Figma Users: How do you handle micro-animations (without hard files)?

almost 4 years ago from Michael Rurka

Hey gang! — Long time lurker. First time poster.

Context

I'm a Figma user and I love that all design "files" are directly in the cloud. Makes for seamless syncing across devices.

We'd like to invest more in micro-animations for UI (e.g. cards slide in and fade in on page load). Figma integrates with a lot of tools such as: Principle, ProtoPie, Proto.io—Great!

"Problem"

The animation tools mentioned above produce hard files that require storing on a device, and syncing via Dropbox/Drive/etc. I'd prefer these files to fully live in the cloud as well (like Figma, for example).

Question

Figma users, what do you do for this? If you have to produce hard files, how do you sync them across devices?
Any softwares you guys know of that accomplish fully cloud based micro-animations that also play nicely with popular design softwares?

Much love, thanks!

22 comments

Adam Szakal, almost 4 years ago
Figma should be releasing their plugins feature soon (as in within weeks or, atleast, months), where stuff like this will probably be available.
3 points
- Michael Rurka, almost 4 years ago
  Thanks for sharing this Adam! This plugin looks juicy. Would accomplish exactly what I'm looking for! Now you got me excited for Figma Plugins :D
  1 point
  - LX Lavallee, almost 4 years ago
    Wow does this plugin have a name?!
    1 point
    - Michael Rurka, almost 4 years ago
      Different plugin but here's one that's live in the Figma Plugin :)
      https://www.figma.com/c/plugin/733025261168520714/Figmotion
      0 points
Mahdi Farra, almost 4 years ago
I don’t think there are any good reliable micro-animation or prototyping software that works great on the cloud (opportunity!).
With that said, there was an app called Pixate which I used for a while until it got acquired and murdered by Google...
3 points
- Robin Goyal, almost 4 years ago
  Why did they murder it?
  1 point
  - Davide Pisauri, almost 4 years ago
    Pixate came back from the dead as Protopie: https://www.protopie.io/
    2 points
    - Artur Eldib, almost 4 years ago
      didnt know its from the same guys, its pretty cool
      1 point
    - Mahdi Farra, almost 4 years ago
      Whoa!
      1 point
- Michael Rurka, almost 4 years ago
  Haha, opportunity indeed :P
  I wonder about XD though. Do you know if XD has hard files or are they in the cloud? XD looks appealing because it has auto-animation built into the product.
  0 points
  - Mahdi Farra, almost 4 years ago
    I believe XD has hard files, but might be moving to the cloud as well, since they already have a cloud version of Adobe Lightroom
    1 point
    - Michael Rurka, almost 4 years ago
      Dude, check check.. it happened <3
      https://www.figma.com/c/plugin/733025261168520714/Figmotion
      0 points
      - Mahdi Farra, almost 4 years ago
        Whoa! Figma plugins are going to change the game. Whoever was holding back on jumping on Figma's ship has no excuse anymore!
        0 points
Jason Festa, almost 4 years ago
Going to test this out soon and will post back. (using figma to generate SVG animations) ~ :)
1 point
Jonathan Shariat, almost 4 years ago
Just want to pop in and say I love the way you posed the question. :)
As designers we should all know better haha
1 point
- Michael Rurka, almost 4 years ago
  Haha, thanks Jonathan! I figure clarity of the ask = more/better answers.
  1 point
Artur Eldib, almost 4 years ago
I'm eagerly waiting until Figma has implemented motion (like Invision Studio and XD) and some real components (like UXPin).
Am I asking too much?
1 point
- Michael Rurka, almost 4 years ago
  I feel the same about motion.
  ... and some real components (like UXPin)
  What do you mean by this? I haven't used UXPin more than 5 minutes :P
  0 points
  - Artur Eldib, almost 4 years ago
    With UXPin you literally use real interactive components like dropdowns, inputs, etc. That means that you can have a high-fidelity interactive prototype. For example, you can really select an input and write things inside of it, instead of it just being a picture of an input.
    1 point
    - Michael Rurka, almost 4 years ago
      Gotcha, very cool! Like Proto.io. –– though, without the actual writing things into it. Hm. May be something to consider. I do like how they integrate a design system into your workflow from the get-go.
      0 points
- Michael Rurka, almost 4 years ago
  Hey Artur, in case you don't know, there's a Figma plugin now for this :)
  https://www.figma.com/c/plugin/733025261168520714/Figmotion
  0 points
Michael Rurka, almost 4 years ago
UPDATE: https://www.figma.com/c/plugin/733025261168520714/Figmotion
<3 <3 <3 <3
0 points

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Figma Users: How do you handle micro-animations (without hard files)?

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