How to make a follow cursor effect with JavaScript

Follow cursor effect using Javascript, GSAP and CSS

Dec 29, 2020 | Read time 4 minutes

🔔 Table of contents

See the demo here

I am seeing a recent trend of portfolio sites having a following-cursor effect. That is - circle that follows where your mouse moves - but it is a bit delayed.

For my #100DaysOfCode challenge, I decided to implement this using GSAP. You could probably do this with regular javascript and CSS keyframes, but GSAP makes things a lot quicker/ simpler.

HTML

We start off with the following basic HTML.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
    <head>
        <meta charset="UTF-8" />
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
        <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="ie=edge" />
        <title>Change Cursor On Hover</title>
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" />
        <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/gsap/latest/TweenMax.min.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
        <div id="wrapper">
            <div class="image-item">
                <div class="image-thumb">
                    <img src="1.jpg" alt="" />
                </div>
            </div>

            <div class="image-item">
                <div class="image-thumb">
                    <img src="2.jpg" alt="" />
                </div>
            </div>
            <div class="image-item">
                <div class="image-thumb">
                    <img src="3.jpg" alt="" />
                </div>
            </div>
            <div class="image-item">
                <div class="image-thumb">
                    <img src="4.png" alt="" />
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>

        <div class="cursor"></div>
        <div class="cursor-follower"></div>

        <script src="main.js"></script>
    </body>
</html>

CSS

html,
body {
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
    cursor: none;
    margin-top:50px;
    background: #161616;

}

* {
    box-sizing: border-box;
}

#wrapper {
    width: 100%;
    background: #161616;
    display: flex;
    align-items: center;
    justify-content: center;
    flex-direction: column;
}

.cursor {
    position: absolute;
    background: #dee2e6;
    width: 8px;
    height: 8px;
    border-radius: 100%;
    z-index: 1;
    transition: 0.5s cubic-bezier(0.75, -1.27, 0.3, 2.33) transform,
        0.2s cubic-bezier(0.75, -1.27, 0.3, 2.33) opacity;
    user-select: none;
    pointer-events: none;
    transform: scale(0.8);
}

.cursor::before {
    content: "";
    width: 100%;
    height: 100%;
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    left: 0;
    display: block;
    background-position: center;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-size: cover;
    border-radius: 100%;
    opacity: 0;
}

.cursor.active {
    opacity: 1;
    transform: scale(7);
    background-color: yellow;
}

.cursor.active::before {
    content: "";
    opacity: 1;
}


.cursor-follower {
    position: absolute;
    background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.1);
    width: 40px;
    height: 40px;
    border-radius: 100%;
    z-index: 1;
    transition: 0.6s cubic-bezier(0.75, -1.27, 0.3, 2.33) transform,
        0.4s cubic-bezier(0.75, -1.27, 0.3, 2.33) opacity;
    user-select: none;
    pointer-events: none;
    transform: translate(4px, 4px);
}

.cursor-follower.active {
    opacity: 0.3;
    transform: scale(0);
}

.image-thumb {
    overflow: hidden;
    transition: all 0.5s cubic-bezier(0.25, 1, 0.3, 1);
}

.image-thumb img {
    max-width: 660px;
    opacity: 0.4;
    transition: all 0.5s cubic-bezier(0.25, 1, 0.3, 1);
    transform-origin: 90% center;
}

.image-item:hover .image-thumb {
    transform: translateX(-1.75rem);
}

.image-item:hover .image-thumb img {
    opacity: 0.8;
    transform: scale(1.2);
}

.image-item{
    padding-bottom: 2rem;
}

Javascript / GSAP

So here is the Javascript/GSAP code. Theres two things thats happening here:

(1) To get the ‘delayed’ follow effect, we use the setInterval function every 10 milliseconds. Inside this function we set the ‘cursor’ and ‘cursor-follower’ element positions using the GSAP ‘set’ function.

(2) When the mouse hovers over each of the images, we apply an ‘active’ class to the ‘cursor’ and the ‘cursor-follower’ element. This just CSS that scales up the cursor element and changes the colour to yellow.

let cursor = document.getElementsByClassName("cursor")[0];
let follower = document.getElementsByClassName("cursor-follower")[0];

const body = document.getElementById('main');
let imgs = document.querySelectorAll(".image-item img");

let posX = 0,
    posY = 0,
    mouseX = 0,
    mouseY = 0;

/* Update the cursor and its follower's position every 10 miliseconds*/

setInterval(function () {

    posX += (mouseX - posX) / 9;
    posY += (mouseY - posY) / 9;

    TweenMax.set(follower, {
        css: {
            left: posX - 20,
            top: posY - 20
        }
    });

    TweenMax.set(cursor, {
        css: {
            left: mouseX,
            top: mouseY
        }
    });

}, 10);


/* Track the x and y position*/

body.addEventListener('mousemove', e => {
    mouseX = e.pageX;
    mouseY = e.pageY;

});

/* Apply the active class when the cursor hovers over the thumbnail images*/

imgs.forEach(function(elem, index){
    elem.addEventListener('mouseenter', e => {
        cursor.className = "cursor active";
        follower.className = "cursor-follower active";
    
    });
    
    elem.addEventListener('mouseleave', e => {
        cursor.classList.remove("active");
        follower.classList.remove("active");
    });

});

👋 About the Author

G'day! I am Huy a software engineer based in Australia. I have been creating design-centered software for the last 10 years both professionally and as a passion.

My aim to share what I have learnt with you! (and to help me remember 😅)

Follow along on Twitter , GitHub and YouTube

👉 See Also 👈