[[!meta title="Animated Card Tiles"]]
[[!meta date="2019-02-27"]]

*The design trend of using "cards" or "tiles" to display interactive* sections/article headings in an app or website remains a popular choice among designers. So, let's build a set of animated cards with only HTML & CSS. 

## What we will be building (live demo)

This is the set of animated card tiles we will be creating:

*(try hovering)*

[Live CodePen](https://codepen.io/bradleytaunt/pen/rNjBpob)

## The HTML

For the base skeleton of these cards we only need:

- a `flexbox` main container to hold everything
- a `.card-tile` parent element
- the inner child element that will display on `:hover`
- proper `h4` and `p` tags inside that child element

<pre><code><div class="card-tiles-container">
  <div class="card-tile">
    <div class="text-content">
      <h4>Card Title</h4>
      <p>Inner card content text</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</div></code></pre>


That's all that is needed - for now. We will be returning to this code shortly to add some extra classes to make our lives easier.

## The CSS

First we set the main housing container to use `flex` so we save ourselves the headache of aligning all the cards in a nice row:

    .card-tiles-container {
        display: flex;
        font-size: 14px;
        margin: 20px 0;
    }

Next we create the default styling for our tile cards and set the `transform` property to scale the card on `:hover`:

    /* Default card tile styles */
    .card-tile {
        border: 1px solid;
        border-radius: 10px;
        cursor: pointer;
        height: 150px;
        margin: 0 10px;
        overflow: hidden;
        position: relative;
        width: 33.33%;
    }
    .card-tile:hover {
        transform: scale(1.1);
    }

### Where are my cards?!

Don't panic if you can't *visually* see any card elements in your demo yet - that's to be expected. We will be  styling these card elements momentarily.

Our next step is to hide the default inner `text-content` and only show it on hover. We achieve this by setting it's position to `absolute`, placing it's opacity at 0 and pushing it's z-index back to -1.

When the user hovers over a main card tile, we change the `text-content` values of both the opacity and z-index to 1.

    /* Card tile text content */
    .card-tile .text-content {
        background: linear-gradient(rgba(0,0,0,0.4) 0%, rgba(0,0,0,0.6) 100%);
        bottom: 10px;
        border: 1px solid rgba(0,0,0,0.4);
        border-radius: 5px;
        box-shadow: inset 0 1px 1px rgba(255,255,255,0.8), 
                    0 2px 4px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
        height: 65px;
        left: 10px;
        opacity: 0;
        padding: 10px;
        position: absolute;
        width: calc(100% - 20px);
        z-index: -1;
    }
    .card-tile:hover .text-content {
        opacity: 1;
        z-index: 1;
    }

Finally we add some minor styling for the inner header and paragraph tags:

    .card-tile .text-content h4,
    .card-tile .text-content p {
        color: #fff;
        margin: 0;
        text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px rgba(0,0,0,0.6);
    }

### Don't forget mobile

We want out UI to stack the cards if users are viewing them on smaller devices:

    @media(max-width: 600px) {
        .card-tiles-container {
            flex-direction: column;
        }
        .card-tile {
            margin: 0 0 10px 0;
            width: 100%;
        }
    }

## Customizing each card

Remember how I mentioned that we would be adding more classes to the original HTML? Now is the time. We will be including a simple class on each card tile to provide it's own custom coloring:

    <div class="card-tiles-container">
        <!-- `Blue` class -->
        <div class="card-tile blue">
            <div class="text-content">
                <h4>Card Title</h4>
                <p>Inner card content text</p>
            </div>
        </div>
        <!-- `Orange` class -->
        <div class="card-tile orange">
            <div class="text-content">
                <h4>Card Title</h4>
                <p>Inner card content text</p>
            </div>
        </div>
        <!-- `Green` class -->
        <div class="card-tile green">
            <div class="text-content">
                <h4>Card Title</h4>
                <p>Inner card content text</p>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>

And these color classes correlate to some new CSS styling:

    /* Blue Card */
    .card-tile.blue {
        background-color: #0093E9;
        background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, #0093E9 0%, #80D0C7 100%);
        border-color: #0093E9;
        box-shadow: 0 4px 12px rgba(128,208,199,0.7), 
                    inset 0 2px 1px rgba(255,255,255,0.6);
    }
    .card-tile.blue:hover {
        box-shadow: 0 8px 18px rgba(128,208,199,0.4), 
                    inset 0 2px 1px rgba(255,255,255,0.6);
    }

    /* Orange Card */
    .card-tile.orange {
        background-color: #FAD961;
        background-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #FAD961 0%, #F76B1C 100%);
        border-color: #F76B1C;
        box-shadow: 0 4px 12px rgba(247,107,28,0.7), 
                    inset 0 2px 1px rgba(255,255,255,0.6);
    }
    .card-tile.orange:hover {
        box-shadow: 0 8px 18px rgba(247,107,28,0.4), 
                    inset 0 2px 1px rgba(255,255,255,0.6);
    }

    /* Green Card */
    .card-tile.green {
        background-color: #096e40;
        background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, #096e40 0%, #2AF598 100%);
        border-color: #096e40;
        box-shadow: 0 4px 12px rgba(9,110,64,0.7), 
                    inset 0 2px 1px rgba(255,255,255,0.6);
    }
    .card-tile.green:hover {
        box-shadow: 0 8px 18px rgba(9,110,64,0.4), 
                    inset 0 2px 1px rgba(255,255,255,0.6);
    }

### Adding transitions

We can now see the actual cards visually and have the ability to interact with them, but there is a problem - they don't animate.

Lucky we can target all elements we wish to animate with the `transition` property, like so:

    /* Shared transitions */
    .card-tile,
    .card-tile .text-content {
        transition: .3s ease all;
    }

Done and done.

## The final code

To make things easier for reference, I have included all the `html` and `css` below. Please feel free to use these cards anywhere you like and change them as you see fit!

### HTML

    <div class="card-tiles-container">
        <div class="card-tile blue">
            <div class="text-content">
                <h4>Card Title</h4>
                <p>Inner card content text</p>
            </div>
        </div>
        <div class="card-tile orange">
            <div class="text-content">
                <h4>Card Title</h4>
                <p>Inner card content text</p>
            </div>
        </div>
        <div class="card-tile green">
            <div class="text-content">
                <h4>Card Title</h4>
                <p>Inner card content text</p>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>

### CSS

    .card-tiles-container {
        display: flex;
        font-size: 14px;
        margin: 20px 0;
    }
    /* Shared transitions */
    .card-tile,
    .card-tile .text-content {
        transition: .3s ease all;
    }
    /* Default card tile styles */
    .card-tile {
        border: 1px solid;
        border-radius: 10px;
        cursor: pointer;
        height: 150px;
        margin: 0 10px;
        overflow: hidden;
        position: relative;
        width: 33.33%;
    }
    /* Blue Card */
    .card-tile.blue {
        background-color: #0093E9;
        background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, #0093E9 0%, #80D0C7 100%);
        border-color: #0093E9;
        box-shadow: 0 4px 12px rgba(128,208,199,0.7),
                    inset 0 2px 1px rgba(255,255,255,0.6);
    }
    .card-tile.blue:hover {
        box-shadow: 0 8px 18px rgba(128,208,199,0.4), 
                    inset 0 2px 1px rgba(255,255,255,0.6);
    }
    /* Orange Card */
    .card-tile.orange {
        background-color: #FAD961;
        background-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #FAD961 0%, #F76B1C 100%);
        border-color: #F76B1C;
        box-shadow: 0 4px 12px rgba(247,107,28,0.7), 
                    inset 0 2px 1px rgba(255,255,255,0.6);
    }
    .card-tile.orange:hover {
        box-shadow: 0 8px 18px rgba(247,107,28,0.4), 
                    inset 0 2px 1px rgba(255,255,255,0.6);
    }
    /* Green Card */
    .card-tile.green {
        background-color: #096e40;
        background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, #096e40 0%, #2AF598 100%);
        border-color: #096e40;
        box-shadow: 0 4px 12px rgba(9,110,64,0.7), 
                    inset 0 2px 1px rgba(255,255,255,0.6);
    }
    .card-tile.green:hover {
        box-shadow: 0 8px 18px rgba(9,110,64,0.4), 
                    inset 0 2px 1px rgba(255,255,255,0.6);
    }
    /* Card tile text content */
    .card-tile .text-content {
        background: linear-gradient(rgba(0,0,0,0.4) 0%, rgba(0,0,0,0.6) 100%);
        bottom: 10px;
        border: 1px solid rgba(0,0,0,0.4);
        border-radius: 5px;
        box-shadow: inset 0 1px 1px rgba(255,255,255,0.8), 
                    0 2px 4px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
        height: 65px;
        left: 10px;
        opacity: 0;
        padding: 10px;
        position: absolute;
        width: calc(100% - 20px);
        z-index: -1;
    }
    .card-tile .text-content h4,
    .card-tile .text-content p {
        color: #fff;
        margin: 0;
        text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px rgba(0,0,0,0.6);
    }
    /* All animations on hover */
    .card-tile:hover {
        transform: scale(1.1);
    }
    .card-tile:hover .text-content {
        opacity: 1;
        z-index: 1;
    }
    @media(max-width: 600px) {
        .card-tiles-container {
            flex-direction: column;
        }
        .card-tile {
            margin: 0 0 10px 0;
            width: 100%;
        }
    }