How do I get an animated gif to work in WPF?

Question

What control type should I use - Image, MediaElement, etc.?

Answer 1

Its very simple if you use <MediaElement>:

<MediaElement  Height="113" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="12,12,0,0" 
Name="mediaElement1" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="198" Source="C:\Users\abc.gif"
LoadedBehavior="Play" Stretch="Fill" SpeedRatio="1" IsMuted="False" />

Answer 2

I post a solution extending the image control and using the Gif Decoder. The gif decoder has a frames property. I animate the FrameIndex property. The event ChangingFrameIndex changes the source property to the frame corresponding to the FrameIndex (that is in the decoder). I guess that the gif has 10 frames per second.

class GifImage : Image
{
    private bool _isInitialized;
    private GifBitmapDecoder _gifDecoder;
    private Int32Animation _animation;

    public int FrameIndex
    {
        get { return (int)GetValue(FrameIndexProperty); }
        set { SetValue(FrameIndexProperty, value); }
    }

    private void Initialize()
    {
        _gifDecoder = new GifBitmapDecoder(new Uri("pack://application:,,," + this.GifSource), BitmapCreateOptions.PreservePixelFormat, BitmapCacheOption.Default);
        _animation = new Int32Animation(0, _gifDecoder.Frames.Count - 1, new Duration(new TimeSpan(0, 0, 0, _gifDecoder.Frames.Count / 10, (int)((_gifDecoder.Frames.Count / 10.0 - _gifDecoder.Frames.Count / 10) * 1000))));
        _animation.RepeatBehavior = RepeatBehavior.Forever;
        this.Source = _gifDecoder.Frames[0];

        _isInitialized = true;
    }

    static GifImage()
    {
        VisibilityProperty.OverrideMetadata(typeof (GifImage),
            new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(VisibilityPropertyChanged));
    }

    private static void VisibilityPropertyChanged(DependencyObject sender, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        if ((Visibility)e.NewValue == Visibility.Visible)
        {
            ((GifImage)sender).StartAnimation();
        }
        else
        {
            ((GifImage)sender).StopAnimation();
        }
    }

    public static readonly DependencyProperty FrameIndexProperty =
        DependencyProperty.Register("FrameIndex", typeof(int), typeof(GifImage), new UIPropertyMetadata(0, new PropertyChangedCallback(ChangingFrameIndex)));

    static void ChangingFrameIndex(DependencyObject obj, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs ev)
    {
        var gifImage = obj as GifImage;
        gifImage.Source = gifImage._gifDecoder.Frames[(int)ev.NewValue];
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Defines whether the animation starts on it's own
    /// </summary>
    public bool AutoStart
    {
        get { return (bool)GetValue(AutoStartProperty); }
        set { SetValue(AutoStartProperty, value); }
    }

    public static readonly DependencyProperty AutoStartProperty =
        DependencyProperty.Register("AutoStart", typeof(bool), typeof(GifImage), new UIPropertyMetadata(false, AutoStartPropertyChanged));

    private static void AutoStartPropertyChanged(DependencyObject sender, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        if ((bool)e.NewValue)
            (sender as GifImage).StartAnimation();
    }

    public string GifSource
    {
        get { return (string)GetValue(GifSourceProperty); }
        set { SetValue(GifSourceProperty, value); }
    }

    public static readonly DependencyProperty GifSourceProperty =
        DependencyProperty.Register("GifSource", typeof(string), typeof(GifImage), new UIPropertyMetadata(string.Empty, GifSourcePropertyChanged));

    private static void GifSourcePropertyChanged(DependencyObject sender, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        (sender as GifImage).Initialize();
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Starts the animation
    /// </summary>
    public void StartAnimation()
    {
        if (!_isInitialized)
            this.Initialize();

        BeginAnimation(FrameIndexProperty, _animation);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Stops the animation
    /// </summary>
    public void StopAnimation()
    {
        BeginAnimation(FrameIndexProperty, null);
    }
}

Usage example (XAML):

<controls:GifImage x:Name="gifImage" Stretch="None" GifSource="/SomeImage.gif" AutoStart="True" />

Answer 3

I couldn't get the most popular answer to this question (above by Dario) to work properly. The result was weird, choppy animation with weird artifacts. Best solution I have found so far: https://github.com/XamlAnimatedGif/WpfAnimatedGif

You can install it with NuGet

PM> Install-Package WpfAnimatedGif

and to use it, at a new namespace to the Window where you want to add the gif image and use it as below

<Window x:Class="MainWindow"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:gif="http://wpfanimatedgif.codeplex.com" <!-- THIS NAMESPACE -->
    Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">

<Grid>
    <!-- EXAMPLE USAGE BELOW -->
    <Image gif:ImageBehavior.AnimatedSource="Images/animated.gif" />

The package is really neat, you can set some attributes like below

<Image gif:ImageBehavior.RepeatBehavior="3x"
       gif:ImageBehavior.AnimatedSource="Images/animated.gif" />

and you can use it in your code as well:

var image = new BitmapImage();
image.BeginInit();
image.UriSource = new Uri(fileName);
image.EndInit();
ImageBehavior.SetAnimatedSource(img, image);

EDIT: Silverlight support

As per josh2112's comment if you want to add animated GIF support to your Silverlight project then use github.com/XamlAnimatedGif/XamlAnimatedGif

Answer 4

I have try all the way above, but each one has their shortness, and thanks to all you, I work out my own GifImage:

    using System;
    using System.Collections.Generic;
    using System.Linq;
    using System.Text;
    using System.Windows.Controls;
    using System.Windows;
    using System.Windows.Media.Imaging;
    using System.IO;
    using System.Windows.Threading;

    namespace IEXM.Components
    {
    public class GifImage : Image
    {
            #region gif Source, such as "/IEXM;component/Images/Expression/f020.gif"
            public string GifSource
            {
                    get { return (string)GetValue(GifSourceProperty); }
                    set { SetValue(GifSourceProperty, value); }
            }

            public static readonly DependencyProperty GifSourceProperty =
                    DependencyProperty.Register("GifSource", typeof(string),
                    typeof(GifImage), new UIPropertyMetadata(null, GifSourcePropertyChanged));

            private static void GifSourcePropertyChanged(DependencyObject sender,
                    DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
            {
                    (sender as GifImage).Initialize();
            }
            #endregion

            #region control the animate
            /// <summary>
            /// Defines whether the animation starts on it's own
            /// </summary>
            public bool IsAutoStart
            {
                    get { return (bool)GetValue(AutoStartProperty); }
                    set { SetValue(AutoStartProperty, value); }
            }

            public static readonly DependencyProperty AutoStartProperty =
                    DependencyProperty.Register("IsAutoStart", typeof(bool),
                    typeof(GifImage), new UIPropertyMetadata(false, AutoStartPropertyChanged));

            private static void AutoStartPropertyChanged(DependencyObject sender,
                    DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
            {
                    if ((bool)e.NewValue)
                            (sender as GifImage).StartAnimation();
                    else
                            (sender as GifImage).StopAnimation();
            }
            #endregion

            private bool _isInitialized = false;
            private System.Drawing.Bitmap _bitmap;
            private BitmapSource _source;

            [System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("gdi32.dll")]
            public static extern bool DeleteObject(IntPtr hObject);

            private BitmapSource GetSource()
            {
                    if (_bitmap == null)
                    {
                            _bitmap = new System.Drawing.Bitmap(Application.GetResourceStream(
                                     new Uri(GifSource, UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute)).Stream);
                    }

                    IntPtr handle = IntPtr.Zero;
                    handle = _bitmap.GetHbitmap();

                    BitmapSource bs = System.Windows.Interop.Imaging.CreateBitmapSourceFromHBitmap(
                            handle, IntPtr.Zero, Int32Rect.Empty, BitmapSizeOptions.FromEmptyOptions());
                    DeleteObject(handle);
                    return bs;
            }

            private void Initialize()
            {
            //        Console.WriteLine("Init: " + GifSource);
                    if (GifSource != null)
                            Source = GetSource();
                    _isInitialized = true;
            }

            private void FrameUpdatedCallback()
            {
                    System.Drawing.ImageAnimator.UpdateFrames();

                    if (_source != null)
                    {
                            _source.Freeze();
                    }

               _source = GetSource();

              //  Console.WriteLine("Working: " + GifSource);

                    Source = _source;
                    InvalidateVisual();
            }

            private void OnFrameChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
            {
                    Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(DispatcherPriority.Normal, new Action(FrameUpdatedCallback));
            }

            /// <summary>
            /// Starts the animation
            /// </summary>
            public void StartAnimation()
            {
                    if (!_isInitialized)
                            this.Initialize();


             //   Console.WriteLine("Start: " + GifSource);

                    System.Drawing.ImageAnimator.Animate(_bitmap, OnFrameChanged);
            }

            /// <summary>
            /// Stops the animation
            /// </summary>
            public void StopAnimation()
            {
                    _isInitialized = false;
                    if (_bitmap != null)
                    {
                            System.Drawing.ImageAnimator.StopAnimate(_bitmap, OnFrameChanged);
                            _bitmap.Dispose();
                            _bitmap = null;
                    }
                    _source = null;
                    Initialize();
                    GC.Collect();
                    GC.WaitForFullGCComplete();

             //   Console.WriteLine("Stop: " + GifSource);
            }

            public void Dispose()
            {
                    _isInitialized = false;
                    if (_bitmap != null)
                    {
                            System.Drawing.ImageAnimator.StopAnimate(_bitmap, OnFrameChanged);
                            _bitmap.Dispose();
                            _bitmap = null;
                    }
                    _source = null;
                    GC.Collect();
                    GC.WaitForFullGCComplete();
               // Console.WriteLine("Dispose: " + GifSource);
            }
    }
}

Usage:

<localComponents:GifImage x:Name="gifImage" IsAutoStart="True" GifSource="{Binding Path=value}" />

As it would not cause memory leak and it animated the gif image own time line, you can try it.

Answer 5

Thanks for your post Joel, it helped me solve WPF's absence of support for animated GIFs. Just adding a little code since I had a heck of a time with setting the pictureBoxLoading.Image property due to the Winforms api.

I had to set my animated gif image's Build Action as "Content" and the Copy to output directory to "Copy if newer" or "always". Then in the MainWindow() I called this method. Only issue is that when I tried to dispose of the stream, it gave me a red envelope graphic instead of my image. I'll have to solve that problem. This removed the pain of loading a BitmapImage and changing it into a Bitmap (which obviously killed my animation because it is no longer a gif).

private void SetupProgressIcon()
{
   Uri uri = new Uri("pack://application:,,,/WPFTest;component/Images/animated_progress_apple.gif");
   if (uri != null)
   {
      Stream stream = Application.GetContentStream(uri).Stream;   
      imgProgressBox.Image = new System.Drawing.Bitmap(stream);
   }
}

Answer 6

Adding on to the main response that recommends the usage of WpfAnimatedGif, you must add the following lines in the end if you are swapping an image with a Gif to ensure the animation actually executes:

ImageBehavior.SetRepeatBehavior(img, new RepeatBehavior(0));
ImageBehavior.SetRepeatBehavior(img, RepeatBehavior.Forever);

So your code will look like:

var image = new BitmapImage();
image.BeginInit();
image.UriSource = new Uri(fileName);
image.EndInit();
ImageBehavior.SetAnimatedSource(img, image);
ImageBehavior.SetRepeatBehavior(img, new RepeatBehavior(0));
ImageBehavior.SetRepeatBehavior(img, RepeatBehavior.Forever);