizes and infinite scalability. Lottie animations are lightweight, vector-based, and highly customizable through JavaScript. Import Lottie files into Framer for sophisticated animations without performance penalties.
Modal
Components
A dialog overlay that requires user attention before interacting with underlying content, used for alerts, forms, or focused tasks. Modals should have clear purposes and obvious dismissal methods—don't trap users in unexpected dialogs. In Framer, build modals as overlay components with appropriate entrance and exit animations.
Motion
Motion
The use of animation and movement in interfaces to communicate, guide attention, and create engaging experiences. Thoughtful motion provides feedback, shows relationships, and adds personality. Balance motion benefits with accessibility concerns and performance impacts.
Page Transition
Motion
The animation or effect that occurs when navigating between pages, providing visual continuity. Page transitions can make navigation feel seamless and help users maintain context. Framer supports various transition effects between pages.
Scale
Motion
The relative size of elements in relation to each other and the overall design, establishing hierarchy and emphasis. Scale creates visual drama—dramatically larger elements command attention while smaller ones recede. Consider how scale relationships change across breakpoints in responsive designs.
Scroll Animation
Motion
Animation triggered by scrolling, from simple reveal effects to complex parallax and timeline-based sequences. Scroll animations engage users and create storytelling opportunities as they progress through content. Use Framer's scroll-triggered effects for appear animations and scroll-linked transitions.
Scroll Transform
Framer
Animation effects tied to scroll position, creating parallax, reveal, and other scroll-driven visual changes. Scroll transforms add interactivity and storytelling potential to long-form content. Balance visual interest with performance and accessibility considerations.
Scroll-Triggered Animation
Motion
Animations that play once when elements enter the viewport during scrolling, commonly used for section reveals. Scroll-triggered animations add polish and draw attention to content as it appears. Framer's appear effects provide scroll-triggered animation capabilities. See Triggering animations on scroll in Framer.
Spring Animation
Motion
Physics-based animation that simulates natural spring-like motion with properties like stiffness, damping, and mass. Spring animations feel more natural than linear or bezier-based easing. Framer Motion powers Framer's spring animation capabilities. See Mastering transitions and easing in Framer. See Using the Loop Effect in Framer.
Text Effects
Framer
Visual enhancements applied to text including shadows, gradients, outlines, and animations. Text effects can add personality and emphasis but should maintain readability. Use effects sparingly and test at various sizes and backgrounds.
GIF
Media
Graphics Interchange Format—a compressed image format supporting animation and transparency, limited to 256 colors. GIFs are popular for short animations and reactions but have large file sizes. Consider modern formats like WebP or video for better compression and quality.
JavaScript
General
The programming language that enables interactive and dynamic behavior in web browsers. JavaScript powers everything from form validation to complex web applications and animations. Framer's code components and overrides use JavaScript for custom functionality beyond visual tools.
