The mouse pointer of a desktop computer closes the gap between the website interface and the user. You can use the cursor to your advantage in many creative ways. These creative touches can enhance the interaction and visitors’ engagement. That will benefit your rates.
The cursor animations, in the examples in this post, show how beautiful they can be and how much they add to the appeal of a website. Many of the examples also show how an animated cursor can enhance website interaction and provide feedback. Above all, they showcase the creativity of their designers.
You will find tons of examples of creative cursor animations. They are all from actual websites and some include mouse hover effects.
Websites with Awesome Cursor Animations
Woodworking Website Template
Immerse yourself in the splendor of our meticulously designed template, expertly crafted to cater to the needs of both seasoned woodworkers and woodworking enthusiasts.
This visually striking and user-friendly masterpiece serves as the perfect platform to showcase your skills, projects, and products in a captivating and engaging manner.
With its unparalleled allure, it empowers you to establish an online presence that effortlessly surpasses the competition.
Fashion Website Slider
Unleash the versatility of our fashion slider, transcending its boundaries beyond fashion alone! This exceptional template proves to be a perfect fit for any image-centered marketing campaign.
Additionally, it offers a fullscreen gallery carousel modal, enabling you to showcase an extensive array of captivating images.
January Third
The mouse pointer on this website reveals more elements on hovering.
Fast Food Burger Restaurant Slider
Make your clients feel hungry with this tasty looking slider, featuring jaw dropping animations and smooth interactions! Easily customizable for showcasing food related products.
Haus
Haus is an interactive technology company with humor. By hovering over the cartoons you will see how they run and jump over your screen.
Urban Street Skate Slider
Unleash your creativity and captivate your audience with our urban-themed slider, designed to create captivating presentations with seamless transitions.
This versatile template is perfectly suited for showcasing products and marketing campaigns, allowing you to make a lasting impact with its sleek and stylish design.
Hearwell
A research organization in the public sector needs a well-functioning website. The developers of this website made a site that is easy to navigate but also has a fun animated cursor. It turns into a button and plays sounds when clicking.
Motion Blur Portfolio Showcase
Discover the elegance of our clean showcase slider, enhanced with an optional video popup and a sophisticated motion blur transition.
Complete with a logo and menu, this slider is fully equipped to bring your wildest ideas to life in a visually stunning manner.
Photon
The Photon website has a beautiful design and contains many interactive elements.
Background Effect Hero Collection
Utsobo
The Utsobo website is beautiful and interactive. The shading of the website’s background changes when you move your mouse around. You can even draw on the website by clicking and dragging your cursor. Doing this freezes the animation, appearing like a brushstroke effect.
Winery Timeline Slider
Unleash your creativity and craft a captivating narrative using our incredible timeline slider.
This remarkable template comes complete with logo and social icon design elements, making it perfect for creating a standalone landing page that truly shines!
CAMPOFRIO “Living is amazing”
The hand-made drawings on this website invite you to have a look at your life. In an interactive game, you can determine how much you are enjoying yourself.
Fern
This animation and design company from Atlanta shows you what they do with this interactive website.
Dala
This website’s animated cursor will attract the eye of any visitor.
Pest Stop Boys
This website is fun. It uses bright colors and an animated cursor that mixes and blends depending on the background. Sometimes the cursor separates into smaller dots. Even these dots blend in a different way, just like the mother cursor dot.
Flutter
Flutter is a website dedicated to animations. Enjoy the different hover effects.
Jomor Design portfolio
Have a look at this website to enjoy the simple but effective cursor animations.
Jack Wild
On this website, your cursor changes into a bomb about to go off. It does go off. Every time you click, you leave more and more holes in the website’s background and make a mess of the content.
Smartup Visuals
The website of this London-based studio, for scribing, and infographics, uses some nice cursor animations.
Accro
You will enjoy the animated cursor on this website. It blends right in with the brand. Accro is a French brand that promotes plant-based meat alternatives and respect for the planet.
Magnetism
A white or red dot on this website follows you everywhere.
Denton Design
The Denton Design website opens with a large image of a bird. The egg theme of the cursor matches this image. Also, the color and the design go hand in hand with the subject.
Dreamworks FYC 2021
This Dreamworks portfolio site features some attractive mouse hovering animations.
Bloemen De Vier Seizoenen
The mouse pointer animation of this flower shop from Belgium matches the business. The animation is different each season.
Liron Moran Interiors design
Moving the mouse pointer inverts the color images.
Mainworks
Mainworks has a portfolio site that shows off the work of this creative media production company. Move the mouse pointer or click the dots to learn more about their projects.
Team Stefansky
This advertising bureau from Israel uses some nice animations in their content and mouse pointer.
Creative Nights
By moving the cursor you reveal different parts of their new products.
Thinkingbox
The mouse pointer has an orange dot and impressive shadow effects. When you move over a video, the pointer changes to a white circle icon with an orange eye .
LJ com
The new LJ com website has a new interface with a custom mouse pointer and other animations.
Monopo London
The pointer on this website gives you a new perspective on things.
Masters 1987
The movement of the mouse pointer on this website looks like a comet. The cursor leaves a fading trail. There is also a blend mode effect that gives the impression of a spotlight.
Preuve
Preuve is a young and dynamic agency. Their website has fresh content and the cursor has simple but effective animation.
Sell anything by Squarespace
Hovering with the mouse gives a nice reveal effect.
Bruno Tome
Bruno Tome’s site leaves an indelible impression. It has a huge mouse pointer in the shape of a hand. Moving the hand around inverts the black and white background sections.
3D ANIMATED ABSTRACT SHAPES
LOOPS offers static and looped animated shapes. You can pick different color schemes. All are in high resolution at 30 fps.
Ambitious Zevenbergen
Ambitious Zevenbergen is a beauty salon in Holland. Its graphic design keeps a balance between content and visuals. The cursor animation consists of a pink dot chased by a pink circle. It is only a simple detail that complements the design.
Adam Nocek
Adam Nocek’s portfolio has a high contrast mouse pointer with a hover effect.
Cyd Stumpel – Portfolio
Cyd is a creative freelancer from Amsterdam. His web page reveals a love for animating technology.
Cedric Pereira
This portfolio page uses pastel tones. The colors and images change when you move your mouse around. Another graphic element is the moving image borders on hovering.
CraieCraie
CraieCraie draws attention to its logo with an integrated cursor design. The black dot morphs into a white circle with a word inside when you move over an image.
Pinpoint Media
Check out the animated cursor on this website. Pinpoint Media is a content production company. It specializes in strategic animations, live streams, photography, podcasting, and videos.
The message to Ukraine
This website has a small hover effect. You reveal the colors of the Ukrainian flag by moving your mouse pointer.
Other Office
Depending on your mouse’s position you get two cursors connected by a thin rotating black line.
Origami
The Origami website is, of course, about origami. It contains a short animation by Altrüus.
fanfanfan Design Studio
The fanfanfan Design Studio’s website has a simple but beautiful circle hover animation.
Qode Kaleidoscope
You have read about eye-shaped cursors. Qode Kaleidoscope uses a similar mouse pointer. By moving it around, the eye slowly falls apart, but the pupil remains as the cursor. Other parts, like the conjunctiva and the cornea, follow it.
Hard Work Club
The website of this idea and design collective is full of charming animations. It uses bright colors, large lettering, and has a little cursor animation.
Black Dog
Here you find interesting animations in the form of blurring text after clicking links.
Bullmonk
Bullmonk is a business management company. Their website has an effective SVG animation. More holes form in it by moving the mouse over the canvas.
PIAP SPACE
PIAP SPACE has a modern and unique website. It uses eye-catching colors, infographics, and some simple animations.
Studio Ouam
Here you find a nice example of a hover text animation.
Beyond Matter
A floating cloud follows you when you move your mouse. The name of this type of animated cursor is aura. It gives the feeling of movement, transformation, and the momentary nature of technology and art.
Or’s Vintage Portfolio
Art director and digital designer Or specializes in typography, design, and interactive animations. His portfolio page gives evidence of this and will leave an impression.
Marfala Studio
The animation on this website reveals a text when you move your mouse around.
Flipp Advertising
This last example is of a complete website for an advertising agency. It focuses on the combination of functionality and design. It has some nice GSAP animations.
FAQ on Cursor Animations
What is a cursor animation in web design?
Ah, right. So, cursor animations are these tiny yet impactful details in web design that transform the look of the mouse cursor when it moves over a certain element. It’s like adding a touch of personality, uniqueness, or interactivity to your website.
This can range from changing the cursor shape, adding trailing effects, or even creating fully interactive cursor animations based on user input.
What’s the purpose of using cursor animations?
Well, cursor animations provide a way to improve user engagement and interaction on your site. They add an extra layer of visual feedback, often making navigation more intuitive.
Plus, let’s not forget, they can be just plain fun! The thing is, it’s like you’re turning a normal browsing session into a unique, personalized experience.
How do I implement cursor animations in my website?
Implementing cursor animations, that’s a good question. It generally involves some CSS and JavaScript. CSS is often used to define basic cursor changes while JavaScript can be used for more complex, interactive animations.
Libraries like GSAP or Three.js could be used to make it simpler and more effective. But remember, balance is key! Don’t let animations overshadow your content.
Does cursor animation affect website performance?
Hmm, yes and no. Small, well-optimized animations won’t typically cause performance issues.
But heavy, complex animations might slow down your site if they aren’t coded properly. Always ensure your animations are smooth and don’t detract from the user experience due to lag or performance hiccups. Optimize, optimize, optimize!
Is cursor animation considered good UX design?
Well, it depends. Cursor animations can be an amazing tool when used right. They can guide the user, offer feedback, and make the overall experience more enjoyable. But if overused, they can become annoying, distracting, and even confusing.
So, moderation is the word! Make sure they align with your overall design and UX strategy.
What are some popular trends in cursor animation?
Oh, there are so many! Parallax effects, cursor trails, magnetic buttons, shape morphing – you name it. The trend often revolves around creating subtle, yet noticeable animations that align with the brand’s style and the website’s theme.
And remember, trends come and go, so what’s important is to stay true to your brand and audience.
Can cursor animations be responsive or adaptive?
Yes, indeed! Cursor animations can be made responsive or adaptive, meaning they can adjust based on the user’s device or screen size. You’ll need to ensure your animations behave properly on different devices and under different conditions.
It’s a bit of extra work, but it really pays off in terms of user experience.
Are there any accessibility concerns with cursor animations?
Ah, accessibility, such an important topic! Yes, cursor animations can pose accessibility challenges, particularly for users with specific conditions like motion sensitivity. It’s crucial to provide options to reduce or disable animations for such users.
Also, ensure your animations don’t compromise the readability or navigability of your site.
How can I test my cursor animations?
Great! Testing is crucial to ensure your cursor animations work as intended. You should test across different browsers, devices, and screen sizes. Look out for smoothness, responsiveness, and any potential impact on website performance.
Additionally, user testing can provide invaluable feedback on how your animations are received by your audience.
What if I want to use custom cursor images?
Go for it! Using custom cursor images can certainly add a unique touch to your website. You can change the cursor using the CSS ‘cursor’ property. Just ensure your custom images are clear, not too large, and don’t interfere with the functionality of the cursor. Always keep usability in mind.
Conclusion on Cursor Animations
Web design and development is a dynamic business. Website makers come up with new ways of adding interactivity to their work. Mouse pointers are one of the targets for innovation. A mouse animation can catch and keep the attention of visitors. It closes the interaction gap between the user and the user interface.
In the list above, you notice examples of these qualities. It was a joy exploring these imaginative and interactive mouse pointer examples. Many of them form a crucial part of web design. Yet, they keep the browsing experience interesting and intuitive.
If you liked this article about cursor animations, you should check out this article about website ideas.
There are also similar articles discussing Lottie animation examples, hero image website, websites with video background, and pink websites.
And let’s not forget about articles on websites that tell a story, black websites, animations on scroll, and cool JavaScript animations.
