ALTERNATIVE · AFTER EFFECTS
After Effects is the professional standard for compositing, footage and long motion pieces. But a logo reveal, an animated post or a Lottie for a website does not need a compositing studio, hours of keyframes and a plugin to export. Ilo Animation does that work in minutes, in the browser or inside Adobe Illustrator.
01 — WHEN TO USE WHICH
Logo reveals, animated social posts and stories, icons, banners, presentation openers and Lottie for websites and apps. Magic animates the whole design in one click, then you adjust on a timeline with keyframes and easing. Export Lottie, animated SVG, GIF, MP4 or WebM.
Video footage, tracking, 3D cameras, particle systems, long-form motion and broadcast work. If that is your job, keep After Effects; Ilo Animation can still do the quick vector pieces next to it.
02 — WHAT CHANGES
After Effects: import the .ai, convert layers to shapes. Ilo Animation: your Illustrator layers (or an uploaded SVG, .ai or PNG) are already the timeline.
Instead of keyframing every element, Magic gives each one a move that suits it: letters in sequence, outlines drawing themselves, shapes springing in.
No Bodymovin or LottieFiles plugin to install: Lottie JSON is one of the built-in exports, next to GIF, MP4, WebM and animated SVG.
03 — QUESTIONS
For video and 3D, free tools such as Blender and DaVinci Resolve (Fusion) exist. For vector motion from your own designs, Ilo Animation opens and animates for free in the browser, and exporting starts a 5-day free trial with every feature and no card.
Yes. The online app runs in a current Chrome, Edge or Safari on any computer, and the Illustrator panel works in Illustrator 2023 or newer on Mac and Windows.
No. Vector animation is light: it runs in a browser tab, and video exports are made on your computer at 480, 720 or 1080 px.
The Lottie file can be imported back into After Effects through LottieFiles, and the MP4 or WebM drops into any editor, including Premiere and After Effects.
5 days free, then from $19 a month; see pricing. A purchase is refundable within 72 hours.