Lottie Animations

Lottie Animations

Overview

Lottie is a library for rendering After Effects animations in real-time on web, iOS, Android, and React Native. Created by Airbnb, it allows designers to ship animations as easily as shipping static assets. Animations are exported from After Effects as JSON files using the Bodymovin plugin, then rendered natively with minimal performance overhead.

When to use Lottie:

• Designer-created animations that need pixel-perfect fidelity
• Complex animated icons and micro-interactions
• Loading animations and progress indicators
• Onboarding sequences and tutorial animations
• Marketing animations and promotional content
• Alternative to GIF/video with smaller file sizes and scalability

Key advantages:

• Vector-based (scalable without quality loss)
• Significantly smaller file sizes than GIF or video
• Editable at runtime (colors, speed, segments)
• Full designer control via After Effects
• Cross-platform rendering consistency
• Interactive controls (play, pause, seek, loop)

Core Concepts

Lottie Format Types

1. JSON Lottie (.json)

• Original Lottie format
• Exported from After Effects via Bodymovin plugin
• Human-readable JSON structure
• Larger file sizes (not compressed)
• Widely supported across all platforms

2. dotLottie (.lottie)

• Modern compressed format
• ZIP archive containing JSON + assets
• Supports multiple animations and themes in one file
• Smaller file sizes (up to 90% reduction)
• Recommended for production use

Library Options

lottie-web (original library):

import lottie from 'lottie-web';

lottie.loadAnimation({
  container: document.getElementById('lottie-container'),
  renderer: 'svg', // or 'canvas', 'html'
  loop: true,
  autoplay: true,
  path: 'animation.json' // or animationData: jsonData
});

@lottiefiles/dotlottie-web (modern, recommended):

import { DotLottie } from '@lottiefiles/dotlottie-web';

new DotLottie({
  canvas: document.getElementById('canvas'),
  src: 'animation.lottie',
  autoplay: true,
  loop: true
});

@lottiefiles/dotlottie-react (React integration):

import { DotLottieReact } from '@lottiefiles/dotlottie-react';

<DotLottieReact
  src="animation.lottie"
  loop
  autoplay
  style={{ height: 300 }}
/>

lottie-react (alternative React wrapper):

import Lottie from 'lottie-react';
import animationData from './animation.json';

<Lottie animationData={animationData} loop={true} />

Animation Data Sources

1. LottieFiles (lottie.host)

• 100,000+ free animations
• Direct URL embedding
• CDN hosting

2. Local JSON/dotLottie files

• Bundled with application
• Better performance (no network request)
• Version control friendly

3. After Effects export

• Custom designer animations
• Bodymovin plugin required
• Export settings critical for file size

Common Patterns

1. Basic HTML Integration with dotLottie-web

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <style>
    #canvas {
      width: 400px;
      height: 400px;
    }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <canvas id="canvas"></canvas>

  <script type="module">
    import { DotLottie } from 'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@lottiefiles/dotlottie-web/+esm';

    new DotLottie({
      canvas: document.getElementById('canvas'),
      src: 'https://lottie.host/4db68bbd-31f6-4cd8-84eb-189de081159a/IGmMCqhzpt.lottie',
      autoplay: true,
      loop: true
    });
  </script>
</body>
</html>

2. React Component with Controls

import React from 'react';
import { DotLottieReact } from '@lottiefiles/dotlottie-react';

const AnimatedButton = () => {
  const [dotLottie, setDotLottie] = React.useState(null);

  const handlePlay = () => dotLottie?.play();
  const handlePause = () => dotLottie?.pause();
  const handleStop = () => dotLottie?.stop();
  const handleSeek = (frame) => dotLottie?.setFrame(frame);

  return (
    <div>
      <DotLottieReact
        src="button-animation.lottie"
        loop
        autoplay={false}
        dotLottieRefCallback={setDotLottie}
        style={{ height: 200 }}
      />

      <div>
        <button onClick={handlePlay}>Play</button>
        <button onClick={handlePause}>Pause</button>
        <button onClick={handleStop}>Stop</button>
        <button onClick={() => handleSeek(30)}>Seek to frame 30</button>
      </div>
    </div>
  );
};

3. Event Listeners and Lifecycle Hooks

import React, { useEffect } from 'react';
import { DotLottieReact } from '@lottiefiles/dotlottie-react';

const EventDrivenAnimation = () => {
  const [dotLottie, setDotLottie] = React.useState(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    if (!dotLottie) return;

    const onLoad = () => console.log('Animation loaded');
    const onPlay = () => console.log('Animation started');
    const onPause = () => console.log('Animation paused');
    const onComplete = () => console.log('Animation completed');
    const onFrame = ({ currentFrame }) => console.log('Frame:', currentFrame);

    dotLottie.addEventListener('load', onLoad);
    dotLottie.addEventListener('play', onPlay);
    dotLottie.addEventListener('pause', onPause);
    dotLottie.addEventListener('complete', onComplete);
    dotLottie.addEventListener('frame', onFrame);

    return () => {
      dotLottie.removeEventListener('load', onLoad);
      dotLottie.removeEventListener('play', onPlay);
      dotLottie.removeEventListener('pause', onPause);
      dotLottie.removeEventListener('complete', onComplete);
      dotLottie.removeEventListener('frame', onFrame);
    };
  }, [dotLottie]);

  return (
    <DotLottieReact
      src="animation.lottie"
      loop
      autoplay
      dotLottieRefCallback={setDotLottie}
    />
  );
};

4. Scroll-Driven Animation with lottie-react

import Lottie from 'lottie-react';
import robotAnimation from './robot.json';

const ScrollAnimation = () => {
  const interactivity = {
    mode: 'scroll',
    actions: [
      {
        visibility: [0, 0.2],
        type: 'stop',
        frames: [0]
      },
      {
        visibility: [0.2, 0.45],
        type: 'seek',
        frames: [0, 45]
      },
      {
        visibility: [0.45, 1.0],
        type: 'loop',
        frames: [45, 60]
      }
    ]
  };

  return (
    <Lottie
      animationData={robotAnimation}
      style={{ height: 300 }}
      interactivity={interactivity}
    />
  );
};

5. Hover-Triggered Segment Playback

import { useLottie, useLottieInteractivity } from 'lottie-react';
import likeButton from './like-button.json';

const HoverAnimation = () => {
  const lottieObj = useLottie({
    animationData: likeButton
  });

  const Animation = useLottieInteractivity({
    lottieObj,
    mode: 'cursor',
    actions: [
      {
        position: { x: [0, 1], y: [0, 1] },
        type: 'loop',
        frames: [45, 60]
      },
      {
        position: { x: -1, y: -1 },
        type: 'stop',
        frames: [45]
      }
    ]
  });

  return <div style={{ height: 300, border: '2px solid black' }}>{Animation}</div>;
};

6. Multi-Animation and Theme Support

import { DotLottieReact } from '@lottiefiles/dotlottie-react';
import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';

const ThemedAnimation = () => {
  const [dotLottie, setDotLottie] = useState(null);
  const [animations, setAnimations] = useState([]);
  const [themes, setThemes] = useState([]);
  const [currentAnimationId, setCurrentAnimationId] = useState('');
  const [currentThemeId, setCurrentThemeId] = useState('');

  useEffect(() => {
    if (!dotLottie) return;

    const onLoad = () => {
      setAnimations(dotLottie.manifest.animations || []);
      setThemes(dotLottie.manifest.themes || []);
      setCurrentAnimationId(dotLottie.activeAnimationId);
      setCurrentThemeId(dotLottie.activeThemeId);
    };

    dotLottie.addEventListener('load', onLoad);
    return () => dotLottie.removeEventListener('load', onLoad);
  }, [dotLottie]);

  return (
    <div>