So, you’ve designed the user interface of your app in Adobe Xd, Sketch or Figma and now you want to implement it in Android, iOS or a web app. But before you start coding, there’s one little thing missing in your design: animation. How does the loader spin, exactly? When a message is deleted, does it just disappear abruptly, fade out, scale out, or perhaps fly into a trash can icon? And what’s the exact timing for that move?

You’ll need to answer these questions before the app is actually implemented. But here’s the problem: you can’t just ask a motion designer to create some videos with the behavior you want, because a developer won’t be able to implement these animations based only on a sample video. The programmer will need the exact motion path and timing details to recreate the same animation in your app. And to make matters worse, those details are very different for Android, iOS and web apps.

What is Spring-Based Animation?

No matter if you create animations for the web, Android or iOS - spring animations are becoming more and more popular. In traditional, time-based animations an animation is defined by a start point A, and end point B, a duration and some easing. If you design a single, static animation, this is a very intuitive way to work. However, when it comes to designing continuous, fluid interactivity, this approach is very limited.