Animated Borders

How to Create Animated Borders in Webflow

Animated borders are a powerful design technique to bring subtle motion and interactivity to your website. In Webflow, you can create dynamic border effects using a combination of div blocks, interactions, and custom CSS. This tutorial will guide you through the process step-by-step — no coding knowledge required.

Why Use Animated Borders?

Animated borders are more than just eye candy. They help:

• Draw attention to key elements like buttons, cards, or CTAs
• Improve user engagement through interactive design
• Add a modern, polished feel to your website

Step-by-Step: Add Animated Borders in Webflow

Step 1: Create Your Element Container
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1. Open your Webflow project and navigate to the page or component you want to animate.
2. Add a div block and assign it a class (e.g., border-wrapper).
3. Inside this wrapper, place the content (e.g., text or a button).

Step 2: Add Border Layers
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1. Add four additional div blocks inside the wrapper — one for each side (top, right, bottom, left).
2. Assign them all a class like border-line and then use combo classes for each direction (e.g., border-line top).
3. Set their position to absolute and adjust their width/height depending on the side.

Step 3: Style the Borders

In your Webflow Designer:

• Set a background color or gradient to the lines
• Adjust thickness using height/width
• Set initial position off-screen (e.g., translateX(-100%) or scaleX(0))

Step 4: Animate Using Webflow Interactions
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1. Go to the Interactions panel.
2. Add a mouse hover animation to the wrapper.
3. Set your border lines to animate in (e.g., scale or move into view).
4. Add a hover out animation to reverse the effect.

Optional: Add Custom Code for Advanced Effects

If you want smoother animations or border reveal on scroll, you can use custom CSS like:

html

CopyEdit

<style>
.border-line {
 transition: transform 0.4s ease;
}
.border-wrapper:hover .top {
 transform: scaleX(1);
}
</style>


Final Tips

• Combine with Webflow CMS to apply animated borders to dynamic content like blog cards.
• Keep it subtle — overly complex borders may distract from your message.
• Test responsiveness across devices for smooth animation.

By following these steps, you’ll elevate your Webflow design with interactive, animated borders that grab attention and enhance the user experience.