7 Best Animation Libraries for UI Designers 2018

Web development has evolved from static websites to websites that look and feel good. Right now, any web developer or designer know how crucial it is to build a website that not only functions well but also looks good.

The website design starts with excellent color saturation to carefully placed sections that are completely responsive. However, that’s not all it is to the design of the website. Current generation UI designers are also interested in animation. After all, it adds value to the website and ensures that visitors find it surprising.

In today’s article, we will list the seven best animation libraries for UI designers 2018. These tools will surely help you create animations faster and more professionally. The libraries consist of both CSS-only and JavaScript.

Bounce.js

GitHub

Bounce.js is a JavaScript library. It is a collection of amazing, fun-to-use bouncy animations. It got released in 2014 and is still used by many websites. The animation created by Bounce.js are smooth and neat. Overall, it comes with ten presets.

The library size is only 16 Kb, and hence it won’t impact your website size or its loading time. It is available under MIT open source license. The library is for those who are looking to catch the attention of the users with a nifty bouncy animation.

Animate.css

GitHub

Animate.css is a CSS based animation library. It is easy-to-use and can be integrated into diverse projects which uses CSS in it. For example, you can use it in WordPress or Drupal. The choice is yours. To get started, you need to link the library using CSS stylesheets. Once done, you can start animating the HTML elements using the CSS classes provided with the library itself.

The library also supports manipulation of jQuery. This makes it even more of a better deal. The library size is only 43 kb. Also, it is a cross-browser library and is not limited by the browser you are using. We recommend this plugin because of its wide-acceptance among the community. This means that the plugin is polished and have huge compatibility support for other libraries and solutions. Not only that it is still in active development and it is polished almost now and then.

GSAP

Website

GreenSock Animation Platform (GSAP) is yet another animation library. It is built on top of HTML5 and JavaScript. This means that it can run smoothly on modern browsers and HTML5 apps. As a UI designer, that's a huge advantage as you can create animations using canvas, jQuery or even SVGs. GSAP works well with other libraries as well.

In terms of animations, it provides smooth and high-performance animations. The team behind it is also working hard to add new features. In short, it is a big library that gives you the ability to do anything you want. As GSAP is a collection of tools, let’s list some of them below.

● TweenLite: A powerful and fast core that powers JavaScript library.
● TweenMax: Extends TweenLite with new features.
● TimelineLite: A very useful part of GSAP. It helps to manage animation sequences.
● TimelineMax: It extends the functionality of TimelineLite.

Magic Animations

Website

Magic Animations is our next CSS animation library that we recommend. It is impressive in its own way and works with other libraries such as animate.css. In terms of features and functionality, Magic Animations is top-notch. It also comes with a wonderful demo app that you must try out before downloading it. The demo app will give you a good idea of what to expect when you work on your project.

By using this library, you can create amazing animations including twisterInDown, swap, vanish, and many more. It also supports static and perspective effects. Overall, a great animation library for UI designers in 2018. A must-try.

AnimeJS

GitHub

AnimeJS is fairly new JS animation library compared to others listed here. In the small span of its release, it has grown rapidly and also shows promise to become of the best out there. AnimeJS is a complete package when it comes to animation library. This makes it an excellent choice for your project. However, it should be noted that it is a big library and if you are building a light-weight website, we recommend checking out other animation libraries out there.

Even though it is big in size, it should fit most of the projects out there. It is easy-to-learn. As it is a JavaScript library, you can interact with DOM elements and smoothly animate them. CSS transformations and SVG animations can also be done by doing this. Another critical feature of AnimeJS is how well it is documented. It is a beautiful package that needs to be unlocked by UI designers in 2018.

CSShake

GitHub

CSShake is a CSS animation library that builds around shaking elements! Yes, you read it right. With this library, you can create diverse shake animated elements throughout your project. You might have seen many projects shake animation when the user doesn’t enter right credentials or try to perform an action that is not permitted by the system. It is made popular by Apple, and now it is being used in most of the projects out there.

The only downside of CSShake is its file size. It is 78.8 kb.

Velocity.js

GitHub

Our last animation library is Velocity.js. It is a full-featured library that let you do a ton of things including scroll, finish, stop, reverse and much more! It was released in 2014. Also, it is used by big companies in their project including WhatsApp, Gap, MailChimp, and others.

It is incredibly fast and offers tons of features and functionality.

Conclusion

Today, we listed the seven best animation libraries of 2018. So, which one did you decided to use? Comment below and let us know. We are listening.