animation-direction

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.

Try it

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

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 timing functions are also reversed. For example, an ease-in timing 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 animation-names appear. For situations where the number of animations and animation-* property values do not match, see Setting multiple animation property values.

Note: When creating CSS scroll-driven animations, specifying an animation-direction works as expected, for example reverse causes the animation to run in reverse over the course of the timeline's progression. A value of alternate (combined with an animation-iteration-count) causes the animation to run forwards and backwards as the timeline is progressed.

Formal definition

Initial valuenormal
Applies toall elements, ::before and ::after pseudo-elements
Inheritedno
Computed valueas specified
Animation typeNot animatable

Formal syntax

animation-direction = 
  <single-animation-direction>#  

<single-animation-direction> = 
  normal             |
  reverse            |
  alternate          |
  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);
  }
}

Result

See CSS animations for examples.

Specifications

Specification
CSS Animations Level 1
# animation-direction

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also