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Ask DN: Mocking up Animation

over 8 years ago from , UX Designer

I've used After Effects and Photoshop to mock up UI animation. It's not ideal. It's kludgy, it's overkill, it doesn't fit the workflow. I've seen some methods for creating UI animation - framer, google web designer - but they require code, or still don't fit the workflow.

Are there better options out there to intuitively animate a UI?

11 comments

  • Noam ElbazNoam Elbaz, over 8 years ago

    Tev, I was scared of Framer at first (I'm not a programmer in any way) but I took a dive. And it has become an indispensable tool in my workflow.

    I find it to be very flexible and fast & easy to prototype, now that I got past that initial fear.

    Worth a try.

    1 point
  • Sean D'AuriaSean D'Auria, over 8 years ago

    Pixate and Marvel are the ways to go for sure. Both have websites and apps where you can make animations for UI.

    http://www.pixate.com/

    https://marvelapp.com/

    1 point
  • Katarina RdultovskaiaKatarina Rdultovskaia, over 8 years ago

    you could also try pixate

    http://www.pixate.com/

    They just introduced a free version so you could check it out, Ive played around with it and its pretty sweet.

    1 point
  • Jonathan Deutsch, over 8 years ago

    Shameless self-promotion, but I'd like to think Hype is pretty good at this :). http://tumult.com/hype/

    No code is required for interactions (though can be leveraged if need be).

    1 point
  • Dean HaydenDean Hayden, over 8 years ago

    I've used Adobe Edge Animate, good results but still needs a bit of coding knowledge to get the best out of it.

    Dare I say it but Flash could be an option; haven't used it in a while but (I think) it's no longer stuck in just SWF delivery.

    Haven't tried any of the other suggestions as I'm ok with prototyping with code (not production ready and often bodged, but gets point across)

    0 points
  • Braden HammBraden Hamm, over 8 years ago

    I don't use it much myself, but since it hasn't been mentioned, Quartz composer, with the Origami patch, is good. Another designer on my team has been using it a lot lately and prefers it's approach over others.

    0 points
  • David BrownDavid Brown, over 8 years ago

    Keynote is always solid—quick and dirty, but helps support collaboration nicely :)

    0 points
  • Ryan Hicks, over 8 years ago

    This has been covered so many times. A search would yield better results.

    0 points
  • Matthew Ware, over 8 years ago

    I'm curious about this as well. I have used Photoshop to mock up UI animation but like you said, it's not ideal…it becomes this mess of layer masks, smart objects and duplicated layers. I would love a light-weight tool to help convey animations.

    0 points