Founder of Lottie Hernan Torrisi joins Rive

We’re excited to announce that Hernan Torrisi, the founder of Lottie, has joined Rive. 

Lottie was born in 2015 when Hernan built Bodymovin–an open-source plugin to export After Effects files as JSON–and a corresponding web player to let you play back the file in realtime on the web. AirBNB added iOS and Android players, rebranded it to Lottie, and re-released it themselves in collaboration with Hernan. 

Lottie has some limitations–it requires designers to use multiple programs (such as After Effects and other design tools) to go from design to runtime, it only allows for limited interactivity, and designers can easily misuse features and generate massive files without realizing it. But it was a major step forward for motion design at the time. And for many years, Lottie was one of the most commonly used animation formats across the web.

But Rive has evolved beyond Lottie’s capabilities to create animations that are faster, smaller, consume less memory, and fully interactive–all in one tool. 

Here’s how Hernan describes his journey to Rive: 

“When I first found Rive a few years ago, I was navigating through their site in awe of the set of tools they had developed. Then I met Guido and Luigi, who shared their plans for the future, and it was a jaw-dropping moment. Interactivity, the editor, state machines, bones, constraints, and so much more. It felt unreal.

I became an instant fan and have been following their progress since then. When they invited me to join their team, I was thrilled to have such an opportunity, but for personal reasons I couldn’t accept back then. Time went by, Rive became an even more amazing tool, with everyone talking about it and using it more and more. Finally things aligned, and they were kind enough to extend the offer once more. I immediately said yes and this week starts my journey with an amazing project and team!”

Welcome Hernan to the team on X/Twitter or LinkedIn!