Wpf animate background color

Question

I need help in taking right decision. I need to animate a background color of my user control when some event happens. When it is, I want to change the background just for 1 second and then turn it back. Which way should I go? Use color animation or timer or may by some other way.

Solved. Thanks to all! This works good for me:

        ColorAnimation animation;
        animation = new ColorAnimation();
        animation.From = Colors.Orange;
        animation.To = Colors.Gray;
        animation.Duration = new Duration(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1));
        this.elGrid.Background.BeginAnimation(SolidColorBrush.ColorProperty, animation);

Answer 1

I would use an EventTrigger with a ColorAnimation.

In this example a Button Brackground goes green on a MouseLeave event. This code is hopefully similar to what you may need.

<Button Content="Button" Height="75" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="27,12,0,0" Name="btnImgBrush" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="160" Background="LightGray">
    <Button.Triggers>
        <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Button.MouseLeave">
            <BeginStoryboard>
                <Storyboard>
                    <ColorAnimation To="Green" 
                                    Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Button.Background).(SolidColorBrush.Color)" 
                                    FillBehavior="Stop" 
                                    Duration="0:0:1"/>
                </Storyboard>
            </BeginStoryboard>
        </EventTrigger>
    </Button.Triggers>
</Button>

Answer 2

        ColorAnimation colorChangeAnimation = new ColorAnimation();
        colorChangeAnimation.From = VariableColour;
         colorChangeAnimation.To = BaseColour;
        colorChangeAnimation.Duration = timeSpan;

        PropertyPath colorTargetPath = new PropertyPath("(Panel.Background).(SolidColorBrush.Color)");
        Storyboard CellBackgroundChangeStory = new Storyboard();
        Storyboard.SetTarget(colorChangeAnimation, BackGroundCellGrid);
        Storyboard.SetTargetProperty(colorChangeAnimation, colorTargetPath);
        CellBackgroundChangeStory.Children.Add(colorChangeAnimation);
        CellBackgroundChangeStory.Begin();

//VariableColour & BaseColour are class of Color, timeSpan is Class of TimeSpan, BackGroundCellGrid is class of Grid;

//no need to create SolidColorBrush and binding to it in XAML; //have fun!

Answer 3

Watch out, you could received a System.InvalidOperationException if your background is a frozen instance.

Cannot animate the 'Color' property on 'System.Windows.Media.SolidColorBrush' because the object is sealed or frozen.

To correct this message assign the background of your control to a non-frozen instance.

// Do not use a frozen instance
this.elGrid.Background = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Orange);
this.elGrid.Background.BeginAnimation(SolidColorBrush.ColorProperty, animation);

Freezable Objects Overview on MSDN

Answer 4

You can use DoubleAnimation to change the color like this:

<Storyboard>
    <DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetProperty="Background"
                            From="0.0"
                            Duration="0:0:2"
                            To="1.0" />                        
</Storyboard>

Hope it helps

Answer 5

In WPF ,Using animation maybe better. Expression blend have the relative animation/behaviour.

Answer 6

This worked well for me.

I have a path inside a button (it draws an "X"):

<Path x:Name="MyDeleteRowButton" Stroke="Gray" Grid.Row="0" 
      Data="M1,5 L11,15 M1,15 L11,5" StrokeThickness="2" HorizontalAlignment="Center" 
      Stretch="None"/>

On mouse over, I want the cross to go red, so I add:

<DataTemplate.Triggers>
    <!-- Highlight row on mouse over, and highlight the delete button. -->
    <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="ItemsControl.MouseEnter">
        <EventTrigger.Actions>
            <BeginStoryboard>
                <Storyboard>
                    <!-- On mouse over, flicker the row to highlight it.-->
                    <DoubleAnimation
                        Storyboard.TargetProperty="Opacity"
                        From="0.5" 
                        To="1" 
                        Duration="0:0:0.250"  
                        FillBehavior="Stop"/>
                    <!-- Highlight the delete button with red. -->
                    <ColorAnimation
                        To="Red"
                        Storyboard.TargetName="MyDeleteRowButton"
                        Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Stroke).(SolidColorBrush.Color)"
                        Duration="0:0:0.100" 
                        FillBehavior="HoldEnd"/>
                </Storyboard>
            </BeginStoryboard>
        </EventTrigger.Actions>
    </EventTrigger>

    <!-- Grey out the delete button. -->
    <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="ItemsControl.MouseLeave">
        <EventTrigger.Actions>
            <BeginStoryboard>
                <Storyboard>
                    <!-- Space is precious: "delete" button appears only on a mouseover. -->
                    <ColorAnimation
                        To="Gray"
                        Storyboard.TargetName="MyDeleteRowButton"
                        Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Stroke).(SolidColorBrush.Color)"
                        Duration="0:0:0.100" 
                        FillBehavior="HoldEnd"/>
                </Storyboard>
            </BeginStoryboard>
        </EventTrigger.Actions>
    </EventTrigger>

</DataTemplate.Triggers>

The most confusing thing about this is the brackets within Storyboard.TargetProperty. If you remove the brackets, nothing works.

For more information, see "propertyName Grammar" and "Storyboard.TargetProperty".