Use a BeginStoryboard action with an EventTrigger or a Trigger to apply animations to their target properties and start them. BeginStoryboard begins a Storyboard by calling Begin on its Storyboard reference when triggered.

When you begin a Storyboard on a property that is already being animated by another Storyboard, the HandoffBehavior property of BeginStoryboard determines how the animation proceeds.

Pause, Resume, Stop, or Otherwise Control a Storyboard Interactively

To be able to pause, resume, or otherwise control a Storyboard that was declared in markup interactively, you must set the Name property of its BeginStoryboard. You can then control the Storyboard by using a ControllableStoryboardAction object (such as PauseStoryboard, ResumeStoryboard, or StopStoryboard) to control it by referencing its Name. If the Name of BeginStoryboard is unspecified, the Storyboard cannot be interactively controlled after it is begun. See How to: Use Event Triggers to Control a Storyboard After It Starts for more information.

Note:
In code, you may use the interactive methods of the Storyboard class to control a Storyboard that was applied using a BeginStoryboard. As is the case when using ControllableStoryboardAction objects, you must give the BeginStoryboard a name for its Storyboard to be interactively controllable.

This example shows how to use a Storyboard to animate properties. To animate a property by using a Storyboard, create an animation for each property that you want to animate and also create a Storyboard to contain the animations.

The type of property determines the type of animation to use. For example, to animate a property that takes Double values, use a DoubleAnimation. The TargetName and TargetProperty attached properties specify the object and property to which the animation is applied.

To start a storyboard in Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML), use a BeginStoryboard action and an EventTrigger. The EventTrigger begins the BeginStoryboard action when the event that is specified by its RoutedEvent property occurs. The BeginStoryboard action starts the Storyboard.

The following example uses Storyboard objects to animate two Button controls. To make the first button change in size, its Width is animated. To make the second button change color, the Color property of the SolidColorBrush is used to set the Background of the button that is animated.

<!-- StoryboardExample.xaml
     Uses storyboards to animate properties. -->
<Page
  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
  xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
  WindowTitle="Animate Properties with Storyboards">

  <Border Background="White">
    <StackPanel Margin="30" HorizontalAlignment="Left" MinWidth="500">

      <TextBlock>Storyboard Animation Example</TextBlock>

      <!-- The width of this button is animated. -->
      <Button Name="myWidthAnimatedButton"
        Height="30" Width="200" HorizontalAlignment="Left">
        A Button   
        <Button.Triggers>

          <!-- Animates the width of the first button 
               from 200 to 300. -->         
          <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Button.Click">
            <BeginStoryboard>
              <Storyboard>           
                <DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="myWidthAnimatedButton"
                  Storyboard.TargetProperty="Width"
                  From="200" To="300" Duration="0:0:3" />
              </Storyboard>
            </BeginStoryboard>
          </EventTrigger>
        </Button.Triggers>
      </Button>

      <!-- The color of the brush used to paint this button is animated. -->
      <Button Height="30" Width="200" 
        HorizontalAlignment="Left">Another Button
        <Button.Background>
          <SolidColorBrush x:Name="myAnimatedBrush" Color="Blue" />
        </Button.Background>
        <Button.Triggers>

        <!-- Animates the color of the brush used to paint 
             the second button from red to blue . -->             
          <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Button.Click">    
            <BeginStoryboard>
              <Storyboard>
                <ColorAnimation 
                  Storyboard.TargetName="myAnimatedBrush"
                  Storyboard.TargetProperty="Color"
                  From="Red" To="Blue" Duration="0:0:7" />
              </Storyboard>
            </BeginStoryboard>
          </EventTrigger>
        </Button.Triggers>
      </Button>
    </StackPanel>
  </Border>
</Page>

Note:
Although animations can target both a FrameworkElement object, such as a Control or Panel, and a Freezable object, such as a Brush or Transform, only framework elements have a Name property. To assign a name to a freezable so that it can be targeted by an animation, use the x:Name Attribute, as the previous example shows.

If you use code, you must create a NameScope for a FrameworkElement and register the names of the objects to animate with that FrameworkElement. To start the animations in code, use a BeginStoryboard action with an EventTrigger. Optionally, you can use an event handler and the Begin method of Storyboard. The following example shows how to use the Begin method.

For the complete sample, see Property Animation Sample. For more information about animation and storyboards, see Animation Overview.

If you use code, you are not limited to using Storyboard objects in order to animate properties. For more information and examples, see How to: Animate a Property Without Using a Storyboard and How to: Animate a Property by Using an AnimationClock.

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