Convert a GIF, Video or PNG to Rive or Lottie: What's Possible

Why can't a GIF or video be converted to Rive or Lottie?

Because they describe animation in different ways. A GIF or MP4 is a stack of pictures: millions of colored pixels per second. A Rive or Lottie file is a set of shapes plus instructions: "move this arm 20 degrees over 300 milliseconds." Going from pixels to shapes means guessing what the parts are and how they move, which no exporter can do reliably.

So every option is one of two things:

• Wrap the pixels. Put the frames inside a Rive or Lottie file as images. It plays, but it is as heavy as the original or heavier, blurs when scaled, and can't blend between states.
• Rebuild the motion. Take one clean frame, turn it into parts, and animate those parts. That gives you a real vector file, at the cost of animation work.

Can I import a GIF, MP4 or PNG sequence into Rive?

Rive's editor imports JPEG, PNG and WebP images, PSD files and SVG artwork, but its import docs don't list GIF or video, and nothing turns a clip into keyframes. To bring an existing clip in, export its frames as PNGs, import them, and show one per frame on a timeline. This works for a short effect, but every frame adds its full image size to the .riv.

The better route is to rig a single frame:

1. Pick the cleanest frame, or the original PNG, ideally on a plain background.
2. Split it into parts (or trace it to SVG), import, and add bones or a mesh.
3. Recreate the motion with keyframes, then add a state machine if it should react.

Step-by-step guides: PNG to Rive and SVG to Rive. If your source is already a Lottie, see converting Lottie to Rive.

How do I turn a GIF, video or PNG into Lottie?

GIF or video: LottieFiles' Lottie Creator has a Universal Importer that lists GIF and MP4, WebM and MOV, with the promise to "convert video and GIF files to Lottie animations." You "trim clips up to 10 seconds and set your target frame rate before converting." Expect a frame-based result rather than editable vector shapes, so check the file size before shipping it.

PNG, frame by frame: Lottie Creator imports PNG and JPG as image layers, which it notes "can't be edited as vectors and will increase file size." Its Vectorizer converts a raster image into editable vectors first.

PNG with AI help:

• Recraft's PNG to Lottie converter works by "vectorizing them first" and exports "animation-ready" Lottie JSON. It suits flat logos and icons, not photos. You still add the motion.
• fal's OmniLottie model generates a Lottie animation from a text prompt. Its API schema has a prompt and no image input, so it creates something new rather than animating your PNG.

How do I open or view a .riv file?

A .riv is the runtime export, the file apps play. To see what's inside without writing code, drop it into our free Rive File Inspector. It runs in your browser, lists artboards, animations, state machines, inputs and Data Binding view models, and lets you drive them live. Nothing is uploaded.

Any Rive runtime can also play it: a few lines with the web runtime, or the React, iOS, Android and Flutter packages.

Editing is different. Rive's community docs explain that runtime files are optimized and strip non-runtime data (for example, the positions of states in the state machine graph), and that the editor's "For backup" export, a .rev file, keeps everything and can be dragged back into the editor. If you need to change a .riv someone made for you, ask them for the project or the .rev.

How do I convert a .riv to MP4 or GIF?

In the Rive editor, with the source project open. Rive's docs list H.264, GIF, WebM, PNG sequence and SVG sequence exports from Animate mode, and state plainly that "exporting video and images is available on paid plans." The flow:

1. Select the artboard and add a Render Preset.
2. In Animate mode, pick the animation, format, FPS, duration, bit rate and size.
3. Add it to the Render Queue and start rendering.
4. Download the result from the Completed tab of the Cloud Renderer.

Without the editor, you can record a .riv playing in a browser, but you'll be capturing the screen, not exporting the animation.

Does Charmotion convert files to Lottie?

No. Charmotion starts from one still image (PNG, JPEG or WebP of a character, mascot or logo) and rebuilds the motion as a rig, the second route above. On the paid plans it delivers 17 animations as MP4, a 9:16 video, GIF, a .riv with a state machine, and transparent WebM and MOV. It doesn't take GIF or video input and doesn't export Lottie. If you need Lottie, use Lottie Creator or one of the Lottie-exporting tools in AI mascot animation tools compared.

Frequently asked questions

Can I convert an MP4 to Rive?

Not into a real vector animation. Rive imports images, not video, so the best you can do with the clip itself is a frame-by-frame image sequence. For a light, interactive file, rebuild the motion from one clean frame with bones or a mesh.

Is a Lottie with embedded PNG frames still a vector animation?

No. It is a Lottie file, so Lottie players can play it, but the frames are raster images. It won't stay sharp when scaled and is usually much larger than a vector Lottie of the same motion.

Can I turn a PNG sequence into a Rive animation?

You can import the PNGs and show one per frame on a timeline, and it will play in any Rive runtime. Every frame adds its full image size, though, so keep it short. For anything longer, rig one frame instead.

Quick answers from this guide

• Can I convert a GIF to Rive?
• Can I convert a PNG to Lottie?
• How do I convert a .riv file to MP4?

Sources

• Importing assets, Rive
• Importing assets into Lottie Creator, LottieFiles
• PNG to Lottie converter, Recraft
• OmniLottie API, fal.ai
• Exporting (community docs: .rev backup files), Rive Community
• Exporting for video and static design, Rive
• Exporting for runtime, Rive