Lottie translation: @remotion/lottie → HF lottie adapter

Lottie animations are a clean translation case — HF has a built-in Lottie adapter that supports both lottie-web and @lottiefiles/dotlottie-web. The adapter auto-discovers animations registered on window.__hfLottie and seeks them per-frame via goToAndStop.

Pattern

import { Lottie } from "@remotion/lottie";
import animationData from "./hello.json";

export const MyComp = () => (
  <AbsoluteFill>
    <Lottie animationData={animationData} loop={false} />
  </AbsoluteFill>
);

Translates to:

<div id="stage" ...>
  <div id="lottie-anim" style="width:100%;height:100%"></div>
  <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/bodymovin/5.12.2/lottie.min.js"></script>
  <script>
    const anim = lottie.loadAnimation({
      container: document.getElementById("lottie-anim"),
      renderer: "svg",
      loop: false,
      autoplay: false,
      path: "assets/hello.json",
    });
    window.__hfLottie = window.__hfLottie || [];
    window.__hfLottie.push(anim);
  </script>
</div>

Key differences from a typical Lottie embed:

autoplay: false — HF drives playback by seeking
loop: false typically (unless Remotion's loop={true})
window.__hfLottie.push(anim) is what hooks the animation into HF's per-frame seek

Asset handling

Remotion bundles the animation JSON via webpack import. HF needs the JSON on disk under assets/ and references it via path:

Copy hello.json from the Remotion project into hf-src/assets/.
Reference as path: "assets/hello.json" in loadAnimation.

For dotlottie (binary) format, swap in @lottiefiles/dotlottie-web:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/@lottiefiles/dotlottie-web"></script>
<canvas id="anim" style="width:100%;height:100%"></canvas>
<script>
  const player = new DotLottie({
    canvas: document.getElementById("anim"),
    src: "assets/hello.lottie",
    autoplay: false,
  });
  window.__hfLottie = window.__hfLottie || [];
  window.__hfLottie.push(player);
</script>

The HF adapter handles both player APIs (it duck-types goToAndStop vs setCurrentRawFrameValue / seek).

Multiple Lottie animations

Multiple <Lottie> instances in one composition work — push each one onto window.__hfLottie and the adapter will seek all of them in sync:

window.__hfLottie.push(anim1);
window.__hfLottie.push(anim2);
window.__hfLottie.push(anim3);

Lottie source isn't actually translation-blocking

Lottie animations encode their own deterministic timeline. They're the easiest part of a Remotion composition to translate because the animation logic is already self-contained — neither Remotion nor HF "animate" them, both just seek them. Translation cost is near-zero.

After Effects → Lottie limitations

Lottie supports a subset of After Effects features. Expressions, most Effects (drop shadow, color overlay), all blend modes beyond Normal/Add/ Multiply, luma mattes, and most 3D parameters are not supported. If the Remotion composition uses a Lottie file that depends on these, the animation will break in BOTH Remotion and HF — this isn't a translation problem, it's a Lottie limitation. See airbnb/lottie/after-effects.md for the full supported feature list.

Loop behavior

Remotion's loop={true} plays the animation continuously. Translate it to loop: true on the player: the HF adapter wraps composition time into the animation's own length, so the cycle repeats for the whole scene. It does not add playback-rate scaling; bake a non-default rate into the Lottie asset and verify the rendered output.

Performance note

Per the Lottie adapter docs: lottie-web's goToAndStop(time, isFrame=false) takes time in ms; the adapter passes time * 1000 for precision. This is more accurate than passing frame numbers (especially for animations whose internal fps doesn't match the HF render fps).

/remotion-to-hyperframes

referenceslottie.md