Make jQuery.animate run smoother with almost no code changes

jQuery comes with .animate() Show archive.org snapshot that lets you transition some CSS selectors:

function floatIn($element) {
  $element.css({ 'opacity': 0, 'margin-top': 200px });
  $element.animate({ 'opacity': 1, 'margin-top': 0 }, { duration: 500 });
}

The animation is implemented using setInterval and Javascript. This works great, but it's not as smooth as a CSS transition Show archive.org snapshot .

Fortunately the animate API can be mapped almost 1:1 to CSS transitions. There are libraries like Transit Show archive.org snapshot that act as a drop-in replacement for animate, but animate using CSS transitions instead of Javascript. This gives you a much higher framerate.

If Transit has too many bells and whistles for your taste, and you'd like to roll your own animate replacement, you might want to take a look at this Show archive.org snapshot .