2 December, 2010

Let it snow!

Table of Contents

Demo
The code
1. The CSS
Addendum

Remember the snowy websites of the late 90s? The ones that cropped up around Christmas time and probably had a sleigh following the mouse cursor? Me too; horrible weren’t they? However–given the recent weather the UK has had–I have decided to give them a 2010 revival. That is to say no nasty Javascript, and some not-too-unsightly markup! Without further ado: Let it snow!

Demo

We also have a daytime version!

First off, look at the demo in IE8 or Firefox, then in Chrome or Safari (i.e. non-Webkit, then Webkit).

In Firefox you should see a series of snowflakes randomly sized and placed across the screen. In Webkit, you should see these snowflakes falling, all at different speeds. We also have a repeat-x background image of some snow running across the bottom of the browser window.

The code

We use a lot of PHP to create the random effects applied to the snowflakes, and also automate a lot of the legwork needed to create 65 unique classes, it’s commented as shown and should make total sense.

<code><!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
  <title>Let it snow</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/style.css" />
  <style type="text/css">
    
    <?php <span class="code-comment">//If the day parameter is set, use a different background</span> ?>
    <?php if(isset($_GET['time']) && $_GET['time'] == 'day') { ?>
    html{
      background:url(img/css/snow.png) bottom left repeat-x fixed #b4c8cc;
    }
    <?php } ?>

  
    <?php <span class="code-comment">//Number of snowflakes -- you decide!</span> ?>
    <?php $snowflakeCount = 65;  ?>

    <?php <span class="code-comment">//Create a unique class for each of the snowflakes and assign each one a random size and animation duration</span> ?>
    <?php  for($i = 1; $i <= $snowflakeCount; $i++) { ?>
      .snowflake-<?php echo $i ?>{
        <?php <span class="code-comment">//Create a random decimal number between 1 and 10:</span> ?>
        -webkit-animation-duration:<?php echo (rand(10,100) / 10); ?>s;
        <?php <span class="code-comment">//Create a random decimal number between 0.1 and 2:</span> ?>
        font-size:<?php echo (rand(1,20) / 10); ?>em;
      }
    <?php } ?>
  </style>
</head>

<body>

  <div id="wrapper">
    <h1>Let it snow!</h1>
    <p><a href="/2010/12/let-it-snow/">Return to article.</a></p>
  </div>

  <div id="snow">
    <?php <span class="code-comment">//Loop through your chosen amount of snowflakes and make that many empty spans (with associated class) and randomly place them on-screen</span> ?>
    <?php for($i = 1; $i <= $snowflakeCount; $i++) { ?>
      <span class="snowflake snowflake-<?php echo $i; ?>" style="top:<?php echo rand(1,98); ?>%; left:<?php echo rand(1,98); ?>%"></span>
    <?php  } ?>
  </div>

</body>
</html></code>

Basically we use PHP to create 65 empty <span>s which are then randomly placed and sized on the page. We also give each one a random -webkit-animation-duration so as to ensure they fall at different speeds. Two points worth noting:

<code><?php <span class="code-comment">//Create a random decimal number between 1 and 10:</span> ?>
-webkit-animation-duration:<?php echo (rand(10,100) / 10); ?>s;
<?php <span class="code-comment">//Create a random decimal number between 0.1 and 2:</span> ?>
font-size:<?php echo (rand(1,20) / 10); ?>em;</code>

Thanks to Dan Bentley for his PHP input here-and-there–mine is a tad rusty.

Here we use rand(10,100) to create a random whole number between ten and one hundred (let’s say 75). We then divide this by ten to get a decimal (i.e. 7.5) to use as the duration in seconds. We then use rand(1,20) to create a random number between one and twenty (say, 5) which we then divide by ten to get a decimal (i.e. 0.5) for the font-size in ems.

The CSS

<code><span class="code-comment">/*------------------------------------*\
  MAIN
\*------------------------------------*/</span>
html{
  font-family:Calibri, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;
  background:url(../img/css/snow.png) bottom left repeat-x fixed #222;
  color:#fff;
  text-shadow:1px 1px 1px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
  height:101%;
}
body{
  width:940px;
  padding:10px;
  margin:0 auto;
}
#wrapper{
  position:relative;
  z-index:5; <span class="code-comment">/* Bring the content over the snowflakes */</span>
}
h1{
  font-weight:bold;
  font-size:1.5em;
  margin-bottom:20px;
}
a{
  color:#fff;
}





<span class="code-comment">/*------------------------------------*\
  SNOWFLAKES
\*------------------------------------*/</span>
<span class="code-comment">/* Set up a blank canvas in which to house the snowflakes */</span>
#snow{
  position:fixed;
  top:0;
  right:0;
  bottom:0;
  left:0;
  overflow:hidden;
}
.snowflake{
  text-shadow:none;
  position:absolute;
  top:0;
  <span class="code-comment">/* Set up the animation */</span>
  -webkit-animation-name:snowflake-animation;
  -webkit-animation-iteration-count:infinite;
  -webkit-animation-timing-function:linear;
}
<span class="code-comment">/* Fill the empty span with a snowflake-like asterisk */</span>
.snowflake:before{
  content:"*";
}
@-webkit-keyframes snowflake-animation{
  <span class="code-comment">/* Start at the top */</span>
  from{
    top:0%;
    -webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);
  }
  <span class="code-comment">/* Rotate by 360 degrees up until the half way point */</span>
  50%{
    -webkit-transform:rotate(360deg);
  }
  <span class="code-comment">/* Animate to the bottom whilst rotating back to zero */</span>
  to{
    top:100%;
    -webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);
  }
}</code>

The CSS, again, is extremely straightforward and self-explanatory. Use content:""; to keep our code a little cleaner, and animate all the snowflakes top-to-bottom whilst rotating them. Simple!

So there we’ve put a new-age spin on a very dated (and still pretty garish) technique.

Addendum

Following this Twitter conversation between Danny Banks and myself the #snow <div> was introduced. Cheers for the heads-up, Danny!

Did this help? We can do way more!

Hi there, I’m Harry Roberts. I am an award-winning Consultant Web Performance Engineer, designer, developer, writer, and speaker from the UK. I write, Tweet, speak, and share code about measuring and improving site-speed. You should hire me.