How to make a smooth dashed border rotation animation like ‘marching ants’

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Cog and chain animation :

I totaly refactored the code (CSS and HTML), it is now :

  • shorter (especialy the css)
  • simpler
  • more realistic: corrected the synchronisation issue bteween the chain and the cogs and added a missing cog on the right because your chain seemed to be floating in the air :

DEMO

The approach is the same, animating the rotation angle for the cogs and dash-offset for the chain path. I tweaked the timing between both animations to make it look as if the cogs are pulling the chain.

Browser support :

As IE doesn’t support the svg animate element I also made this version of the animation with the snap.svg library that also supports IE9 and over (tested in IE9 with crossbrowsertesting).

DEMO with IE support

var cont   = new Snap('#svg'),
    chain  = cont.select('#chain'),
    cogAcw = cont.select('#cog_acw'),
    cogCw  = cont.select('#cog_cw'),
    speed  = 500;  // Lower this number to make the animation faster

function infChain(el) {
    var len = el.getTotalLength();
    el.attr({"stroke-dasharray": len/62,"stroke-dashoffset": 0});
    el.animate({"stroke-dashoffset": -len/31}, speed, mina.linear, infChain.bind(null, el));
}
function rotateAcw(el) {
    el.transform('r22.5,20,20');
    el.animate({ transform: 'r-22.5,20,20' }, speed, mina.linear, rotateAcw.bind( null, el));
}
function rotateCw(el) {
    el.transform('r0,20,20');
    el.animate({ transform: 'r45,20,20' }, speed, mina.linear, rotateCw.bind( null, el));
}
infChain(chain);
rotateAcw(cogAcw);
rotateCw(cogCw);
svg {
    width:100%;
}
<script src="http://thisisa.simple-url.com/js/snapsvg.js"></script>
<svg id="svg" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewbox="0 0 100 30">
    <defs>
        <circle id="c" cx="20" cy="20" r="4" stroke="#808080" fill="none" stroke-width="4" />
        <path id="d" stroke="#808080" stroke-width="2" d="M20 13 V16 M27 20 H24 M20 27 V24 M13 20 H16" />
        <g id="cog_acw">
            <use xlink:href="#c" /><use xlink:href="#d" />
            <use xlink:href="#d" transform="rotate(45 20 20)" />
        </g>  
        <g id="cog_cw">
            <use xlink:href="#c" /><use xlink:href="#d" />
            <use xlink:href="#d" transform="rotate(45 20 20)" />
        </g>  
    </defs>
    <path id="chain" stroke-width="1" stroke="#000" fill="transparent" 
    d="M21.3 13.5 H20 C11.4 13.5 11.4 26.5 20 26.5 H80 C89.4 26.5 89.4 13.5 80.8 13.5z" />
    <use  xlink:href="#cog_acw" />
    <use  transform="translate(60.5 0), rotate(19,20,20)" xlink:href="#cog_acw" />
    <use  transform="translate(-4.5 -4.5),scale(.8), rotate(0,20,20)" xlink:href="#cog_cw" />    
</svg>
svg{width:100%;}
#chain_st{
  -webkit-animation: dash 1s infinite linear;
  -moz-animation: dash 1s infinite linear;
  -o-animation: dash 1s infinite linear;
  animation: dash 1s infinite linear;
}
@-webkit-keyframes dash {
  to { stroke-dashoffset: -5; }
}
@-moz-keyframes dash {
  to { stroke-dashoffset: -5; }
}
@-o-keyframes dash {
  to { stroke-dashoffset: -5; }
}
@keyframes dash {
  to { stroke-dashoffset: -5; }
}
<svg id="one" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewbox="0 0 100 30">
  <defs>
    <circle id="c" cx="20" cy="20" r="4" stroke="#808080" fill="none" stroke-width="4"/>
    <path id="d" stroke="#808080" stroke-width="2" d="M20 13 V16 M27 20 H24 M20 27 V24 M13 20 H16"/>
    <g id="cog">
      <use xlink:href="#c"/>
      <use xlink:href="#d"/>
      <use xlink:href="#d" transform="rotate(45 20 20)"/>
    </g>
  </defs>
  <g transform="translate(0,-7), scale(0.8), rotate(22.5 8 8)">
    <use xlink:href="#cog">
      <animateTransform attributeType="xml" attributeName="transform" type="rotate" from="-22.5 20 20" to="337.5 20 20" dur="8s" repeatCount="indefinite"/>
    </use>
  </g>
  <path id="chain_st" stroke-width="1" stroke="#000" fill="transparent" stroke-dasharray="2.6 2.45" d="M21.3 13.5 H20 C11.4 13.5 11.4 26.5 20 26.5 H80 C89 26.5 89 13.5 80.8 13.5z" />
  <use class="rot" xlink:href="#cog">
    <animateTransform attributeType="xml" attributeName="transform" type="rotate"from="22.5 20 20" to="-337.5 20 20" dur="8s" repeatCount="indefinite"/>
  </use>
  <g transform="translate(60.3 0)">
    <use class="" xlink:href="#cog">
      <animateTransform attributeType="xml" attributeName="transform" type="rotate" from="22.5 20 20" to="-337.5 20 20" dur="8s" repeatCount="indefinite"/>
    </use>
  </g>
</svg>

Original answer :

You could use an other svg dashed path and animate the dash-offset property with a keyframe animation.

This can and should be simplified/tweaked for a “real world” use :

  • all elements can be contained into one <svg> tag (this would make it simpler and both cogs + chain could resize together)
  • The sync between the chain and the cog isn’t perfect and speed/size of chain needs to be tweaked.
#one {
  -webkit-animation: rotateClockwiseAnimation 5s linear infinite;
  /* Safari 4+ */
  -moz-animation: rotateClockwiseAnimation 5s linear infinite;
  /* Fx 5+ */
  -o-animation: rotateClockwiseAnimation 5s linear infinite;
  /* Opera 12+ */
  animation: rotateClockwiseAnimation 5s linear infinite;
  /* IE 10+, Fx 29+ */
}
#two {
  -webkit-animation: rotateAntiClockwiseAnimation 5s linear infinite;
  /* Safari 4+ */
  -moz-animation: rotateAntiClockwiseAnimation 5s linear infinite;
  /* Fx 5+ */
  -o-animation: rotateAntiClockwiseAnimation 5s linear infinite;
  /* Opera 12+ */
  animation: rotateAntiClockwiseAnimation 5s linear infinite;
  /* IE 10+, Fx 29+ */
  position: absolute;
  top: 30px;
  left: 42px;
  width: 80px;
}
@-webkit-keyframes rotateClockwiseAnimation {
  0% {
    transform: rotate(0deg);
  }
  100% {
    transform: rotate(360deg);
  }
}
@-moz-keyframes rotateClockwiseAnimation {
  0% {
    transform: rotate(0deg);
  }
  100% {
    transform: rotate(360deg);
  }
}
@-o-keyframes rotateClockwiseAnimation {
  0% {
    transform: rotate(0deg);
  }
  100% {
    transform: rotate(360deg);
  }
}
@keyframes rotateClockwiseAnimation {
  0% {
    transform: rotate(0deg);
  }
  100% {
    transform: rotate(360deg);
  }
}
@-webkit-keyframes rotateAntiClockwiseAnimation {
  0% {
    transform: rotate(0deg);
  }
  100% {
    transform: rotate(-360deg);
  }
}
@-moz-keyframes rotateAntiClockwiseAnimation {
  0% {
    transform: rotate(0deg);
  }
  100% {
    transform: rotate(-360deg);
  }
}
@-o-keyframes rotateAntiClockwiseAnimation {
  0% {
    transform: rotate(0deg);
  }
  100% {
    transform: rotate(-360deg);
  }
}
@keyframes rotateAntiClockwiseAnimation {
  0% {
    transform: rotate(0deg);
  }
  100% {
    transform: rotate(-360deg);
  }
}
/******************************************************************************/

#chain {
  width: 650px;
  position: absolute;
  top: 24px;
  left: 35px;
}
.chain_st {
  stroke-dasharray: 1.5;
  stroke-dashoffset: 10;
  -webkit-animation: dash 18s infinite linear;
  -moz-animation: dash 18s infinite linear;
  -o-animation: dash 18s infinite linear;
  animation: dash 18s infinite linear;
}
@-webkit-keyframes dash {
  to {
    stroke-dashoffset: 100;
  }
}
@-moz-keyframes dash {
  to {
    stroke-dashoffset: 100;
  }
}
@-o-keyframes dash {
  to {
    stroke-dashoffset: 100;
  }
}
keyframes dash {
  to {
    stroke-dashoffset: 100;
  }
}
<svg id="one" style="width:50px" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewbox="0 0 100 100">
  <defs>
    <circle id="c" cx="50" cy="50" r="30" stroke="#808080" fill="none" stroke-width="25" />
    <path id="d" stroke="#808080" stroke-width="16" d="M50 0, V15 M50 100, V85 M0 50, H15 M100 50, H85" />
  </defs>
  <use xlink:href="#c" />
  <use xlink:href="#d" />
  <use xlink:href="#d" transform="rotate(45, 50, 50)" />
</svg>

<svg id="two" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewbox="0 0 100 100">
  <use xlink:href="#one" />
</svg>
<svg id="chain" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewbox="0 0 70 10">
  <path class="chain_st" stroke-width="0.5" stroke="#000" fill="transparent" d="M60 1 Q65 1 65 5 Q65 9 60 9 H6 Q1 9 1 5 Q1 1 6 1z" />
</svg>

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