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[.NET] Animation Library - Easily animate your application - Printable Version

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+---- Thread: [.NET] Animation Library - Easily animate your application (/showthread.php?tid=4484630)

Animation Library - Easily animate your application - BlackCap - Oct 10, 2014

Source: http://pastebin.com/WBqqJJqd

Usage
First of all you need a method that takes at least one double between 0 and 1, and does something with it; move a control for instance:
PHP Code

<?php 
Sub MoveCtrl(ctrl As Control, x As Double, y As Double)
    ctrl.Location = New Point(x * ctrl.Parent.Width / 2, y * ctrl.Parent.Height / 2)
End Sub 

you could also use lambda
PHP Code

<?php 
Dim MoveCtrl = sub(ctrl As Control, x#, y#) ctrl.Location = New Point(x * ctrl.Parent.Width / 2, y * ctrl.Parent.Height / 2) 

You then have to make a animation

PHP Code

<?php 
Dim a As New Animation
a.Add(1000, AddressOf MoveCtrl).Apply(MyButton, Transitions.Linear, Transitions.Linear) 
  • 1000 is the number of milliseconds that your animation should last

  • You don't have to write "AddressOf" if you made a lambda

  • Everything in the second parantece is used as parameters for your method, and you can use a transition instead of any kind of number (doesn't have to be double)



To run your animation you simply call:
PHP Code

<?php 
a.Start() 

The animation class works pretty much like a timer. It have both a Start and a Stop method, and a Interval property too. The interval is how often it should call whatever method you gave it, and it defaults to 40 times a second. It also have a Reset method, which stops the animation and resets everything.
You can also add another animation to the first with the Add method.

Calling Add with a method of your choise actually returns a instance of the "Builder" class, which is a class that let you partially apply parameters to your method:
PHP Code

<?php 
a.Add(1000, AddressOf MoveCtrl)(MyButton)(Transitions.Linear).Apply(Transitions.Linear) 

So if you wanted to move a specific control a lot you could partially apply a control to the builder, and then apply a shitton of transitions to it afterwards:
PHP Code

<?php 
Dim whatever = a.Add(1000, AddressOf MoveCtrl)(MyButton) 

The animation class is actually a list of "Motions" which is a class which have a single transition, a single method (e.g. our MoveCtrl function), and also have StartAt, Length and Loop properties. StartAt and Length are integers representing where to start and the length of the motion in milliseconds, and Loop is a boolean representing wether or not to loop the motion.

If you only need a single motion there is a Transistor class, which is basically a single Transition and a timer in one package.

A Transition is defined like this:
PHP Code

<?php 
Delegate Function Transition(x As Double) As Double 
Which means that any function that both takes and returns a double can be used as a Transition.

In the Transitions class you'll find the following transitions:
  • Linear

  • Circular

  • Bounce

  • Quadrantic

  • JumpBack1

  • Elastic1



The reason that the last two transitions ends with "1" is that the Transitions class also have correspondending Jumpback and Elastic functions aswell as a Pow function. These three functions take a double indicating the "Strength" of the transition, and returns a Transition.

You also have a few extension methods for transitions:
  • Negate - Runs the Transition backwards

  • EaseOut

  • EaseInOut



Usage:
PHP Code

<?php 
Transitions.Linear.Negate 

And a few handy ones for constructing transitions:
  • To - Gives the result of this transition to another

  • From - Gives the result of another transition to this

  • ToTransL - Creates a transition from a function taking two parameters, where the left one is the one you'd like to use

  • ToTransR - Creates a transition from a function taking two parameters, where the right one is the one you'd like to use



I will support this thing for at least a couple of months, and I'd be sweet if you guys cared to hand me your two cents as well as a bucket or two of bug reports.

* - Corios - Oct 10, 2014

Just curious, why would you want to use this over say WPF? Not attacking you, just curious as to why use this when there are other extremely developed options

* - BlackCap - Oct 10, 2014

(Oct 10, 2014 08:42 PM)Corios Wrote:  Just curious, why would you want to use this over say WPF? Not attacking you, just curious as to why use this when there are other extremely developed options

Partly for backwards compability, but mostly because it's a lot more fun to make stuff youself. Also, this isn't windows forms exclusive; it would work just as good with WPF.

* - Corios - Oct 10, 2014

(Oct 10, 2014 08:46 PM)BlackCap Wrote:  Partly for backwards compability, but mostly because it's a lot more fun to make stuff youself. Also, this isn't windows forms exclusive; it would work just as good with WPF.

Fair enough :P I'll check it out once I get back, looks pretty good!

* - SaketSaket - Oct 11, 2014

Would love to see how it actually works.... Wonderful work... ;)

* - Only3 - Oct 11, 2014

back to net section looks good if i remember u have another thread about it

* - SIM-1456245 - Oct 11, 2014

Very impressive man, I was really looking forward to learn about animations in VB.Net, but hmm, this moves around controls only, what about GDI animation class ?