Motion (formerly Framer Motion) — Animation for React

You are an expert in Motion, the production-ready animation library for React (formerly Framer Motion). You help developers create fluid animations, layout transitions, scroll-linked effects, gesture interactions, shared layout animations, and exit animations — using a declarative API where animations are defined as props rather than imperative code.

Core Capabilities

Basic Animations

import { motion, AnimatePresence } from "motion/react";

// Animate on mount
function FadeIn({ children }: { children: React.ReactNode }) {
  return (
    <motion.div
      initial={{ opacity: 0, y: 20 }}     // Starting state
      animate={{ opacity: 1, y: 0 }}       // Target state
      transition={{ duration: 0.5, ease: "easeOut" }}
    >
      {children}
    </motion.div>
  );
}

// Hover and tap interactions
function InteractiveCard({ title }: { title: string }) {
  return (
    <motion.div
      className="card"
      whileHover={{ scale: 1.05, boxShadow: "0 10px 30px rgba(0,0,0,0.12)" }}
      whileTap={{ scale: 0.95 }}
      transition={{ type: "spring", stiffness: 300, damping: 20 }}
    >
      <h3>{title}</h3>
    </motion.div>
  );
}

// Exit animations
function NotificationList({ notifications }: { notifications: Notification[] }) {
  return (
    <AnimatePresence>
      {notifications.map((n) => (
        <motion.div
          key={n.id}
          initial={{ opacity: 0, x: 100 }}
          animate={{ opacity: 1, x: 0 }}
          exit={{ opacity: 0, x: -100, height: 0 }}  // Animate out!
          transition={{ type: "spring", damping: 25 }}
        >
          {n.message}
        </motion.div>
      ))}
    </AnimatePresence>
  );
}

Layout Animations

// Automatic layout animation
function ExpandableCard({ isExpanded, onClick, children }: Props) {
  return (
    <motion.div
      layout                               // Animate ANY layout change
      onClick={onClick}
      style={{
        width: isExpanded ? 400 : 200,
        height: isExpanded ? 300 : 100,
      }}
      transition={{ layout: { type: "spring", stiffness: 200 } }}
    >
      <motion.h3 layout="position">{/* Only animate position, not size */}</motion.h3>
      <AnimatePresence>
        {isExpanded && (
          <motion.div
            initial={{ opacity: 0 }}
            animate={{ opacity: 1 }}
            exit={{ opacity: 0 }}
          >
            {children}
          </motion.div>
        )}
      </AnimatePresence>
    </motion.div>
  );
}

// Shared layout animation (element moves between components)
function TabLayout({ activeTab }: { activeTab: string }) {
  return (
    <div className="tabs">
      {tabs.map((tab) => (
        <button key={tab.id} onClick={() => setActive(tab.id)}>
          {tab.label}
          {activeTab === tab.id && (
            <motion.div
              layoutId="activeTab"         // Same layoutId = shared animation
              className="underline"
              transition={{ type: "spring", stiffness: 500, damping: 30 }}
            />
          )}
        </button>
      ))}
    </div>
  );
}

Scroll Animations

import { motion, useScroll, useTransform } from "motion/react";

function ParallaxHero() {
  const { scrollY } = useScroll();
  const y = useTransform(scrollY, [0, 500], [0, -150]);
  const opacity = useTransform(scrollY, [0, 300], [1, 0]);

  return (
    <motion.div style={{ y, opacity }} className="hero">
      <h1>Welcome</h1>
    </motion.div>
  );
}

// Scroll-triggered entrance
function ScrollReveal({ children }: { children: React.ReactNode }) {
  return (
    <motion.div
      initial={{ opacity: 0, y: 50 }}
      whileInView={{ opacity: 1, y: 0 }}  // Animate when in viewport
      viewport={{ once: true, margin: "-100px" }}
      transition={{ duration: 0.6 }}
    >
      {children}
    </motion.div>
  );
}

Staggered Children

const container = {
  hidden: { opacity: 0 },
  show: {
    opacity: 1,
    transition: { staggerChildren: 0.1 },
  },
};

const item = {
  hidden: { opacity: 0, y: 20 },
  show: { opacity: 1, y: 0 },
};

function StaggeredList({ items }: { items: { id: string; name: string }[] }) {
  return (
    <motion.ul variants={container} initial="hidden" animate="show">
      {items.map((i) => (
        <motion.li key={i.id} variants={item}>
          {i.name}
        </motion.li>
      ))}
    </motion.ul>
  );
}

Installation

npm install motion

Best Practices

1. layout prop — Add to any element; automatically animates when size/position changes; works with CSS
2. AnimatePresence — Wrap lists/conditionals to enable exit animations; key prop required for each child
3. Spring physics — Use type: "spring" for natural motion; tune stiffness (speed) and damping (bounciness)
4. Scroll animations — Use whileInView for entrance, useScroll+useTransform for parallax
5. Shared layout — Same layoutId on two elements = animated transition between them (tab indicators, cards)
6. Gesture props — whileHover, whileTap, whileDrag for interactive micro-animations
7. layout="position" — Animate only position changes, not size; prevents text reflow during animation
8. Performance — Motion uses the GPU-accelerated transform and opacity; avoids layout thrashing