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SVG ANIMATE TRANSFORM

🧩 SMIL Basics

• SMIL allows declarative animation inside SVG without JavaScript.
• Animations are defined directly in the SVG using elements like <animate> and <animateTransform>.

🛠️ animateTransform

• Used to animate transform properties (e.g., translate, scale, rotate).
• Attributes:
  • attributeName="transform" targets the transform.
  • type specifies the transform type.
  • to sets the target value.
  • dur sets the duration.
  • fill="freeze" keeps the end state.

⏱️ Timing Control

• begin controls when the animation starts:
  • Accepts time values (0.1s) or event triggers (click, endEvent, etc.).
• endEvent can be used to chain animations (e.g., animation B begins when animation A ends).

🖥️ Browser Compatibility

• SMIL is not supported in Safari.
• Workarounds (e.g., JavaScript) may be needed for broader compatibility.

🎨 SMIL vs CSS

Feature	SMIL	CSS
Declarative SVG animation	✅	❌
Native timing/sequencing	✅	⚠️ Needs JS
Broad browser support	❌	✅
JS-free triggering	✅	❌

🔑 Key Concepts: Triggering SMIL with JavaScript & React

🧩 Manual Control of SMIL

• Set begin="indefinite" to defer animation start.

• Use .beginElement() in JavaScript to manually trigger the animation.

⚙️ JavaScript Integration

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animateElement.beginElement();

• Use DOM methods to trigger SMIL from custom events (e.g., button clicks, state changes).

⚛️ React Integration

• Use useRef to reference the <animate> element.

• Use useEffect to call .beginElement() when a prop/state changes.

• Track the previous value using a custom usePrevious hook to animate from old ➝ new.

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const previous = usePrevious(current);

🧠 Animation Gotcha

• If to and the current value are the same, no animation will occur.

• Always animate from previous ➝ new to avoid this.

🧠 Summary

Technique	Purpose
begin="indefinite"	Disable auto-start, allow manual trigger
.beginElement()	Manually start SMIL animation
useRef + useEffect in React	Control animation lifecycle declaratively
usePrevious()	Track previous prop/state to enable transitions
from + to attributes	Define animation range explicitly

🆚 <animate> vs. <animateTransform>

Feature	<animate>	<animateTransform>
Purpose	Animates standard SVG attributes (e.g., fill, opacity, points)	Specifically animates transform properties (e.g., translate, scale)
Target attribute	Any animatable attribute (except transform)	Always attributeName="transform"
Usage	General-purpose animation tool	Specialized for transforms like translation, scaling, rotation
Type required?	❌ No type needed	✅ Must specify type (e.g., translate, scale, rotate)
Example	<animate attributeName="opacity" to="1" dur="0.5s" />	<animateTransform type="translate" to="10,0" dur="0.5s" />

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🧠 When to Use Which

• ✅ Use <animate> when animating things like:

  • fill, stroke, r, x, y, width, height, opacity, etc.

• ✅ Use <animateTransform> when animating:

  • translate, scale, rotate, skewX, skewY

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References