hey folks,
a few weeks back, we hosted a special masterclass with vikas, who walked us through the ins and outs of rive - a powerful tool for motion design and interactive prototyping. if you missed it, or just want the highlights, here’s a quick recap and some of the best takeaways from the session.
why rive?
vikas kicked things off by sharing his journey from flash and after effects to discovering rive (formerly flare) in 2018. he talked about how traditional tools had limitations, especially when it came to dynamic, real-time interactions in products. rive fills that gap by letting designers build, test, and hand off interactive animations that can go straight into code; saving time for both designers and developers.
key pointers from the session
rive vs figma (and others):
while figma is great for quick prototyping, it can get choppy with heavier interactions. rive, on the other hand, lets you build complex, smooth, and logic-driven animations; perfect for real product scenarios.design mode & animate mode:
rive splits your workflow into two main modes: design (where you create and lay out assets) and animate (where you bring things to life with state machines, timelines, and triggers).state machines & logic:
unlike timeline-based tools, rive uses state machines to handle interactions. this means you can create logic like toggles, triggers, booleans, and number inputs. making your prototypes feel closer to real products.importing from figma:
you can easily bring svg assets from figma into rive. just copy as svg in figma and paste into rive. but shadows and effects might need to be recreated, since both tools handle them differently.when to use rive:
use rive when you need to prototype complex interactions, micro-interactions, or data-driven animations especially for mobile or web apps where you want to test real user flows before involving engineers.handoff & implementation:
rive files can be handed directly to developers, who can embed them in production with minimal friction. this makes the design-to-dev pipeline smoother, and lets you iterate faster.
practical demos and examples
vikas showed how to animate simple toggles, create 3d-like navigation icons, and even build data-driven progress bars. he also demoed how state machines and listeners work, and why it’s important to plan out your logic before diving in.
q&a highlights
rive vs lottie:
lottie is great for simple, non-interactive animations, but rive shines when you need interactivity and logic.scroll animations:
yes, rive can handle on-scroll animations just set up the right logic and triggers.showcasing prototypes:
vikas recommends using tools like play or framer to showcase interactive rive prototypes, as mp4s can lose quality and aren’t interactive.
resources to get started
vikas suggests starting with the official rive 101 tutorials and live streams. once you’ve got the basics down, experiment with your own projects and try recreating real-world interactions.
closing thoughts
rive is a game changer for designers who want to push their prototyping and motion skills further. whether you’re working solo, collaborating with devs, or just want to impress stakeholders, it’s worth adding to your toolkit.
as always, if you have questions or want to join future sessions, reply to this email :)
cheers,
shivam
p.s. - if you prefer watching over youtube:
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