Overview

Render After Effects animations exported as JSON. Lightweight, scalable, and interactive. lottie-web (Airbnb, current release 5.13.0) parses the JSON produced by the Bodymovin exporter and draws it as SVG, canvas or HTML, with an API for playback control and events. Compressed .lottie archives need the separate dotLottie player covered at the end of the instructions.

Instructions

Setup

bash

# Install lottie-web for vanilla JS/TS projects.
npm install lottie-web

The default import bundles all three renderers plus the expression engine (about 77 KB gzipped). When an animation uses no After Effects expressions, import the light SVG-only build instead (about 47 KB gzipped, no eval):

typescript

import lottie from "lottie-web/build/player/lottie_light";

Basic Playback

typescript

// src/lottie/player.ts — Load and play a Lottie animation in a DOM container.
// The animation JSON is typically exported from After Effects via Bodymovin.
import lottie, { AnimationItem } from "lottie-web";

export function playAnimation(
  container: HTMLElement,
  animationData: object
): AnimationItem {
  return lottie.loadAnimation({
    container,
    renderer: "svg", // "canvas" or "html" also available
    loop: true,
    autoplay: true,
    animationData,
  });
}

// Load from URL instead of inline data
export function playFromUrl(container: HTMLElement, path: string): AnimationItem {
  return lottie.loadAnimation({
    container,
    renderer: "svg",
    loop: true,
    autoplay: true,
    path, // URL to the JSON file
  });
}

animationData and path are mutually exclusive. The rendered SVG is sized to 100% of the container, so set the container's dimensions in CSS.

Playback Controls

typescript

// src/lottie/controls.ts — Control animation playback: play, pause, seek, speed.
import type { AnimationItem } from "lottie-web";

export function setupControls(anim: AnimationItem) {
  // Play / Pause
  anim.play();
  anim.pause();
  anim.stop();

  // Go to specific frame (frame 30, and play)
  anim.goToAndPlay(30, true);

  // Go to specific frame and stop
  anim.goToAndStop(0, true);

  // Playback speed (2x)
  anim.setSpeed(2);

  // Play direction (-1 = reverse)
  anim.setDirection(-1);

  // Play only a segment (frames 10-50)
  anim.playSegments([10, 50], true);
}

The second argument of goToAndPlay / goToAndStop selects frames; when it is false or omitted the value is a time in milliseconds. anim.getDuration() returns seconds, anim.getDuration(true) frames.

Event Handling

typescript

// src/lottie/events.ts — Listen to animation lifecycle events for triggering
// UI updates, chaining animations, or tracking analytics.
import type { AnimationItem } from "lottie-web";

export function attachEvents(anim: AnimationItem) {
  anim.addEventListener("complete", () => {
    console.log("Animation completed"); // not fired while loop is true
  });

  anim.addEventListener("loopComplete", () => {
    console.log("Loop finished");
  });

  anim.addEventListener("enterFrame", (e) => {
    // Fires every frame — use sparingly
    const progress = e.currentTime / e.totalTime;
    document.getElementById("progress")!.style.width = `${progress * 100}%`;
  });

  anim.addEventListener("DOMLoaded", () => {
    console.log("Animation DOM elements ready");
  });

  anim.addEventListener("data_failed", () => {
    console.error("Animation JSON could not be loaded from `path`");
  });
}

addEventListener returns a function that removes the listener.

React Integration

tsx

// src/components/LottiePlayer.tsx — React component wrapping lottie-web.
// Destroys the animation on unmount and reloads it when a prop changes.
import { useEffect, useRef } from "react";
import lottie, { AnimationItem } from "lottie-web";

interface Props {
  animationData: object;
  loop?: boolean;
  autoplay?: boolean;
  className?: string;
}

export function LottiePlayer({ animationData, loop = true, autoplay = true, className }: Props) {
  const containerRef = useRef<HTMLDivElement>(null);
  const animRef = useRef<AnimationItem | null>(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    if (!containerRef.current) return;

    animRef.current = lottie.loadAnimation({
      container: containerRef.current,
      renderer: "svg",
      loop,
      autoplay,
      animationData,
    });

    return () => {
      animRef.current?.destroy();
    };
  }, [animationData, loop, autoplay]);

  return <div ref={containerRef} className={className} />;
}

Dynamic Color Updates

typescript

// src/lottie/theme.ts — Swap solid fill and stroke colors in a Lottie JSON before rendering.
// Useful for theming animations to match brand colors at runtime.
type RGB = [number, number, number]; // 0–1 floats, as stored in the file

export function recolorAnimation(animationData: any, colorMap: Record<string, RGB>): any {
  const data = structuredClone(animationData);

  const walkShapes = (shapes: any[]) => {
    for (const shape of shapes) {
      const isPaint = shape.ty === "fl" || shape.ty === "st"; // fill or stroke
      if (isPaint && shape.c?.a !== 1 && Array.isArray(shape.c?.k)) { // a === 1 means keyframed
        const next = colorMap[rgbToHex(shape.c.k[0], shape.c.k[1], shape.c.k[2])];
        if (next) shape.c.k = [...next, 1];
      }
      if (shape.it) walkShapes(shape.it); // groups nest their items in `it`
    }
  };
  const walkLayers = (layers: any[] = []) => {
    for (const layer of layers) if (layer.shapes) walkShapes(layer.shapes);
  };

  walkLayers(data.layers);
  for (const asset of data.assets ?? []) walkLayers(asset.layers); // precompositions
  return data;
}

function rgbToHex(r: number, g: number, b: number): string {
  return "#" + [r, g, b].map((v) => Math.round(v * 255).toString(16).padStart(2, "0")).join("");
}

dotLottie Files

A .lottie file is a ZIP archive holding one or more animations and their assets. lottie-web cannot read it; use the LottieFiles player (npm install @lottiefiles/dotlottie-web, or @lottiefiles/dotlottie-react for React), which draws on a canvas through a WebAssembly renderer and also accepts plain JSON:

typescript

// src/lottie/dotlottie.ts — Play a .lottie file on a <canvas>.
import { DotLottie } from "@lottiefiles/dotlottie-web";

export const hero = new DotLottie({
  canvas: document.querySelector<HTMLCanvasElement>("#hero-animation")!,
  src: "/animations/hero.lottie",
  autoplay: true,
  loop: true,
});

hero.addEventListener("loadError", () => console.error("hero.lottie failed to load"));
// hero.pause(); hero.setSpeed(1.5); hero.setFrame(24); hero.destroy();

Examples

Example 1: Loading indicator while a form submits

User: "Show our loader animation while the order is being submitted."

html

<div id="order-loader" style="width:96px;height:96px" role="img" aria-label="Submitting order"></div>

typescript

import lottie from "lottie-web/build/player/lottie_light";

const reduceMotion = window.matchMedia("(prefers-reduced-motion: reduce)").matches;
const loader = lottie.loadAnimation({
  container: document.getElementById("order-loader")!,
  renderer: "svg",
  loop: true,
  autoplay: !reduceMotion,
  path: "/animations/order-loader.json",
});

export async function submitOrder(form: HTMLFormElement) {
  try {
    await fetch("/api/orders", { method: "POST", body: new FormData(form) });
  } finally {
    loader.destroy(); // removes the SVG and stops the render loop
  }
}

A 96 px SVG loops inside the div until the request settles. With reduced motion enabled the first frame is drawn as a still image and nothing moves.

Example 2: Play a success checkmark once, in the brand color

User: "After payment, play the checkmark animation one time and make it our green instead of blue."

tsx

import checkmark from "./animations/checkmark.json";
import { LottiePlayer } from "./components/LottiePlayer";
import { recolorAnimation } from "./lottie/theme";

// Recolor once at module scope: a new object on every render would restart the animation
const brandCheck = recolorAnimation(checkmark, { "#3399ff": [0.13, 0.77, 0.37] });

export function PaymentSuccess() {
  return <LottiePlayer animationData={brandCheck} loop={false} className="h-24 w-24" />;
}

Every solid #3399ff fill and stroke renders as rgb(33,196,94), the animation plays through once, fires complete, and rests on its last frame.

Guidelines

Always destroy. Call anim.destroy() when the element leaves the page (React cleanup, route change); otherwise the animation keeps its DOM nodes and frame loop alive.
Keep animationData stable in React. The effect above reloads whenever the object identity changes, so import the JSON or memoize it. If an animation with repeaters is loaded several times from the same object, pass a deep clone to each loadAnimation call.
Pick the renderer deliberately. svg is the default and stays sharp at any size; canvas draws into one element instead of creating a DOM node per shape, which helps with very complex animations; html is rarely needed.
Respect reduced motion with prefers-reduced-motion, and label the container (role="img", aria-label) or set rendererSettings: { title, description } for the SVG renderer.
Expressions run through eval. The full build evaluates After Effects expressions stored in the JSON, which requires unsafe-eval under a strict Content-Security-Policy and means animation files from untrusted sources can run code. Use the light build for third-party files.
Tests in jsdom fail on import with "Cannot set properties of null (setting 'fillStyle')" because jsdom has no canvas. Stub HTMLCanvasElement.prototype.getContext in the test setup or mock the lottie-web module.
Server rendering. Importing lottie-web on the server is safe since 5.13.0, but loadAnimation needs a DOM: call it in useEffect, onMounted or a client-only component.
Export limits. Image sequences, video and audio layers are not supported; large masks and huge shapes hurt frame rate. Raster images are exported to an images/ folder next to the JSON; when loading through animationData, set assetsPath to that folder's URL. Serve the JSON gzipped.
dotLottie loads its WASM from a CDN (jsDelivr) at runtime by default. For offline apps or a strict CSP, host the file yourself and call DotLottie.setWasmUrl() before creating a player.
React wrappers. lottie-react (v3: import { Lottie } from "lottie-react", <Lottie src="/hero.json" autoplay loop />) and @lottiefiles/dotlottie-react (<DotLottieReact src="/hero.lottie" autoplay loop />) save writing the component above.
When not to use Lottie. Simple hovers and transitions are cheaper in CSS; long video-like sequences are smaller as video.

Lottie

Validation

Prove Lottie on your task

Getting Started

Example Prompts

Documentation

Overview

Instructions

Setup

Basic Playback

Playback Controls

Event Handling

React Integration

Dynamic Color Updates

dotLottie Files

Examples

Example 1: Loading indicator while a form submits

Example 2: Play a success checkmark once, in the brand color

Guidelines

Information

Related Skills