text-to-lottie

Authoring Renderable Lottie Files

This app renders Lottie with Skia's Skottie module (via canvaskit-wasm), not the JS lottie-web runtime. Follow the rules below and verify the result.

This skill covers the mechanics — the JSON shape Skottie needs. For the craft (timing, easing, choreography, Disney animation principles), see LottieFiles' motion-design skill. Its guidance is in milliseconds; convert to frames with frames = ms / 1000 * fr.

Setting up the project

The deliverable is not just public/lottie.json: the viewer should be set up and the animation should be previewable in the browser. If the player project is missing, create it; if it exists, install/update dependencies as needed, start the dev server, and open the local preview URL for verification.

Always use the official GitHub player project — never hand-roll a custom viewer. This skill's JSON rules (slots, the properties panel, the ?frame= URL controls, the Skottie wasm wiring) only hold inside that exact project. Do not build your own HTML page, swap in lottie-web, or scaffold a bespoke canvas setup — any of those will silently diverge from how this player renders and the verification steps below won't apply. If the player project isn't already on this machine, scaffold a fresh copy of the repo with degit:

npx degit diffusionstudio/lottie my-animation
cd my-animation
npm install   # postinstall copies the CanvasKit wasm into /public
npm run dev

Then open the printed local URL. If you already have the project, just npm install && npm run dev.

Where to write the file (and how it loads)

• Write the animation JSON to public/lottie.json. That is the only file

you need to touch to change what the app shows — src/App.tsx fetches /lottie.json at startup.

• With the dev server running (npm run dev), a Vite plugin watches that file

and full-reloads the page on save, so your edit appears immediately. No other wiring is required.

• If parsing fails, the app shows the error on screen ("CanvasKit could not

parse the Lottie file.").

Required top-level shape

Every Lottie document is one JSON object with at least these fields:

{
  "v": "5.7.0",      // bodymovin version string
  "fr": 60,          // frame rate (fps)
  "ip": 0,           // in point (start frame)
  "op": 120,         // out point (end frame) — duration = (op - ip) / fr seconds
  "w": 512,          // composition width  (px)
  "h": 512,          // composition height (px)
  "assets": [],      // images / precomps; [] if none
  "layers": [ /* ... */ ]
}

The app letterboxes the w×h composition to fit the canvas, so pick a square or sensible aspect ratio. op controls the total frame count shown in the UI.

Layers

layers follows After Effects order: the first entry in the array is the topmost layer, and later entries render underneath it. Each layer needs at minimum:

{
  "ty": 4,           // layer type: 4 = shape layer (the common case)
  "nm": "circle",    // name (optional but helpful)
  "ip": 0,           // layer in point
  "op": 120,         // layer out point — must cover the frames you want it visible
  "st": 0,           // start time
  "ks": { /* transform — see below */ },
  "shapes": [ /* ... */ ]   // for shape layers
}

Common layer types: 4 shape, 2 image, 1 solid, 0 precomp, 5 text. Prefer shape layers (ty: 4) for LLM-authored animations — no external assets needed.

The transform block (ks)

Every layer has a transform. Each property is either static ({ "a": 0, "k": value }) or animated ({ "a": 1, "k": [ ...keyframes ] }).

"ks": {
  "o": { "a": 0, "k": 100 },                 // opacity 0–100
  "r": { "a": 0, "k": 0 },                   // rotation (degrees)
  "p": { "a": 0, "k": [256, 256, 0] },       // position [x, y, z]
  "a": { "a": 0, "k": [0, 0, 0] },           // anchor point [x, y, z]
  "s": { "a": 0, "k": [100, 100, 100] }      // scale (percent, per axis)
}

Anchor matters: rotation and scale pivot around the anchor a, expressed in the layer's own coordinate space. To rotate a shape around its own center, set the shape's geometry around the anchor (e.g. center the ellipse on a).

Shapes — the #1 Skottie gotcha

Skottie requires shape elements to be wrapped in a Group (ty: "gr"). A flat list of shapes + fills directly in shapes renders blank. Always nest the geometry, fill/stroke, and a group transform inside a group's it array:

"shapes": [
  {
    "ty": "gr",            // GROUP — required wrapper
    "nm": "ball",
    "it": [
      {
        "ty": "el",        // ellipse
        "p": { "a": 0, "k": [0, 0] },
        "s": { "a": 0, "k": [120, 120] }
      },
      {
        "ty": "fl",        // fill
        "c": { "a": 0, "k": [0.2, 0.6, 1, 1] },   // RGBA, each 0–1
        "o": { "a": 0, "k": 100 }
      },
      {
        "ty": "tr",        // GROUP TRANSFORM — include even if identity
        "p": { "a": 0, "k": [0, 0] },
        "a": { "a": 0, "k": [0, 0] },
        "s": { "a": 0, "k": [100, 100] },
        "r": { "a": 0, "k": 0 },
        "o": { "a": 0, "k": 100 }
      }
    ]
  }
]

Shape primitives inside it:

• "el" ellipse — p center, s [width, height]
• "rc" rectangle — p center, s [w, h], r corner radius
• "sh" custom path — ks.k is a bezier { "c": closed?, "v": verts, "i": inTangents, "o": outTangents }
• "st" stroke — c color, w width, o opacity
• "fl" fill — c color (RGBA 0–1), o opacity
• "tr" the group's transform (always include it last)

Colors are normalized 0–1 RGBA, not 0–255. [1, 0, 0, 1] is opaque red.

Animating a property (keyframes)

Set "a": 1 and make k an array of keyframe objects. Each keyframe has a time t (frame), a value s (start value for that segment, as an array), and easing handles i/o:

"p": {
  "a": 1,
  "k": [
    { "t": 0,   "s": [256, 120], "i": { "x": [0.5], "y": [1] }, "o": { "x": [0.5], "y": [0] } },
    { "t": 60,  "s": [256, 400], "i": { "x": [0.5], "y": [1] }, "o": { "x": [0.5], "y": [0] } },
    { "t": 120, "s": [256, 120] }
  ]
}

• t is the frame number; the last keyframe usually has no i/o/easing pair

beyond s (it's the end).

• s is always an array, even for scalars like rotation: "s": [360].
• i/o are the bezier ease handles (incoming / outgoing). x/y arrays in

[0..1]. For a smooth ease use x:[0.5], y:[1] (in) and x:[0.5], y:[0] (out); for linear use x:[0], y:[0] / x:[1], y:[1]. Multi-dimensional values may use per-axis arrays.

• To loop seamlessly, make the last keyframe's value equal the first.

Exposing editable properties (slots + the properties panel)

The app can render a live properties panel (text inputs and sliders) that edit chosen values of the animation in real time. This rides on Skottie's native slot feature — no re-parse, the change shows on the next frame.

To make a property editable, do two things:

1. Declare a slot in the Lottie JSON. Add a top-level "slots" object whose keys are slot IDs, and point a property at one with "sid" instead of (or alongside) an inline value. The slot's "p" holds the default, in the same shape the property would normally take.

{
  "v": "5.7.0", "fr": 60, "ip": 0, "op": 90, "w": 512, "h": 512, "assets": [],
  "slots": {
    "ballColor": { "p": { "a": 0, "k": [0.231, 0.6, 1, 1] } },   // color: RGBA 0–1
    "ballSize":  { "p": { "a": 0, "k": 120 } }                    // scalar
  },
  "layers": [ /* ... */
    // in the fill:    "c": { "sid": "ballColor" }
    // in a scalar:    "s": { "sid": "ballSize" }
  ]
}

Slot types map to controls like this:

The app discovers slots automatically via Skottie's getSlotInfo() — you do not list them anywhere else for them to work. The panel appears as soon as the animation declares at least one slot.

Required: a background-color control on every animation

Every animation you produce must expose at least one control for the background color. The player does not paint a composition background of its own, so add a full-composition background layer as the last entry in layers (so it renders underneath everything), fill it with a slotted color, and label that slot in controls.json. Use a rectangle the size of the composition:

// last layer in `layers`:
{
  "ty": 4, "nm": "background", "ip": 0, "op": 120, "st": 0,
  "ks": { "o": { "a": 0, "k": 100 }, "p": { "a": 0, "k": [256, 256, 0] },
          "a": { "a": 0, "k": [0, 0, 0] }, "s": { "a": 0, "k": [100, 100, 100] },
          "r": { "a": 0, "k": 0 } },
  "shapes": [
    { "ty": "gr", "it": [
      { "ty": "rc", "p": { "a": 0, "k": [256, 256] },
        "s": { "a": 0, "k": [512, 512] }, "r": { "a": 0, "k": 0 } },
      { "ty": "fl", "c": { "sid": "bgColor" }, "o": { "a": 0, "k": 100 } },
      { "ty": "tr", "p": { "a": 0, "k": [0, 0] }, "a": { "a": 0, "k": [0, 0] },
        "s": { "a": 0, "k": [100, 100] }, "r": { "a": 0, "k": 0 },
        "o": { "a": 0, "k": 100 } }
    ] }
}

// slots:    "bgColor": { "p": { "a": 0, "k": [1, 1, 1, 1] } }   // default white
// controls: { "sid": "bgColor", "label": "Background color" }

Match the rectangle's p/s to your composition's w×h. This is in addition to whatever other controls the animation exposes.

2. (Optional) Describe presentation in public/controls.json. Slots only expose an ID and type, not a label or a sensible slider range. The sidecar file adds that. It is optional — missing entries fall back to the slot ID and a generic 0–100 range. Like lottie.json, it hot-reloads on save.

{
  "controls": [
    { "sid": "ballColor", "label": "Ball color" },
    { "sid": "ballSize",  "label": "Ball size", "min": 40, "max": 240, "step": 1 }
  ]
}

• sid must match a slot ID exactly.
• label is the display name; min/max/step shape scalar sliders and vec2

inputs (ignored for color/text).

• An entry whose sid matches no slot is simply ignored; a slot with no entry

still renders with defaults.

Controlling playback from a browser agent

When you drive the page through a browser tool, do not pixel-drag the slider or hunt for the play button — it's unreliable and you can't land on an exact frame. Instead, pin the frame in the URL and read the canvas by its test id:

http://localhost:5173/?frame=60&paused=1

• ?frame=N seeks to frame N on load and holds it paused, so the moment sits

still for a screenshot. This is the right way to inspect a specific frame (e.g. "is the ball at the bottom at frame 60?"): open ?frame=60, then screenshot.

• ?paused=1 starts paused (at frame 0, or at frame if also given);

?paused=0 forces autoplay even with a frame pinned.

• With no query params the animation autoplays as usual.

To change the inspected frame, navigate to a new URL (or just edit the query string and reload). The canvas carries data-testid="lottie-canvas", so a browser tool can target it directly for screenshots. If the canvas is blank, the page hasn't finished loading or the Lottie failed to parse (check the on-screen error).

Before you finish — checklist

1. The file is valid JSON (no comments, no trailing commas). Validate with

node -e "JSON.parse(require('fs').readFileSync('public/lottie.json','utf8'))".

1. Every shape primitive/fill is inside a "ty": "gr" group's it array, and

each group ends with a "tr" transform.

1. Top-level op and each layer's op cover the frames you animate.
2. Colors are 0–1 RGBA; positions/sizes are within the w×h composition.
3. Keyframe s values are arrays; loops repeat the first value at the end.
4. A background-color control is present: a full-composition background layer

(last in layers) with a slotted fill (e.g. bgColor) and a matching controls.json label.

1. The project is the official GitHub player (scaffolded via degit), not a

custom/hand-rolled viewer.

1. If the dev server is running, just save — it hot-reloads. Otherwise start it

with npm run dev. A blank canvas (no error) → re-check the group wrapping.

1. The player is running and the preview URL has been opened or reported. When a

browser tool is available, verify the page shows a nonblank rendered animation before finalizing — pin a key frame via the URL (see "Controlling playback from a browser agent"), e.g. open ?frame=60&paused=1 and screenshot, rather than dragging the on-screen slider.