live - 60fps 1920 x 1080
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>Background 2: Hex Code Wave</title>
<style>
:root {
--bg-color: #0d0d12;
--char-color: #2a3c4b;
--wave-color: #f0f8ff; /* Alice Blue */
--wave-glow: #7ef9ff;
}
body {
margin: 0;
height: 100vh;
background-color: var(--bg-color);
color: var(--char-color);
font-family: 'Roboto Mono', monospace;
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
overflow: hidden;
}
#grid-container {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: repeat(var(--cols), 1fr);
transform: scale(1.1);
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
}
.char {
text-align: center;
user-select: none;
will-change: color, text-shadow;
animation: wave-activate 10s linear infinite;
}
@keyframes wave-activate {
0%, 15%, 100% {
color: var(--char-color);
text-shadow: none;
}
7%, 8% {
color: var(--wave-color);
text-shadow: 0 0 10px var(--wave-glow), 0 0 20px var(--wave-glow);
}
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="grid-container"></div>
<script>
const grid = document.getElementById('grid-container');
const chars = '0123456789ABCDEF'.split('');
const cols = Math.floor(window.innerWidth / 16);
const rows = Math.floor(window.innerHeight / 16);
grid.style.setProperty('--cols', cols);
for (let y = 0; y < rows; y++) {
for (let x = 0; x < cols; x++) {
const charSpan = document.createElement('span');
charSpan.className = 'char';
charSpan.textContent = chars[Math.floor(Math.random() * chars.length)];
// Calculate delay to create a diagonal wave
// The wave takes ~1.5s to cross. Delays range from 0 to 8.5s for the 10s loop
const delay = (x + y * 0.5) * 0.05;
charSpan.style.animationDelay = `${delay}s`;
grid.appendChild(charSpan);
}
}
</script>
</body>
</html>About this animation
Cascading waves of hexadecimal codes.
Under the hood
DOM Node Staggering
Instead of canvas, this creates a wave by injecting a grid of hexadecimal strings directly into the DOM. By applying an animation delay formula calculated by the element's index (
i * 0.05s), the CSS engine handles an elegant, cascading wave of opacity and color transitions. 
