Overview
The barriers to entry for software engineering have never been lower. Everyone can create apps thanks to AI. This means that just having a working product is no longer enough to stand out as people expect things to work. The focus has shifted to taste.
Think again about this quote from the last lesson:
Animations can be a great representation of taste. Motion is hard to get right, so great motion stands out. If it was easy, then you and 7,000+ other people probably would not have enrolled in this course, as it would just be common sense.
Because great animations are not common sense, AI struggles with them as well. An LLM is trained on lots of data, not all animations in that data set are great. And that’s good news for you, because this course is teaching you something that AI can’t do well yet.
That’s why a good understanding of motion principles will get more and more valuable. It’s a way to differentiate yourself, your brand, and your product, by showcasing your taste.
How AI can help you
This course teaches you a set of principles that help you create great animations. We can feed those principles to an LLM and it will keep these rules in mind when helping you with animations.
I created a SKILL.md file with a set of instructions which can be used with tools like Cursor, Claude Code, OpenCode, and more.
This file tells the LLM that animations should usually be fast, what custom easings should be used, when to use bounce in spring animations, and so on. The LLM will know everything you do after going through this course.
This is especially useful if you just began your animation journey as it will constantly remind you of the rules you should follow.
Installation
Run this command in your terminal:
curl -fsSL "https://animations.dev/api/activate?email=your@email.com" | bashThe installer will automatically detect and set up the skill for any supported tools you have installed:
- Amp Code
- Antigravity
- Claude Code
- Cursor (1.6+)
- Gemini CLI
- OpenCode
- Windsurf
There are various ways you can use skills, you can learn about it more here.
The way I use it with Claude Code is whenever I want to use the skill, I just type /animations-dev and it will activate the skill. You should see it in the autocomplete options too upon typing / in the chat.
The skill file can review your animations, suggest improvements, and basically answer all your motion-related questions based on my experience gathered over the years.
Let me know how you like it using the feedback form at the bottom of the page.
Here’s a simple demo to give you an idea of how it works:
If you enjoy using the skill file and want to dive even deeper, there’s also a emil.md version. It’s a skill that contains all my knowledge not only about animations, but design engineering in general.
It’s meant to instantly improve the quality of your output, whether it’s design or code.
It contains everything I’ve learned from working at companies like Vercel and Linear, and building open source libraries like Sonner and Vaul.
Available for animations.dev students only.
How do I use AI?
I use Claude Code daily when working at Linear or on my personal projects. I try to write the hard parts myself to ensure that I understand the code, but repetitive tasks, or autocompletion for simple things is something that I use a lot.
I also use DALL·E 3 and Midjourney for image generation. Great visuals make a huge difference when it comes to animations. As an example, I used Midjourney to create images in this course for the Trash interaction, App Store Cards, and Shared Layout Modals.
Game of the day
A game about vikings
Are you ready? A game about vikings, where you can play as a viking and fight other vikings. You can also build your own viking village and explore the world.
The never ending adventureIn this game set in a fairy tale world, players embark on a quest through mystical lands filled with enchanting forests and towering mountains.
Midjourney was used to create illustrations used in this component.
You need to be careful though. With each prompt, you are not only outsourcing labor, but a bit of the thinking, the intuition, and care as well. These things can’t be outsourced. You have to be involved in the process and think deeply about the things you create in order to make something wonderful.