Chapter 1, Getting Started, covers the basics including downloading jQuery and setting up a development area, a brief history of animation on the Web, when and where not to use animation, how animation can enhance an interface, and the animation methods exposed by jQuery. A basic example of animation is also covered.

Chapter 2, Image Animation, uses a simple approach to creating an image slider. We then build features into the slider and are left with a script worthy of your next development project.

Chapter 3, Background Animation, takes us through the journey of creating animated background images and background color when our user scrolls down our site. This very subtle animation adds a lot of aesthetic appeal to websites.

Chapter 4, Navigation Animation, covers creative ways to add animation to navigation on our websites. We'll be fading the background color of our web page and smooth scrolling to clicked links on the page.

Chapter 5, Form and Input Animation, focuses on animation that is triggered by our user's interaction with the form. We will guide our users through our form using animations for form validation and to give our form a better experience overall.

Chapter 6, Extending Animations with jQuery UI, looks at the additional effects added by jQuery UI, the official UI library built on top of jQuery. We look at each of the 14 effects as well as covering the easing functions built into the library.

Chapter 7, Custom Animation, focuses on the animate() method, which jQuery provides for us as a means of creating custom animations not already predefined. This extremely powerful method allows us to animate almost any CSS-style property to easily create complex and attractive animations.

Chapter 8, Other Popular Animations, looks at some common types of animations found on the web including proximity animations triggered by the mouse pointer, animated headers, and a modern-day equivalent to the marquee element.

Chapter 9, CSS3 Animations, covers how we can use CSS3 to create attractive animations driven by the latest CSS transforms and how jQuery can be used to make the process easier.

Chapter 10, Canvas Animations, looks at the HTML5 canvas element and shows how it can be used to create stunning animations without the use of Flash or other proprietary technologies. The book closes with an in-depth example teaching how to create an interactive game using nothing but HTML and JavaScript.

To get the most out of this book you should have some knowledge of front-end development, preferably including JavaScript. Experience with jQuery is also preferable, but is not essential as all techniques used in the book are discussed in full.

You should have a computer capable of running the latest browsers and preferably an Internet connection. A code editing development software package will be of help, but again is not essential provided you have a text editor of some kind.

This book is written for web designers and front-end developers who already have good knowledge of HTML and CSS. While not required, some experience with jQuery or JavaScript is helpful. If you want to learn how to animate the user interface of your web applications with jQuery, then this book is for you.

In this book, you will find several headings appearing frequently.

To give clear instructions of how to complete a procedure or task, we use:

Instructions often need some extra explanation so that they make sense, so they are followed with:

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$("#slider, #prev, #next").hover(function() {
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