The Webkit blog reports that the latest WebKit builds now support explicit animations in CSS.

CSS Animations is one of the enhancements to CSS proposed by the WebKit project that weve been calling CSS Effects (eg. gradients, masks, transitions). The goal is to provide properties that allow Web developers to create graphically rich content. In many cases animations are presentational, and therefore belong in the styling system. This allows developers to write declarative rules for animations, replacing lots of hard-to-maintain animation code in JavaScript.

The features are presently unique to WebKit but can be viewed by using one of the beta nightly builds or simply through your iPhone/iPod Touch. Apple has already implemented these animations, as well as 3D support, within the iPhone's mobile Safari.

Those browsing using an iPhone or a nightly Webkit build can see the sample pages in action: falling leaves (pictured), bouncing box, and pulse ("the new blink").

These features should eventually make their way into Mac OS X's Safari builds and the features have also been proposed for inclusion into the actual CSS standard. As we've previously detailed, Apple has been making efforts to push web-standard technologies possibly as a way to reduce dependance on Adobe's Flash player. The incorporation of animation into CSS could certainly threaten one of the major uses of Flash on the internet. Apple has also been investing in other core web technologies as the basis for their Mobile Me web applications.