All web designers are familiar with Photoshop and use it on an everyday basis for creating prototypes, website designs, mockups and other stuff. But with the responsive design winning the web, designers started looking for more flexible alternatives. and come up with the best SVG animation tool for web.
![](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg height="416" width="922" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1"/>)
Website design is getting lighter and at the same time more complex today. Users expect to see many features there but they don’t wish it to be overwhelmed by unnecessary decorations, pop-ups, and ads. SVG come in handy in all those cases. They are easy to create and use across various devices. SVG files are styled fast and due to their nature, one can create breathtaking animations with the use of an SVG animation tool.
But first, let’s check out the benefits of this type of graphics for website designers.
Why You Should Be Using SVG
SVG (stands for Scalable Vector Graphics) is the type of files that can be used across all devices without significantly influencing their loading process. Their benefits for website design are huge. Here are the main ones.
1. Crisp images
SVGs are created with the use of code-based instructions that simply ‘tell’ the browser how to draw lines, dots, and other graphics to fit them in the screen. They have nothing to do with the grid system of pixels like all those .IMG or .PNG files. And due to the coded instructions, we get sharp and crisp objects that look amazing on any screen size without losing a tiny bit of their quality.
The SVG files have many other features that ordinary images have: masks, patterns, gradients. etc. And they are supported by all browsers making them an absolute must-have for modern websites.
2. Versatility
Despite all those “coding” features, SVG can still act as regular images. You can put an SVG in tags or set them in CSS as a background. The best thing here is that you don’t have to do any other manipulations with those files. Full-scalability allows using SVGs just as is – they will be automatically resized across all browser and devices without pixeling.
![](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg height="466" width="922" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1"/>)
Code-based nature of SVGs provides web designers with another benefit. Because they use a standard HTML markup, SVGs can be put right into an HTML doc. Thus, its elements and the entire file become a part of the DOM (Document Object Model). That means we can treat them as we treat any other website element inside CSS or JavaScript.
3. Animations
The use of CSS and JS for scalable vector graphics leads us to one of the most amazing tricks we can do to those files. Yes, we’re talking about animations. With a help of CSS, we can change the way SVG and its elements act on a page. You can apply CSS code to any of the components of the SVG file and make this component do whatever you want: rotate, turn, flip, drop, etc.
See the Pen MOTION for the web by LegoMushroom @sol0mka on CodePen.
CSS and JavaScript tricks can help you to create stunning animations and transitions that were only possible in video or Flash formats. But those formats are pretty heavy and may significantly slow the page loading speed. With the use of an SVG animation generator, you can easily create cool moving elements without affecting website performance.
4. Responsiveness and Performance
The vector nature of an SVG file makes it a resolution-independent and responsive. Since it’s not a pixel map of an image (as with .IMG formats) but rather a set of instructions for the browser on how to draw a graphic. It means less information load for a browser and thus – faster loading and more smooth performance of a website. And it also means that the graphics will automatically resize to fit any screen size looking clear and crisp.
Moreover, you can optimize SVG files they way we optimize other website elements to improve its performance. Thus, with the use of various tools available on the Web you can significantly reduce the size of an SVG file without hurting its quality, and improve the page performance.
5. Accessibility
Website accessibility issues are taken seriously by the web designer community today. The accessibility of images issue can be solved with the use of SVG files. Since SVG files can be scaled without any reduction of quality, they stay clearly visible even for users with less than 20/20 vision.
When to Use Animated SVGs
Animated SVGs are a great choice when it comes to website elements. They can be used in cases when ordinary images are heavy or not so smooth and fast. The best candidates for animated SVG website elements are:
- Logos;
- Icons;
- UI controls;
- Buttons;
- Infographics;
- Simple illustrations.
See the Pen Animated svg – Pintsize logo by Ali @alistairtweedie on CodePen.
Of course, more complex elements like photos are not the best choice to make the animated graphics. But the listed above elements are perfect to create animated SVGs and use across the website.
When it comes to animations, we are used to having GIF images. But animated SVG files are much better candidates for this goal due to the most of the above-listed reasons. Aside of the already mentioned scalability that doesn’t affect the image quality, interactive SVG files have other competitive advantages like:
- Due to their code-based nature, they don’t have common pixel-problems like the ‘halo effect’ when they are shown on different-color backgrounds.
- When animating their elements, SVGs are taking advantage of the browser optimization. Thus, even if the browser doesn’t perform perfectly, the animations still look smooth and don’t slow the page. Not to mention the small SVG-file size that doesn’t consume bandwidth.
- You don’t need third-party plugins to create and add SVG animations to the page since they are created with the code lines. After Adobe discontinued its support for Flash, SVG animation is a way to go to use them in your projects.
Choose the Best SVG Animation Tool
If you’re a coding ninja, you may not need additional tools to write a few lines and make a wheel on the SVG file rotate or jump. But if you would like to save some time on coding, you should take a look at these SVG animation tools and editors.
Adobe Animate
![](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg height="485" width="922" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1"/>)
Adobe Photoshop has been a long-time favorite tool for website designers. But that was before lighter design tools came forward. To compete with them and get in the niche, Adobe created Animate – a powerful SVG animation tool. It’s an easy and quick way of creating stunning animations with full HTML5 video support. There are tons of tutorials on YouTube on how to use it, so you will stay updated with the latest design tricks.
Snap SVG
![](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg height="473" width="922" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1"/>)
JavaScript-based, this library helps web developers create animated SVG files that will impress anyone – from their clients to their competitors. It is written with the modern browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and even IE9) specifics in mind. It means that Snap supports all the best and the most popular features like patterns, gradients, masking, clipping, etc. And you don’t necessarily have to create an SVG file with this SVG animation tool. You can draw it in Illustrator or other favorite tool drop it into Snap and apply animation features you like.
SVG JS
![](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg height="500" width="922" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1"/>)
This SVG animation generator claims to be a lightweight library for creating and manipulating SVG files and turning them into cool animations. It aims to a be extremely small while covering all the latest SVG specs. Being easy to use and lightning fast, SVG JS provides a clean and easy-to-read syntax that reduces the amount of code greatly.
Raw
![](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg height="486" width="922" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1"/>)
Raw is an open-source web-based SVG animation maker that allows creating interactive SVGs with the help of D3.js graphics library. It offers 16 pre-built templates for showing the data, semi-finished visualizations, charts, visual models. Etc. It’s extremely easy to use: just copy and paste your text within the Raw. And no third-party applications here – your data will be processed only by the browser.
Bonsai JS
![](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg height="465" width="922" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1"/>)
Another light library for creating stunning animations with an intuitive API. Render SVG is also available with this tool. You can try some of the coolest animation examples right on the website. And one of the best things about this SVG animation tool – it is open-source and free.
SVGator
![](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg height="518" width="922" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1"/>)
It’s a nice online SVG animation tool that doesn’t require you to have any coding skill. You just import your SVG file into its dashboard and in a few seconds get a ready-to-use code for an animated SVG. With a help of keyframes and animation presets, you can create animated SVG that will look perfect on desktop or mobile screen. Code manager allows you to view and customize an already generated file code.
Motion UI
![](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg height="517" width="922" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1"/>)
It’s not exactly a tool, it’s a Sass library that allows you create flexible transitions and animations with built-in effects. You just download the package with the source Sass files and a bunch of pre-built animation effects and transitions and can apply them to your SVG files. It’s aimed at more advanced users but it’s really a goldmine of great and easy-to-implement settings.
MoJS
![](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg height="499" width="922" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1"/>)
MoJS stands for Motion for the Web. This SVG animation maker is open-sourced which means it is backed by a great community of developers that help to make this tool more refined and sleek. It allows you create retina-ready animated SVG files fast. Easy-to-use APIs help you to implement any motion project for the web with no effort.
Vivus
![](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg height="544" width="922" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1"/>)
Vivus is a lightweight SVG class that helps you to draw SVG images on the go. They SVGs created with the help of Vivus look like their being drawn right on the website page. It implements three types of animations: delayed, synchronized, and one-by-one. You can also set up a timing function of each element to give the animations more depth.
Lazy Line Painter
![](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg height="530" width="922" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1"/>)
It’s a stunning JQuery plugin that allows you create animated line images that appear like they are being drawn in the real time. You just have to export your SVG line art (no closed paths. please) into the SVG Lazy Converter and it will convert it into customizable JS code you can use for your projects.
SVG Animation Tool Collection – the Bottom Line
SVG animation tool can make a web designer’s life easier. Just remember that not any element of the website needs dazzling animations. Everything should be created with the user experience in mind!
Do you know other SVG animation tools that were not mentioned here? Share your suggestions in the comments below.