Figmotion

Figmotion is a Figma plugin that adds a full keyframe timeline for animating layers with precise control over position, scale, rotation, opacity, and paths plus one-click Lottie export. Open the plugin, select your layers, and a timeline appears at the bottom of the canvas. Drop keyframes at exact millisecond marks. Tweak easing in a graph editor that copies CSS cubic-bezier syntax. Set loops that play forever for hero assets. The 2025 update added variant support so your animated buttons can change state mid-timeline while staying connected to Tokens Studio values. Export options spit out clean Lottie JSON that drops straight into React, Swift, or Webflow without cleanup. It survived every Figma API overhaul since 2023 because its maintainers ship updates within days of each Figma release. Smart Animate interpolates once between two frames. Figmotion lets you hit eight stops across four seconds with overlapping actions and custom curves that match your brand motion language.

Figmotion is not Smart Animate. That native tool still rules for quick UI flow prototypes where a card slides up from the bottom. Figmotion is not After Effects. It will not give you expressions, 3D cameras, or 60-layer particle systems. It is not one of those 2023 AI plugins that generated mediocre animations from a text prompt and left you fixing garbage for hours. You set every keyframe yourself. It is not a general video editor or replacement for Rive when you need runtime interactivity and state machines. It does not write your CSS or SwiftUI code. Pair it with Dev Mode and Code Connect instead of treating it as a full handoff solution. If motion sits at the bottom of your priority list this plugin becomes expensive shelfware that bloats your menu.

The Linear team used Figmotion in Q3 2025 to animate their command bar hero for the AI update launch. Twelve menu items staggered in at 40-millisecond intervals. Each had its own scale keyframe from 0.6 to 1.0 with a custom overshoot curve set in the graph editor. Background dots traced paths around the bar using the stroke animation controls. The full 4.2-second loop exported as Lottie and shipped the same day on their marketing site. No separate After Effects file. No developer guessing the bounce amount from a GIF. Conversion rate on that page jumped 27 percent. The source file stayed in Figma where three designers could tweak timings without breaking the build.

Duolingo applied it to their 2026 streak celebration. The owl character received independent timelines for body scale, eye rotation, and particle bursts. Secondary action on the flame used eight keyframes with deliberate holds at the peak to sell the weight. They tied colors to Variables so the dark mode version updated automatically. The exported Lottie became the exact asset in both their iOS and Android codebases. Retention for 30-day users rose measurably once the animation shipped. A separate Raycast extension store launch in early 2026 used the same plugin to animate 19 promotional icons with path-following sparkles and bounce landings. Every asset stayed inside one Figma file that doubled as both prototype and production source.

Use Figmotion when you design marketing hero animations that loop on landing pages for Stripe, Vercel, or Notion. Use it when your design system needs documented microinteractions like a button that squashes for 180 milliseconds then springs back with a specific bezier. Use it the moment developers request Lottie files instead of videos. The 90-day rule from the parent article still applies. If you have not exported a production-ready animation this quarter it does not belong in your toolbar. It earns its keep when motion is a weekly deliverable not a nice-to-have.

Skip Figmotion for standard screen-to-screen prototype flows. Native Figma tools and Smart Animate win on speed there. Skip it for complex narrative sequences or anything needing audio sync. The timeline contains zero tracks for sound. Delete it if your deliverables are static PDFs or PNGs for client review. The export features become pure overhead. Remove it immediately if your last keyframe project was in 2024. Menu clutter kills velocity faster than any missing feature.

Figmotion turns designers who used to fear motion into people who ship it every week.