ColorAnimation Class (System.Windows.Media.Animation)

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Microsoft Silverlight 3

Other versions are also available for the following:

.NET Framework Class Library for Silverlight

ColorAnimation Class

Animates the value of a Color property between two target values using linear interpolation over a specified Duration.

Namespace: System.Windows.Media.Animation
Assembly: System.Windows (in System.Windows.dll)

Syntax

Visual Basic (Declaration)

Public NotInheritable Class ColorAnimation _
    Inherits Timeline

Visual Basic (Usage)

Dim instance As ColorAnimation

public sealed class ColorAnimation : Timeline

XAML Object Element Usage

<ColorAnimation .../>

Remarks

An animation updates the value of a property over a period of time. An animation effect can be subtle, such as moving a Shape a few pixels left or right, or dramatic, such as enlarging an object to 200 times its original size while spinning it and changing its color. To create an animation, you associate an animation with an object's property value.

The ColorAnimation class creates a transition between two target values. To set its target values, use its From, To, and By properties. The following table summarizes how the From, To, and By properties can be used together or separately to determine an animation's target values.

Properties specified	Resulting behavior
From	The animation progresses from the value specified by the From property to the base value of the property being animated.
From and To	The animation progresses from the value specified by the From property to the value specified by the To property.
From and By	The animation progresses from the value specified by the From property to the value specified by the sum of the From and By properties.
To	The animation progresses from the animated property's base value or a previous animation's output value to the value specified by the To property.
By	The animation progresses from the base value of the property being animated or a previous animation's output value to the sum of that value and the value specified by the By property.

If you set both the To and By properties, the To property takes precedence and the By property is ignored.

To use other interpolation methods or to animate between more than two target values, use a ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames object.

Examples

The following example shows how to use ColorAnimation to animate the background color of a StackPanel.

Run this sample

<StackPanel x:Name="myStackPanel" Background="Red"
  Loaded="Start_Animation">
  <StackPanel.Resources>
    <Storyboard x:Name="colorStoryboard">

      <!-- Animate the background color of the canvas from red to green
        over 4 seconds. -->
      <ColorAnimation BeginTime="00:00:00" Storyboard.TargetName="myStackPanel" 
        Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Panel.Background).(SolidColorBrush.Color)"
        From="Red" To="Green" Duration="0:0:4" />

    </Storyboard>
  </StackPanel.Resources>
</StackPanel>

Visual Basic

' Start the animation when the object loads
Private Sub Start_Animation(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
    colorStoryboard.Begin()
End Sub

// Start the animation when the object loads.
private void Start_Animation(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    colorStoryboard.Begin();
}

Notice in the example above that the property value being animated (Color), belongs to a SolidColorBrush object which is not named or even explicitly declared. This indirect targeting is accomplished using the special syntax below.

Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Panel.Background).(SolidColorBrush.Color)"

Alternatively, you could explicitly create the SolidColorBrush, name it, and target its Color property directly. The example below shows how to create the same animation as the previous one except it uses direct property targeting.

<StackPanel Loaded="Start_Animation">
  <StackPanel.Resources>
    <Storyboard x:Name="colorStoryboard">
      <!-- Animate the background color of the canvas from red to green
        over 4 seconds. -->
      <ColorAnimation BeginTime="00:00:00" Storyboard.TargetName="mySolidColorBrush"
        Storyboard.TargetProperty="Color" From="Red" To="Green" Duration="0:0:4" />
    </Storyboard>
  </StackPanel.Resources>

  <StackPanel.Background>
    <SolidColorBrush x:Name="mySolidColorBrush" Color="Red" />
  </StackPanel.Background>

</StackPanel>

Visual Basic

' Start the animation when the object loads
Private Sub Start_Animation(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
    colorStoryboard.Begin()
End Sub

// Start the animation when the object loads.
private void Start_Animation(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    colorStoryboard.Begin();
}

Inheritance Hierarchy

System..::.Object
  System.Windows..::.DependencyObject
    System.Windows.Media.Animation..::.Timeline
      System.Windows.Media.Animation..::.ColorAnimation

Thread Safety

Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.

Platforms

For a list of the operating systems and browsers that are supported by Silverlight, see Supported Operating Systems and Browsers.

Reference

ColorAnimation Members

System.Windows.Media.Animation Namespace

Other Resources

Animation Overview