Attention

Pulsing Glow Effect

A soft glow that breathes in and out — for highlights and active states.

Edit this in the studio

Opens with this animation loaded. Nothing is uploaded — the scene travels in the link.

animation.css
.glow {
  transform: translate3d(180px, 100px, 0);
  width: 120px;
  height: 120px;
  background: #6366f1;
  border-radius: 20px;
  animation: glow-anim 1600ms linear 0ms infinite both;
  will-change: transform, opacity;
}

@keyframes glow-anim {
  0% {
    box-shadow: none;
    animation-timing-function: ease-in-out;
  }
  50% {
    box-shadow: 0px 0px 42px 6px rgba(139, 123, 255, 0.8);
    animation-timing-function: ease-in-out;
  }
  100% {
    box-shadow: none;
  }
}

@media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) {
  .glow {
    animation: none;
    transition: none;
  }
}

Why it is built this way

The colour animates alongside the blur, fading the shadow to transparent at the low point instead of shrinking a visible ring. Shadows are comparatively expensive to animate, so keep this to a single focal element.

What it animates

3 properties across 1 CSS declaration. The bar shows when each one is moving.

Shadow Bl
box-shadow
0 0
3 stopsrepaint
Shadow Col
box-shadow
#8b7bff00 #8b7bff00
3 stopsrepaint
Shadow Sp
box-shadow
0 0
3 stopsrepaint

What it costs to run

Box-shadow repaint on every frame rather than running on the compositor. There is no reflow, so this is far cheaper than animating width or height — but keep the painted area modest.

It runs for 1.60s across 9 keyframe stops, with every property moving over the same window.

One curve throughout: Ease In Out on a plain box. Keeping a single easing across every property is what makes a multi-property animation read as one movement rather than several things happening at once.

Accessibility

Nothing here hides content — box-shadow move over 1.60s and the element is visible throughout. The exported prefers-reduced-motion guard still silences it, which matters most for the looping ones: motion that never stops is the kind that makes people feel unwell.

Related animations

glowshadowloophighlight