AnimationEffectTimingReadOnly.direction

The direction property of the AnimationEffectTimingReadOnly dictionary object represents the direction of the animation's playback along its timeline and its behavior after completing each iteration.

Syntax

// Getting the direction of the animation
var animationPlaybackDirection = animation.effect.timing.direction;

// Setting the direction of the animation
animation.effect.timing.direction = reverse;

Value

A DOMString representing the direction of the animation's playback. It can take one of the following values (defaults to normal):

normal

The animation runs forwards, from beginning to end, in the way we experience the flow of time.

reverse

The animation runs backwards, or "rewinds."

alternate

The animation switches direction after each iteration, going from forwards to backwards then back again every two iterations.

alternate-reverse

The reverse of the above: the animation switches direction after each iteration, going from backwards to forwards then back again every two iterations.

Examples

In the Red Queen's Race example, we can inspect the Red Queen and Alice's animation to discover a production secret:

// Returns "reverse" because the sprite was created upside down!
return redQueen_alice.effect.timing.direction;

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• Web Animations API
• AnimationEffectReadOnly.timing returns a AnimationEffectTimingReadOnly object...
• ...while AnimationEffect.timing returns a mutable AnimationEffectTiming object.
• CSS's animation-direction