liquid-gl

v1.0.6

Published

9 days ago

Ultra-light glassmorphism for the web.

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naughtyduk

glassmorphism liquid-glass webgl canvas three

liquidGL – Ultra-light glassmorphism for the web

v1.0.6

[!NOTE] liquidGL is free to use for both non-commercial and commercial purposes. BETA has now ended and the library is now ready for production use.

liquidGL turns any fixed-position element into a perfectly refracted, glossy "glass pane" rendered in WebGL.

DEMO 1 | DEMO 2 | DEMO 3 | DEMO 4 | DEMO 5

Install from npm

npm install liquid-gl

import liquidGL from "liquid-gl";

const glassEffect = liquidGL({
  target: ".liquidGL",
  snapshot: "body",
});

html2canvas is installed automatically as a package dependency. three is optional and only required when using liquidGL with 3D model workflows.

Overview

liquidGL recreates Apple's "Liquid Glass" aesthetic in the browser with an ultra-light WebGL shader. It turns any DOM element into a beautiful, refracting glass pane. To overcome WebGL's security limitations on reading live screen pixels, liquidGL uses an innovative offscreen rendering technique. This allows it to refract dynamic content like videos, text animations, and more in real-time, delivering a smooth and interactive experience.

Key Features

| Feature | Supported | Feature | Supported | | :------------------------------------- | :-------: | :----------------------- | :-------: | | Real-time Refraction (static content) | ✅ | Magnification Control | ✅ | | Real-time Refraction (video) | ✅ | Dynamic Element Support | ✅ | | Real-time Refraction (text animations) | ✅ | GSAP-Ready Animations | ✅ | | Real-time Refraction (CSS animations) | ❌ | Lightweight & Performant | ✅ | | Adjustable Bevel | ✅ | Seamless Scroll Sync | ✅ | | Frosted Glass Effect | ✅ | Auto-Resize Handling | ✅ | | Dynamic Shadows | ✅ | Auto Video Refraction | ✅ | | Specular Highlights | ✅ | Animate Lenses | ✅ | | Interactive Tilt Effect | ✅ | on.init Callback | ✅ |

Quick start

Set up your HTML structure first. You will have a target element that will receive the glass effect, and a child element for your content (excluded from glass effect).

<body>
  <div class="liquidGL">
    <div class="content">
      <img src="example.svg" alt="Alt Text" />
      <p>This example text content will appear on top of the glass.</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</body>

Make sure that your target element has a high z-index so that it sits over your page content. Any content with a higher z-index than the target will be excluded from the lens, i.e a modal video player that you don't want to stain the lens.

Next, initialise the library with the selector for your target element.

import liquidGL from "liquid-gl";

const glassEffect = liquidGL({
  snapshot: "body",
  target: ".liquidGL",
  resolution: 2.0,
  refraction: 0.01,
  bevelDepth: 0.08,
  bevelWidth: 0.15,
  frost: 0,
  shadow: true,
  specular: true,
  reveal: "fade",
  tilt: false,
  tiltFactor: 5,
  magnify: 1,
  on: {
    init(instance) {
      console.log("liquidGL ready!", instance);
    },
  },
});

Dynamic Rendering

liquidGL can refract dynamic content like animations in real-time. To make this work, you must "register" any dynamic elements that will intersect with your glass pane. This tells liquidGL to monitor them and update the texture when they change.

Note: Videos are automatically detected and do not need to be registered.

Register dynamic elements after initialising liquidGL() but before calling liquidGL.syncWith() (if used). You can register elements using a CSS selector string or by passing an array of DOM elements.

const glassEffect = liquidGL({
  target: ".liquidGL",
});

liquidGL.registerDynamic(".my-animated-element");

const mySplitText = SplitText.create(".my-text", { type: "lines" });
liquidGL.registerDynamic(mySplitText.lines);

Optionally sync with Smooth Scrolling Libraries

liquidGL includes a syncWith() helper to automatically integrate with popular smooth-scrolling libraries like Lenis and Locomotive Scroll. It handles the render loop synchronization for you.

Simply call liquidGL.syncWith() after initialising liquidGL.

const glassEffect = liquidGL({
  target: ".liquidGL",
});

const { lenis, locomotiveScroll } = liquidGL.syncWith();

Make sure to include the scroll library scripts before your main script. The syncWith() helper must be called after liquidGL() has been called.

Parameters

| Option | Type | Default | Description | | ------------ | -------- | ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | target | string | '.liquidGL' | Required. CSS selector for the element(s) to glassify. | | snapshot | string | 'body' | CSS selector for the element to snapshot. | | resolution | number | 2.0 | Resolution of the background snapshot (clamped 0.1–3.0). Higher is sharper but uses more memory. | | refraction | number | 0.01 | Base refraction offset applied across the pane (0–1). | | bevelDepth | number | 0.08 | Additional refraction on the edge to simulate depth (0–1). | | bevelWidth | number | 0.15 | Width of the bevel zone as a fraction of the shortest side (0–1). | | frost | number | 0 | Blur radius in pixels for a frosted look. 0 is clear. | | shadow | boolean | true | Toggles a subtle drop-shadow under the pane. | | specular | boolean | true | Enables animated specular highlights that move with time. | | reveal | string | 'fade' | Reveal animation.- 'none': Renders immediately.- 'fade': Smoothly fades in. | | tilt | boolean | false | Enables 3D tilt interaction on cursor movement. | | tiltFactor | number | 5 | Depth of the tilt in degrees (0–25 recommended). | | magnify | number | 1 | Magnification factor of the lens (clamped 0.001–3.0). 1 is no magnification. | | on.init | function | — | Callback that runs once the first render completes. Receives the lens instance. |

The target parameter is required; all others are optional.

Presets

| Name | Settings | Purpose | | ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------- | | Default | { refraction: 0, bevelDepth: 0.052, bevelWidth: 0.211, frost: 2, shadow: true, specular: true } | Balanced default used in the demo. | | Alien | { refraction: 0.073, bevelDepth: 0.2, bevelWidth: 0.156, frost: 2, shadow: true, specular: false } | Strong refraction & deep bevel for a sci-fi look. | | Pulse | { refraction: 0.03, bevelDepth: 0, bevelWidth: 0.273, frost: 0, shadow: false, specular: false } | Flat pane with wide bevel—great for pulsing UI effects. | | Frost | { refraction: 0, bevelDepth: 0.035, bevelWidth: 0.119, frost: 0.9, shadow: true, specular: true } | Softly diffused, privacy-glass style. | | Edge | { refraction: 0.047, bevelDepth: 0.136, bevelWidth: 0.076, frost: 2, shadow: true, specular: false } | Thin bevel and bright rim highlights. |

FAQ

| Question | Answer | | :----------------------------------------------------------------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Is there a resize handler? | Yes resize is handled in the library and debounced to 250ms for performance. | | Does the effect work on mobile? | Yes the library handles all 3 versions of WebGL and provides a frosted CSS backdrop-filter as a backup for older devices. | | I have a preloader, how should I initialise liquidGL()? | Add the data-liquid-ignore attribute to your preloader's top-level container to exclude it from the snapshot. You can then call liquidGL() inside a DOMContentLoaded listener as you normally would. | | What is the correct way to use liquidGL with page animations? | Lets say you have a preloader, above the fold intro animations and scroll animations on your page. You would:1) set the data-liquid-ignore attribute on your preloader2) animate your preloader and set up your initial animation states3) then call liquidGL();4) optionally, in the on.init(); callback, you can run post snapshot scripts, such as animating the target element | | Can I use liquidGL on multiple elements? | Yes, any element which has the class declared as your target will be glassified. Note all elements must use the same z-index due to shared canvas optimisations, if you use different z-index values for multiple targets, the highest value will be used by liquidGL. | | Will the library exceed WebGL contexts or have other performance issues? | No, the library uses a shared canvas for all instances, we have tested up to 30 elements on one page and we were not able to cause performance problems or crashes. | | Are there any animation limitations? | It depends on what you're trying to do, rotation and scale are expensive CPU/GPU processes, additionally shadow specular and tilt should be used with care when you have lots of instances or complex animations as they can clog the render pipeline. |

Important Notes

For dynamic content to be refracted in real-time, you must register the element(s) with liquidGL.registerDynamic(). It is crucial to set the initial state of your animations before calling liquidGL() to ensure they are captured correctly.
The library ignores fixed position elements, this is to prevent a known bug between html2canvas and mobile browsers from surfacing which can prevent the snapshot from running. This is a safety net that shouldn't interfere with your use of the library.
You can have multiple instances on one page but they must share the same z-index value. If you specify different z-index values, liquidGL will use the highest z-index for all elements with the target selector. This is because the effect uses a shared canvas to prevent WebGL context issues, there is no work around to this unfortunately.
To improve performance on complex pages, you can snapshot a smaller, specific element like a background container instead of the whole page. Use the snapshot option with a CSS selector (e.g., snapshot: '.my-background'). This reduces texture memory and improves performance.
The initial capture is asynchronous. Call liquidGL() inside a DOMContentLoaded or load handler to ensure content is available to the snapshot.
Extremely long documents can exceed GPU texture limits, causing memory or performance issues. Consider segmenting very long pages (see source) or reducing the resolution parameter.
The shadow and tilt effects create new stacking layers behind the target element. The shadow is placed at z-index - 2 and the tilt helper canvas is placed at z-index - 1. Ensure your z-index values leave room for these layers to prevent clipping or overflow issues.
As with all WebGL effects, any image content inside the target element must have permissive Access-Control-Allow-Origin headers set to prevent CORS issues.

Browser Support

The liquidGL library is compatible with all WebGL enabled browsers on desktop, tablet and mobile devices.

[!NOTE]
Performance varies between browsers, specifically Safari can be unstable when the liquid element(s) are more than 50% of the viewport width or height. Practical use issues are rare, but make sure to test on your target devices thoroughly.

| Browser | Supported | | :------------- | :-------: | | Google Chrome | Yes | | Safari | Yes | | Firefox | Yes | | Microsoft Edge | Yes |

Other

Exclude elements

You can set elements to be ignored by the refraction using data-liquid-ignore. Add this attribute on the parent container of the element you wish to exclude.

Content Visibility

It is recommended to use z-index: 3; on the content inside your target element to make it sit on top of the lens. You can also combine this with mix-blend-mode: difference; for better legibility.

Border-radius

liquidGL automatically inherits the border-radius of the target element, ensuring the refraction respects rounded corners without any extra configuration. If you animate the border-radius of your target element i.e on scroll, the bevel will animate in real time to remain in sync.

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