animation-direction

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since ⁨September 2015⁩.

The animation-direction CSS property sets whether an animation should play forward, backward, or alternate back and forth between playing the sequence forward and backward.

It is often convenient to use the shorthand property animation to set all animation properties at once.

Try it

animation-direction: normal;

animation-direction: reverse;

animation-direction: alternate;

animation-direction: alternate-reverse;

<section class="flex-column" id="default-example">
  <div id="example-element"></div>
  <button id="play-pause">Play</button>
</section>

#example-element {
  animation-duration: 3s;
  animation-iteration-count: infinite;
  animation-name: slide;
  animation-play-state: paused;
  animation-timing-function: ease-in;
  background-color: #1766aa;
  border-radius: 50%;
  border: 5px solid #333333;
  color: white;
  height: 150px;
  margin: auto;
  margin-left: 0;
  width: 150px;
}

#example-element.running {
  animation-play-state: running;
}

#play-pause {
  font-size: 2rem;
}

@keyframes slide {
  from {
    background-color: orange;
    color: black;
    margin-left: 0;
  }
  to {
    background-color: orange;
    color: black;
    margin-left: 80%;
  }
}

const el = document.getElementById("example-element");
const button = document.getElementById("play-pause");

button.addEventListener("click", () => {
  if (el.classList.contains("running")) {
    el.classList.remove("running");
    button.textContent = "Play";
  } else {
    el.classList.add("running");
    button.textContent = "Pause";
  }
});

Syntax

css

/* Single animation */
animation-direction: normal;
animation-direction: reverse;
animation-direction: alternate;
animation-direction: alternate-reverse;

/* Multiple animations */
animation-direction: normal, reverse;
animation-direction: alternate, reverse, normal;

/* Global values */
animation-direction: inherit;
animation-direction: initial;
animation-direction: revert;
animation-direction: revert-layer;
animation-direction: unset;

Values

normal: The animation plays forwards each cycle. In other words, each time the animation cycles, the animation will reset to the beginning state and start over again. This is the default value.
reverse: The animation plays backwards each cycle. In other words, each time the animation cycles, the animation will reset to the end state and start over again. Animation steps are performed backwards, and easing functions are also reversed. For example, an ease-in easing function becomes ease-out.
alternate: The animation reverses direction each cycle, with the first iteration being played forwards. The count to determine if a cycle is even or odd starts at one.
alternate-reverse: The animation reverses direction each cycle, with the first iteration being played backwards. The count to determine if a cycle is even or odd starts at one.

Note: When you specify multiple comma-separated values on an animation-* property, they are applied to the animations in the order in which the Setting multiple animation property values.

Note: When creating animation-iteration-count) causes the animation to run forwards and backwards as the timeline is progressed.

Formal definition

pseudo-elements
Animation type	Not animatable

Formal syntax

animation-direction = 
  <single-animation-direction>|
  alternate-reverse

Examples

Reversing the animation direction

HTML

html

<div class="box"></div>

CSS

css

.box {
  background-color: rebeccapurple;
  border-radius: 10px;
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
}

.box:hover {
  animation-name: rotate;
  animation-duration: 0.7s;
  animation-direction: reverse;
}

@keyframes rotate {
  0% {
    transform: rotate(0);
  }
  100% {
    transform: rotate(360deg);
  }
}