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How to: Animate a Property Without Using a Storyboard

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This example shows one way to apply an animation to a property without using a Storyboard.

Note

This functionality is not available in Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML). For information about animating a property in [!INCLUDEXAML, see Animate a Property by Using a Storyboard.

To apply a local animation to a property, use the BeginAnimation method. This method takes two parameters: a DependencyProperty that specifies the property to animate, and the animation to apply to that property.

Example

The following example shows how to animate the width and background color of a Button.

C# 
/*

   This sample demonstrates how to apply non-storyboard animations to a property.
   To animate in markup, you must use storyboards.

*/

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

namespace Microsoft.Samples.Animation.LocalAnimations
{

    // Create the demonstration.
    public class LocalAnimationExample : Page
    {

        public LocalAnimationExample()
        {

            WindowTitle = "Local Animation Example";
            StackPanel myStackPanel = new StackPanel();
            myStackPanel.Margin = new Thickness(20);

            // Create and set the Button.
            Button aButton = new Button();
            aButton.Content = "A Button";

            // Animate the Button's Width.
            DoubleAnimation myDoubleAnimation = new DoubleAnimation();
            myDoubleAnimation.From = 75;
            myDoubleAnimation.To = 300;
            myDoubleAnimation.Duration =  new Duration(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5));
            myDoubleAnimation.AutoReverse = true;
            myDoubleAnimation.RepeatBehavior = RepeatBehavior.Forever;

            // Apply the animation to the button's Width property.
            aButton.BeginAnimation(Button.WidthProperty, myDoubleAnimation);

            // Create and animate a Brush to set the button's Background.
            SolidColorBrush myBrush = new SolidColorBrush();
            myBrush.Color = Colors.Blue;

            ColorAnimation myColorAnimation = new ColorAnimation();
            myColorAnimation.From = Colors.Blue;
            myColorAnimation.To = Colors.Red;
            myColorAnimation.Duration =  new Duration(TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(7000));
            myColorAnimation.AutoReverse = true;
            myColorAnimation.RepeatBehavior = RepeatBehavior.Forever;

            // Apply the animation to the brush's Color property.
            myBrush.BeginAnimation(SolidColorBrush.ColorProperty, myColorAnimation);
            aButton.Background = myBrush;

            // Add the Button to the panel.
            myStackPanel.Children.Add(aButton);
            this.Content = myStackPanel;
        }
    }
}

A variety of animation classes in the System.Windows.Media.Animation namespace exist for animating different types of properties. For more information about animating properties, see Animation Overview. For more information about dependency properties (the type of properties that are shown in these examples) and their features, see Dependency Properties Overview.

There are other ways to animate without using Storyboard objects; for more information, see Property Animation Techniques Overview.

See also