State Machines and Input-Driven Motion

Traditional Rive animations play a single timeline from start to finish. A state machine is a graph of animation states connected by transitions, and those transitions fire based on inputs you control from Dart.

• Reactive: the animation reflects live app data instead of a fixed sequence.
• Branching: the same artboard can idle, hover, succeed, or fail depending on input values.
• Blended: Rive interpolates between states, so you get smooth motion for free.

In this lesson you will wire a Rive state machine's inputs to your widget tree so motion follows user actions and model state.

A Rive state machine exposes exactly three input kinds, and choosing the right one is the core design decision.

• Boolean (SMIBool): a held on/off value, e.g. isOpen or isLoading.
• Number (SMINumber): a continuous value that can drive blend states, e.g. a 0–100 progress or a scroll offset.
• Trigger (SMITrigger): a one-shot pulse that fires a transition once, e.g. tapSuccess. It has no persistent value.

Rule of thumb: use a Trigger for momentary events, a Boolean for state you hold, and a Number for anything continuous you want to blend.