Simple, lightweight Parallax Engine that reacts to the orientation of a smart device. Where no gyroscope or motion detection hardware is available, the position of the cursor is used instead.

Check out this demo to see it in action!

Simply create a list of elements giving each item that you want to move within your parallax scene a class of layer and a data-depth attribute specifying its depth within the scene. A depth of 0 will cause the layer to remain stationary, and a depth of 1 will cause the layer to move by the total effect of the calculated motion. Values inbetween 0 and 1 will cause the layer to move by an amount relative to the supplied ratio.

<ul id="scene">
  <li class="layer" data-depth="0.00"><img src="layer6.png"></li>
  <li class="layer" data-depth="0.20"><img src="layer5.png"></li>
  <li class="layer" data-depth="0.40"><img src="layer4.png"></li>
  <li class="layer" data-depth="0.60"><img src="layer3.png"></li>
  <li class="layer" data-depth="0.80"><img src="layer2.png"></li>
  <li class="layer" data-depth="1.00"><img src="layer1.png"></li>
</ul>

To kickoff a Parallax scene, simply select your parent DOM Element and pass it to the Parallax constructor.

var scene = document.getElementById('scene');
var parallax = new Parallax(scene);

There are a number of behaviours that you can setup for any given Parallax instance. These behaviours can either be specified in the markup via data attributes or in JavaScript via the constructor and API.

In addition to the behaviours described above, there are two methods enable() and disable() that activate and deactivate the Parallax instance respectively.

<ul id="scene"
  data-calibrate-x="false"
  data-calibrate-y="true"
  data-invert-x="false"
  data-invert-y="true"
  data-limit-x="false"
  data-limit-y="10"
  data-scalar-x="2"
  data-scalar-y="8"
  data-friction-x="0.2"
  data-friction-y="0.8">
  <li class="layer" data-depth="0.00"><img src="graphics/layer6.png"></li>
  <li class="layer" data-depth="0.20"><img src="graphics/layer5.png"></li>
  <li class="layer" data-depth="0.40"><img src="graphics/layer4.png"></li>
  <li class="layer" data-depth="0.60"><img src="graphics/layer3.png"></li>
  <li class="layer" data-depth="0.80"><img src="graphics/layer2.png"></li>
  <li class="layer" data-depth="1.00"><img src="graphics/layer1.png"></li>
</ul>

var scene = document.getElementById('scene');
var parallax = new Parallax(scene, {
  calibrateX: false,
  calibrateY: true,
  invertX: false,
  invertY: true,
  limitX: false,
  limitY: 10,
  scalarX: 2,
  scalarY: 8,
  frictionX: 0.2,
  frictionY: 0.8
});

var scene = document.getElementById('scene');
var parallax = new Parallax(scene);
parallax.enable();
parallax.disable();
parallax.calibrate(false, true);
parallax.invert(false, true);
parallax.limit(false, 10);
parallax.scalar(2, 8);
parallax.friction(0.2, 0.8);

If you're using jQuery or Zepto and would prefer to use Parallax.js as a plugin, you're in luck!

$('#scene').parallax();

$('#scene').parallax({
  calibrateX: false,
  calibrateY: true,
  invertX: false,
  invertY: true,
  limitX: false,
  limitY: 10,
  scalarX: 2,
  scalarY: 8,
  frictionX: 0.2,
  frictionY: 0.8
});

var $scene = $('#scene').parallax();
$scene.parallax('enable');
$scene.parallax('disable');
$scene.parallax('calibrate', false, true);
$scene.parallax('invert', false, true);
$scene.parallax('limit', false, 10);
$scene.parallax('scalar', 2, 8);
$scene.parallax('friction', 0.2, 0.8);

cd build
npm install
node build.js

Matthew Wagerfield: @mwagerfield

Licensed under MIT. Enjoy.