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The Code Room!

Small projects to advance front-end web development skills, from beginner to advanced.

Wherever possible, the javascript and/or css is included
within the main code of each project page for easy download, instead of separate files.

Click on the title or the description to view each project.

Accordion Gallery

A gallery of expanding images. Not really quite suitable for prime time, but very pretty nonetheless.

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Accordion Menu

Present a lot of content in an easily digestible, compact drop-down without using large amounts of screen real estate. Adding movement and a color change to the transition adds interest and a positive indicator to grab the user's attention. Sub-menus can be added for even more versatility.

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AI-Generated Art Gallery

Art is artistry. Whether it is using paint, music, words, or code, the artist is the motivating force that makes creation possible. This project uses the Scroll Reveal javascript library to add some sophisticated movement to elements on the page, and a handcrafted lightbox to display a gallery of individual images.

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Animated Card Gallery

No javascript involved because I freaking hate writing javascript. The "Visit" button takes the user to a full-size view.

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Animated Gradient Border

Using gradients "behind" the container's content to create an animated border.

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Animated Gradient Text

Using gradients "behind" the text to give the illusion of animation. 4 colors become 16 with the use of hue filters.

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Animated Scroller

An animated scrolling gallery using CSS transform transitions and just a teeny bit of javascript.

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Animated Text

Colorful typewriter text animation from your input. Almost all dreadful javascript.

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Anxiety

How do you convey a feeling through a ststic web page? Do you know? Do you? Answer me now! Do you know or not? Is there something wrong with you?

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Background Gradients 4 Ways

There's more than one way to skin a div.

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Background Image Animation

Loading a background image with animated special effects.

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Background Selector

Use javascript with an HTML select statement to change backgrounds on the fly.

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Background Slider Gallery

Another Pretty But Ultimately Useless Exercise!

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Bad Dad Jokes

Randomly generated really truly awful bad terrible no-good one-liner dad jokes.

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Blurred Background Animation

Add some interest to the page with a colorful blurred background animation.

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Blurry Loading Animation

Loading a large background image with a progress indicator by using a simple javascript function.

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BMI Calculator

Because what's the point of having a recipe website without making you feel short and fat?

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Bouncy Loader

Follow the bouncing balls ... at least until the page finishes loading, that is.

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Breaker Box

Mapping out the household breaker box for easy reference. In the dark.

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Breaking News!

Old-timey spinning newspaper front page with vital information.

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Bubble Popper

Seems like no one sends packages padded with bubblewrap any more, so we'll have to get our endorphin fix popping virtual bubbles instead...

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Burgers & Sliders Menu

Use the hamburger to open the slider menu. Especially helpful for narrow screens.

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Click NOT Hover

Too many developers rely on hovering the mouse cursor over an element to change its state. Touchscreens on phones and tablets do not support hovering, so a large percentage of users will not be able to access that important functionality.

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Code Editor

Not everyone has access to a development environment to test their code when writing html/css/javascript. This simple editor uses a codepen-like interface to allow coders to view live results.
(Not Responsive)

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Collapsible FAQ List

Frequently Asked Questions in expanding sections. Just the FAQs, Ma'am. (If you get that reference, your back hurts every day for no reason.)

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Collapsing Sidebar Menu

When screen real estate is at a premium, a collapsible menu bar can save room for critical content.

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Color Filter Slider

A slider that shows an image in two aspects using a sliding color filter.

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Color Palette

A spectrum of color swatches with hex and rgb codes, and a light/dark background switch for comparisons.

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Coolors Palettes

That's not a typo! Color palettes made with the widget from coolors.co. Click on any color and the hex code is copied to your clipboard.

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Coolors Palettes Gradients

Background gradients created by using the palette colors from the Coolors Palette project page.

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Coolors Watercolor Gradients

Background gradients created by using the palette colors from the Coolors Palette project page, and adding texture.

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Copy Code to Clipboard

The javascript clipboard API allows code (formatted in the source as text) to be copied for pasting in other applications. This is particularly useful for sharing code snippets with other developers.

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CSS Animation Timing Function

When creating an animation in CSS, the timing function determines how an animation progresses through the duration of each cycle. This gives the page author great control over the behavior of the animated element.

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CSS Media Breakpoints

Common responsive media query breakpoints for the most common screen sizes.

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Cuber? Cubist? Cubism?

A 3-D rotating box, or cube, or whatever. I dunno. You decide...

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Curved Perspective Gallery

Perspective and animation combine to present the illusion of a curved gallery that moves when scrolled.

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Digital-Analog Clock

A digital clock made from analog clocks.

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Directional Indicators

A digital clock made from analog clocks.

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Double Slide Gallery

This gallery shows an animated sliding preview of the images, with title links to view them full-sized.

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Fading Hover Cards

Hover over a card to activate that item's metadata and dim the rest of the cards.

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Feature Braggadocio

Boast about the services you provide by using a little javascript to highlight the important characteristics users can't avoid...no matter how hard they try. Maybe concentrate on some positive traits though.

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Flex Hover Slider

CSS and jquery combine to add some movement to this landing page menu design.

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Flex Image Gallery

Using flexbox to display the images with titles and icons. A variation on the Accordion Gallery.

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Fun With Gradients!

Several colorful gradient backgrounds all smushed into one handy action-packed page!

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Gradient Border Animation

Although it still takes quite a bit of doing, animated gradient borders can be applied using the css @property element and some background color effects. Maybe someday it will even be possible to do it without jumping through so many hoops. One can only hope.

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Horizontal Scroller

Simple scroller using CSS only. Not as functional as a javascript slider, but still attractive. Neat trick using an unordered list.

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How Much Time to the New Year?

Just in case you haven't recovered from your New Year hangover, here's a little reminder of how much time you have to recover before the next one. Updated constantly. How is your headache?

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How To: Animated Text

Create text effects with an animated background.

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How To: CSS :empty Pseudo-Class

Maximizing the use of styles on otherwise empty sections of a web page.

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How To: Top of Page

An easy way for users to return to the top of the page while scrolling.

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HTML Details Tag

Provide additional information or other informative text in a drop-down format on fields that your new users might need help with.

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Image Shapes

Using CSS clip-path and border-radius to create image shapes. A handy reference page.

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Infinite Borders

This cheesy effect from a 1970's detective show is achieved by using linear gradients as the border image and extending it to the full size of the container, no matter the size of the user's viewport.

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Inspirational Quotes

Sometimes you just need a random quote to help you get through the day.nSometimes you need more than one. Sometimes you need a synthesized voice to read it to you. Sometimes you need to copy it for pasting elsewhere. This little app does all of that.

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Interactive Color Picker

An interactive color picker designed with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Based on a modern art poster created by Danish artist Poul Gernes in 1966.

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I've Got a Crush on You!

MOJS is an open-source (that means free!) javascript animation engine developed at MIT. This is just the stupidest thing that can be done with it.

(Not Responsive)

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Leaning Card Gallery

I'm just going to lean these paintings against the wall over here...
(Not Responsive)

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Length Converter

For most Americans, the metric system might as well be a software terms & conditions agreement written in Sanskrit. They don't read that, either. Having the ability to translate imperial measurements into the metric system is essential.
I did not include the measurement conversion from hamsters to centimeters, but since Americans will measure with anything but the metric system, I probably should have.

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Let It Snow

This is the only way I want to experience snow from now on. WebGL, javascript and css.

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Liquid Transition Effect

The rgbKineticSlider is a different kind of image slider developed by Hadrien Mongouachon that allows you to swipe or use the navigation buttons.

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Loading Text Animation

Using the css animation-delay property and some color changes on each individual letter yields the illusion of movement in otherwise static text.

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Login Form Illusion

When the user clicks on any of the colors, the "framed" login form appears. Clever and colorful, but usability is low with this trick unless you also provide some indication that the page needs to be activated by clicking!

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Magic Particles

The magical particle trail follows your cursor around the screen. Useless but pretty!

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Magic Text Reveal

A text reveal illusion using css masking and animation.

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Making Waves

Create a flowing headlime to capture users' interest. Uses the css font-variation-settings property and a clever (tiny) javascript library that can be hosted locally or loaded from a remote host. The wave runs once then halts, but can be easily configured to keep waving for any number of cycles...to infinity!.

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Mandala Canvas

German artist/coder Matthias Hurrle has elevated javascript to an art form.

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Marquee Clock

Pretend you're in Times Square in 1965. The marquee clock is the pinnacle of modern technology. Why, someday maybe they'll even put a man on the moon!

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Matthais Hurrle Sliders

German artist/coder Matthias Hurrle has elevated javascript to an art form.

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Menu Carousel

Rotating menu slider carousel with links in the captions.

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Menu Transitions

Instead of a flat drop-down menu, we've added some hover toggles to give the user some feedback. Add some menu items to complete the illusion.

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Mini Music Player

Plays a small selection of pre-selected tunes.

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Mirror Image

A pause to reflect. Oh god, I can't believe I just said that.

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Mosaic Grid Template

A not-very-exciting demo of a very crucial tool for modern responsive design. CSS grid can do so much more than a static html table. With proper responsive development, it is possible to create different displays depending on the screen size, without having to modify the content to fit.

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The Movie Database

The current top 20 popular movie searches, and the ability to search the database for any other movie.

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Music Slider

Swiper.js is the most versatile (free!) slideshow generator available today. In this project, we have converted the usual static image slideshow into a music player with animated album covers and links to music videos.

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Neumorphic Calculator

Neumorphism is a form of minimalism characterized by a soft and light look. There are light and dark themes for the user's comfort.

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New Year Wishes

Making the transition from one year to the next. Congratulations to Gaia for another rotation around the sun! Let's not mention how many billions of times she's done it though.

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Parallax Gallery

Using a little javascript, we can add a parallax effect to a scrolling series of images, providing the illusion of perspective. And maybe making motion-sensitive viewers a little queasy in the process.

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Parametric Pieces

A poem written in code.

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Penguin

A happy penguin who loves Carol, and just happens to be an exercise in CSS coding.

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The Popover Tag

Modal (a.k.a. popover) boxes have been an important element of user web design from the beginning. Whether including special instructions, images, or annoying popup ads, it used to take a complex bit of coding to include a simple box that appears on demand.

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Profile Flip Cards

Profile cards using rotation transition on hover in a responsive setting.

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Profile Page

A modern redesign of an antique-style profile landing page. Fully responsive and accessible. I still hate it.

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Product Showcase

Product showcase user interface demo using swiper.js for pagination.

(Not Responsive)

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Progressive Pagination

The GreenSock GSAP javascript framework allows for sophisticated effects, but less control over your hand-crafted code. Still...fancy!

(Not Responsive)

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Scrolling Marquee Rows

Horizontal scrolling gallery with three rows, all timed to move at differing rates. All done in css without the need for any additional javascript.

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Scrolling News Ticker

An infinitely scrolling news ticker. News, highlighted messages of importance, or links, just to name a few potential uses. A simple variable ("data-time" in seconds) controls the timing.

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Shadow Text Effect

A simple but dramatic chiseled text effect achieved by matching the text color to the background color and adding a text shadow of a different color. Changing the text shadow on hover adds another level.

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Simple Slider Component

Product flyer to sell a massage chair with a super simple slider to display images.

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Skyline

A cityscape exercise in CSS responsive design with screen-size break points. Resize your browser window, or turn your device sideways.

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Slide-in Hamburger Menu

A simple mobile-positive navigation menu with a cute slide-in effect, and some clever hover effects done with some well-placed pseudo elements.

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Slide-in Icon Menu

A tiny "slide-in on hover" menu when space is at a premium. The links are inactive for the purposes of the demo.

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Slider Gallery

A simple javascript function is used to advance to the next (or return to the previous) image in the gallery. Metadata and descriptive text are added, along with a link to a full view.

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Sliding Tab Navbar

Very simple method using css and radio inputs to provide animation to the navigation. Optional notification element is also included.

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Sound Effects

Silly sound effects player to demonstrate the HTML audio tag. Of course there's a fart sound, why would you even ask?

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Sound Wave Loader

A simple, colorful loader to let the user know to be patient because something good is on its way...

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Spinner Gallery

Randomly displays a spinning image from a pre-defined list...with a twist.

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Spinning Color Wheels

The simple apearance of rotating colorful shapes belies a complex set of advanced css tricks used to create the shapes and colors. Clip path, border radius, hsl conic gradients, a little javascript and keyframe animations combine in this project. Clicking on the individual shapes turns on/off a dizzying spin.

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Split Bar Gallery

The (all css) code for this one is insanely complicated, but the effect is pretty cool.

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Split Image Slider

This slideshow uses a combination of the Imageonline image splitter, swiper.js and vanta.js to create a different sort of display.

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Spoilers!

Sometimes you just can't keep a secret, but you don't want to ruin it for everybody else. Unless they can't resist...SPOILERS!

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Star Sphere

Typically, developers use javascript to add complex movement to a web page, but with modern CSS, many actions can be performed without the use of javascript or other programming languages. This is one example using some very sophisticated styles and animation to create the illusion of stars rotating around an invisible sphere.

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Sticky Category Headers

A sorted html list with css sticky scrolling category headers.

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Sticky On-Scroll Animation

An outstanding exploration into using advanced on-scroll animations (with 15 example variations) to add excitement to any page presentation. Developed and presented by Manoela Ilic, the founder and owner of Codrops.com.

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Stillwater Cove

I'm not saying I stole the idea from an old Monty Python animation, but I totally stole the idea from an old Monty Python animation.

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Submit Button Animation

A little animation goes a long way when adding interest to an otherwise static page.

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SVG Clock

Attractive neumorphic style clock. Colors set with CSS variables.

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SVG Loader

Using scalable vector graphics (SVG) and some stylesheet tricks to give a page loading animation some liquid life. Compatibility with older brwosers is included.

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Task List App

Create a to-do list and cross off items as they get done.

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Text Image Background

A simple way to add a background image to your text using the css background-clip attribute.

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Theme-Switching Digital Clock

Light or dark theme. You decide. Personally I prefer the dark theme.

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Theme Switcher

Changing themes (CSS stylesheets) with the click of a button.

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Thinking Hand

It's creepy and it's kooky, mysterious and spooky. It's altogether ooky...

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Thumbnail Gallery

Simple but effective responsive gallery with a vertical thumbnail selector on the left.

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Tilt-Shift Blur Effect

Photographers know that using tilt shift allows them to create the illusion of depth in their images. Wakana Y.K. has developed a method of adding tilt shift to images online to add perspective.

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Toaster Popup Notification

It's called TOASTER because it pops up and has a timer. An unobtrusive method of displaying an important message when the viewer performs an action, without chewing up a lot of screen real estate.

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Trees

A photo of two trees locked into an eternal embrace inspired me to create this page as a tribute to my wife of almost 50 years.

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Twinkly Stars

Randomly generated colorful star field using javascript and css (no additional html).

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Typographical Animation

Do's and don't's of user-oriented typographical animation.

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Underglow

One of my favorite techniques to add motion to a page is to combine animation with gradients. With a little clever placement, you can achieve some very interesting effects...like this...

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Vanta Background

Vanta.js is a very lightweight (and free!) javascript library for adding interactive animated backgrounds to a web page or element.

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Variable Font Animation

Because of all the various platforms and screens in use today, responsive typography is a critical component of good web design. Variable fonts (formerly known as Open Type) can change width, height, and/or slant. Instead of being limited to only certain weights, or using cumbersome width measurements that are not responsive, developers can apply the font-optical-sizing property to variable fonts to ensure a smooth experience no matter the size of the viewport. With a little extra css trickery, they can be animated into an impressive display.

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Venn Triangulation

The purpose of this demo is to illustrate how to make three circles converge on a common center.

Oh who are we kidding? The purpose of this demo is to illustrate a bad joke.

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Vertical Gallery

An animated vertical (duh) home page for Carol's gallery.

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Venetian Blinds

A fictional company landing page with a responsive mobile-first info bar. You knew it was fictional, right?

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Video Flip Cards

Flip-card hover animation using some tricky css transformations. Very much NOT responsive. Gimme a break.

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Video Title Overlay

Fading titles and text overlaid on video with css. Using dynamic viewport width and height can provide a full-screen experience no matter the screen size.

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Weather Widgets

A colllection of dynamic weather widgets from tomorrow.io to add to any website.

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Whack-A-Loser Game

How many indictments can you hit him with in 30 seconds? So far, it's up to 91.

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Where's Whassisname?

When you've reached a certaain age you might need a magnifying glass to help you spot him in the crowd. Good thing your cursor becomes one, eh?

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Winter Papercut Scene

A simple winter scene adaptation inspired by the hand-made diecut greeting cards crafted by the lovely and talented Jackie McKnight.

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Wormy Loader

Psychedelic squirmy loader.

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3D Auto Gallery

Automatic product showcase with a 3D fade.

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3D Gallery

A rotating 3D carousel for Carol's galleries.

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3D Rotating Slideshow

Images wildly flipping and spinning. Maybe take some dramamine before viewing if you're prone to motion sickness?

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404 Page Animation

Display a timed series of images using a flexbox with just a smidgen of javascript

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45 Years of Happiness

A little sentimental acknowledgement of Carol's importance in my life.

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90th Birthday Invitation

My dad turned 90 in 2024, so my sister and I collaborated on this quick, simple html invitation to his party so we would have a link suitable for posting on social media.

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