What Is SVG Animation?

SVG animation is based on the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) animation specification and incorporates many of the animation features from the SMIL specification. If you want to know more about SMIL, visit http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo/. However, it isn't necessary to know anything about SMIL in order to work with SVG animation.

Animation is fundamentally a change in an object over time. This means that the object can move or change color, rotation, size, visibility, opacity, all of the above, or make any number of visual changes, starting at a specified time and ending at a specified time.

A basic SVG animation requires the following:

  • One of five animation elements: <animate>, <set>, <animateColor>, ...

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