How to Animating Multiple Objects with GreenSock?

Animation mulitple object with GreenSock will help you power up your animation skill with GreenSock. In this part of the GreenSock tutorial series, we are goint to focus on GreenSock multiple objects animation features. We will create an amazing animated text with GreenSock. We assume you have the basic knowledge of using GreenSock technology. If not, please talk a look at the basic tutorials here at technig and than continue to this article.

Here is the final project we are going to build together from scratch.

[codepen_embed height=”362″ theme_id=”dark” slug_hash=”WxrMWb” default_tab=”result” user=”Hujjat”]See the Pen GreenSock Practice #6 multiple object animation by Hujjat Nazari (@Hujjat) on CodePen.[/codepen_embed]

GreenSock Multiple Objects Animation

To animate multiple object, you have two ways. Either use TweenLight class make apply separate Tweens to every object or use TweenMax class and automate the process. We are going to show you both ways. At the end you learn both ways.

Using TweenLight

If you use TweenLight, you will write more code. But this more code will give you more flexibility to make more amazing animations. Here, You select every object and apply different animation properties. Here an example.

Imagine if you want to animate a sets of alphabet letters.

<div id="teching">
  <div class="letter t">T</div>
  <div class="letter e">E</div>
  <div class="letter c">C</div>
  <div class="letter h">H</div>
  <div class="letter n">N</div>
  <div class="letter i">I</div>
  <div class="letter g">G</div>
</div>

Now, if I want to animate each and every letter, I must select and apply animations individually. Here is the example code for above html markup.

var t = $('.letter.t');
var e = $('.letter.e');
var c = $('.letter.c');
var h = $('.letter.h');
var n = $('.letter.n');
var i = $('.letter.i');
var g = $('.letter.g');

TweenLite.from(t, 2, {y:"200",opacity:0.1});
TweenLite.from(e, 2, {y:"-200"});
TweenLite.from(c, 2, {y:"200"});
TweenLite.from(h, 2, {y:"-200"});
TweenLite.from(n, 2, {y:"200"});
TweenLite.from(i, 2, {y:"-200"});
TweenLite.from(g, 2, {y:"200"});

The good thing about this method is here that, you can add different property for each object. If you make a complex animation, you will definitely need to use this method.

Using TweenMax

Using TweenMax class help you make the animation easier. With less code, you can write do more thins done. The cons of using this method is that you can’t apply different property separately for each object. If you want to give the same animation property for all object, this method is going to for you.

We assume you have the above html markup. Here is how we write the JavaScript code.

var letters = $('.letter').toArray();

TweenMax.staggerFrom(letters,1,{
  y: '-110',
  ease: Bounce.easeOut
},0.18);

As we said in introduction tutorial, TweenMax have some more feature and functionality. The staggerFrom function will talk the fourth argument.

This argument will specify the timing in which animation repeat on the next object. It will repeat those two property for every single letter after 0.18 second. Don’t forget that we have passed an array of object to straggerFrom function.

Here is the final demo.

[codepen_embed height=”331″ theme_id=”dark” slug_hash=”WxrMWb” default_tab=”result” user=”Hujjat”]See the Pen <a href=’http://codepen.io/Hujjat/pen/WxrMWb/’>GreenSock Practice #6 multiple object animation</a> by Hujjat Nazari (<a href=’http://codepen.io/Hujjat’>@Hujjat</a>) on <a href=’http://codepen.io’>CodePen</a>.[/codepen_embed]

Conclusion

GreenSock multiple objects animation will help you build powerful yet flexible animations. We hope you have learned something new. If you any question, feel free to comment it bellow. 🙂