GSAP Technology Intelligence

What is GSAP?

GSAP (GreenSock Animation Platform) is a professional-grade JavaScript animation library used by over 11 million websites. Created by GreenSock, GSAP powers animations for major brands including Google, Microsoft, NASA, and Disney. It's the industry standard for complex web animations.

GSAP excels where CSS animations fall short: sequencing, staggering, morphing, and physics-based motion. Its timeline feature enables complex choreographed animations. GSAP is consistently faster than jQuery and CSS animations in benchmarks.

The library includes core animation capabilities plus plugins for scroll-triggered animations (ScrollTrigger), SVG morphing (MorphSVG), and text effects (SplitText). GSAP works with React, Vue, Angular, and vanilla JavaScript.

GSAP Features

Tweens: Animate any property. CSS, SVG, canvas, custom objects. gsap.to(), gsap.from(), gsap.fromTo(). Smooth easing functions.

Timelines: Sequence animations. Overlapping and staggering. Nested timelines. Playback control (pause, reverse, seek).

ScrollTrigger: Scroll-based animations. Pin elements. Scrub with scroll position. Snap to sections. Horizontal scrolling.

Easing: 30+ built-in eases. Power, Elastic, Bounce, Back. CustomEase for custom curves. RoughEase for organic motion.

Plugins: MorphSVG for shape morphing. DrawSVG for line drawing. MotionPath for curved motion. SplitText for text animation.

Performance: Optimized for 60fps. RequestAnimationFrame. Will-change optimization. Lazy rendering.

GSAP Use Cases

Landing Pages: Scroll-triggered reveals. Hero animations. Section transitions. Storytelling experiences.

SVG Animations: Logo animations. Icon morphing. Data visualization. Illustrated interactions.

Product Showcases: 360° product views. Feature highlights. Interactive demos. Parallax effects.

Loading Experiences: Animated preloaders. Progress indicators. Skeleton to content transitions. Brand moments.

Games: Character animation. Physics simulation. Sprite animation. Interactive elements.

UI Interactions: Menu animations. Modal transitions. Micro-interactions. Feedback effects.

GSAP Code Examples

Animation Patterns

// Basic tween
gsap.to(".box", { duration: 1, x: 100, opacity: 0.5 });
gsap.from(".element", { duration: 0.5, y: -50, autoAlpha: 0 });

// Timeline for sequencing
const tl = gsap.timeline({ defaults: { duration: 0.5 } });
tl.to(".header", { y: 0, autoAlpha: 1 })
  .to(".content", { y: 0, autoAlpha: 1 }, "-=0.2")
  .to(".footer", { y: 0, autoAlpha: 1 }, "-=0.2");

// Stagger elements
gsap.from(".card", {
  duration: 0.8,
  y: 50,
  opacity: 0,
  stagger: 0.15,
  ease: "power2.out"
});

// ScrollTrigger
gsap.registerPlugin(ScrollTrigger);

gsap.to(".parallax-bg", {
  yPercent: -50,
  scrollTrigger: {
    trigger: ".section",
    start: "top bottom",
    end: "bottom top",
    scrub: true
  }
});

// Pin and animate on scroll
ScrollTrigger.create({
  trigger: ".panel",
  start: "top top",
  end: "+=500",
  pin: true,
  scrub: 1,
  animation: gsap.to(".panel-content", { x: -500 })
});

// Hover animation
const hoverTl = gsap.timeline({ paused: true });
hoverTl.to(".button", { scale: 1.1, duration: 0.2 });

button.addEventListener("mouseenter", () => hoverTl.play());
button.addEventListener("mouseleave", () => hoverTl.reverse());

GSAP Benefits

Performance: Fastest animation library. 60fps smooth. Optimized internals. Browser-agnostic performance.

Control: Full playback control. Pause, resume, reverse, seek. Time scaling. Callbacks at any point.

Compatibility: Works everywhere. IE11 to modern browsers. SVG, Canvas, WebGL. React, Vue, Angular.

ScrollTrigger: Industry-leading scroll plugin. Smooth scroll integration. Complex scroll animations. Reliable viewport detection.

Easing: Extensive easing library. Custom curves. Natural motion. Expressive animations.

Documentation: Excellent documentation. Active forums. Video tutorials. CodePen examples.

Free Core: Core library free for commercial use. Plugins for advanced features. Club GreenSock for all plugins. Fair licensing.