Good read, guys. Helps sell the power of animation to clients who may think it’s frivolous. I’m intrigued that the illustration for this article is showing the After Effects UI. How do you use AE for interface design animation since it doesn’t spit out code or CSS, or was that just a visual metaphor?

I guess creating animated GIFs would be one use, but other than that, would designers just use it for prototyping so that developers could see what you’re looking for? Just asking since I’m a designer that hands off most of my work to a developer to build out. I always struggled with getting the animation effect I’m looking for once a UI has been coded, and as others have alluded, developer hours can add up when trying to perfect good UI animation. Maybe AE is a good tool for refining the effect before the build.