BSMNT Scrollytelling

BSMNT Scrollytelling is a library for creating Scrollytelling animations. It's powered by GSAP ScrollTrigger, but abstracts away some things to make it work better with React.

Installation

To get started, we'll need the @bsmnt/scrollytelling package, as well as the required peer dependency: GSAP.

yarn add @bsmnt/scrollytelling gsap

Why

At basement, we've built a bunch of websites that use scroll animations. Over the years, we faced some issues that required solutions that we copy-pased throughout different project. While preparing his talk for the React Miami Conference, JB decided to build a library to share how we build these with the world.

Challenges we faced

• Needed a deep understanding of how GSAP works with ScrollTrigger.
• Needed to be careful about running animations inside useEffect and then cleaning them up.
• Couldn’t think of scroll animations in terms of a start and an end, so it was hard to fire up animations at the exact scroll progress we needed to.

What

We aimed at componentizing a way of building scroll animations that could:

• ✅ Provide sensible defaults for scroll animations, such as scrub: true, and ease: 'linear'.
• ✅ Take care of component mounting and unmounting.
• ✅ Create animations with absolute positioning defined by a start and an end, instead of a time-based duration.

As an added benefit, going "component-based" allowed us to:

• ✅ Improve compatibility with React Server Components: our components definitely 'use client', but not necessarily the parents or children of our components.
• ✅ Compose animations at every level of the tree, as it all works with React Context.

A simple example of how this works:

Exports

• Root: Creates timeline and scrollTrigger, provides React Context.
• Animation: Appends an animation to the timeline. Receives a tween prop that will control how the animation behaves.
• Waypoint: Runs a callback or tween at a specific point in the timeline. Can also receive a label prop, that will create a GSAP label at that position.
• RegisterGsapPlugins: Registers custom GSAP plugins, if you need them for a specific use case.
• Parallax: Helper to create a simple parallax.
• ImageSequenceCanvas: Helper to create a simple image sequence animation.
• useScrollytelling: Context consumer. Returns the timeline.
• useScrollToLabel: Scrolls to the label name you pass. Labels can be added with the Waypoint component.

Demo

For our talk at React Miami Conf, we did a small demo to showcase this library in action. This is the best place to see how the library works in a real world scenario. Check it out:

• Site URL: https://scrollytelling.basement.studio/
• Code: https://github.com/basementstudio/scrollytelling/blob/main/website/README.md

Examples

• Simple tweening: https://stackblitz.com/edit/react-ts-8rqm8k?file=App.tsx
• With Lenis Smooth Scroll: https://stackblitz.com/edit/react-ts-uuwfed?file=App.tsx
• Layered pinning: https://stackblitz.com/edit/react-ts-4dtlww?file=App.tsx
• Three.js Tube: https://codesandbox.io/s/978cns?file=/src/App.js

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GSAP files are subject to GreenSock's standard license which can be found at https://greensock.com/standard-license/