How to: Create a Text Effect

A TextEffect object is a helper object that allows you to treat text as one or more groups of characters in a text string. The following example taken from the TextEffectSample shows an individual character being rotated. Each character is rotated independently at 1-second intervals.

Example of a rotating text effect animation

Example

In the following code example, a TextEffect is defined for a TextBlock object. In this case, the desired animation effect is a RotateTransform that will be applied to each character in the Text property.

<TextBlock.TextEffects>
  <!-- The TextEffect to animate. -->
  <TextEffect PositionCount="1" x:Name="MyTextEffect">
    <TextEffect.Transform>
      <RotateTransform x:Name="TextEffectRotateTransform" 
        Angle="0" CenterX="10" CenterY="10" />
    </TextEffect.Transform>
  </TextEffect>
</TextBlock.TextEffects>

Note:
If you want to rotate the entire text string as a single unit, apply the RotateTransform to the RenderTransform property for the TextBlock. For more information, see How to: Apply Animations to Text.

The following code example shows the animations that are defined for the Angle and CenterX properties. The animation sequence is controlled by defining an Int32AnimationUsingKeyFrames object and referencing the TextEffect by setting TargetName TargetProperty. The PositionStart property changes from 0 to 12 during the animation sequence, corresponding to the 13-character text string.

  <TextBlock.Triggers>
    <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="TextBlock.Loaded">
      <EventTrigger.Actions>
      <BeginStoryboard>
        <Storyboard>
          <ParallelTimeline RepeatBehavior="Forever">

            <!-- Animates the angle of the RotateTransform
                 applied to the TextEffect. -->
            <DoubleAnimation
              Storyboard.TargetName="TextEffectRotateTransform"
              Storyboard.TargetProperty="Angle" 
              From="0"
              To="360"
              Duration="00:00:0.75"                
              BeginTime="0:0:0.25" />
          </ParallelTimeline>

          <!-- Animates the horizontal center of the RotateTransform
               applied to the TextEffect. -->
          <DoubleAnimation
            From="30"
            To="370"
            Duration="00:00:13"
            RepeatBehavior="Forever"
            AutoReverse="True"
            Storyboard.TargetName="TextEffectRotateTransform"
            Storyboard.TargetProperty="CenterX" />

          <!-- Animates the position of the TextEffect. -->
          <Int32AnimationUsingKeyFrames
            Storyboard.TargetName="MyTextEffect"
            Storyboard.TargetProperty="PositionStart"
            Duration="0:0:13"
            AutoReverse="True"
            RepeatBehavior="Forever">
            <Int32AnimationUsingKeyFrames.KeyFrames>
              <DiscreteInt32KeyFrame Value="0" KeyTime="0:0:0" />
              <DiscreteInt32KeyFrame Value="1" KeyTime="0:0:1" />
              <DiscreteInt32KeyFrame Value="2" KeyTime="0:0:2" />
              <DiscreteInt32KeyFrame Value="3" KeyTime="0:0:3" />
              <DiscreteInt32KeyFrame Value="4" KeyTime="0:0:4" />
              <DiscreteInt32KeyFrame Value="5" KeyTime="0:0:5" />
              <DiscreteInt32KeyFrame Value="6" KeyTime="0:0:6" />
              <DiscreteInt32KeyFrame Value="7" KeyTime="0:0:7" />
              <DiscreteInt32KeyFrame Value="8" KeyTime="0:0:8" />
              <DiscreteInt32KeyFrame Value="9" KeyTime="0:0:9" />
              <DiscreteInt32KeyFrame Value="10" KeyTime="0:0:10" />
              <DiscreteInt32KeyFrame Value="11" KeyTime="0:0:11" />
              <DiscreteInt32KeyFrame Value="12" KeyTime="0:0:12" />
            </Int32AnimationUsingKeyFrames.KeyFrames>
          </Int32AnimationUsingKeyFrames>
        </Storyboard>
      </BeginStoryboard>
      </EventTrigger.Actions>
    </EventTrigger>
  </TextBlock.Triggers>
</TextBlock>

See Also

Tasks

How to: Apply Animations to Text

Other Resources

TextEffectSample