Choosing the Right Flutter Animation Widget for Performance
Article Summary
Andrew Fitz Gibbon from Google's Flutter team breaks down the animation widget maze. His decision tree framework turns overwhelming choices into a simple series of questions.
Flutter offers dozens of animation widgets, making it tough to know where to start. This guide from the official Flutter blog provides a systematic approach to choosing between implicit animations, explicit animations, and third-party tools based on your specific needs.
Key Takeaways
- Drawing-based animations work best with Rive or Lottie, not Flutter code
- Implicit animations handle most widget transitions automatically when values change
- Explicit animations require AnimationController but enable repeating and discontinuous effects
- AnimatedContainer covers many implicit needs, TweenAnimationBuilder handles custom cases
- CustomPainter offers performance gains but requires careful implementation to avoid issues
Critical Insight
Three key questions (does it repeat forever, are values discontinuous, do multiple widgets coordinate) determine whether you need implicit or explicit animation widgets.
