Our next web trend, parallax scrolling, is not really a new concept; it is simply the visual effect where objects that are closer to you appear to move faster when you are moving than objects that are farther. It can be more simply put as the effect you see as you look out your car window and watch the closer objects zip by more quickly than objects off in the distance. In our case, or at least this chapter, we'll replace the car with a rocket blasting off through the clouds and into a sky full of stars as the earth falls beneath us. Does this sound far-fetched for the scope of a single chapter? Not at all! We're going to do it with some clever (if I do say so myself) JavaScript and helpful scalable vector graphics.

The parallax 3D effect in animation was created in the early days of movies to produce more realistic background scenes in the cartoons produced for the early movie theaters. It has also been used widely in video game development, especially in side...