This is a simple linkfarm I was going to email a new friend about some tools & platforms she can get animations posted on the web to showcase, & maybe sell, but I figured more than 1 person would be interested. Also posted in Github, so PR there or comment here if you wish!
In no particular order:
Rive
Interactive & timeline based animations that can be used anywhere: web, video game engines like Unity/Unreal, low-level players for C#, C++, React, Flutter.... Has become mature over the past few years. Might be able to handle a full page webapp UX, or longer animations.
Adobe AfterEffects -> LottieFiles
Exports the vector files & animations as JSON to be used with players like AirBnB's open source lotie player. Seems the target use case is shorter & smaller flourishes.
The previous exporter was Bodymovin, which currently (2025-01) seems to not work in the current AfterEffects.
Blend4Web
Free & commercial licenses to showcase Blender models. Seems to allow some interaction & timeline animations, but hard to find good examples.
Marmoset
Looks to be a good 3d asset viewer, but seems to have a pricetag, though that pricetag includes the powerful 3d editor. Web searches can bring up other similar online players & 3d Viewers; some are more niche than others.
HTML/CSS/JavaScript/SVG
You can use web technologies directly themselves to create very rich animations for the web. Sometimes only CSS alone is all you need.
Many examples online. Sometimes a library like Motion or GASP can help speed web animations.
Video
Do a screen capture using your favorite app & post online. You can have the browser auto-play the video only if the sound is off. If you need to compose & don't mind some programming, Remotion can turn web animations into MP4 videos, or use their player to play its ReactJS based files directly in the web browser.
GIF
If the animation clip is short and small enough, why not go old-school?
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