Animating dialog and popover elements with CSS @starting-style

Dialog and popover elements are integral to frontend web development, serving distinct roles such as user communication and the provision of secondary information, respectively. The challenge lies in animating these overlay elements due to their reliance on the discrete CSS display property, which does not support traditional transition techniques. To address this, the article explores using CSS keyframes and the new @starting-style at-rule to enhance performance with subtle animations. While CSS keyframes offer a method to create entry and exit animations, the @starting-style at-rule provides a starting point for transitions, although its support is currently limited. The article further delves into advanced animation techniques for dialog and popover elements, utilizing CSS transformations and transition-timing functions to achieve effects like rotation and bouncing. Despite the potential of these CSS-based methods, the piece notes that CSS keyframes and the Web Animation API remain practical options for production environments until broader adoption of the @starting-style feature is achieved.