I'm surprised no one's mentioned this yet: CSS transitions.
You can natively transition a div's background image:
***
#some_div {
background-image:url(image_1.jpg);
-webkit-transition:background-image 0.5s;
/* Other vendor-prefixed transition properties */
transition:background-image 0.5s;
}
***
***#some_div:hover {
background-image:url(image_2.jpg);
}***
This saves any kind of JavaScript or jQuery animation to fade an
's src.