CSS transform animations can produce unexpected 'swooping' effects when using scale followed by translate due to how the browser interpolates transform values. The scale acts as a multiplier for translate values during animation, causing non-linear movement. The solution is to reorder transforms as translate first, then scale,
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What caused the quirky animation?How to fix itBut wait, why did rotate(0) fix it?Bonus round: scale vs 3D translateSort: