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Animations with picom
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I’ve relied on Compositor in X11 for years to manage window transparency. My tiling manager doesn’t display borders or gaps, and I find decorations distracting. Initially, I used picom leveraging only its basic functionality. I’ve long considered animations counterproductive and visually taxing. However, I discovered that picom allows custom animation creation (you learn everyday with Linux). The level of customization offers both extensive personalization options and the ability to maintain a lightweight setup which piqued my interest.
╭── What kind of animations can I expect from picom?
There are numerous options available, making it impractical to list them all. Historically, picom had limitations, prompting the creation of several forks to implement additional features. Now, picom offers more capabilities and here is one random example of what to expect:
╭── Stop talking and give me the code
Here is the code to add to your picom.conf file:
match = "window_type = 'normal'";
animations = (
{
triggers = ["close"];
opacity = {
curve = "cubic-bezier(0,1,1,1)";
duration = 0.3;
start = "window-raw-opacity-before";
end = 0;
};
blur-opacity = "opacity";
shadow-opacity = "opacity";
scale-x = {
curve = "cubic-bezier(0,1.3,1,1)";
duration = 0.3;
start = 1;
end = 0.6;
};
scale-y = "scale-x";
offset-x = "(1 - scale-x) / 2 * window-width";
offset-y = "(1 - scale-y) / 2 * window-height";
shadow-scale-x = "scale-x";
shadow-scale-y = "scale-y";
shadow-offset-x = "offset-x";
shadow-offset-y = "offset-y";
},
{
triggers = ["open"];
opacity = {
curve = "cubic-bezier(0,1,1,1)";
duration = 0.5;
start = 0;
end = "window-raw-opacity";
};
blur-opacity = "opacity";
shadow-opacity = "opacity";
scale-x = {
curve = "cubic-bezier(0,1.3,1,1)";
duration = 0.5;
start = 0.6;
end = 1;
};
scale-y = "scale-x";
offset-x = "(1 - scale-x) / 2 * window-width";
offset-y = "(1 - scale-y) / 2 * window-height";
shadow-scale-x = "scale-x";
shadow-scale-y = "scale-y";
shadow-offset-x = "offset-x";
shadow-offset-y = "offset-y";
},
{
triggers = ["geometry"];
scale-x = {
curve = "cubic-bezier(0,0,0,1.28)";
duration = 0.5;
start = "window-width-before / window-width";
end = 1;
};
scale-x-reverse = {
curve = "cubic-bezier(0,0,0,1.28)";
duration = 0.3;
start = "window-width / window-width-before";
end = 1;
};
scale-y = {
curve = "cubic-bezier(0,0,0,1.28)";
duration = 0.5;
start = "window-height-before / window-height";
end = 1;
};
scale-y-reverse = {
curve = "cubic-bezier(0,0,0,1.28)";
duration = 0.5;
start = "window-height / window-height-before";
end = 1;
};
offset-x = {
curve = "cubic-bezier(0,0,0,1.28)";
duration = 0.5;
start = "window-x-before - window-x";
end = 0;
};
offset-y = {
curve = "cubic-bezier(0,0,0,1.28)";
duration = 0.5;
start = "window-y-before - window-y";
end = 0;
};
shadow-scale-x = "scale-x";
shadow-scale-y = "scale-y";
shadow-offset-x = "offset-x";
shadow-offset-y = "offset-y";
},
)
The basic structure is to use one of picom’s triggers to link an animation to a window’s event. Then you define the animation based on the window geometry (width, height, and position) and the “curve” (i.e.the visual effect).
This is an example I found in an online dotfile
. I’ve tweaked it to my liking and you can do the same.
╭── Bonus for the BSPWM users
Here is an additional piece of code to add an animation on workspace changes. Using the “show” trigger dedicated to minimized window seems to do the trick:
{
triggers = ["show"];
opacity = {
curve = "cubic-bezier(0,1,1,1)";
duration = 0.5;
start = 0;
end = "window-raw-opacity";
};
blur-opacity = "opacity";
shadow-opacity = "opacity";
scale-x = {
curve = "cubic-bezier(0,1.3,1,1)";
duration = 0.5;
start = 0.6;
end = 1;
};
scale-y = "scale-x";
offset-x = "(1 - scale-x) / 2 * window-width";
offset-y = "(1 - scale-y) / 2 * window-height";
shadow-scale-x = "scale-x";
shadow-scale-y = "scale-y";
shadow-offset-x = "offset-x";
shadow-offset-y = "offset-y";
},
)
More food for thoughts? Check other posts about: #System
Thanks for your read. Hope it's been useful to you.
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