Parallax Scroll Experiment

I was curious about how scrolling alone could bring depth and liveliness to a website, so I experimented with creating a parallax effect using only Vanilla JavaScript and CSS.

First, I retrieved the scroll position (scrollY) and adjusted the transform: translateY() values of background, middle, and foreground image layers at different rates. Observing how the sense of depth changed with varying speeds between layers was an interesting process.

I learned that relying solely on the scroll event can make animations appear choppy, so I improved it by using requestAnimationFrame to synchronize with the browser’s rendering cycle for smoother movement. I also explored performance optimization techniques such as using IntersectionObserver to trigger animations only when visible and applying the translateZ(0) trick to enable GPU acceleration.

Through this experiment, I was able to experience firsthand the fundamental principles of scroll-based animation and the importance of performance optimization.