createStates

The createStates function is a high-level utility for managing complex animation logic. It allows you to define a set of named animation trees and provides a simple API for seamless transitions between them.

Example

import { a } from "@freestylejs/ani-core";

// 1. Define different animation structures for each named state.
const animations = {
  inactive: a.ani({ to: { scale: 1, opacity: 0.5 }, duration: 0.5 }),
  active: a.ani({ to: { scale: 1.2, opacity: 1 }, duration: 0.3 }),
};

// 2. Create a state machine controller with an initial state and initial values.
const myStates = a.createStates({
  initial: 'inactive',
  initialFrom: { scale: 1, opacity: 0.5 }, // The starting point for the first animation
  states: animations,
});

// 3. Listen for updates from the currently active timeline.
myStates.timeline().onUpdate(({ state }) => {
    console.log(state.scale);
});

// 4. Transition to a new state. This will smoothly switch to the 'active' animation.
myStates.transitionTo('active');

Usage & Concepts

Overview

createStates is ideal for UI components with multiple visual states (e.g., hover, active, disabled, selected) or complex character animations. When you call transitionTo, it intelligently retrieves the current animation's values and uses them as the from point for the new state's animation, ensuring graceful and seamless transitions rather than abrupt cuts.

The Controller

The createStates function returns a controller object with the following methods:

timeline(): Returns the currently active timeline instance. Use this to subscribe to updates or control playback manually (e.g., myStates.timeline().pause()).
transitionTo(newState, [timelineConfig], [canBeIntercepted]): Switches to a different animation state. You can optionally provide a timelineConfig object (similar to timeline.play()) to customize the transition's duration, keyframes, or repeat count. canBeIntercepted determines if the transition will occur even if the timeline is already playing.
onTimelineChange(callback): Registers a callback that fires whenever the active timeline changes (i.e., after a transitionTo call). This is useful for reacting to global state changes managed by createStates.

Best Practices

Do use createStates to manage distinct visual states of a component, especially when smooth transitions between states are required.
Do provide a sensible initialFrom value that matches the component's initial appearance.
Don't manually manage multiple timeline instances and their transitions; createStates is designed to abstract this complexity.
Don't create a new createStates instance frequently; it should be initialized once for a given set of states.

timeline - The underlying controller for each state within the machine.
ani - The basic building block for individual animations within each state.
sequence - To compose animations into sequential stages within a state.
parallel - To run multiple animations simultaneously within a state.