Frontend & browser·Rendering and the browser pipeline
the animation stays smooth even while your JavaScript is busy, because it never touches the main thread.
Compositing
Also calledcompositor, layer compositing
The final stage, where painted layers are assembled into the image on screen, usually on the GPU and on a separate thread. `transform` and `opacity` can be changed at this stage alone, which is why animating them stays at sixty frames per second while animating `top` or `width` does not. Compositing is the escape hatch from the main thread, and the reason every animation guide tells you to use those two properties.