Animaxxing

Portable vanilla TypeScript and GSAP effect recipes. Keep the project's fonts, colors, layout, and component styling; no style skill, token, or font is required.

Load the matching gsap-<framework> skill first (gsap-vanilla for plain sites), installing it if missing. It owns mount → initial state → intro → settled → outro → end state → unmount, initialization, navigation, recovery, interruption, and cleanup timing. This skill supplies builders its controller calls; do not invent lifecycle guidance here.

Choose the scope

• Full treatment. "We're animaxxing", "animax this", or "full treatment" means every element on every screen animates, keeping the brand. Each element starts from a blank first paint, enters (intro), rests static or ambient (settled), and leaves (outro) on every requested navigation. Content below the fold enters when it is scrolled or tabbed to. Mark every element as a page item (route letters) or give it a pair from the shelf; the framework skill keeps the first paint blank. Record the decision in the project's plan or notes so later sessions keep it.
• Single effects. A named effect gets only that effect. A particle button does not imply a page transition, font change, or hero sequence.
• A feel, or no effect named. "Make it feel premium", "add some animation": read Finding the vibe before choosing any effect. Read the feel from the project, then say the plan in a line or two before building.
• Unclear. When the project's own cues settle the feel and how much motion it wants, say the plan in a line or two and build. Ask only when they don't, and then once: "Full treatment on every element, or only <effect>?", folding in the feel if that is open too.
• The full treatment still follows reduced motion, no-script readability, and the framework skill's initialization and lifecycle.

Setup and adaptation

• Read the installed GSAP version and types. Every plugin used is free since 3.13; SplitText recipes need 3.13+ (SplitText.create, smartWrap, mask, aria); easeReverse needs 3.15+. Each recipe lists its dependencies; register only those used. Use the official GSAP skills for API details.
• Recipes register plugins at module scope, which is server-safe, but import them only from client code. Drop a copy's registration when the project registers plugins centrally.
• Add only requested effects unless the full treatment applies; see Choose the scope.
• Recipe constants are editable defaults, not brand rules. Tune timing, stagger, spread, and intensity to the surface; expose more constants only if the app needs runtime configuration.
• Weight effects need a loaded variable weight axis, not a specific font. Match endpoints and resting weight to the face (examples use 400–800), or use transform-only effects.
• Particle canvases take their CSS color; use an existing brand color with enough contrast. Keep control geometry and focus styling.
• Use style-animaxxing only when its look is requested; it selects and configures these recipes.

Read only what you need

Recipe contract

Copy only the selected recipe and its named local helpers. Return shapes differ per recipe (timelines, { timeline, revert }, stop functions, particle controls); assume no universal interface.

• Apply effect restoration when copying a recipe, including failure before a handle returns.
• Builders never navigate, mount, subscribe to page lifecycle, or decide when they run. The controller calls them and owns phase state.
• An invisible start does not make incomplete data ready. The controller supplies resolved targets or reserved regions; never use an entrance to disguise guest or empty content.
• Keep split markup only while an effect needs it (speak-in finishes and an active wave persist). Revert at the controller's cleanup boundary; preserve accessible text and nested controls.
• Use overwrite: "auto"; clear temporary styles and will-change when their phase ends.
• Park a start position with gsap.set or fromTo, never with a CSS transform the tween also moves: GSAP reads CSS translateY(100%) as pixel y and adds yPercent on top, so a cover lands a full height short. A CSS transform is fine as a resting pose that a from tween lands on.
• Reduced motion reaches the documented settled or exit state and still fires completion callbacks; no ambient motion. Use the project's preference helper, including any app override. Builders read it when they build; on a change, the controller tears down and rebuilds.
• Killing a parent timeline never reaches a nested builder's interrupt callback. Kill the parent, then call each builder's revert, such as revertText for split runners.
• One effect per target: two owners must never write one element's transform. Stop pointer and ambient effects before an outro moves their target.
• Ambient effects expose controls so the owner can pause them off screen and stop them on exit. Loops past five seconds need a user-facing pause (WCAG 2.2.2).
• Particle input and density follow the field contract. Controls work without hover.
• Text keeps its line breaks from first paint to rest. Wait for the faces before measuring or splitting, keep text hidden until they load (briefly at most), never tween letter-spacing, width, or weight on text that wraps, and animate a paragraph as one block unless its split lines match the resting breaks. Verification has the check.
• Width changes can invalidate split measurements (resize). The controller decides whether to rebuild; recipes never remount pages.