I’ve added a “spring mode” to my animated SVG desert. Flowers bloom, colours shift, and the whole scene feels more alive—all without creating a separate version. Instead, I’m layering changes on top of the same SVG and letting CSS and JavaScript do the work.

I thought it might be interesting to document what I work on during the week, so I started a regular “Last week in the studio” series. Last week was a bit productive but bitty.

As well as showing off work in progress on Sho!io, I thought it might be interesting to document what I’ve been working on here. So I’m starting a new regular “Last week in the studio” series.

Yours truly over at the Smashing Magazine: “Creating motion can be tricky. Too much and it’s distracting. Too little and a design feels flat. Ambient animations are the middle ground — subtle, slow-moving details that add atmosphere without stealing the show.”

Yours truly over at the Smashing Magazine: “What’s the best way to make your SVGs faster, simpler, and more manageable? Andy Clarke explains the process he relies on to prepare, optimise, and structure SVGs for animation and beyond.”

Working on a design for composer Mike Worth gave me an idea. What if I created animated title cards inspired by classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons? Thirty-five SVG animations later, Toon Titles Series 1 is complete. These are based on artwork from the first appearance of Yogi Bear in The Huckleberry Hound Show.

It’s fascinating just how many opportunities for animations there are in a static cartoon title card. Here’s another Toon Title, this time based on Prize Fight Fright, a Yogi Bear cartoon from February 1959.

Yours truly over at the Smashing Magazine: “Now, you might’ve heard that SMIL is dead. However, it’s alive and well since Google reversed a decision to deprecate the technology almost a decade ago. It remains a terrific choice for designers and developers who want simple, semantic ways to add animations to their designs.”

This time, I put GSAP and SMIL to one side and made a Toon Title using only CSS animations. It’s based on Bewitched Bear, a Yogi Bear cartoon from January 1960. I’ve written a detailed write-up on optimising SVGs for animations which will be published on Smashing Magazine over the next few weeks.

Yours truly over at the Smashing Magazine: “What if you could take your CSS animations beyond simple fades and slides—adding an extra dimension and a bit of old-school animation magic?”

Yours truly over at the Smashing Magazine: “Have you ever thought about how the limitations of early cartoon animations might relate to web design today? From looping backgrounds to minimal frame changes, these retro animation techniques have surprising parallels to modern CSS.”

The more I dive into using the GSAP library for my Toon Title animations, the more I enjoy it. Here’s another Toon Title, this time based on Space Bear, a Yogi Bear cartoon from February 1960. I learned some new things while making this Toon Title, including how to use GSAP’s timeline feature.

The more I dive into using the GSAP library for my Toon Title animations, the more I enjoy it. Here’s another Toon Title based on Nowhere Bear, a Yogi Bear cartoon from December 1959.

Here’s another Toon Title based on Bear Face Bear, a Yogi Bear cartoon from September 1959. I’ve been meaning to experiment with GSAP for a while, and this animation gave me the opportunity.

Here’s another Toon Title and one of my favourites from my growing collection of reanimated Yogi Bear titles. This one’s based on Stranger Ranger, a Yogi Bear cartoon from November 1959.

I had some spare time today between client work and meetings, so I added another Toon Title to my collection. This one’s based on The Buzzin’ Bear, a Yogi Bear cartoon from December 1958.