aval

AVAL is a new format for interactive video on the web: prerendered motion that behaves like a state machine instead of a timeline. Frame-accurate transitions driven by app state, real alpha transparency, and sequential decoding in the browser. It ships as a working toolchain (compiler, CLI, and a web component player), MIT licensed, from the Pixel Point agency.

Using it is client-side: install the player element and drop it in. The build side is where the requirements stack up: Node 22+, and playback depends on WebCodecs and WebGL support, with Safari fixed only recently. Vanilla JS today; the React wrapper is still on the roadmap.

Worth watching if you build marketing pages or product demos with heavy motion. Rive is the closest comparison for state-driven animation; Lottie covers vector animation without the video-like fidelity. AVAL's pitch is photoreal prerendered motion that still reacts to the user.

The catch: this is an early technical preview. The 1.0 engineering release just landed, the API is still stabilizing, and the whole thing rests on one agency's continued interest. Build a toy with it now; don't bet the redesign on it yet.