CSS Split Card Hover Overlay Effect

This CSS code snippet helps you to create card split overlay effect on hover. Basically, it uses splitting jQuery plugin to create an animated text overlay over the card element with a smooth transition.

You can use this effect on cards, sliding elements or posts grid to show the summary over the images on hover.

How to Create CSS Split Card Hover Overlay Effect

1. First of all, load the Normalize and Google Fonts CSS into the head tag of your HTML document.

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/normalize/5.0.0/normalize.min.css">
<link rel='stylesheet' href='https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Open+Sans:wght@300;400;500;600;700;800&amp;display=swap'>

2. After that, create the HTML structure for the cards as follows:

<main id="main">
  <h1>Card Split Hovers</h1>
  <div class="card"><img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1535498730771-e735b998cd64?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&amp;ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=crop&amp;w=687&amp;q=80" alt="A City skyline at sunset"/>
    <div class="text">
      <h2 data-splitting="">The City</h2>
      <p data-splitting="">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing elit. Dignissimos excepturi nostrum necessitatibus doloremque? Quasi non molestias odio.  Quasi non molestias odio.</p>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="card"><img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1586500036706-41963de24d8b?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&amp;ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=crop&amp;w=687&amp;q=80" alt="A City skyline at sunset"/>
    <div class="text">
      <h2 data-splitting="">The Beach</h2>
      <p data-splitting=""> Quasi non molestias odio. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing elit. Dignissimos excepturi nostrum necessitatibus doloremque? Quasi non molestias odio.</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</main> 

3. Now, style the cards using the following CSS:

:root {
  --cover-timing: 0.5s;
  --cover-ease: cubic-bezier(0.66, 0.08, 0.19, 0.97);
  --cover-stagger: 0.15s;
  --text-timing: .75s;
  --text-stagger: 0.015s;
  --text-ease: cubic-bezier(0.38, 0.26, 0.05, 1.07);
  --title-stagger: 0.05s;
  --highlight: white;
}

.card {
  position: relative;
  overflow: hidden;
  aspect-ratio: 9/12;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  border-radius: 7px;
  box-shadow: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.3) 0 5vw 6vw -8vw, rgba(255, 255, 255, 0) 0 4.5vw 5vw -6vw, rgba(50, 50, 80, 0.5) 0px 4vw 8vw -2vw, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8) 0px 4vw 5vw -3vw;
  transition: box-shadow 1s var(--cover-ease);
}
.card > * {
  z-index: 2;
}
.card > img {
  z-index: 0;
  transition: all 0.8s cubic-bezier(0.66, 0.08, 0.19, 0.97);
}
.card::before, .card::after {
  content: "";
  width: 100%;
  height: 50%;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5);
  position: absolute;
  transform-origin: left;
  transform: scaleX(0);
  transition: all var(--cover-timing) var(--cover-ease);
  z-index: 1;
}
.card::after {
  transition-delay: var(--cover-stagger);
  top: 50%;
}
.card:hover {
  box-shadow: white 0 5vw 6vw -9vw, var(--highlight) 0 5.5vw 5vw -7.5vw, rgba(50, 50, 80, 0.5) 0px 4vw 8vw -2vw, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8) 0px 4vw 5vw -3vw;
}
.card:hover::before, .card:hover::after {
  transform: scaleX(1);
}
.card:hover h2 .char, .card:hover p .word {
  opacity: 1;
  transform: translateY(0);
  color: inherit;
}
.card:hover h2 .char {
  transition-delay: calc(0.1s + var(--char-index) * var(--title-stagger));
}
.card:hover p .word {
  transition-delay: calc(0.1s + var(--word-index) * var(--text-stagger));
}
.card:hover img {
  transform: scale(1.1);
}
.card:nth-of-type(1) {
  --highlight: coral;
}
.card:nth-of-type(2) {
  --highlight: #56ffe5;
}

.text {
  position: absolute;
  inset: 20px;
  top: auto;
}

h2 {
  font-size: 30px;
  font-size: clamp(20px, 4vw, 40px);
  font-weight: 800;
  margin-bottom: 0.2em;
}

p {
  font-size: 12px;
  font-size: clamp(10px, 1.25vw, 14px);
  line-height: 1.4;
  text-align: justify;
  margin-top: 0.2em;
  margin-bottom: 0;
}

h2 .char,
p .word {
  color: var(--highlight);
  display: inline-block;
  opacity: 0;
  position: relative;
  transform: translateY(20px);
  transition-property: transform, opacity, color;
  transition-timing-function: var(--text-ease);
  transition-duration: var(--text-timing), var(--text-timing), calc(var(--text-timing)*2);
}

img {
  position: absolute;
  inset: 0;
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  -o-object-fit: cover;
     object-fit: cover;
  border-radius: 7px;
}

.cd__main main {
  grid-template-columns: 1fr;
  grid-template-rows: 60px;
  grid-gap: 2em;
}
@media screen and (min-width: 600px) {
 .cd__main main {
    grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr;
    grid-template-rows: -webkit-min-content 1fr;
    grid-template-rows: min-content 1fr;
  }
}

.card {
  width: 90vw;
  max-width: 300px;
}
@media screen and (min-width: 600px) {
  .card {
    width: 40vw;
  }
}

h1 {
  color: #5b6377;
  font-weight: 100;
}
@media screen and (min-width: 600px) {
  h1 {
    grid-column: 1/3;
  }
}

.cd__main main {
  display: grid;
  place-items: center;
  min-height: 600px;
}

body, html {
  color: white;
  background: #333844;
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
  min-height: 100vh;
  font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;
}

body {
  padding: 1em 0 3em;
  min-height: calc(100vh - 4em);
}

4. Load the jQuery and splitting JS after the HTML structure.

<script src='https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.6.0/jquery.min.js'></script>
<script src='https://unpkg.com/splitting/dist/splitting.min.js'></script>

5. Finally, initialize the plugin to activate the splitting effect.

Splitting();

That’s all! hopefully, you have successfully created split card overlay animation. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to comment below.

Asif Mughal

I code and create web elements for amazing people around the world. I like work with new people. New people new Experiences.
I truly enjoy what I’m doing, which makes me more passionate about web development and coding. I am always ready to do challenging tasks whether it is about creating a custom CMS from scratch or customizing an existing system.