Loaders
CSS Pulse Animation
A soft looping pulse for badges, status dots and live indicators.
Opens with this animation loaded. Nothing is uploaded — the scene travels in the link.
.pulse-dot {
transform: translate3d(208px, 128px, 0);
width: 64px;
height: 64px;
background: #22d3ee;
border-radius: 999px;
animation: pulse-dot-anim 900ms linear 0ms infinite both;
will-change: transform, opacity;
}
@keyframes pulse-dot-anim {
0% {
transform: translate3d(208px, 128px, 0);
animation-timing-function: ease-in-out;
}
50% {
transform: translate3d(208px, 128px, 0) scale(1.08, 1.08);
animation-timing-function: ease-in-out;
}
100% {
transform: translate3d(208px, 128px, 0);
}
}
@media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) {
.pulse-dot {
animation: none;
transition: none;
}
}Why it is built this way
Scale-based rather than width-based, so it stays smooth at any size and never nudges neighbouring elements. Keep the range small — a pulse that grows more than about 10% starts to read as an error state rather than an idle one.
What it animates
2 properties across 1 CSS declaration. The bar shows when each one is moving.
transformtransformWhat 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 0.90s across 6 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 — scale x and scale y move over 0.90s 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.