# bytedance/AlphaPlayer

AlphaPlayer is a video animation engine.

Repository: https://github.com/bytedance/AlphaPlayer
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/alphaplayer
Language: Java
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Archived: true
Last push: 2023-04-13T08:02:32+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2218, "days_push": 1238, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: archived
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2344, forks 371 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:39.659247+00:00)

## What it is
AlphaPlayer is a video animation SDK from ByteDance's live-streaming team that plays videos with alpha (transparency) channels on mobile devices. It decodes specially encoded video assets where alpha and RGB data are stored side-by-side, then recombines them via OpenGL ES shaders for high-fidelity transparent video animations.

## Use cases
- play transparent overlay video animations in a live streaming app
- render animated gift effects with alpha channel videos on Android and iOS
- replace Lottie or cocos2d for complex full-screen intro animations
- implement high-fidelity designer-made video effects with low integration cost
- composite alpha video frames onto GLTextureView or GLSurfaceView

## When to choose
- you need complex designer-created animations that Lottie or SVGA cannot faithfully reproduce
- you want a tiny (~40KB) animation library with low maintenance burden compared to cocos2d
- your app shows frequent full-screen or gift animations where performance and stability matter
- designers can produce alpha-channel-separated video assets

## When to avoid
- your animations are simple transforms that native animation or Lottie already handles well
- you cannot produce alpha-separated video assets in your design workflow
- you need cross-platform support beyond Android and iOS
- the project appears to be in maintenance mode with the last release in April 2023

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: video-processing, animation, graphics
- domain: mobile-development, media, graphics
- platform: -
- tags: alpha-channel-video, opengl-es, live-streaming-effects, gift-animation, transparent-video, android, ios, mobile

## Member repositories
- bytedance/AlphaPlayer (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:39.659247+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:37:04.217891+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/bytedance/AlphaPlayer (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:39.659247+00:00, sha ec99e1d0d859)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.