These 26 SVG animation demos show how different tools handle everything from a pulsing icon to a sequenced illustration. Start with CSS for simple loops and interface states, consider GSAP for timelines and morphs, and use SMIL when animation needs to live inside the SVG markup. Each example below is identified by its creator and described by its approach so you can choose a useful starting point.
The examples are listed in Colorlib’s roundup by Alex Ivanovs, published September 29, 2026. The descriptions here reflect that article’s account of the demos; treat them as starting points to open, inspect, and test in your own project.
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Which SVG animation approach should you use?
Choose based on what the animation needs to do, where it will run, and how it is authored—not on a blanket claim that one technique is fastest or best. The reviewed examples do not provide independent performance measurements.
| Approach | Good fit | What to inspect |
|---|---|---|
| CSS | Simple loops and interface state changes, such as pulsing, swinging, drawing strokes, or toggling a menu icon. | Keyframes, transforms, opacity, and stroke properties. The roundup describes eight CSS examples as using no animation library and most as using no JavaScript. |
| GSAP | Multi-step timelines, staggered sequences, interactive control, attribute changes, and shape morphing. | Timeline construction, event handling, and any plugins or older syntax the demo uses. |
| SMIL | Time-based animation declarations embedded directly in an SVG. | Test the actual browser and host context, especially if the SVG is loaded as an image or background. |
| Other JavaScript libraries | Specific workflows such as parallax, stroke-drawing presets, motion-graphics bursts, or After Effects exports. | Whether the library fits your authoring workflow and whether the runtime and export behave in your target environment. |
For a compact loop or an icon that responds to UI state, CSS is often the clearest place to begin. A timeline with many dependent events, staggered elements, or morphing shapes is a stronger fit for a sequencing library such as GSAP. The W3C describes SMIL as applying a time-based function to a target attribute, with timing and interpolation rules; MDN’s guide demonstrates numeric attributes, transforms, and motion along a path. See the W3C SMIL Animation specification and MDN’s SVG animation with SMIL guide.
#1 Best Overall
CSS SVG animation examples (1–8)
These examples focus on CSS keyframes and SVG geometry, from decorative scenes to controls that change state.
- Wolf Animation (Pure CSS), by @grizzlyowlet: Sliding groups of low-poly facets assemble into a wolf. Staggered keyframe delays create the sequence without JavaScript.
- Beating Heart, by @morkett: Stroke-dash properties draw and fill an anatomical heart, then separate parts pulse on repeating keyframes.
- Kitschy Animated SVG Mardi Gras Parade, by @mark_sottek: A cartoon marching band combines long travel with shorter loops for drumsticks, trombone arms, and head movement.
- Swing Girl SVG Animation, by @uiswarup: Keyframes move the swing and leaves, with varied leaf durations making the motion asynchronous.
- Melting Popsicle, by @hopearmstrong: Falling drips use alternating timing alongside opacity and transform changes.
- SVG CSS Fire Animation, by @deepakkv: Layered flame paths wobble while sparks rise and fade.
- Animated Blob SVG Text Clipping, by Zach Saucier: Moving blobs appear clipped through text. CSS animates the blobs, while a short script changes the displayed line and colors.
- Flippin’ Burgers, by Mikael Ainalem: Eight interactive hamburger icons transition into close or arrow states using SVG paths and stroke-dash properties.
GSAP SVG animation examples (9–18)
GSAP is used in these demos for timelines, staggered choreography, morphs, and interactive sequences. Some examples rely on plugins; inspect each demo’s code and dependencies before adapting it.
- Responsive Huggy Laser Panda Factory, by Sarah Drasner: A responsive illustrated machine combines idle timelines, moving gauges and gears, and user-triggered hotspots. The roundup notes older GSAP syntax.
- Play Hard, by Chris Gannon: Letters morph between path shapes on a repeating timeline with staggered timing and custom easing.
- I Play With Code, by Chris Gannon: A single timeline choreographs cursor, selection, and lettering movements, using DrawSVG and masks.
- 9 x 9 Circles, by @creativeocean: GSAP moves circles into and out of a grid and changes an SVG turbulence-filter seed for texture.
- Impossible Penrose Triangle Loader, by @indextwo: A rotating ring and pulsing blurred glow form a loader using GSAP and an SVG blur filter.
- Simple Shapes Morph, by Jack Domleo: A repeating seven-step timeline morphs a shape through a heart, triangle, square, pentagon, star, tick, and circle.
- Morphing Play/Pause, by Osmo: A clickable play/pause control morphs its icon and emits particles using MorphSVG and Physics2D.
- Stormy SVG Animation With Goo Liquid, by @issey: Waves, a boat, and characters move in a storm illustration; blur and color-matrix filters make separate drops appear joined.
- Add to Cart, by Aaron Iker: A click triggers a short shirt-to-cart sequence using GSAP, CSS variables, and MorphSVG.
- SVG Brush Animation, by @sndrgb: A masked brush stroke draws and reverses as
stroke-dashoffsetchanges; the code measures path length withgetTotalLength().
SMIL SVG animation examples (19–21)
SMIL puts animation elements in SVG markup. MDN documents <animate>, <animateTransform>, and <animateMotion> for attributes, transforms, and motion along a path. Its use in an image context can be appealing when the animation should travel with the SVG, but host and browser behavior should be tested rather than assumed.
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<animate>and<animateTransform>markup. Colorlib describes them as working when loaded as an image or CSS background. - SVG/SMIL calcMode Comparison, by Amelia Bellamy-Royds: Three circles demonstrate linear, paced, and discrete timing over the same positions and colors.
- SVG SMIL Animation, by @willianjusten: A path morphs through a list of shapes using SMIL. For this interpolation technique, the path command structure must match.
For additional runnable SMIL patterns, the svg-motion-cookbook repository provides eight recipes. Its authors note that GitHub sanitizes scripts and CSS keyframes from SVG images in README files while retaining SMIL; that repository-specific behavior is not a guarantee about other hosts.
Other SVG animation library examples (22–26)
These demos illustrate workflows that do not fit neatly into CSS, GSAP, or SMIL alone.
- Halloween SVG Parallax Animation, by @uchardon: A scene combines anime.js, CSS keyframes, SMIL filter animation, and pointer or device-motion response.
- Back2School SVG Animation, by @Yasio: anime.js animates a student and scattered items with staggered delays and randomized offsets.
- Vivus.js SVG Animation, by @dedevillela: Vivus draws lettering by animating SVG strokes and includes buttons to replay different animation types.
- Playing With mo.js Burst, by Sarah Drasner: A click creates a motion-graphics burst of spinning polygons and expanding shapes rendered as SVG.
- Lottie Animation With Audio Layers, by @airnan: An After Effects animation exported with Bodymovin plays through lottie-web using an SVG renderer. The demo exposes playback, speed, volume, and completion controls.
How do you make an SVG look like it is drawing itself?
Animate a path’s stroke dash offset. Set stroke-dasharray to a dash length matching the path length, then animate stroke-dashoffset from that length toward zero. As the offset changes, the stroke appears to be revealed along the path. For an existing path, JavaScript can get its length with path.getTotalLength(), then use that value to set the dash properties.
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The SVG Brush Animation and Beating Heart examples show variations on this approach. It works best when the SVG uses strokes; a filled shape needs a different reveal treatment. For a reverse or replay interaction, animate the offset back to its starting value or restart the relevant animation.
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There is no single best tool across these examples; choose the authoring workflow that matches the motion.
- For a small loop or interface icon: Start with CSS keyframes and SVG attributes. This keeps the behavior close to the markup and styles.
- For choreography or interactive timelines: Use GSAP when you need sequenced events, staggered motion, or shape morphs, and check which plugins the demo requires.
- For motion embedded in SVG: Consider SMIL, then verify it in the browsers and embedding contexts that matter to your project.
- For After Effects-authored motion: The Lottie example illustrates exporting through Bodymovin and playback with lottie-web; it is a distinct workflow from hand-authoring CSS or SMIL.
SVGator is another tool named in Colorlib’s article, but the examples listed above are useful even if you do not use a visual editor: open the code and identify the SVG elements, animation mechanism, and controls you actually need.
Quick Recap
Checks before adapting a demo
- Test the delivery context: Inline SVG, an external SVG loaded as an image, and an SVG used as a CSS background are not interchangeable contexts for every animation technique. Verify the exact target setup.
- Respect reduced motion: Provide a reduced-motion alternative or disable nonessential movement when a user has requested reduced motion.
- Preserve selectors: When optimizing SVG markup, keep IDs and classes that animation code targets; removing or renaming them can break the animation.
- Check dependencies and syntax: Note library versions, plugins, and event handlers before copying a demo into an application.
- Avoid assuming a performance result: SVG can be compact, but these examples do not establish measured file-size, loading, or runtime comparisons with other formats.
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