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Border Beam

Micro-interactionVanilla JS · zero dependenciesKit: Cinematic Dark — soon

Priority access

A focused highlight travels around the edge without lighting the whole card.

-- fps
prefers-reduced-motion detected — beam parked at the top

X-ray · layers

the bright border segment
soft light outside
travels around the edge

Parameters

Speed6.0 turns/min
Border width2 px
Intensity0.9
Beam length38°
your version · updates as you tinker

How this effect works

The wrapper is only a few pixels larger than the card. Its background is a conic gradient with one short bright arc; the card covers the middle, leaving only the rim visible. Rotating the gradient makes the arc appear to travel around the border.

The halo is the same beam reused as a drop shadow. Because shape, color and motion share one angle, the outer light never detaches from the border highlight.

Production notes: respects prefers-reduced-motion (parked beam) · one gradient update per frame · no layout work during animation · copied snippet is self-contained HTML + CSS + JS.