Could any one tell how can I open a form with an animation similar to the one used by Mac-OS launcher. I have seen a few other software doing the same thing. For eg: This youtube video also shows a demo of it (@Time: 20 sec and @Time: 28 sec).
I know of animateWindow
API, but I think this is not possible with animateWindow
.
Any idea on how to do this?
AnimateWindow won't fit the bill.
In my opinion these programs work by
- Creating a transparent window when needed, while computing icons to display
- Creating the animation and displaying it on the transparent window device context
- Handling everything on the window via custom events.
What you need is
- a comprehensive knowledge of GDI32
- an equally comprehensive knowledge of those dirty tricks used to create animations programmatically.
I'm sorry, but I think that this is not the kind of topic that can briefly explained on a single answer :-(
Eventually, you need something that augments and extends Windows's native graphic capabilities. There are companies that did this before: IIRC Serif.com did write their own GDI replacement for their DTP programs, and I think that all of these companies that make desktop enhancements did the same (or at least, they know how to squeeze GDI32 capabilities)
You could try WPF or SilverLight or mixure of above to meet your requirements.
You can check Good WPF or silverlight windows gadget examples and let me know.