Image fader with rectangular fade-in expanding from middle to edges

Question

I'm replacing a custom Flash animation with a jQuery. The old animation used a mask that moved like a curtain opening: the center appears first and the image fades in laterally on both sides in a smooth expansion of the centered rectangular mask outwards to the edges.

Is there already way to do this in jQuery?

Answer 1

There are prebuilt options out there, like for instance this example on build internet. Most likely you will have to take an example like this and customize it to fit your needs, but it should give you a starting point.