CSS Hover Opacity Transition flicker when hovering over element that is on top of another element

Question

I have an album cover that also has a play button on top of it.

When a user hovers over the album cover, the opacity changes to lighten the image. Likewise, when hovering over the cover, if the user then hovers over the play button, the cover opacity should remain in it's changed state.

The problem is that because I have a transition effect on the opacity, the opacity flickers when hovering back and forth over the cover and the play button.

I created a fiddle to show the issue.

How can I have it so that when initially hovering over the album cover, the opacity transitions, but then hovering over the play button, the opacity simply stays the same without re-transitioning, causing it to flicker?

.play-button-container img:hover,
.play-button:hover + .image {
    opacity: .6;
}

.play-button-container img {
  transition: opacity .5s ease-out;
  -moz-transition: opacity .5s ease-out;
  -webkit-transition: opacity .5s ease-out;
  -o-transition: opacity .5s ease-out;
}

.play-button {
    position: absolute;
    top: 10%;
    left: 10%;
    font-size: 30px;
    color: #fff;
    z-index: 1000;
    background-color: red;
}

<div class="image-container">
  <div class="play-button-container">
  
    <div class="play-button">
      PLAY
    </div>
    
    <div class="image">
      <img src="http://papers.co/wallpaper/papers.co-am19-tycho-art-music-album-cover-illust-simple-white-40-wallpaper.jpg" width="350">
    </div>
    
  </div>
</div>

https://jsfiddle.net/659z2ndx/1/

Answer 1

When you hover over the play button, you change the opacity of the div with the class image. That is what causes the flicker.

What you should do is change the opacity of the img

.play-button-container img:hover,
.play-button:hover + .image > img {
   opacity: .6;
}

.play-button-container img {
  transition: opacity .5s ease-out;
  -moz-transition: opacity .5s ease-out;
  -webkit-transition: opacity .5s ease-out;
  -o-transition: opacity .5s ease-out;
}

.play-button {
    position: absolute;
    top: 10%;
    left: 10%;
    font-size: 30px;
    color: #fff;
    z-index: 1000;
    background-color: red;
}

<div class="image-container">
  <div class="play-button-container">
  
    <div class="play-button">
      PLAY
    </div>
    
    <div class="image">
      <img src="http://papers.co/wallpaper/papers.co-am19-tycho-art-music-album-cover-illust-simple-white-40-wallpaper.jpg" width="350">
    </div>
    
  </div>
</div>