Creating a CSS 'path' on hover

Question

I'm trying to generate a 'nice' CSS menu using (mainly) CSS, but with a tiny bit of jQuery as well:

My overall idea is:

+------------------------+
|                        |
|                        |
|         +---+          |
|         |   |          |
|         |___|          | <-- Hover this center piece
|                        |
|                        |
|                        |
+------------------------+

+------------------------+
|     _                  |
|    |\                  | <-- All start moving up to top of screen
|      \  +---+          |
|         |   |          |
|         |___|          |
|                        |
|                        |
|                        |
+------------------------+

+------------------------+
| +---+                  |
| |   |                  |
| |___|                  |
|                        |
|  || All, but one       |
|  || moves down         |
|  \/                    |
|                        |
+------------------------+

+------------------------+
| +---+                  |
| |   |                  |
| |___|                  |
|                        |
|        One stays,      |
| +---+  the rest move this way
| |   |  --->            |
| |___|                  |
+------------------------+

+------------------------+
| +---+                  |
| |   |                  |
| |___|              ^   | The rest move up
|                    |   |
|                    |   |
| +---+            +---+ |
| |   |            |   | |
| |___|            |___| |<-- Another stays
+------------------------+

Complete:

+------------------------+
| +---+            +---+ |
| | 1 |            | 4 | |
| |___|            |___| |
|                        |
|                        |
| +---+            +---+ |
| | 2 |            | 3 | |
| |___|            |___| |
+------------------------+

However, that presumes that there will be four div children, So I'm trying to generate a way of 'determining the angle/position' in jQuery (which, to be honest, isn't working too well).

---

Similar design:

---

So in the end, since there are four divs, they will be at 90 degree intervals from the center (360/4 divs = 90 degrees apart).

If there were, say, six child divs;

360/6 = 60 degrees

So they will be evenly spaced out at 60 degree intervals.

---

I'll be adding animation as well between them, so hence why I've been playing about with rotations, etc., but I just can't seem to get to grips with it:

My current sample is:

$(".wrap").hover(function(){
    var x =$(this).children().length; //Counts '.circles'
    var degree = 360 / x; //Gets angle
    var percent = 100 / x;
    var curPercent = percent;
    $(this).children().each(function (index) {
        $(this).css("transform","rotate(" + degree*index + "deg)");
        $(this).css("top",percent + "px");
        $(this).css("left",percent + "px");

        percent = percent + curPercent;
    });
});

.wrap{
    height: 300px;
    width: 300px;
    background: red;
    position: relative;
    transform-origin: center center;
    transition: all 0.8s;
}
.wrap:hover .circle{
    top: 0;
    left: 0;
}
.circle{
    transition: all 0.8s;
    position: absolute;
    height: 50px;
    width: 50px;
    top: calc(50% - 25px);
    left: calc(50% - 25px);
    background: tomato;
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div class="wrap">
    <div class="circle">1</div>
    <div class="circle">2</div>
    <div class="circle">3</div>
    <div class="circle">4</div>
</div>

Fiddle

---

Would anyone:

• (A): Know how to get the divs to 'rotate' the specified angle or distance in relevance to the parent specified in the jQuery code?

• (B): Get the 'animation' to reset on hover out?

• (C): Have any idea what I'm talking about?

---

Similar implementations (although not exact):

• Here
• This more so - but this uses Sass (not wanted)

Answer 1

Using a different approach you'll get a slightly different effect. You can play with the times of the setTimeout and the transition to modify the behavior.

See the fiddle

+ function() {
  var to;
  $(".wrap").on('mouseenter', function() {
    var circles = $(this).children();
    var degree = (2 * Math.PI) / circles.length; //calc delta angle
    var transforms = [];

    // Calculate the position for each circle
    circles.each(function(index) {
        var x = 100 * Math.cos(-0.5 * Math.PI + degree * (-1 * index - 0.5));
        var y = 100 * Math.sin(-0.5 * Math.PI + degree * (-1 * index - 0.5));

      transforms.push('translate(' + x + 'px,' + y + 'px)');
    });

    // Function to moves all the circles
    // We'll pop a circle each time and than call this function recursively
    function moveCircles() {
      var transform = transforms.shift();
      circles.css('transform', transform);

      circles.splice(0, 1);
      if (circles.length) to = setTimeout(moveCircles, 400);
    }

    moveCircles();
  });

  $(".wrap").on('mouseleave', function() {
    var circles = $(this).children().css('transform', '');
    clearTimeout(to);
  });
}();

   .wrap {
     height: 300px;
     width: 300px;
     background: red;
     position: relative;
     transform-origin: center center;
     transition: all 0.8s;
   }
   .circle {
     transition: all 0.8s;
     position: absolute;
     height: 50px;
     width: 50px;
     text-align: center;
     line-height: 50px;
     top: calc(50% - 25px);
     left: calc(50% - 25px);
     background: tomato;
     border-radius: 50%;
   }

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div class="wrap">
  <div class="circle">1</div>
  <div class="circle">2</div>
  <div class="circle">3</div>
  <div class="circle">4</div>
  <div class="circle">5</div>
  <div class="circle">6</div>
</div>

Answer 2

function rotateStep($this, $circle, angle) {
    $this.animate({
        rotation: angle
    }, {
        step: function(now, fx) {
            $this.css({
                transform: 'rotate(' + now + 'deg)'
            });
            $circle.css({
                transform: 'translate(-50%, -50%) rotate(' + -now + 'deg)'
            });
        }
    });
}

$('.wrap').hover(function() {
    var $this = $(this),
        $circleWrappers = $this.find('.circleWrapper'),
        angleOffset = 360 / $circleWrappers.length,
        angle = - angleOffset / 2,
        distance = Math.min($this.width(), $this.height()) / 2;
    
    $circleWrappers.each(function() {
        var $this = $(this),
            $circle = $(this).find('.circle');
        $circle.animate({ top: -distance });
        rotateStep($this, $circle, angle);
        angle -= angleOffset;
    });
}, function() {
    var $this = $(this),
        $circleWrappers = $this.find('.circleWrapper');
    
    $circleWrappers.each(function() {
        var $this = $(this),
            $circle = $(this).find('.circle');
        $circle.animate({ top: 0 });
        rotateStep($this, $circle, 0);
    });
});

.wrap {
    position: relative;
    background-color: #cccccc;
    width: 400px;
    height: 400px;
    transition:all 0.8s;
    transform-origin: center center;
}
.circleWrapper {
    display: inline-block;
    position: absolute;
    left: 50%;
    top: 50%;
}
.circle {
    position: absolute;
    width: 80px;
    height: 80px;
    border-radius: 40px;
    background-color: white;
    box-shadow: 0px 0px 5px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5);
    line-height: 80px;
    text-align: center;
    font-family: arial;
    font-size: 42px;
    font-weight: bold;
    transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div class="wrap">
    <div class="circleWrapper"><div class="circle">1</div></div>
    <div class="circleWrapper"><div class="circle">2</div></div>
    <div class="circleWrapper"><div class="circle">3</div></div>
    <div class="circleWrapper"><div class="circle">4</div></div>
</div>

JSFiddle