Dynamic effect design in recent years in a variety of web design and App design performance is quite eye-catching. All kinds of amazing creativity and smooth and natural motion design quickly capture the user’s eye, greatly improve the sense of quality and conversion rate. And to create excellent UI animation effects naturally need excellent software. UI animation tools are becoming more and more valuable in the work of designers.
What are the advantages of dynamic effect design?
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Save screen space
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Improve product usability
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Add creativity and interest to the product
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Convenient interaction
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Perform multiple tasks at the same time
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Provide clear feedback to users
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Grab users’ attention
So adhering to the idea of “seeking welfare” for the majority of designer friends, the friend of copy guest has sorted out 10 popular UI dynamic and effective tools in the industry for your reference and learning.
1. Adobe After Effects
After Effects is definitely one of the most powerful UI animation tools and an industry standard for visual and UI designers. From stunning transitions to creative motion design, all of these features and much more are available through After Effects. In addition, it excels not only in animation, but also in the synthesis of motion graphics and visual effects for film, television, video and the Web.
Price: 30 days free trial, Pro – $31.49/ month
Operating system: Windows, Mac
Advantages:
– Powerful function, can enjoy the realization of your animation creativity.
– Work seamlessly with other Adobe tools: Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Fonts and Adobe Spark.
– Support animation data export with plugin.
– Rich material and learning resources.
Disadvantages:
– Too many features leads to a steep learning curve.
– High requirements on computer processing performance and storage space.
– High resolution previews render slowly.
User comments:
“If you want to be a good designer, After Effects is it!”
“Ideal tool for motion graphics and animation design.”
Tutorial Resources:
After Effects Software: huke88.com/route/ae.ht…
2. Origami
Origami Studio is a free UI animation tool created by the Facebook team. Designers can quickly create interactions and animations by dragging and dropping different components directly from the UI component library. But it takes the user to think like a developer to make good animation and design.
Price: Free
System: the Mac
Advantages:
– Powerful animations and interactive effects.
– Totally free.
– Open source software on GitHub.
Disadvantages:
– Supports only Mac OS.
– Mouse-driven interaction. Users cannot test directly.
– Higher learning costs.
– Some coding knowledge is required.
User comments:
“Very powerful animation and interactive tools.”
Video tutorial:
B station net friend homemade Origami video tutorial: www.bilibili.com/video/av497…
3. Flinto
Flinto is a lightweight and comprehensive prototyping and UI animation tool. Designers create interactive and animated prototypes for applications and the Web. Animation tools are provided for designers to quickly create transition-based animations. Preview smoothly on mobile devices and PCS.
Price: Free trial, Pro – $99/ user/year
System: the Mac
Advantages:
– Integration with Sketch and Figma.
– 3D conversion.
– Built-in gestures: click, double click, long press, swipe, etc.
Disadvantages:
– Supports only Mac OS.
– Photoshop import is not supported.
– Can’t create more complex effects without a timeline.
User comments:
“It makes animation more fun and faster.”
“A simulation animation effect is very good software.”
Video tutorial:
Is also equipped with Chinese subtitles provided by B station net friend Flinto crash series: www.bilibili.com/video/av158…
4. Framer
Framer is open source javascript-based software for interactive dynamic design. It can quickly import Photoshop and Sketch designs, preview in real time, and create complex interactive prototypes or animations.
Price: Individual – $15 / month, small group – $99 / month
System: the Mac
Advantages:
– Supports importing Sketch and Photoshop files.
– Framer X Store offers a lot of design resources.
– Can use coding knowledge for creative design (friendly to designers with programming knowledge)
Disadvantages:
– Supports only Mac OS.
– Coding knowledge required (not beginner friendly).
– There is no annotation tool and no support for direct delivery of annotation information to developers.
– The imported Sketch file does not match the bitmap layer.
– Lack of collaboration with mainstream tools leads to a lot of rework.
User comments:
“Great product for interactive detail and animation!”
Video tutorial:
Original Chinese tutorial [Framer tutorial/interact effect/prototyping 】 : www.bilibili.com/video/av320…
5. A copy
Copycat is an online collaboration tool for designers and developers. In addition to providing rich animation effects for interactive prototypes, designers can upload prototypes and visual designs from PHOTOSHOP, Adobe XD and Sketch, and automatically generate annotation and image cutting information through corresponding tool plug-ins for easy delivery.
Price: Personal free, Team -$39/ month, Team Pro-$129/ month
System: Mac, Windows
Advantages:
– Supports Adobe XD, Sketch, Axure and Photoshop plug-ins.
– Various UI animation effects.
– Complete workflows including dynamic setting, prototyping and design delivery can be completed within the platform.
– Easy to use.
Disadvantages:
– Animations set on Adobe XD, Sketch, Axure and Photoshop cannot be imported directly into copycat.
– Preview on iPhone X needs to be improved.
User comments:
“I feel ok. But it needs to be more user-friendly and simple, and I think the UI design could be simpler.”
Video tutorial:
Moke platform supports a complete design process, whether it is intelligent annotation, one-click cutting diagram, multiple annotations, interactive prototype, full picture drawing board, or team management, from product, design to development of a document, you can operate seamlessly.
help.mockplus.cn/p/200
6. Motion UI
Motion UI is a SASS-based CSS transition and dynamic effects design library. This is a very powerful UI animation tool that provides over 20 transitions and animations for CSS files. Also, if it’s an open source CSS file, you can build your own Motion effects using the Motion UI.
Price: Free
Operating system: Win, Mac
Advantages:
– Support series animation effects.
– User can customize 7 dimensions of animation.
– Open source tools.
– Provides code tutorials.
Disadvantages:
– Motion UI running in IE is not supported.
– Coding knowledge is required.
Video tutorial:
There are very few Videos in Chinese, so here’s a Youtube video on how to get started with the Motion UI in English:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QM…
7. Hype 4
Hype 4 is HTML5 animation software for the Mac, and you don’t need Flash plug-ins or code to create H5 animations. It has a wySIWYG function. Like after Effects, you can use the timeline to create interactive animations for different scenes.
Price: Standard -$49.9, Professional -$99.99
System: the Mac
Advantages:
– Supports exporting files to videos and GIFs.
– You can use the timeline to create an animation by adding or playing an element
– You can capture animations from actions to create keyframes.
– No coding required.
– Supports Chinese.
Disadvantages:
– Supports only Mac OS.
– Lack of support for Adobe Acrobat.
– You need to export site code to edit certain elements.
User comments:
“The best UI animation tool ever!”
Video tutorial:
In this tutorial, you can learn how to make HTML5 animations on the iPad with Hype 4.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAY…
8. Lottie
Lottie is an open source animation library created by Airbnb for Android, iOS and React Native. It supports the presentation of JSON files exported from Adobe After Effects and can quickly achieve animation Effects.
Price: Free
System: the Web
Advantages:
– There are free resources on Github.
– Includes various animations, such as basic lines, character-based animations and dynamic Logo animations.
– JSON files can be loaded over the network.
– Support for capturing commonly used animations.
Disadvantages:
– Does not support any effects in the expression or effects menu.
– Does not support layer effects, such as shadows, color overlays or touch screen effects.
User comments:
“The biggest advantage is that it provides a complete cross-platform animation implementation workflow.”
Video tutorial:
Learn how to create beautiful animations in Android with minimal Lottie code.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSD…
9. Keynote
Keynote is a presentation design tool developed by Apple for the Mac platform. For most people, it’s just slideshow software for use on the Mac. But it’s also a great UI animation tool for designers. For example, the Apple team also uses it for interactive design and presentations. So, if you’re familiar with this software, you can also create common animations in Keynote.
Price: Free
System: the Mac
Advantages:
– Contains most of the animations in PowerPoint.
– The animation quality is even better than PowerPoint.
– Compatible with iCloud.
Disadvantages:
– Supports only Mac OS.
– The import of local files is slow.
– Unable to display animation timeline.
User comments:
“In terms of cutscenes and animations, Keynote really does have a smoother transition than its contemporaries in PowerPoint.”
Video tutorial:
B station users teach you how to use Keynote, three steps to complete the animation effect:
www.bilibili.com/video/av303…
10. Flow
Flow is a powerful UI animation tool that you can use to create interactive transition and layout code for iOS and HTML projects. As a production tool, it can not only create beautiful animations with strong timelines, but also export animation code.
Price: Free trial -30 days, Pro -$15/ month or $150/ year
System: the Mac
Advantages:
– Powerful timeline allows you to accurately edit and set animations.
– Support export code.
– Simplified interface to help edit key frames.
Disadvantages:
– Supports only Mac OS.
– Only Sketch files can be imported.
User comments:
“The best thing about Flow is that it supports clear JS code for output, making it easy to read and edit.”
Tutorial:
The Flow website provides detailed tutorials on how to use Flow to animate Sketch files and export code and cut diagrams.
createwithflow.com/tutorials/
Conclusion:
Animation and other inspirational elements work together to make today’s designs more creative and diverse. With the help of UI dynamic tools, web design and App design are no longer monotonous, but at the same time more vivid and interesting. You can also try using the above 10 excellent UI animation tools introduced by Xiao Mo to create a stylish and modern design.
Related reading:
30 best CSS animation cases to share, easily let web users follow and “move”
The best popover/popup design in 2019
Inspired Feature — 2019 Excellent UI Animation Design appreciation # May
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