#GFX

GFX is an 3D CSS3 animation library that extends jQuery with some useful functionality for programmatically creating CSS3 transitions. CSS3 transitions are superior to manual ones (using setTimeout) since they're hardware accelerated, something particularly noticeable on mobile devices.

GFX currently only supports WebKit browsers (Safari/Chrome). Firefox support is planned. For best results, use WebKit Nightly

To see some demos, checkout GFX's site.

#Basic usage

Usage is very straightforward, simply include the gfx.js file in the page, along with jQuery.

<script src="site/jquery.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>  
<script src="lib/gfx.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>  

Then call, $.fn.gfx(), passing in a set of properties and optional options.

$("#element").gfx(properties, options)

Properties can be any CSS styles that you want to transition, such as color, background or width. In addition, any properties that you'd normally use with -webkit-transform, can be used without the transform prefix, such as with scale and rotate in the example below.

$(this).gfx({
  scale: "1.5",
  rotate: "180deg"
})

Valid options for gfx() are:

• duration - animation duration in milliseconds
• easing - animation flow control, either linear, ease-in, ease-out, ease-in-out, or a custom cubic bezier
• complete - a callback function executed after the animation has finished
• queue - specifies which animation queue to use, by default fx. Set to false to disable queuing

As with normal jQuery animations, GFX transitions can be chained so they run one after an other. Additionally, you can still use the delay() function.

.gfx({
  rotate: "0deg",
  translateX: "-100px"
}).delay(100).gfx({
  scale: "1"
}).gfx({
  rotate: "0deg",
  translateX: "-100px"
})

##In-built effects

GFX comes with several in built effects, but you can easily add your own. They do what they say on the tin. To seem them live checkout the GFX website.

$.fn.gfxExplodeOut()
$.fn.gfxExplodeIn()
$.fn.gfxBlip()
$.fn.gfxFadeIn()
$.fn.gfxFadeOut()

#Overlay

GFX comes with a overlay (lightbox) effect. First include the script gfx.overlay.js (after gfx.js).

<script src="lib/gfx.overlay.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>

Then call $.gfxOverlay(), passing in a element and optional settings. The element will be cloned and presented to the user above the overlay. If you specify a <script /> element, then GFX will use the script's inner HTML. You should also specify a height and width for the dialog box.

$(".about").click(function() {
  return $.gfxOverlay("#aboutText", {width: 300, height: 130});
});

#Flip

The flip effect is for showing two elements that be can flipped between. To use it, first include the gfx.flip.js script.

<script src="lib/gfx.flip.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>

Then you need to create an element with the correct markup, including two children with .front and .back classes. You may want to set the .back element's display to none in your CSS file to avoid a flash before the JS kicks in.

<div id="flip">
  <div class="front">Front</div>
  <div class="back">Back</div>
</div>

Now call $.fn.gfxFlip() to setup the flipping. To activate a flip, trigger the flip event on the element.

$("#flip").gfxFlip().click(function() {
  return $(this).trigger("flip");
});

#Cube

The Cube is great for displaying multiple pieces of information, perhaps steps in a tutorial or setup procedure. As before, you first need to include the gfx.cube.js file.

<script src="lib/gfx.cube.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>

Then setup the correct element structure:

<div id="cube">
  <div class="front"></div>
  <div class="back"></div>
  <div class="left"></div>
  <div class="right"></div>
  <div class="top"></div>
  <div class="bottom"></div>
</div>

You don't have to include all the faces, just the front face is required. Now call $.fn.gfxCube(), passing in the height and width of the cube.

$("#cube").gfxCube({
  width: 500,
  height: 290
});

To change the face, just trigger the cube event, passing in the face name as event data.

$(".download").click(function() {
  return $("#cube").trigger("cube", "right");
});

$(".back").click(function() {
  return $("#cube").trigger("cube", "front");
});

#Transforms

GFX supports the following CSS3 transforms:

• scale
• scaleX
• scaleY
• scale3d
• rotate
• rotateX
• rotateY
• rotateZ
• rotate3d
• translate
• translateX
• translateY
• translateZ
• translate3d
• skew
• skewX
• skewY
• matrix
• matrix3d
• perspective

CSS Transforms are a whole subject to themselves, and unfortunately there isn't space to elaborate on them here. Luckily David DeSandro has created a great set of tutorials, which you can find here.

Additionally the WebKit blog has a great article on transitions when they first introduced, and the Apple Developer center also provides good documentation.

#Demos

More demos are planned, but feel free to contribute ideas if you coming up with a cool idea. At the moment, I'm thinking of re-creating the interfaces from Time Machine and Windows 8.