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Utilizing Lottie and SwiftUI to Create Superior Animations

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A couple of years in the past, I wrote a tutorial concerning the Lottie library. A reader requested if he might use the library in SwiftUI initiatives. So, on this tutorial, let’s revisit this superb library and see how we are able to use it in SwiftUI initiatives.

Lottie is a cellular library for Android and iOS that natively renders vector based mostly animations and artwork in realtime with minimal code.

If that is the very first time you heard of Lottie, Lottie is an iOS, macOS, Android, and React Native library, developed by Airbnb, that renders After Results animations in any native apps. Animations are exported as JSON information by an open-source After Results extension referred to as Bodymovin. Lottie masses the animation knowledge in JSON format, and renders the animation in actual time.

The cool factor about this library is that you could import the Lottie animation straight into your Xcode challenge. With a couple of traces of code, you may make the animation work in your apps. You’ll perceive what I imply shortly.

The place can you discover Lottie Animations?

You possibly can create your personal animation utilizing After Results and export it as a JSON file. Nonetheless, if you’re like me and haven’t any concepts about After Results, you possibly can try the next web sites to obtain some free / paid animations.

LottieFiles

swiftui-lottie-files

Web site: https://lottiefiles.com

Drawer

Drawer Design for Lottie Files

Web site: https://drawer.design

Including the Lottie Library with Swift Package deal Supervisor

Lottie is an open-sourced challenge accessible on GitHub. You possibly can obtain the library at https://github.com/airbnb/lottie-ios and add it to your Xcode challenge manually. Having that stated, the simplest means so as to add the library is through the use of Swift Package deal Supervisor.

Assuming you’ve already created a SwiftUI challenge in Xcode, go as much as the Xcode menu and select File > Add Packages…. Then paste the repository URL (i.e. https://github.com/airbnb/lottie-ios) within the URL discipline:

Add Lottie package using Swift Package Manager

Click on the Add Package deal button. Xcode will then mechanically obtain the Lottie library and add it to the challenge.

Lottie library in Xcode project

Importing Lottie Information to the Xcode Venture

I’ve downloaded the following free animation on LottieFiles.com. The Lottie animation is obtainable in a number of file codecs. Please select the Lottie JSON possibility.

Download animation from Lottie Files

As soon as downloaded, return to the Xcode challenge. Drag the JSON file (i.e. contact-us.json) to the challenge navigator.

JSON file

Utilizing the Lottie File in SwiftUI

It now involves the coding half. For those who’ve learn my earlier Lottie tutorial, it is best to know that it takes lower than 10 traces of code to load the animation. Right here is the pattern code snippet for loading the Lottie animation:

Easy, proper? Nonetheless, because the Lottie library doesn’t assist SwiftUI natively, we have to wrap its UIKit view with the UIViewRepresentable protocol to make it work in SwiftUI initiatives.

Now head again to your Xcode challenge and create a brand new file utilizing the Swift file template. Title the file LottieView.swift and replace its content material like this:

The LottieView struct has a property for holding the title of the lottie file. Within the makeUIView perform, it masses the JSON file and units the animation to the animation property of the animationView. Optionally, we set the content material mode to .scaleAspectFit.

To play the animation, we name the play technique of the animation view. The remainder of the code is for configuring the structure constraints of the view.

Now let’s head again to ContentView.swift to make use of the LottieView. Within the physique half, insert the next traces of code:

You simply must go LottieView the title of the Lottie file with out the file extension. Right here, it’s contact-us. And, we set the body dimension to 300×300 factors.

That’s it! Within the preview pane, it is best to see a picture. For those who click on the Play button, it renders the animation.

Previewing the animation

Customizing the Animation

Did you discover that the animation solely performed as soon as? The AnimationView object supplies a few properties for builders to customise the playback of the animation. To maintain taking part in the animation, you possibly can set the loopMode property to .loop like beneath:

If you wish to auto reverse the animation, you possibly can set the worth to .autoReverse.

You can too management the pace of the animation by altering the worth of the animationSpeed property:

This can triple the pace of the animation.

Loading the Animation Remotely

It’s not necessary to retailer the Lottie file regionally. The Animation object allows you to load a Lottie animation from a distant server. Right here is an instance:

As a substitute of utilizing the named technique, you need to use the loadedFrom technique of Animation to load a distant URL. The Animation object will deal with the file obtain and allow you to know when the animation is prepared to be used within the closure.

Loading remote animations using Lottie

Abstract

The SwiftUI framework already makes it straightforward to create superb view animations. With the Lottie library, it’s even simpler to include lovely animations in your apps. I hope you discover this tutorial useful. For those who’re fascinated with studying extra about SwiftUI animations, you possibly can try our Mastering SwiftUI e-book.



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