Aero Shards
Translucent glass shards floating at different depths, drifting and tilting on their own cycles, the field parallaxing to the pointer by depth.
- Category: Backgrounds
- Licence: Charcoal UI Pro
- Built with: React 19, Tailwind CSS 4, Motion
- Dependencies: motion, clsx, tailwind-merge
Examples
Aero Shards
API reference
| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
count | number | 10 | |
speed | number | 14 | Seconds per drift cycle. |
size | number | 160 | |
color | string | "var(--ember)" | |
className | string | — |
About Aero Shards
Aero Shards floats translucent glass shards at different depths, drifting and tilting on their own cycles, with the field parallaxing to the pointer by depth.
Aero Shards is an animated background for React 19, styled with Tailwind CSS 4 and animated with Motion. It drops into Next.js, Vite, Remix or Astro through the shadcn CLI as a single file you own.
When to use Aero Shards
- Premium SaaS heroes.
- Glassmorphism designs.
- Architecture and design.
- Product launches.
How it works
Shards drift on CSS keyframes and parallax on Motion springs scaled by depth. It holds still under reduced motion.
The whole layer is decorative and aria-hidden, sits behind your content without taking pointer events it does not need, and pauses when scrolled off screen. With prefers-reduced-motion on, it holds still or settles instantly instead of animating.
Customizing Aero Shards
Every prop is documented in the API reference above with its type and default. The ones you will reach for first are listed here.
The Customize panel next to the preview lets you change count, speed, size, color live, and the Code tab updates to match, so the snippet you copy already carries your values.
- count (number, default 10).
- speed (number, default 14): Seconds per drift cycle.
- size (number, default 160).
- color (string, default "var(--ember)").
Goes well with Aero Shards
These backgrounds pieces share its tokens and motion language, so they sit together on one page without clashing.
- Ember Field: An animated React ember background: glowing embers drift up and flicker as they cool
- Smoke: A slow React smoke background: blurred plumes drifting over dark sections, CSS only
- Aurora: An animated React aurora background: soft light bands drifting across a section
- Grid Beams: A React grid background with beams of light running along its lines
- Meteors: A React meteor shower background: streaks falling diagonally, CSS only
Install Aero Shards
npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/aero-shardsAero Shards is part of Charcoal UI Pro. One seat unlocks all 300 Pro components, 107 landing-page sections and 100 full templates, for every personal and client project, with updates included. Add the @charcoal registry once with your access token, then the command above copies aero-shards.tsx into components/ui and installs clsx, tailwind-merge.
You own the file you install: no runtime package, no lock-in, nothing to keep in sync. Change it however your product needs.
See Charcoal UI Pro pricing · Pro setup
Frequently asked questions
- Will aero shards cover my content?
- No. The shards are a decorative layer behind your content that ignores the pointer except for parallax, and they hold still under reduced motion.
- How do I install Aero Shards?
- Aero Shards is part of Charcoal UI Pro. Add the @charcoal registry to components.json with your access token, then run npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/aero-shards. It copies aero-shards.tsx into components/ui and installs motion, clsx, tailwind-merge.
- Is Aero Shards free for commercial use?
- Aero Shards needs a Charcoal UI Pro seat, monthly or a one-time lifetime price. A seat covers unlimited personal and commercial projects, including client work, and every future Pro component.
- Does Aero Shards work with Next.js?
- Yes. It is a client component for React 19 styled with Tailwind CSS 4, so it works in the Next.js App Router and Pages Router, Vite, Remix and Astro.
- Can an AI coding agent install Aero Shards?
- Yes. Connect the Charcoal UI MCP server (https://charcoalui.com/mcp) to Claude Code, Cursor or any MCP client; get_component returns Aero Shards's props and get_install_command returns the exact command.