Adobe Bodymovin



After Effects to html - svg library

How to install and use the Bodymovin extension for After Effects, which lets you export After Effects compositions as JSON files.About Lottie: https://airbnb. How to install Bodymovin Adobe After Effect's Extension Animation JSON Export Import Ngima Sherpa Developer Mobile Android iOS UI/UXLinks Used.

Setting up After Effects

Adobe
  • Close After Effects
  • Look for the ScriptUI Panels in your Adobe AE install folder.For example:
    C:Program FilesAdobeAdobe After Effects CS6Support FilesScriptsScriptUI Panels
  • Paste the 2 files “bodymovin_parser.jsx” and “helperProject.aep” located in the build/parser/ folder
  • Open After Effects
  • Go to Edit > Preferences > General > and check on “Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network”

How it works

After Effects

Adobe bodymovin
  • Open your AE project and select the script (bodymovin_parser.jsx) on the Window menu.
  • A Panel will open with a Compositions tab.
  • On the Compositions tab, click Refresh to get a list of all you project Comps.
  • Select the composition you want to export
  • Select Add to Render Queue
  • Select Destination Folder
  • Click Render (render may take a while, depending on the complexity of the animation, and will block AE until it's done. be patient and understanding)
  • look for the exported data.json file (if you had images or AI layers on your animation, there will be a files folder with the exported files)

HTML

  • get the bodymovin.js file from the build/player/ folder
  • include the .js file on your html
  • add the data.json to a folder relative to the html
  • create a div that will contain the animation.

Usage

bodymovin has 6 main methods: bodymovin.play() -- with 1 optional parameter name to target a specific animation
bodymovin.stop() -- with 1 optional parameter name to target a specific animation
bodymovin.setSpeed() -- first param speed (1 is normal speed) -- with 1 optional parameter name to target a specific animation
bodymovin.setDirection() -- first param direction (1 is normal direction.) -- with 1 optional parameter name to target a specific animation
bodymovin.searchAnimations() -- looks for elements with class “bodymovin” bodymovin.registerAnimation() -- you can register an element directly with registerAnimation. It must have the “data-animation-path” attribute pointing at the data.json url

See the demo folders for examples

Disclaimer! Alerts! Warnings!

Undos

The script is very invasive. It will perform a lot of actions in your project that will go to the undo stack. So you‘ll probably won’t be able to undo your work after exporting. I haven't figured out how to prevent this.

Files

If you have any images or AI layers that you haven't converted to shapes (I recommend that you convert them, so they get exported as vectors), they will be added to the render queue and exported. So expect a lot of “render ready chimes” coming out from your speakers that will scare your cats and wake your neighbours.

Time

Some animations take a lot of time to render. If you see AE is not responding, be patient, give it some minutes. There is a lot going on and I haven't used an interval function on this version.

Performance

This is real time rendering. Although it does some optimizations, too complex animations can have an impact on performance. (remember flash?)
More optimizations are on their way, but try not to use huge shapes in AE only to mask a small part of it.
Too many nodes will also affect performance as well as lots of transformations at the same time.

Help

Bodymovin Adobe Animate

If you have any animations that don‘t work or want me to export them, don’t hesitate to write.
I'm really interested in seeing what kind of problems the plugin has.
my email is hernantorrisi@gmail.com

Version

this is a very first version of the plug in. It will have bugs for sure. Let me know if anything comes up.

Examples

http://lab.nearpod.com/bodymovin/demo/ninja/
http://lab.nearpod.com/bodymovin/demo/shapes/
http://lab.nearpod.com/bodymovin/demo/gatin/

Notes

  • If you want to modify the parser or the player, there are some gulp commands that can simplify the task
  • look at the great animations exported on the demo folder
  • gzipping the animation jsons and the player have a huge impact on the filesize. I recommend doing it if you use it for a project.

Support

  • The script supports precomps, shapes, solids, images, null objects,
  • Text, image sequences, videos and audio are not supported (maybe some of them coming soon)
  • It supports masks and inverted masks but only in “Add” mode. Maybe other modes will come but it has a huge performance hit.
  • It supports time remapping (yeah!)
  • The script supports shapes, rectangles and ellipses. It doesn't support stars yet.
  • Trim paths are supported.
  • No effects whatsoever. (stroke is on it's way)
  • No expressions (maybe some coming)
  • No layer stretching! No idea why, but stretching a layer messes with all the data.

Coming up

  • Exporting images in a sprite
  • Stroke Effect support
  • Experimenting with the webAnimationAPI export
  • Importing into a canvas instead of SVG
  • Exporting 3D animations (not vectors because there is no 3d svg support on browsers)

Lottie is a mobile library for Web, and iOS that parses Adobe After Effects animations exported as json with Bodymovin and renders them natively on mobile!

For the first time, designers can create and ship beautiful animations without an engineer painstakingly recreating it by hand. They say a picture is worth 1,000 words so here are 13,000:

Option 1 (Recommended):

Download it from from aescripts + aeplugins:http://aescripts.com/bodymovin/

Adobe Bodymovin

Option 2:

Or get it from the adobe storehttps://creative.adobe.com/addons/products/12557CC 2014 and up.

Other installation options:

Option 3:

  • download the ZIP from the repo.
  • Extract content and get the .zxp file from '/build/extension'
  • Use the ZXP installer from aescripts.com.

Option 4:

  • Close After Effects

  • Extract the zipped file on build/extension/bodymovin.zxp to the adobe CEP folder:
    WINDOWS:
    C:Program Files (x86)Common FilesAdobeCEPextensions or
    C:<username>AppDataRoamingAdobeCEPextensions
    MAC:
    /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CEP/extensions/bodymovin
    (you can open the terminal and type:
    $ cp -R YOURUNZIPEDFOLDERPATH/extension /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CEP/extensions/bodymovin
    then type:
    $ ls /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CEP/extensions/bodymovin
    to make sure it was copied correctly type)

  • Edit the registry key:
    WINDOWS:
    open the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Adobe/CSXS.6 and add a key named PlayerDebugMode, of type String, and value 1.
    MAC:
    open the file ~/Library/Preferences/com.adobe.CSXS.6.plist and add a row with key PlayerDebugMode, of type String, and value 1.

Option 5:

Install the zxp manually following the instructions here:https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/installingextensionsandaddons.htmlSkip directly to 'Install third-party extensions'

Option 6:

Install with Homebrew-adobe:

After installing

  • Windows: Go to Edit > Preferences > Scripting & Expressions.. > and check on 'Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network'
  • Mac: Go to Adobe After Effects > Preferences > Scripting & Expressions.. > and check on 'Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network'

Old Versions

  • Windows: Go to Edit > Preferences > General > and check on 'Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network'
  • Mac: Go to Adobe After Effects > Preferences > General > and check on 'Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network'

Or you can use the script file from here:https://cdnjs.com/libraries/bodymovinOr get it directly from the AE plugin clicking on Get Player

See a basic implementation here.

See examples on codepen.

How it works

Here's a video tutorial explaining how to export a basic animation and load it in an html page

After Effects

  • Open your AE project and select the bodymovin extension on Window > Extensions > bodymovin
  • A Panel will open with a Compositions tab listing all of your Project Compositions.
  • Select the composition you want to export.
  • Select a Destination Folder.
  • Click Render
  • look for the exported json file (if you had images or AI layers on your animation, there will be an images folder with the exported files)

HTML

  • get the lottie.js file from the build/player/ folder for the latest build
  • include the .js file on your html (remember to gzip it for production)

You can call lottie.loadAnimation() to start an animation.It takes an object as a unique param with:

  • animationData: an Object with the exported animation data.
  • path: the relative path to the animation object. (animationData and path are mutually exclusive)
  • loop: true / false / number
  • autoplay: true / false it will start playing as soon as it is ready
  • name: animation name for future reference
  • renderer: 'svg' / 'canvas' / 'html' to set the renderer
  • container: the dom element on which to render the animation

It returns the animation instance you can control with play, pause, setSpeed, etc.

Composition Settings:

Check this wiki page for an explanation for each setting.https://github.com/airbnb/lottie-web/wiki/Composition-Settings

Usage

Animation instances have these main methods:

play

stop

pause

setSpeed(speed)

  • speed: 1 is normal speed.

goToAndStop(value, isFrame)

  • value: numeric value.
  • isFrame: defines if first argument is a time based value or a frame based (default false).

goToAndPlay(value, isFrame)

  • value: numeric value.
  • isFrame: defines if first argument is a time based value or a frame based (default false).

setDirection(direction)

  • direction: 1 is forward, -1 is reverse.

playSegments(segments, forceFlag)

  • segments: array. Can contain 2 numeric values that will be used as first and last frame of the animation. Or can contain a sequence of arrays each with 2 numeric values.
  • forceFlag: boolean. If set to false, it will wait until the current segment is complete. If true, it will update values immediately.

setSubframe(useSubFrames)

  • useSubFrames: If false, it will respect the original AE fps. If true, it will update on every requestAnimationFrame with intermediate values. Default is true.

destroy()

getDuration(inFrames)

  • inFrames: If true, returns duration in frames, if false, in seconds.

Additional methods:

  • updateTextDocumentData -- updates a text layer's dataMore Info

Lottie has several global methods that will affect all animations:

lottie.play() -- with 1 optional parameter name to target a specific animation
lottie.stop() -- with 1 optional parameter name to target a specific animation
lottie.goToAndStop(value, isFrame, name) -- Moves an animation with the specified name playback to the defined time. If name is omitted, moves all animation instances.
lottie.setSpeed() -- first argument speed (1 is normal speed) -- with 1 optional parameter name to target a specific animation
lottie.setDirection() -- first argument direction (1 is normal direction.) -- with 1 optional parameter name to target a specific animation
lottie.searchAnimations() -- looks for elements with class 'lottie' or 'bodymovin'
lottie.loadAnimation() -- Explained above. returns an animation instance to control individually.
lottie.destroy(name) -- Destroys an animation with the specified name. If name is omitted, destroys all animation instances. Ableton live. The DOM element will be emptied.
lottie.registerAnimation() -- you can register an element directly with registerAnimation. It must have the 'data-animation-path' attribute pointing at the data.json url
lottie.getRegisteredAnimations() -- returns all animations instances
lottie.setQuality() -- default 'high', set 'high','medium','low', or a number > 1 to improve player performance. In some animations as low as 2 won't show any difference.
lottie.setLocationHref() -- Sets the relative location from where svg elements with ids are referenced. It's useful when you experience mask issues in Safari.
lottie.freeze() -- Freezes all playing animations or animations that will be loaded
lottie.unfreeze() -- Unfreezes all animations
lottie.inBrowser() -- true if the library is being run in a browser
lottie.resize() -- Resizes all animation instances

Events

  • onComplete
  • onLoopComplete
  • onEnterFrame
  • onSegmentStart

you can also use addEventListener with the following events:

  • complete
  • loopComplete
  • enterFrame
  • segmentStart
  • config_ready (when initial config is done)
  • data_ready (when all parts of the animation have been loaded)
  • data_failed (when part of the animation can not be loaded)
  • loaded_images (when all image loads have either succeeded or errored)
  • DOMLoaded (when elements have been added to the DOM)
  • destroy

Other loading options

  • if you want to use an existing canvas to draw, you can pass an extra object: 'rendererSettings' with the following configuration:
Bodymovin

Doing this you will have to handle the canvas clearing after each frame
Another way to load animations is adding specific attributes to a dom element.You have to include a div and set it's class to 'lottie'.If you do it before page load, it will automatically search for all tags with the class 'lottie'.Or you can call lottie.searchAnimations() after page load and it will search all elements with the class 'lottie'.

  • Add the data.json to a folder relative to the html
  • Create a div that will contain the animation.
  • Required
    • A class called 'lottie'
    • A 'data-animation-path' attribute with relative path to the data.json
  • Optional
    • A 'data-anim-loop' attribute
    • A 'data-name' attribute to specify a name to target play controls specifically

Example

Preview

You can preview or take an svg snapshot of the animation to use as poster. After you render your animation, you can take a snapshot of any frame in the animation and save it to your disk. I recommend to pass the svg through an svg optimizer like https://jakearchibald.github.io/svgomg/ and play around with their settings.

Recommendations

Files

If you have any images or AI layers that you haven't converted to shapes (I recommend that you convert them, so they get exported as vectors, right click each layer and do: 'Create shapes from Vector Layers'), they will be saved to an images folder relative to the destination json folder.Beware not to overwrite an existing folder on that same location.

Adobe Bodymovin

Performance

This is real time rendering. Although it is pretty optimized, it always helps if you keep your AE project to what is necessary
More optimizations are on their way, but try not to use huge shapes in AE only to mask a small part of it.
Too many nodes will also affect performance.

Help

If you have any animations that don't work or want me to export them, don't hesitate to write.
I'm really interested in seeing what kind of problems the plugin has.
my email is hernantorrisi@gmail.com

AE Feature Support

  • The script supports precomps, shapes, solids, images, null objects, texts
  • It supports masks and inverted masks. Maybe other modes will come but it has a huge performance hit.
  • It supports time remapping
  • The script supports shapes, rectangles, ellipses and stars.
  • Expressions. Check the wiki page for more info.
  • Not supported: image sequences, videos and audio are not supported
  • No negative layer stretching! No idea why, but stretching a layer messes with all the data.

Development

npm install or bower install firstnpm start

Notes

  • If you want to modify the parser or the player, there are some gulp commands that can simplify the task
  • look at the great animations exported on codepen See examples on codepen.
  • gzipping the animation jsons and the player have a huge reduction on the filesize. I recommend doing it if you use it for a project.

Adobe Bodymovin

Issues

Adobe Bodymovin

  • For missing mask in Safari browser, please call lottie.setLocationHref(locationHref) before animation is generated. It usually caused by usage of base tag in html. (see above for description of setLocationHref)