Elastic Mesh
A grid of points on springs, coupled to their neighbours, so the pointer dents the mesh and the dent rings outward and settles.
- Category: Interactive
- Licence: Charcoal UI Pro
- Built with: React 19, Tailwind CSS 4, Motion
- Dependencies: motion, clsx, tailwind-merge
Examples
Elastic Mesh
API reference
| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
cols | number | 18 | |
rows | number | 12 | |
stiffness | number | 0.08 | |
damping | number | 0.9 | Velocity kept per frame. |
color | string | "var(--muted-foreground)" | |
lineWidth | number | 1 | |
radius | number | 90 | Pointer push radius in px. |
className | string | — |
About Elastic Mesh
Elastic Mesh is a grid of points on springs, coupled to neighbours, so the pointer dents the mesh and the dent rings outward and settles.
Elastic Mesh is an interactive effect 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 Elastic Mesh
- Physics and engineering brands.
- Interactive heroes.
- Creative coding.
- Fabric and material themes.
How it works
Points spring home and share displacement with neighbours, only simulating while there is energy.
Pointer effects have a keyboard or static equivalent, and nothing that matters depends on hover alone. With prefers-reduced-motion on, it holds still or settles instantly instead of animating.
Customizing Elastic Mesh
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 cols, stiffness, damping, radius live, and the Code tab updates to match, so the snippet you copy already carries your values.
- cols (number, default 18).
- rows (number, default 12).
- stiffness (number, default 0.08).
- damping (number, default 0.9): Velocity kept per frame.
- color (string, default "var(--muted-foreground)").
- lineWidth (number, default 1).
Goes well with Elastic Mesh
These interactive pieces share its tokens and motion language, so they sit together on one page without clashing.
- Hover Reveal List: A React hover reveal list: hovering a row floats its image beside the pointer
- Pixel Grid: A React pixel grid: cells light up under the pointer and fade slowly
- Draggable Cards: React draggable cards: polaroids scattered on a table you can pick up
- Image Accordion: A React image accordion: the hovered panel expands to reveal its caption
- Velocity Marquee: A React velocity marquee: big text that speeds up and flips with scroll
Install Elastic Mesh
npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/elastic-meshElastic Mesh 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 elastic-mesh.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
- Does the mesh keep animating when idle?
- No. It only simulates while there is energy in the springs, so once a dent settles the mesh stops drawing until the pointer moves again.
- How do I install Elastic Mesh?
- Elastic Mesh is part of Charcoal UI Pro. Add the @charcoal registry to components.json with your access token, then run npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/elastic-mesh. It copies elastic-mesh.tsx into components/ui and installs motion, clsx, tailwind-merge.
- Is Elastic Mesh free for commercial use?
- Elastic Mesh 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 Elastic Mesh 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 Elastic Mesh?
- Yes. Connect the Charcoal UI MCP server (https://charcoalui.com/mcp) to Claude Code, Cursor or any MCP client; get_component returns Elastic Mesh's props and get_install_command returns the exact command.