Lottie
Bring a Lottie JSON animation into After Effects as a new, already-moving composition built from editable shape and null layers.
Lottie brings a Lottie (Bodymovin) JSON animation into After Effects as a brand-new composition that already moves. Instead of a flat preview, you get real, editable shape and null layers with their keyframes intact, sized and timed to match the original animation. Reach for it when you have a Lottie file from a design tool or a developer and you want to keep working on it natively in After Effects.
.json file and Lottie builds a new composition from it.How to use it
In the Prism panel, switch to the Tools tab and find Lottie in the list.
Running Lottie opens a file picker. Choose a Lottie / Bodymovin .json file. The file's name becomes the name of the new composition.
Lottie reads the file, creates a new composition matched to the animation, and adds the layers with their keyframes. When it finishes you can open the comp and edit everything like any other After Effects project.
You can also ask your AI to do this for you. If you tell it to import a Lottie animation, it can run Lottie on your behalf and report back what it created and anything it had to skip.
What you get
Lottie always creates a new composition and works only from a copy of your file's contents, so your source .json is never modified.
The new comp is built to match the original animation:
- Size and timing come from the Lottie file — width, height, frame rate and duration are read directly, so playback matches the source.
- Layers are recreated as editable shape and null layers, in the same stacking order, with native parenting preserved so child layers follow their parents.
- Animation is rebuilt as real keyframes on position, anchor point, scale, rotation and opacity — static or animated. Easing is approximated from the original animation's curves.
- Geometry is rebuilt from the Lottie shapes: paths, rectangles and ellipses, with solid fills and strokes. Group transforms are baked into the shapes so they sit correctly.
When it's done, you get a short summary: the composition name, how many layers and shape groups were created, the comp's size, frame rate and duration, and a list of anything that couldn't be brought over.
Notes and limits
This is a focused, first-pass importer that handles the common building blocks of a Lottie file. Some advanced features are skipped and reported back so you know exactly what was left out, rather than failing the whole import:
- Layer types: only shape and null layers are imported. Precomp, image, text and solid layers are skipped and listed.
- Fills and strokes: gradient fills and strokes are not brought over. Trim paths, repeaters and merge paths are skipped.
- Animation: shapes come in at their static (first-frame) form — animated path morphs aren't rebuilt. Mattes and expressions are not imported.
- Shapes: rounded-rectangle corners are approximated as sharp.
A single odd shape or layer is recorded in the skipped list and passed over rather than stopping the import, so one unusual node won't break the whole file. If a Lottie file contains only precomp assets and no top-level layers, there's nothing to import and Lottie will tell you so.
Lottie is free and uses no credits, so you can import as many animations as you like. For how everything else is metered and the full per-tool credit costs, see Usage and limits.
Related
- Real keyframes, not scripts — why the layers you get are editable, not a baked script.
- Compositions — the active comp is the context once your import lands.
- The Tools tab — where Lottie lives alongside the other one-click tools.
- Usage and limits — plan caps, metering and the credit-cost table.