Player controls
Compare Lottie SVG player and dotLottie (ThorVG) Player behavior for Figma exports.
LottieFiles supports two player families that matter for Figma handoff: the Lottie SVG player and the dotLottie (ThorVG) Player.
dotLottie (.lottie) is the preferred export format — smaller files and support for state machines, themes, and motion tokens. Use Lottie JSON only when the destination still depends on legacy lottie-web playback.
Player support at a glance
| Capability | Lottie SVG player | dotLottie (ThorVG) Player |
Plays Lottie JSON (.json) | Yes | Yes |
Plays dotLottie (.lottie) | No | Yes |
| Broad backwards compatibility | Strong | Requires dotLottie-aware runtime |
| State machines | No | Yes |
| Themes | No | Yes |
| Best suited for | Legacy lottie-web playback of plain .json files | Preferred playback for .lottie with state machines, themes, and motion tokens |
When to choose Lottie SVG player
Choose the Lottie SVG player only when:
The destination already uses
lottie-weband cannot switch to a dotLottie runtime.You must hand off a
.jsonfile for legacy compatibility.The animation is simple and non-interactive.
When to choose dotLottie (ThorVG) Player
Choose dotLottie (ThorVG) Player when:
The animation is exported as
.lottie.The animation uses state machines.
The animation uses themes.
You want more consistent dotLottie playback across supported platforms.
Figma interactivity rule
If the animation came from an interactive Figma prototype, hand it off as .lottie and tell the developer to use a dotLottie runtime. Lottie JSON and lottie-web cannot preserve state-machine behavior, themes, or motion tokens.