Retro Grid Horizon

A glowing grid floor rolls endlessly toward you under a horizon, giving a hero section a sense of forward travel.

CSS
Backgrounds
Loop
Added 2026-10-29

Next stop

AI prompt

Create a retro grid horizon background in pure CSS. Inside a container with overflow hidden, add a floor element positioned at the bottom half, wider than the container (200% width, left -50%), with two repeating-linear-gradients forming 40px grid lines in the accent colour at 50% opacity. Tilt it with transform: perspective(300px) rotateX(60deg) and transform-origin at the top. Animate background-position-y from 0 to 40px over 1.2s linear infinite so the lines roll toward the viewer seamlessly. Fade the far edge with a mask-image linear-gradient so the grid melts into the horizon, and add a soft accent glow line at the horizon. Put the headline above the horizon. Pause off screen, and under prefers-reduced-motion keep the grid still. The headline reads "Next stop".

Source

Demo.tsx

'use client'

import { useEffect, useRef } from 'react'
import s from './demo.module.css'

export default function RetroGrid({ labels }: { labels: Record<string, string> }) {
  const ref = useRef<HTMLDivElement>(null)

  useEffect(() => {
    const el = ref.current
    if (!el) return
    const io = new IntersectionObserver(([e]) => el.toggleAttribute('data-paused', !e.isIntersecting))
    io.observe(el)
    return () => io.disconnect()
  }, [])

  return (
    <div ref={ref} className={s.scene}>
      <p className={s.title}>{labels.title}</p>
      <div className={s.floor} aria-hidden="true" />
    </div>
  )
}

demo.module.css

.scene {
  position: absolute;
  inset: 0;
  overflow: hidden;
  background: radial-gradient(ellipse 70% 40% at 50% 52%, color-mix(in oklch, var(--stage-accent) 22%, transparent), transparent), var(--stage-bg);
}

.scene::after {
  content: '';
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  right: 0;
  top: 52%;
  height: 1px;
  background: var(--stage-accent);
  box-shadow: 0 0 16px 2px var(--stage-accent);
}

.title {
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  right: 0;
  top: 20%;
  margin: 0;
  text-align: center;
  font: 700 var(--text-2xl) / 1 var(--font-display);
  letter-spacing: 0.08em;
  text-transform: uppercase;
  color: var(--stage-ink);
}

.floor {
  --line: color-mix(in oklch, var(--stage-accent) 50%, transparent);
  position: absolute;
  left: -50%;
  width: 200%;
  top: 52%;
  height: 60%;
  background:
    repeating-linear-gradient(90deg, var(--line) 0 1px, transparent 1px 40px),
    repeating-linear-gradient(0deg, var(--line) 0 1px, transparent 1px 40px);
  transform: perspective(300px) rotateX(60deg);
  transform-origin: top;
  -webkit-mask-image: linear-gradient(transparent, black 40%);
  mask-image: linear-gradient(transparent, black 40%);
  animation: roll 1.2s linear infinite;
}

.scene[data-paused] .floor { animation-play-state: paused; }

@keyframes roll {
  from { background-position: 0 0; }
  to { background-position: 0 40px; }
}

@media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) {
  .floor { animation: none; }
}