I managed to find out how to make a WPF animation - transition between two colors.
It\'s called ColorAnimation and works well.
ColorAnimation animati
You just need to use the color animation on the gradient stops of the gradient brush. Here is an example that animates a rectangle gradient using a storyboard.
<Window
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
x:Class="GradientBrushAnimation.MainWindow"
x:Name="Window"
Title="MainWindow"
Width="640" Height="480">
<Window.Resources>
<Storyboard x:Key="Storyboard1">
<ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Shape.Fill).(GradientBrush.GradientStops)[0].(GradientStop.Color)" Storyboard.TargetName="rectangle">
<EasingColorKeyFrame KeyTime="0:0:2" Value="Red"/>
</ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
<ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Shape.Fill).(GradientBrush.GradientStops)[1].(GradientStop.Color)" Storyboard.TargetName="rectangle">
<EasingColorKeyFrame KeyTime="0:0:2" Value="#FF71FF00"/>
</ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
</Storyboard>
</Window.Resources>
<Window.Triggers>
<EventTrigger RoutedEvent="FrameworkElement.Loaded">
<BeginStoryboard Storyboard="{StaticResource Storyboard1}"/>
</EventTrigger>
</Window.Triggers>
<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot">
<Rectangle x:Name="rectangle" Margin="78,102,292,144" Stroke="Black">
<Rectangle.Fill>
<LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="0.5,1" StartPoint="0.5,0">
<GradientStop Color="Black" Offset="0"/>
<GradientStop Color="White" Offset="1"/>
</LinearGradientBrush>
</Rectangle.Fill>
</Rectangle>
</Grid>
</Window>
You can animate the color of the brush if you have a template style in which you give the fill brush a name, like so:
<Rectangle Width="100" Height="100">
<Rectangle.Fill>
<SolidColorBrush x:Name="MyAnimatedBrush" Color="Orange" />
</Rectangle.Fill>
<Rectangle.Triggers>
<!-- Animates the brush's color to gray
When the mouse enters the rectangle. -->
<EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Rectangle.MouseEnter">
<BeginStoryboard>
<Storyboard>
<ColorAnimation
Storyboard.TargetName="MyAnimatedBrush"
Storyboard.TargetProperty="Color"
To="Gray" Duration="0:0:1" />
</Storyboard>
</BeginStoryboard>
</EventTrigger>
</Rectangle.Triggers>
</Rectangle>
As taken from MSDN
Another possible way is, to create a custom animtion class that animate brushes. I found a simple way to do that by creating a class, derivated from AnimationTimeline. We can override some members in the custom class, among other things the AnimationTimeline.GetCurrentValue method. It returns a value depend on the animation progress and the start- and end value.
The simplest way is to create a VisualBrush
and crossfade the start- with the end value with the Opacity
property on a child control. The result is a class like the following:
public class BrushAnimation : AnimationTimeline
{
public override Type TargetPropertyType
{
get
{
return typeof(Brush);
}
}
public override object GetCurrentValue(object defaultOriginValue,
object defaultDestinationValue,
AnimationClock animationClock)
{
return GetCurrentValue(defaultOriginValue as Brush,
defaultDestinationValue as Brush,
animationClock);
}
public object GetCurrentValue(Brush defaultOriginValue,
Brush defaultDestinationValue,
AnimationClock animationClock)
{
if (!animationClock.CurrentProgress.HasValue)
return Brushes.Transparent;
//use the standard values if From and To are not set
//(it is the value of the given property)
defaultOriginValue = this.From ?? defaultOriginValue;
defaultDestinationValue = this.To ?? defaultDestinationValue;
if (animationClock.CurrentProgress.Value == 0)
return defaultOriginValue;
if (animationClock.CurrentProgress.Value == 1)
return defaultDestinationValue;
return new VisualBrush(new Border()
{
Width = 1,
Height = 1,
Background = defaultOriginValue,
Child = new Border()
{
Background = defaultDestinationValue,
Opacity = animationClock.CurrentProgress.Value,
}
});
}
protected override Freezable CreateInstanceCore()
{
return new BrushAnimation();
}
//we must define From and To, AnimationTimeline does not have this properties
public Brush From
{
get { return (Brush)GetValue(FromProperty); }
set { SetValue(FromProperty, value); }
}
public Brush To
{
get { return (Brush)GetValue(ToProperty); }
set { SetValue(ToProperty, value); }
}
public static readonly DependencyProperty FromProperty =
DependencyProperty.Register("From", typeof(Brush), typeof(BrushAnimation));
public static readonly DependencyProperty ToProperty =
DependencyProperty.Register("To", typeof(Brush), typeof(BrushAnimation));
}
You can use it as always in XAML:
<EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Loaded">
<BeginStoryboard>
<Storyboard >
<local:BrushAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="border"
Storyboard.TargetProperty="Background"
Duration="0:0:5" From="Red"
RepeatBehavior="Forever" AutoReverse="True" >
<local:BrushAnimation.To>
<LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="0.5,1" StartPoint="0.5,0">
<GradientStop Color="#FF00FF2E" Offset="0.005"/>
<GradientStop Color="#FFC5FF00" Offset="1"/>
<GradientStop Color="Blue" Offset="0.43"/>
</LinearGradientBrush>
</local:BrushAnimation.To>
</local:BrushAnimation>
</Storyboard>
</BeginStoryboard>
</EventTrigger>
or in code behind:
var animation = new BrushAnimation
{
From = Brushes.Red,
To = new LinearGradientBrush (Colors.Green, Colors.Yellow, 45),
Duration = new Duration(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5)),
};
animation.Completed += new EventHandler(animation_Completed);
Storyboard.SetTarget(animation, border);
Storyboard.SetTargetProperty(animation, new PropertyPath("Background"));
var sb = new Storyboard();
sb.Children.Add(animation);
sb.Begin();
It is also possible to extend the BrushAnimation
with constructor overloads etc., so it looks like a .NET given animation type.