A5PIRE Architecture studio loader animation

Are landing page animations too long?

Hey everyone! I've been having fun building this loader animation with a bunch of photos from different projects and it got me thinking—how long should a loading animation ideally last? I generally keep it between 2-4 seconds, but anything longer than that starts feeling a bit off.

I love a dynamic loader with beautiful typefaces and subtle animations, big moves, and layout shifts, but there's a fine line, right? When does it start to overshadow the content or affect the site’s performance and SEO?

Would love to hear your thoughts, fellow designers. Have you managed to strike that perfect balance where the animation enhances the content without overshadowing it?