Playbook by MediaBistro | Tools & Software for Creative Professionals
Adobe After Effects and Lottie serve different stages of the animation workflow. After Effects is a full-featured motion design application for creating sophisticated visual effects and animations. Lottie is an open-source playback library that translates After Effects animations into lightweight, scalable formats for digital products.
Adobe After Effects has dominated motion graphics production for over two decades. The software provides comprehensive tools for compositing, keyframe animation, particle effects, and 3D space manipulation. Professionals use it to create everything from animated logos and lower thirds to complex visual effects sequences for feature films.
The application integrates directly with Adobe's Creative Cloud ecosystem, allowing seamless workflows with Premiere Pro, Illustrator, and Photoshop. After Effects supports third-party plugins, expressions-based automation, and scripting capabilities that extend its functionality far beyond the default toolset. While the learning curve is steep, the software remains the reference standard that clients and studios expect in professional motion design deliverables.
Lottie emerged from Airbnb's design team as a solution to a persistent problem: how to display high-quality animations on websites and mobile apps without massive file sizes or performance penalties. The library parses After Effects animations exported through the Bodymovin plugin and renders them as resolution-independent vector graphics. This approach delivers smooth, responsive animations that scale perfectly across different screen sizes and pixel densities.
As an open-source project, Lottie has gained widespread adoption among developers and product designers who need to implement animations created by motion designers. The library supports iOS, Android, React Native, and web platforms with consistent playback across all environments. Lottie animations are JSON files, typically 10 times smaller than GIF equivalents, which makes them ideal for performance-sensitive applications where load time and bandwidth matter.
Full motion design suite with keyframing, effects, and compositing tools
No creation tools; renders animations made in After Effects
Exports video files or image sequences with larger file sizes
JSON-based animations 10x smaller than GIFs with vector scalability
Desktop application for Windows and macOS only
Runtime libraries for iOS, Android, React Native, and web browsers
Supports unlimited layers, 3D space, advanced effects, and plugins
Limited to Bodymovin-compatible features; no 3D or certain effects
No native interactive playback; exports static renders
Programmatic control over playback, speed, and animation segments
Project files require After Effects to view or edit
Animations playable in browser or mobile app without special software
After Effects requires ongoing financial commitment for creation capabilities, while Lottie offers free playback and rendering. Most professional workflows use both: After Effects for animation authoring and Lottie for efficient delivery. The After Effects subscription makes sense for motion designers; Lottie makes sense for everyone implementing their work.
These tools occupy complementary rather than competing positions in the animation workflow. After Effects is where motion designers create, iterate, and perfect animations with professional-grade tools and effects. Lottie is how those animations reach end users through digital products with minimal performance impact. You cannot replace one with the other because they serve fundamentally different purposes in the production pipeline.
Choose After Effects if you need to create animations from scratch or produce motion graphics for video projects. Choose Lottie if you need to implement existing animations efficiently in web or mobile applications. Most successful digital product teams use both: designers work in After Effects to create animations, then export them through Bodymovin for developers to implement with Lottie. This combination delivers designer-quality animation with developer-friendly performance.
