Animate change of view background color on Android

Question

How do you animate the change of background color of a view on Android?

For example:

I have a view with a red background color. The background color of the

Answer 1

I ended up figuring out a (pretty good) solution for this problem!

You can use a TransitionDrawable to accomplish this. For example, in an XML file in the drawable folder you could write something like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<transition xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <!-- The drawables used here can be solid colors, gradients, shapes, images, etc. -->
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/original_state" />
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/new_state" />
</transition>

Then, in your XML for the actual View you would reference this TransitionDrawable in the android:background attribute.

At this point you can initiate the transition in your code on-command by doing:

TransitionDrawable transition = (TransitionDrawable) viewObj.getBackground();
transition.startTransition(transitionTime);

Or run the transition in reverse by calling:

transition.reverseTransition(transitionTime);

---

See Roman's answer for another solution using the Property Animation API, which wasn't available at the time this answer was originally posted.

Answer 2

add a folder animator into res folder. (the name must be animator). Add an animator resource file. For example res/animator/fade.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<set xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <objectAnimator
        android:propertyName="backgroundColor"
        android:duration="1000"
        android:valueFrom="#000000"
        android:valueTo="#FFFFFF"
        android:startOffset="0"
        android:repeatCount="-1"
        android:repeatMode="reverse" />
</set>

Inside Activity java file, call this

View v = getWindow().getDecorView().findViewById(android.R.id.content);
AnimatorSet set = (AnimatorSet) AnimatorInflater.loadAnimator(this, R.animator.fade);
set.setTarget(v);
set.start();

Answer 3

best way is to use ValueAnimator and ColorUtils.blendARGB

 ValueAnimator valueAnimator = ValueAnimator.ofFloat(0.0f, 1.0f);
 valueAnimator.setDuration(325);
 valueAnimator.addUpdateListener(new ValueAnimator.AnimatorUpdateListener() {
        @Override
        public void onAnimationUpdate(ValueAnimator valueAnimator) {

              float fractionAnim = (float) valueAnimator.getAnimatedValue();

              view.setBackgroundColor(ColorUtils.blendARGB(Color.parseColor("#FFFFFF")
                                    , Color.parseColor("#000000")
                                    , fractionAnim));
        }
});
valueAnimator.start();

Answer 4

Based on ademar111190's answer, I have created this method the will pulse the background color of a view between any two colors:

private void animateBackground(View view, int colorFrom, int colorTo, int duration) {


    ObjectAnimator objectAnimator = ObjectAnimator.ofObject(view, "backgroundColor", new ArgbEvaluator(), colorFrom, colorTo);
    objectAnimator.setDuration(duration);
    //objectAnimator.setRepeatCount(Animation.INFINITE);
    objectAnimator.addListener(new Animator.AnimatorListener() {
        @Override
        public void onAnimationStart(Animator animation) {

        }

        @Override
        public void onAnimationEnd(Animator animation) {
            // Call this method again, but with the two colors switched around.
            animateBackground(view, colorTo, colorFrom, duration);
        }

        @Override
        public void onAnimationCancel(Animator animation) {

        }

        @Override
        public void onAnimationRepeat(Animator animation) {

        }
    });
    objectAnimator.start();
}

Answer 5

Here's a nice function that allows this:

public static void animateBetweenColors(final @NonNull View viewToAnimateItsBackground, final int colorFrom,
                                        final int colorTo, final int durationInMs) {
    final ColorDrawable colorDrawable = new ColorDrawable(durationInMs > 0 ? colorFrom : colorTo);
    ViewCompat.setBackground(viewToAnimateItsBackground, colorDrawable);
    if (durationInMs > 0) {
        final ValueAnimator colorAnimation = ValueAnimator.ofObject(new ArgbEvaluator(), colorFrom, colorTo);
        colorAnimation.addUpdateListener(animator -> {
            colorDrawable.setColor((Integer) animator.getAnimatedValue());
            ViewCompat.setBackground(viewToAnimateItsBackground, colorDrawable);
        });
        colorAnimation.setDuration(durationInMs);
        colorAnimation.start();
    }
}

And in Kotlin:

@JvmStatic
fun animateBetweenColors(viewToAnimateItsBackground: View, colorFrom: Int, colorTo: Int, durationInMs: Int) {
    val colorDrawable = ColorDrawable(if (durationInMs > 0) colorFrom else colorTo)
    ViewCompat.setBackground(viewToAnimateItsBackground, colorDrawable)
    if (durationInMs > 0) {
        val colorAnimation = ValueAnimator.ofObject(ArgbEvaluator(), colorFrom, colorTo)
        colorAnimation.addUpdateListener { animator: ValueAnimator ->
            colorDrawable.color = (animator.animatedValue as Int)
            ViewCompat.setBackground(viewToAnimateItsBackground, colorDrawable)
        }
        colorAnimation.duration = durationInMs.toLong()
        colorAnimation.start()
    }
}

Answer 6

The documentation on XML powered animations is horrible. I've searched around hours just to animate the background color of a button when pressing... The sad thing is that the animation is only one attribute away: You can use exitFadeDuration in the selector:

<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:exitFadeDuration="200">

    <item android:state_pressed="true">
        <shape android:tint="#3F51B5" />
    </item>

    <item>
        <shape android:tint="#F44336" />
    </item>

</selector>

Then just use it as background for your view. No Java/Kotlin code needed.