Gravity Stars
A drifting starfield the pointer pulls on: nearby stars swing into orbit around it, brighten with speed, then drift back home when it leaves. Canvas, written in the file.
- Category: Animated React Backgrounds
- Licence: Charcoal UI Pro
- Built with: React 19, Tailwind CSS 4, Motion
- Dependencies: motion, clsx, tailwind-merge
Examples
Gravity Stars
API reference
| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
count | number | 140 | |
gravity | number | 1 | |
radius | number | 160 | Px. |
color | string | "var(--foreground)" | |
className | string | — |
About Gravity Stars
Gravity Stars drifts a field of stars that the pointer pulls on: nearby stars swing into orbit around it and brighten with speed, then drift back home when it leaves.
Gravity Stars 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 Gravity Stars
- Space and astronomy themes.
- AI and data product heroes.
- Interactive about pages.
- Calm, playful backgrounds.
How it works
Each star springs toward a home that slowly drifts, and the pointer adds a pull plus a sideways push so stars orbit instead of piling up. It runs on a 2D canvas and pauses off screen.
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 Gravity Stars
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, gravity, radius, color live, and the Code tab updates to match, so the snippet you copy already carries your values.
- count (number, default 140).
- gravity (number, default 1).
- radius (number, default 160): Px.
- color (string, default "var(--foreground)").
Goes well with Gravity Stars
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 Gravity Stars
npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/gravity-starsGravity Stars is part of Charcoal UI Pro. One seat unlocks all 393 Pro components, 112 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 gravity-stars.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
- How do I install Gravity Stars?
- Gravity Stars is part of Charcoal UI Pro. Add the @charcoal registry to components.json with your access token, then run npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/gravity-stars. It copies gravity-stars.tsx into components/ui and installs motion, clsx, tailwind-merge.
- Is Gravity Stars free for commercial use?
- Gravity Stars 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 Gravity Stars 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 Gravity Stars?
- Yes. Connect the Charcoal UI MCP server (https://charcoalui.com/mcp) to Claude Code, Cursor or any MCP client; get_component returns Gravity Stars's props and get_install_command returns the exact command.