I would like to show a animated gif in .Net Winform. How to do this?
I previously used VB 6.0.
I would like to show a animated gif in .Net Winform. How to do this?
I previously used VB 6.0.
Put a picturebox on a form and then specify a picture file with a Gif extension. Or:
Programatically animate a gif Image loading frames into a PictureBox with code, here's the Gif class:
VB.NET
Public Class GifImage
Private gifImage As Image
Private dimension As FrameDimension
Private frameCount As Integer
Private currentFrame As Integer = -1
Private reverse As Boolean
Private [step] As Integer = 1
Public Sub New(path As String)
gifImage = Image.FromFile(path)
'initialize
dimension = New FrameDimension(gifImage.FrameDimensionsList(0))
'gets the GUID
'total frames in the animation
frameCount = gifImage.GetFrameCount(dimension)
End Sub
Public Property ReverseAtEnd() As Boolean
'whether the gif should play backwards when it reaches the end
Get
Return reverse
End Get
Set
reverse = value
End Set
End Property
Public Function GetNextFrame() As Image
currentFrame += [step]
'if the animation reaches a boundary...
If currentFrame >= frameCount OrElse currentFrame < 1 Then
If reverse Then
[step] *= -1
'...reverse the count
'apply it
currentFrame += [step]
Else
currentFrame = 0
'...or start over
End If
End If
Return GetFrame(currentFrame)
End Function
Public Function GetFrame(index As Integer) As Image
gifImage.SelectActiveFrame(dimension, index)
'find the frame
Return DirectCast(gifImage.Clone(), Image)
'return a copy of it
End Function
End Class
C#
public class GifImage
{
private Image gifImage;
private FrameDimension dimension;
private int frameCount;
private int currentFrame = -1;
private bool reverse;
private int step = 1;
public GifImage(string path)
{
gifImage = Image.FromFile(path);
//initialize
dimension = new FrameDimension(gifImage.FrameDimensionsList[0]);
//gets the GUID
//total frames in the animation
frameCount = gifImage.GetFrameCount(dimension);
}
public bool ReverseAtEnd {
//whether the gif should play backwards when it reaches the end
get { return reverse; }
set { reverse = value; }
}
public Image GetNextFrame()
{
currentFrame += step;
//if the animation reaches a boundary...
if (currentFrame >= frameCount || currentFrame < 1) {
if (reverse) {
step *= -1;
//...reverse the count
//apply it
currentFrame += step;
}
else {
currentFrame = 0;
//...or start over
}
}
return GetFrame(currentFrame);
}
public Image GetFrame(int index)
{
gifImage.SelectActiveFrame(dimension, index);
//find the frame
return (Image)gifImage.Clone();
//return a copy of it
}
}
C# usage:
Open a Winform project a drag and drop in a PictureBox, a Timer and a Button, with the GifImage.cs
class shown above.
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
private GifImage gifImage = null;
private string filePath = @"C:\Users\Jeremy\Desktop\ExampleAnimation.gif";
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
//a) Normal way
//pictureBox1.Image = Image.FromFile(filePath);
//b) We control the animation
gifImage = new GifImage(filePath);
gifImage.ReverseAtEnd = false; //dont reverse at end
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//Start the time/animation
timer1.Enabled = true;
}
//The event that is animating the Frames
private void timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
pictureBox1.Image = gifImage.GetNextFrame();
}
}
Developing on @JeremyThompson's answer I would like to add a code snippet to show how you can implement the first approach, because it is a lot simpler, and does not require you to manually animate the gif, seeing that the PictureBox
has a built-in feature to handle such a scenario.
Just add a PictureBox
to your form, and in the form constructor assign the image path to the PictureBox.ImageLocation
C#
public PictureForm()
{
InitializeComponent();
pictureBoxGif.ImageLocation = "C:\\throbber.gif";
}
VB.Net
Public Sub New()
InitializeComponent()
pictureBoxGif.ImageLocation = "C:\throbber.gif"
End Sub
In my oppinion this is a much simpler solution, especially for someone who is new to .NET.
I've played around with this and the animation plays provided that you don't perform another long running operation on the same thread. The moment you perform another long running operation, you'd want to do it in another thread.
The simplest way to do this, is to use the BackgroundWorker component that you can drag onto the form from your toolbox. You'd then put your long running operation code in the DoWork() event of the BackgroundWorker. The final step would be to invoke your code by calling the RunWorkerAsync() method of the BackgroundWorker instance.