How to: Animate a Property by Using an AnimationClock

This example shows how to use Clock objects to animate a property.

There are three ways to animate a dependency property:

• Create an AnimationTimeline and associate it with that property by using a Storyboard.

• Use the object's BeginAnimation method to apply a single AnimationTimeline to a target property.

• Create an AnimationClock from an AnimationTimeline and apply it to a property.

Storyboard objects and the BeginAnimation method enable you to animate properties without directly creating and distributing clocks (for examples, see How to: Animate a Property by Using a Storyboard and How to: Animate a Property Without Using a Storyboard); clocks are created and distributed for you automatically.

Example

The following example shows how to create an AnimationClock and apply it to two similar properties.

/*
    This example shows how to create and apply
    an AnimationClock.
*/ 

using System;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Media;
using System.Windows.Shapes;
using System.Windows.Media.Animation;


namespace Microsoft.Samples.Animation.TimingBehaviors
{
    public class AnimationClockExample : Page
    {

        ScaleTransform myScaleTransform;

        public AnimationClockExample()
        {

            this.WindowTitle = "Opacity Animation Example";
            this.Background = Brushes.White;
            StackPanel myStackPanel = new StackPanel();
            myStackPanel.Margin = new Thickness(20);

            // Create a button that with a ScaleTransform. 
            // The ScaleTransform will animate when the 
            // button is clicked.
            Button myButton = new Button();
            myButton.Margin = new Thickness(50);
            myButton.HorizontalAlignment = HorizontalAlignment.Left;
            myButton.Content = "Click Me";           
            myScaleTransform = new ScaleTransform(1,1);
            myButton.RenderTransform = myScaleTransform;


            // Associate an event handler with the 
            // button's Click event.
            myButton.Click += new RoutedEventHandler(myButton_Clicked);

            myStackPanel.Children.Add(myButton);
            this.Content = myStackPanel;
        }

        // Create and apply and animation when the button is clicked. 
        private void myButton_Clicked(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {

            // Create a DoubleAnimation to animate the 
            // ScaleTransform.
            DoubleAnimation myAnimation = 
                new DoubleAnimation(
                    1, // "From" value
                    5, // "To" value  
                    new Duration(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5))
                );
            myAnimation.AutoReverse = true;

            // Create a clock the for the animation.
            AnimationClock myClock = myAnimation.CreateClock();            

            // Associate the clock the ScaleX and 
            // ScaleY properties of the button's 
            // ScaleTransform.
            myScaleTransform.ApplyAnimationClock(
                ScaleTransform.ScaleXProperty, myClock);
            myScaleTransform.ApplyAnimationClock(
                ScaleTransform.ScaleYProperty, myClock);
        }
    }
}

For an example showing how to interactively control a Clock after it starts, see How to: Interactively Control a Clock.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Animate a Property by Using a Storyboard

How to: Animate a Property Without Using a Storyboard

Concepts

Property Animation Techniques Overview