7 Powerful UI Animation Tools for Designers and Developers
Are you thinking about how well people respond to your app or website?
Competing for each other’s attention is all that we crave for.
Due to which, businesses are entitled to give their best shots by offering virtual experiences so that they can engage to their beloved audiences in new and exciting ways especially the ones that they’re curious to explore.
Here’s when the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design/ development comes into play.
Is a well-designed animation all that your product needs?
After all, they are delightful; they make us grin to such an extent, and also we understand the product in a better manner.
Unfortunately, business people who are non-techies end up considering animation an afterthought of smile-inducing touches, which is not true!
It’s always good to have an excellent functional animation at hand.
I mean as long as it can make a user interface considerably more appealing.
Unfortunately, many have this misconception that it is a rare piece of motion design before it is put into a real product; it is meant to convey a particular idea.
Adobe After Effects, Principle, Figma and InVision, etc. are some of the most crucial UI animation tools that must be taken into account by Web designers .
The Importance of Good Animation

It may quite interest you to know that animation can be multipurpose.
First of all, you can showcase or infer functionality well.
Second, by doing this one can easily give reassurance and appropriate meaning to interactions.
Now imagine you are doing something and an unexpected result happens.
Fading away or sliding off the screen is pretty standard especially when you delete an item.
I mean of course, there is always a way of simply having the item disappear, but with incorporating animations, businesses can unlock new models of interaction in general.
How to use it correctly?
Being a useful supplement to content, the animation plays a crucial role in enhancing the site’s functionality, layout, and navigation.
According to Steven Fabre – good animation is invisible.
In real life, do you things can show up and stop abruptly? Nope!
Let’s take an example, you are driving really fast, and the moment you decide to stop the car, does it stop immediately? Guess no!
You need to go slower and slower and than you will be able to stop.
Similarly, such things happen on the screen.
Further below I would like to mention a few ways to incorporate animation into your UX design:
1 – Use loading sequences
Low speed is one of the major turn-offs for the end-users.
In case, if an app or the website fails to load in 2 seconds or more , they will simply switch.
You must know that certain aspects can result in the maximum reduction of customer conversions even if it is as minute as a delay of a single second.
Always keep this in mind, the loading time is significant to the success of your project; whether it is a site or an app or even a program.
So what you can do is try keeping the user engaged for more than a few seconds/milliseconds, even better.
2 – Use Feedback
Many times when opening an app or website you encounter a screen full of items, and you become clueless from where to begin.
Fret not! Here comes animation to the rescue.
I mean if your site comprises of a list of posts then don’t make them just appear, slide them or swipe them.
In addition to this, you can also think of adding another layer of animation.
All you have to do is apply time to the appearance of the items so that they slide one after the other.
I can safely bet that this style has the potential to reinforce and can interact with each user individually.
3 – Know where the user should focus
Animation plays a considerable role in providing end-users with a glimpse of reassurance, do you agree?
Now have you thought about incorporating visual feedback?
I mean you can kill two birds with one stone as at one end you can aware the end-users aware of the current working state of the site whereas in the other hand, you can reduce uncertainty to a great extent.

Powerful UI Animation Tools To Take into Account
Here I would like to mention UI animation tools to keep in mind or keep as a part of your must-have collection today!
1 – Final Cut Pro X

Are you seeking around for a tool that has the potential to offer eye-catching animations?
Popularly known as a motion tool, Final Cut Pro features around one hundred behaviours such as Type On, Blur Out, and Text-on-a-Path.
Being a web developer, setting the text in motion becomes easy for you.
From angle to twist, bend or anything can be a piece of cake with motion.
In a layman’s language, the letters can be moved in any desired way – what’s more to ask for?
Apart from this, it may quite interest you to know that it has 200 filters and effects; which means you can add dazzling details to any animation without giving any kind of second thoughts.
Have you checked out one of its inevitable feature called Real-time design engine?
The feature offers nothing but allows you to see the work.
2 – Motion UI

This one is my favourite.
The newest UI animation tool comprises of a Sass library so that you can create flexible CSS transitions and animations in no time.
Another exciting aspect of the tool is that UI animation prototyping becomes pretty fast and easy.
Imagine yourself with a CSS file with more than two dozen premade transition and animation classes at hand!
Also, you can build your own with the source Sass files.
Isn’t that simply great!
With Motion UI you can get nothing less than having attention to detail with complete control over each effect.
Last but certainly not the least, several animation effects can be played in series.
3 – Lottie

To be precise, if you are looking for a tool that perfectly supplements after-effects for iOS, Android, and React Native library?
You need to look no further!
High-quality animations can be exported to any native app without making any significant changes.
Right from basic to line art, character-based animations, and dynamic logo animations with multiple angles and cuts, the source file includes several animations.
As a professional, you can animate any design element without much hassle.
Apart from this, any animation can be used frequently.
If you want you can load the same as a cached copy.
In technical language, we call it an optional caching mechanism.
Furthermore, Lottie supports loading JSON files over the network.
Without a shadow of a doubt, it is a great feature that can be considered when it comes to A/B testing.
4 – Animate.css
Another one of the exciting UI tools that enable us to add static, scroll, click or funky animations.
The library comprises of several animations that can be used for any project.
All you have to do is create just one line of code to animate any desired element in no time.
Comprising of just one file, Animate.css takes the least time to load.
Start downloading the file, after that it needs to be added to your project folder.
After this try adding a class to the elements especially the one you want to set in motion.
I have seen many of you stop here, and as a result, the animation happens just once.
Also, do consider checking out animation-duration, animation-delay, and animation-iteration-count.
5 – Mantra
Are you looking for a UI tool that’s simple yet powerful?
Mantra is the one to think about.
According to several experts, Mantra is considered as a professional web animation tool for everyone.
Adding, removing and tweaking individual keyframes of the animation becomes natural and effortless.
As a result, you can create breathtaking visual effects by using fine-grained control.
One of the best part offered by the tool is that it comprises of many keyframes, the ones which aren’t limited at all.
Onion skin view is a rare feature that allows the web designers to see the entire life cycle of the animation at once.
6 – Stylie

Popularly known as a tween addition for Mantra, Stylie can be taken as a separate UI animation tool.
If you are looking for something that assists you well in configuring and generating your own set of animations, the tool is worth taking into account.
Another interesting thing offered by the tool is that it can also be used for fun as it has all the capabilities and abilities to impress.
Do not forget to pre-define the beginning and ending positions of your animation.
Also, try using the Rotation Mode to modify rotation axes, add, remove, and edit individual keyframes via the “Keyframes” tab. After this follow the steps:
- Custom curves need to be added to the standard ones in the “Motion” tab.
- Tweak the animation to your liking and simply export it.
- Select the preferred format in the “Export” tab
- And you are done!
7 – After Effects

Are you looking forward to creating stunning titles, intros, and transitions?
Do you think it’s easy to woo your target audiences with a couple of animated logos or characters? Of course, you can!
Anything can be achieved when you have after-effects at your service.
Here you require to start from the scratch, or you can come up with one of the animations presets.
With hundreds of effects offered by the tool, you can get the look you’re dreaming of.
And lastly, combining videos and images becomes pretty easy. Anything can be set in motion effortlessly.
Moreover, you can add sound for really amazing results.
If you have the Creative Cloud membership, you can get any of the new features as soon as it appears.
Concluding the UI Animation Tools List
This is just a partial list of UI Animation Tools since we have limited time with us!
There is a lot more to discover!
Author Bio: Sophie is a successful business strategist at Web Development Company etatvasoft.com. She is responsible for developing and promoting the business. Being someone who stays updated with the latest technology trends, she’s always armed to write and spread the knowledge. She is fond of social activities, and you can follow her on Twitter.
A debt of gratitude is in order for the rundown and round up! I have utilized Final Cut Pro and truly delighted in it, however, this was some time back in school. I appreciate After Effects and happy you included that. Thank You very much.
Hi Sophie –
Thanks for the list and round up! I have used Final Cut Pro and really enjoyed it, but this was a while back in school. I enjoy After Effects and glad you added that.
I am going to check into animate.css. This looks like something that would bode well for some site design! Once again, thanks for sharing my friend:)
Brad