Animation can greatly enhance the user experience of React applications when used judiciously. Subtle animations during transitions can make an app feel more intuitive and responsive. In this article, we’ll explore some advanced techniques for creating complex animation sequences in React using two excellent libraries: React Spring and Framer Motion.

Why is Animation in React Apps Useful?

Well-executed animations in web apps provide the following benefits:

  • Make apps feel more intuitive, natural and lifelike
  • Draw attention to important user moments
  • Smooth visual transitions between application states
  • Increase perceived performance as transitions mask short waits
  • Improve user delight, engagement and satisfaction

However, getting animations right is crucial. Bad animations can degrade performance or even make apps less usable.

Choosing a React Animation Library

There are many libraries for animation in React – React Transition Group, React Move, Animate.css etc. We focus here on two powerful libraries perfectly suited for complex animations:

React Spring: Physics-based animation library, allows very smooth natural animations. Perfect for realistic, organic movements.

Framer Motion: Feature-rich declarative animation library. Excellemt for complex sequenced animations.

We’ll demonstrate example usage of both below.

Animating React Components with React Spring

React Spring provides simple hooks to add physical animations to React elements without managing separate animation timelines. This helps create very natural interfaces.

Some key aspects of React Spring:

  • Physics-based animation: Motion looks extremely lifelike based on springs, friction etc
  • Interoperability: Works with CSS, SVG, React Native etc
  • Small size: Only about 10kb gzipped

Let’s look at a code example using React Spring to animate the height of a collapsible panel:

import { useSpring, animated } from 'react-spring';

function CollapsiblePanel() {

  const [isOpen, setIsOpen] = useState(false);

  const animProps = useSpring({
    height: isOpen ? 100 : 0,
    opacity: isOpen ? 1 : 0
  });

  return (
    <animated.div style={animProps}> 
      <PanelContent />
    </animated.div>
  )
}

function toggleOpen() {
  setIsOpen(!isOpen);
}

Some key things to note here:

  • useSpring hook manages the animation state
  • Generated animProps are applied to the wrapped component
  • Properties like height animate smoothly between values

This creates a nice expanding collapsible panel component.

Framer Motion works similarly for many animation use cases, but also provides timeline capabilities for complex sequences.

Complex Sequential Animations with Framer Motion

Framer Motion bills itself as a production-ready animation library. It is also declarative like React Spring but provides more animation control for advanced sequenced animations.

Some notable Framer Motion features:

  • Declarative API
  • Advanced keyframing capabilities
  • Complex sequential animations
  • Orchestration and timelines
  • Integrates well with React best practices

Let’s examine Framer Motion implementing a sequential status indicator animation:

import { motion, AnimatePresence } from "framer-motion";

function StatusIndicator() {

  const [isRunning, setIsRunning] = useState(false);

  return (
    <AnimatePresence>
      {isRunning && 
        <motion.svg
          initial={{ pathLength: 0 }}
          animate={{ pathLength: 1 }}
          exit={{ pathLength: 0 }}
          transition={{ duration: 2 }}
        >
          <motion.path 
            fill="green"
            strokeWidth="2"
            d="M0,20 a20,20 0 1,0 40,0 a20,20 0 1,0 -40,0"
          /> 
        </motion.svg>
      }
    </AnimatePresence>
  )
}

What’s happening here:

  • AnimatePresence only renders contained animations when active
  • initial property defines start state
  • animate defines end state
  • pathLength animates the SVG seamlessly

This allows creation of very rich sequenced animations.

When to Use Each Library?

The libraries complement each other nicely:

React Spring is great for:

  • Smooth natural animations
  • Dynamic spring-based motion
  • Simple or orchestrated moves

Framer Motion shines for:

  • Complex sequential animations
  • Detailed timeline keyframing
  • Choreographing components as a group

For advanced animations, both integrate seamlessly with React’s component architecture.

Conclusion

We’ve explored some advanced techniques for animating React apps. When used properly, animations can delight users while improving usability.

React Spring provides a simple API for smooth natural animation. Framer Motion gives more direct control for complex sequenced animations.

These are two excellent libraries to add to any React developer’s toolkit for creating dynamic, animated user experiences.

Reach Out to the Experts

If you need help implementing advanced React animations or other frontend work, reach out to me directly. As an expert with over a decade of experience, I can assist with app development, consulting or training as an individual consultant.