Smooth Page Transitions Tutorial: Implementing Barba.js and Gsap in Webflow

Creating Smooth Page Transitions in Webflow

If you've ever visited a website and noticed how smoothly the content transitions from one page to another without the usual loading bar and page flickering, you may have wondered how it's done. In this tutorial, we'll learn how to recreate this seamless page transition interaction using Webflow, a popular website building platform. We'll be using a library called barba.js to power our page transitions and the gsap library to animate them.

Understanding Page Transitions

When we navigate between pages on a traditional website, we have to visit the new page, which results in a loading bar in the tab. However, with barba.js, we can fetch the content from the page we click on and bring it over to the current page without actually leaving the current page. This creates a seamless transition with no flicker in between. It's important to note that while barba.js brings over the content from the upcoming page, it does not copy over the Webflow interactions applied to those elements.

Setting Up the Project

First, we need to import the barba.js and gsap libraries in the project settings footer code. This ensures that the code applies to every page on our site. Inside the Markup tab of the barba.js docs, we find the required HTML structure, which includes data attributes with the values of wrapper and container. We'll apply these data attributes to the body and to the div that holds the page content on every page of our site.

Creating Basic Page Transition

We start by running code to create a basic transition using gsap to animate the current page's content to an opacity of 0 and the upcoming page's content to reveal it. By removing the leave function and running both animations at the same time when the new page's content enters, we can ensure that the two pages crossfade over each other seamlessly. However, we need to address the issue of the upcoming page's content being added underneath the previous page.

Overlapping the Pages

To fix the issue of the upcoming page's content being added underneath the previous page, we add a combo class called fixed to the upcoming page. This ensures that it overlaps the previous page and has a higher z-index. Once the animation is over, we remove the fixed combo class, allowing us to scroll down once the animation's over.

Handling Navigation and Scroll Position

When transitioning into a new page, we need to scroll the user back up to the top of the page, ensuring a smooth transition without an awkward jump when the transition is over. Additionally, we create a function to update the current active link when navigating between pages, as Webflow doesn't handle this automatically when using barba.js for page transitions.

Animate Page Revealing

To achieve a smooth page reveal effect, we use a clip mask to reveal the new page on top of the old page. We use clippy, a clip path visualizer, to create and customize the clip path animation, ensuring the new page content is revealed in a visually appealing manner.

Animating Other Elements

In addition to page content, we can take the transition a step further by animating other elements, such as headlines, when transitioning between pages. Using gsap animations, we can slide and animate elements based on the current and upcoming page, ensuring a cohesive transition experience.

Setting Default Durations and Easings

By setting default durations and easings on the gsap animations, we ensure that all elements have consistent timing and easing applied, resulting in a more polished transition experience.

Customizing Circle Expansion Animation

Finally, we customize the circle expansion animation to respond to the position of the cursor. By incorporating custom position values for the clip path, we ensure that the circle expands from wherever the user clicks, creating an interactive and intuitive transition effect.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we've explored how to create smooth page transitions using barba.js and gsap within the Webflow platform. By understanding the intricacies of page transitions, managing scroll positions, and customizing animation effects, we can create visually engaging and seamless transitions between pages on our website. With these techniques, you can elevate the user experience and make your website stand out with polished and fluid page transitions.