Back in 2020, we set out to find smart solutions for digital creators’ most important design challenges. Since then, we’ve been a firm believer that creative work should be fast, simple and lightweight. But the tools and products creatives used were not made with them in mind. Designing and animating vector graphics for the web meant working with software that wasn’t built for this kind of digital craft.

And that frustration is where Expressive Animator started.

Faster, leaner, stronger

We quickly realized the most significant pain point graphic designers faced when animating for the Web was the need to work with industry-standard software plagued by bloated features and bulky UI or to rely on writing CSS or JavaScript code.

These problems are further exacerbated because the role of the designer is more cross-functional than ever before. Designers are at the centre of the organization. On any given day, they might find themselves juggling simple and large scale animation projects, networking to grow their business, adjusting copy for marketing, or cross-checking implementation with an engineer.

While there are all sorts of tools that allow designers to create Lottie or SVG animations, they are still in the dark ages when it comes to high-performing workflows. From the ability to quickly create powerful SVG animations at scale, to a number of export options for all creative needs - no single tool tackles this workflow specifically.

Introducing Expressive Animator

When we started working on Expressive Animator, we wanted to build a fast, powerful, and easy-to-use SVG animation app that performs at near-native speed and, most importantly, works offline.

From drawing tools that operate in real-time, to versatile text tool and typography that allows full local font access and a visibility bar that lets you toggle an object’s visibility in the Timeline, getting here hasn’t been easy.

Creatives have high expectations for a tool they rely on every day. After dogfooding Expressive Animator internally for months and working closely with users, we are confident we have reached this bar.

While the technical achievement of having built a powerful SVG animation tool as a PWA (Progressive Web Application) that ensures native-like performance has been exciting, we are more excited by the creative possibilities such a powerful tool will unlock. Whether it’s designing vector graphics, using typography, animating with perfect precision, making the design interactive and exporting it in various formats, Expressive Animator makes it easy to do your best design and SVG animation work at scale.

Get your hands on the cool new things

The newest version of Expressive Animator, free to use for early adopters and no account required, is available starting today.

The new and improved tools and features are just the start of how we envision making creative work more efficient and enjoyable for digital creators. Our goal is to have an unrestrained workspace for designers to create in, powered by real-time tool capabilities and a really fast rendering engine. We have so much in store for the near future.

Stay tuned.

New: dotLottie animation exports are now available

Expressive Animator v2024 is now available for download

Expressive Animator gets an enhanced timeline component

Discover the new Expressive Animator