GSAP

What is it?

GSAP is a high-performance animation library for JavaScript. It tweens anything — DOM, CSS, SVG, Canvas, WebGL, generic objects — with a single timeline API that handles sequencing, stagger, easing, and callbacks at 60+ fps across every modern browser.

What does it do?

GSAP interpolates values, composes timelines, and respects reduced-motion preferences out of the box. Plugins add ScrollTrigger (scroll-driven animation), Flip (FLIP technique), MorphSVG, MotionPath, SplitText, Observer (unified input events), and physics simulations — covering every animation pattern modern marketing and product sites need.

Where is it used?

GSAP drives the marquee animations on sites for Apple, Google, Nike, Sony, EA, and nearly every winning Awwwards site since 2018. Its reliability across Safari, Firefox, and Chromium makes it the default for agencies and product teams that cannot accept 'it animates in Chrome, breaks in Safari' tickets.

When & why it emerged

GSAP began life in 2006 as a Flash ActionScript library (TweenLite), then ported to JavaScript as Flash died. Native CSS animations are fine for simple transitions but hit hard limits around timelines, staggering, scroll-binding, and SVG morphing — exactly the gap GSAP has filled for the last 18 years.

Why we use it at Internative

We reach for GSAP when a brand asks for the kind of motion design that sells. Its timeline API lets our designers author complex choreography without fighting keyframes, and ScrollTrigger turns storytelling scroll experiences into a few lines of declarative code. Reduced-motion is honoured automatically — accessibility never fights design.