Lumetrope

Lumetrope documentation

Guides for installing Lumetrope, animating, building state machines, exporting and connecting AI agents. New here? Start with Getting started.

Start

  • Getting started

    Install Lumetrope, open your first Lottie or dotLottie animation, and learn the basics of the timeline, layers and export in a few minutes.

  • Use the web app and self-host it

    Run Lumetrope in your browser with nothing to install, or self-host the static build behind https with the right wasm MIME type on nginx or Caddy.

Install

  • Install on macOS

    Install Lumetrope on macOS 11 or newer from the published dmg, drag it to Applications, and get past the Gatekeeper warning on an unsigned build.

  • Install on Windows

    Check which Lumetrope Windows installers are published, the Windows 10 and 11 requirements, building from source or the web app, and SmartScreen warnings.

  • Install on Linux

    Install Lumetrope on Linux from the published deb, rpm or AppImage, check the WebKitGTK 4.1 requirement, and fix a blank window on NVIDIA graphics.

Create

  • Editor basics

    Learn the Lumetrope editor layout: layers, canvas, properties and timeline panes, the tools, selection, undo and redo, and full-screen playback.

  • Animating with keyframes and easing

    Animate any property in Lumetrope with keyframes, the curve easing editor, motion paths, motion presets and the timeline with layer bars.

  • Shapes, pen tool and text

    Draw rectangles, ellipses, polygons and stars, use the bezier pen tool, add text and images, and style shapes with fills, strokes and gradients.

  • Masks, mattes and effects

    Use masks, alpha and luma track mattes, blend modes and effects such as drop shadow, gaussian blur and tint to shape how layers combine.

  • Nested scenes and segments

    Group layers into nested scenes (precomps) and mark named segments on the timeline so you can play, export or trigger parts of an animation.

Interactive

  • State machines

    Build dotLottie 2.0 state machines in Lumetrope with a node graph: states, transitions, guards, inputs and actions, with live interactive preview.

  • Inputs and interactions

    Drive a state machine with boolean, numeric, string and event inputs, and react to click, pointer, on complete and on loop complete interactions.

  • Themes and slots

    Define slots and themes to swap colours and other values in a dotLottie animation at runtime, and learn how Lumetrope exports them to the t/ folder.

Projects

  • Projects, saving and files

    Use the Lumetrope dashboard, save back to the file with Cmd+S, save as a new file, and understand how the app remembers where your files live.

  • Version history

    Save named versions, restore, branch and diff your work with Lumetrope's local version control, stored with autosave in your browser with no server.

  • Exporting animations

    Export dotLottie, Lottie JSON, and animated GIF, WebP and WebM from Lumetrope, with transparency, size, frame rate and segment options explained.

AI agents

  • Connect AI agents with MCP

    Connect Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or Claude Desktop to Lumetrope over MCP: exact setup commands per OS, server paths, enabling Local MCP and the tools.

Reference

  • Keyboard shortcuts

    Every Lumetrope keyboard shortcut for tools, playback, editing, zoom and files, with macOS Command labels and Windows and Linux Ctrl equivalents.

  • Troubleshooting

    Fixes for common Lumetrope problems: blank window on Linux, WebAssembly SIMD errors, WebM export disabled, MCP port conflicts and effects that look off.

  • FAQ

    Quick answers about Lumetrope: whether it is free and open source, which formats it reads and writes, where files live, and how AI agents connect.