What It Does
Bodymovin exports After Effects compositions as JSON files that play on websites and mobile apps through the Lottie player. Instead of rendering video, you get lightweight animation data that scales without quality loss and loads significantly faster than video files. The exported animations work with SVG, canvas, HTML, and JavaScript renderers.
The plugin handles most core After Effects elements: shapes, fills, strokes, gradients, trim paths, masks, solids, images, text layers, and null objects. Transforms including position, anchor point, rotation, scale, opacity, and skew all translate cleanly.
Key Features
Shape layer export. Paths, ellipses, rectangles, trim paths, and rounded corners all export with full data. This is where Lottie animations get most of their visual complexity.
Text options. Text layers can export as shapes, preserving exact appearance regardless of font availability, or as actual text if the font is loaded in the browser. The tradeoff is file size vs. flexibility.
Expression support. Covers basics like velocity and valueAtTime, with ongoing additions. Useful for animations that rely on simple expressions rather than static keyframes.
Multiple export formats. You can export as JSON for Lottie, as a GIF, or as video. The JSON path is the primary use case; the others are convenience options.
Lottie runtime API. The player exposes play(), stop(), pause(), setSpeed(), and goToAndStop() for frame-accurate programmatic control in web projects.
Worth noting: layer stretching, image sequences, video layers, audio, and some text decorations like small caps are not supported.
Who It’s For
Motion designers handing off animations to web or app developers will use this most. It’s the standard bridge between After Effects and the Lottie ecosystem. Good for UI animations, loading screens, icon animations, and any context where file size or resolution independence matters.
Web developers building in React, Vue, or vanilla JavaScript consume the resulting .json files directly. The format works across desktop browsers and mobile without plugins.
Pricing
Pay-what-you-want. Enter $0 to download free, or support development with any amount (suggested minimum $20). No subscription, no feature restrictions.