Attention

Heartbeat Animation

A double-beat pulse for likes, favourites and live counters.

Edit this in the studio

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

animation.css
.heartbeat {
  transform: translate3d(208px, 128px, 0);
  width: 64px;
  height: 64px;
  background: #22d3ee;
  border-radius: 999px;
  animation: heartbeat-anim 1200ms linear 0ms infinite both;
  will-change: transform, opacity;
}

@keyframes heartbeat-anim {
  0% {
    transform: translate3d(208px, 128px, 0);
    animation-timing-function: ease-in-out;
  }
  14% {
    transform: translate3d(208px, 128px, 0) scale(1.2, 1.2);
    animation-timing-function: ease-in-out;
  }
  28% {
    transform: translate3d(208px, 128px, 0);
    animation-timing-function: ease-in-out;
  }
  42% {
    transform: translate3d(208px, 128px, 0) scale(1.2, 1.2);
    animation-timing-function: ease-in-out;
  }
  70% {
    transform: translate3d(208px, 128px, 0);
  }
  100% {
    transform: translate3d(208px, 128px, 0);
  }
}

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

Why it is built this way

Two beats close together with a longer rest is what makes it read as a heartbeat rather than a pulse. The rest is most of the timeline — the pause is doing as much work as the beats.

What it animates

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

Scale X
transform
1 1
6 stopscompositor
Scale Y
transform
1 1
6 stopscompositor

What it costs to run

Scale x and scale y is handled by the compositor: no layout, no repaint, and the work can run off the main thread. This is the cheap end of CSS animation, which is why it stays smooth on a slow phone where other properties will not.

It runs for 1.20s across 12 keyframe stops, with every property moving over the same window.

2 curves in play — Ease In Out and Linear on a plain box. Different properties easing differently is how a movement gets texture: the eye reads the mismatch as weight rather than as a mistake.

Accessibility

Nothing here hides content — scale x and scale y move over 1.20s 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

heartbeatlikepulsescale