WordPress.org

Pulaar

Get WordPress
WordPress.org

Plugin Directory

CMXR — Canvas Motion Backgrounds

CMXR — Canvas Motion Backgrounds

By Ayal Othman
Download

Description

Canvas Motion Background Made Easy. CMXR lets you build and manage animated canvas motion backgrounds directly from the WordPress admin. Compose moving shapes — orbs, blobs, and multi-ring forms — that render on an HTML5 canvas, sit behind your page content, and are driven by a tiny vanilla-JS engine with zero frontend dependencies.

Key features:

  • Visual configurator — three-panel editor with live canvas preview, shape/color/animation controls, and real-time feedback
  • Drag-to-reorder layers — drag shapes in the sidebar to control which one renders on top
  • Layer badges — each shape shows its layer number (1 = topmost)
  • 6 animation types — Drift, Orbit, Pulse, Wave, Fixed, Figure-8 (Lissajous)
  • Interactivity modes — Parallax, Repel, Attract, or Off
  • Anchor point — a per-animation 3×3 anchor (top-left … bottom-right) that sets which point of the container shape positions are measured from. The px position range follows the anchor per axis: a centered axis spans ±2000px (full-4K travel from center), an edge axis ±500px
  • Flexible units — size and position in %, px, vw, or vh, with values auto-converting when you switch units
  • 12 shapes — Soft Orbs (Circle, Double, Triple, Blob, Outline, Ring), Geometry (Box, Box Outline, Capsule, Capsule Outline), and Lines (Line, Wave Line)
  • Blend modes — Screen, Normal, Multiply, Overlay, Lighten, Hard-Light
  • REST API — full programmatic control over animations
  • Performance — pauses off-screen (IntersectionObserver), respects prefers-reduced-motion, DPR cap to limit canvas size on HiDPI screens
  • Any theme, any builder — works with Elementor, Divi, Gutenberg, or hand-coded HTML; just add a CSS ID

Screenshots

CMXR Dashboard
CMXR Dashboard
New Animation Dashboard
New Animation Dashboard
Settings Page
Settings Page
New Animation — different shapes
New Animation — different shapes
Different color styling for shapes
Different color styling for shapes
Different color animation styling for shapes
Different color animation styling for shapes
Different shapes with easy blur, opacity, size, and position controls
Different shapes with easy blur, opacity, size, and position controls
Different shape animation styles
Different shape animation styles

Installation

From ZIP

  1. Download the plugin ZIP
  2. Go to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin
  3. Upload the ZIP and click Install Now
  4. Activate the plugin

Manual

  1. Extract the cmxr-canvas-motion-backgrounds folder
  2. Upload it to /wp-content/plugins/
  3. Go to Plugins and activate CMXR

Usage

  1. Go to CMXR > New Animation in the WordPress admin
  2. Add shapes, configure colors, animation types, and sizes
  3. Note the Animation ID (e.g., hero-bg)
  4. Add that ID as a CSS ID on any element in your page
  5. The animation renders automatically as the element’s background

FAQ

Does this require Elementor?

No. CMXR works with any theme or page builder. Add the CSS ID to any HTML element or Elementor section.

How do I control which shape appears on top?

Drag shapes in the configurator’s left sidebar. The shape at the top of the list renders above all others. The layer badge (number) shows each shape’s stacking order.

How do I attach an animation to an Elementor section?

In Elementor, open the section settings Advanced tab CSS ID field. Enter the Animation ID shown in the configurator or dashboard.

Why is the animation not showing?

  1. Verify the Animation ID is set in the configurator
  2. Confirm the animation is set to Active on the dashboard
  3. Confirm the CSS ID on your element exactly matches the Animation ID (case-sensitive)
  4. Check the Debug page (CMXR > Debug) for registered animations and asset URLs

Can I have multiple animations on one page?

Yes. Each animation targets a unique CSS ID. Add as many as you need.

Does it affect page performance?

The engine pauses automatically when the animated element is scrolled off-screen. It also respects the browser’s prefers-reduced-motion setting and caps the device pixel ratio (configurable in Settings) to control canvas resolution on HiDPI displays.

Is there a limit on shapes per animation?

Up to 20 shapes per animation.

Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

Contributors & Developers

“CMXR — Canvas Motion Backgrounds” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

Translate “CMXR — Canvas Motion Backgrounds” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

1.3.0

  • Added a per-animation Anchor point (3×3 grid) so shape positions can be measured from any corner or edge of the container; defaults to top-left so existing animations are unchanged.
  • Anchor-dependent px position range: a shape axis anchored to center spans ±2000px (full-4K travel, slider centered on 0), while an edge-anchored axis is limited to ±500px. Switching the anchor re-ranges the sliders and clamps px values into the new range.
  • Added an “Off” option to the Interaction mode selector.
  • Position X/Y can now be negative, letting shapes sit partly off the container edge (works with any anchor).
  • Fixed px position being clamped to 100 on save; px positions now persist up to the configured range.
  • Fixed vw/vh units resolving against the browser window in the editor; preview now uses the device frame and the frontend reflows on window resize.
  • Fixed the live preview drifting from saved values after save, which previously required a page reload.
  • Unit switches now auto-convert the value so shapes keep their visual size and position.
  • Removed duplicated dead preview render loops; the shared renderer is now the single rendering path.

1.2.1

Minor fixes and improvements.

1.2.0

  • Added ExpoXR Orb Flow and Orb Flow Interactive templates.
  • Added versioned template configs, template REST routes, and shared renderer lifecycle.
  • Added template library, procedural editor, deterministic seeds, responsive counts, and reduced-motion previews.

1.1.0

  • Fixed orb size in px units being silently clamped to 200px on save, causing frontend shape size to ignore the configured px width/height.

1.0.1

  • Fixed WordPress admin footer overlap on CMXR admin screens and configurator columns.
  • Removed obsolete pre-release interactivity migration code.
  • Added GPL-2.0 license file and translation template for publishing readiness.

1.0.0

  • Initial release
  • Canvas-based motion backgrounds with 6 animation types
  • Visual 3-panel configurator with live preview
  • Drag-to-reorder shape layers with layer number badges
  • Layer ordering: top of list = visually on top on canvas
  • Interactivity: Parallax, Repel, Attract
  • 12 shapes: Circle, Double, Triple, Blob, Outline, Ring, Box, Box Outline, Capsule, Capsule Outline, Line, Wave Line
  • 6 blend modes
  • REST API for full programmatic control
  • Duplicate, toggle-active, preview modal on dashboard
  • Consistent admin UI across all pages (Settings, Debug, Configurator)
  • Debug page with system info and config inspection
  • Performance: IntersectionObserver pause, DPR cap, reduced-motion support
  • WordPress 6.0+ and PHP 7.4+ compatible

Meta

Ratings

No reviews have been submitted yet.

Your review

See all reviews

Contributors

Support

Got something to say? Need help?

View support forum