How can I create a “Please Wait, Loading…” animation using jQuery?

Question

I would like to place a \"please wait, loading\" spinning circle animation on my site. How should I accomplish this using jQuery?

Answer 1

Jonathon's excellent solution breaks in IE8 (the animation does not show at all). To fix this, change the CSS to:

.modal {
display:    none;
position:   fixed;
z-index:    1000;
top:        0;
left:       0;
height:     100%;
width:      100%;
background: rgba( 255, 255, 255, .8 ) 
            url('http://i.stack.imgur.com/FhHRx.gif') 
            50% 50% 
            no-repeat;
opacity: 0.80;
-ms-filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity = 80);
filter: alpha(opacity = 80)};