If you have ever come across a website that utilizes animated banners, has canvas animations on complicated drawings, or has beautifully rendered 3D animations on graphic icons, you can understand how eye-catching and attractive these web pages are. Animation has become an extremely popular option among website designers as a way to enhance user experience both on mobile apps and full-blown web pages. Not only do they make your website brighter and more attractive but they also boost user-engagement & foster digital marketing efforts.

Let’s take a look at 4 categories of web animation tools and why they are good to use for web app development.

1. Javascript Libraries:

These are some of the most popular animation options around as Javascript can be found pretty much everywhere on the web. Here are some popular tools you can use.

A) Scroll Magic: This is a plugin that is used specifically for scrolling animations. You can pin specific elements to scroll positions, animate elements based on the user’s scroll position, and even add your own parallax effects.

B) velocity JS: This is one of the most popular, fully-featured Javascript animation libraries around. It is used with a lot of popular websites such as Uber and WhatsApp and comes with SVG support, transformations, scrolling, loops, and color animations.

C) Vivus: For those who want to create drawn elements, Vivus offers three different animation styles (delayed, synced, and one by one), an option for a custom script, and the ability to manipulate animation timing, pathways, and styles. Vivus is a Javascript Library.

D) Anime.JS: This is a lightweight Javascript library that allows you to create multiple timings, easings, and playback. It can be used with CSS properties, CSS transformation, and DOM attributes.

E) GSAP: One of the most popular Javascript animation libraries around due to its diverse animation options. It can animate each property individually, giving you extensive customization for scaling, rotating, and moving any design element. It can be used with CSS, SVG, and DOM or anywhere that Javascript is used.

2. 3D Animations:

The most popular option to create 3D animations is from the Javascript Library Three.js. It comes with pre-built components that allow you to build up 3D animations on a canvas by creating a scene an adding in things like lights, shaders, textures, and models of course.

3. Code-Free Options:

For web developers that want to animate web pages that are built using a website builder (non-custom development), you can use either Readymag or Webflow.

A) Readymag: This is incredibly easy albeit simply, animation editor that allows you to apply basic effects like rotation, movement, and scaling. Some animations that you can create include scrolling, loading, and click and hover sequences. You can set it up to have steps so that a chain of animations follows one another.

B) Webflow: If Readymag wasn’t enough for creating multi-step animations, web flow allows you to do this without any coding knowledge. Some animations include transforming element sizes, changing up styling and position. You can also add in micro-interactions on different elements that change when hovered over, clicked, or moved.

4. Options for After Effects:

If you are a motion designer that wants to create after effect animations, the BodyMovin extension script allows for animations to be exported as .json files in their native rendering. These animations can then be rendered on a web browser in HTML, canvas, or SVG formats, making it quick and easy to add beautiful animations in both mobile application development and web development.

Although there are plenty of web animation tools out there, the main thing to keep in mind is to choose a type of animation that is going to keep your website page responsive and snappy. Choose web animation plugins and applications that keep the page looking modern, unique, and eye-catching.