Android APIs
public class

AnimationDrawable

extends DrawableContainer
implements Animatable Runnable
java.lang.Object
   ↳ android.graphics.drawable.Drawable
     ↳ android.graphics.drawable.DrawableContainer
       ↳ android.graphics.drawable.AnimationDrawable

Class Overview

An object used to create frame-by-frame animations, defined by a series of Drawable objects, which can be used as a View object's background.

The simplest way to create a frame-by-frame animation is to define the animation in an XML file, placed in the res/drawable/ folder, and set it as the background to a View object. Then, call start() to run the animation.

An AnimationDrawable defined in XML consists of a single <animation-list> element, and a series of nested <item> tags. Each item defines a frame of the animation. See the example below.

spin_animation.xml file in res/drawable/ folder:

<!-- Animation frames are wheel0.png -- wheel5.png files inside the
 res/drawable/ folder -->
 <animation-list android:id="@+id/selected" android:oneshot="false">
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/wheel0" android:duration="50" />
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/wheel1" android:duration="50" />
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/wheel2" android:duration="50" />
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/wheel3" android:duration="50" />
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/wheel4" android:duration="50" />
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/wheel5" android:duration="50" />
 </animation-list>

Here is the code to load and play this animation.

 // Load the ImageView that will host the animation and
 // set its background to our AnimationDrawable XML resource.
 ImageView img = (ImageView)findViewById(R.id.spinning_wheel_image);
 img.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.spin_animation);

 // Get the background, which has been compiled to an AnimationDrawable object.
 AnimationDrawable frameAnimation = (AnimationDrawable) img.getBackground();

 // Start the animation (looped playback by default).
 frameAnimation.start();
 

Developer Guides

For more information about animating with AnimationDrawable, read the Drawable Animation developer guide.

Summary

XML Attributes
Attribute Name Related Method Description
android:drawable Reference to a drawable resource to use for the frame. 
android:duration Amount of time (in milliseconds) to display this frame. 
android:oneshot If true, the animation will only run a single time and then stop. 
android:variablePadding If true, allows the drawable's padding to change based on the current state that is selected. 
android:visible Provides initial visibility state of the drawable; the default value is false. 
Public Constructors
AnimationDrawable()
Public Methods
void addFrame(Drawable frame, int duration)
Add a frame to the animation
int getDuration(int i)
Drawable getFrame(int index)
int getNumberOfFrames()
void inflate(Resources r, XmlPullParser parser, AttributeSet attrs, Resources.Theme theme)
Inflate this Drawable from an XML resource optionally styled by a theme.
boolean isOneShot()
boolean isRunning()

Indicates whether the animation is currently running or not.

Drawable mutate()
Make this drawable mutable.
void run()

This method exists for implementation purpose only and should not be called directly.

void setOneShot(boolean oneShot)
Sets whether the animation should play once or repeat.
boolean setVisible(boolean visible, boolean restart)
Set whether this Drawable is visible.
void start()

Starts the animation, looping if necessary.

void stop()

Stops the animation.

void unscheduleSelf(Runnable what)
Use the current Drawable.Callback implementation to have this Drawable unscheduled.
[Expand]
Inherited Methods
From class android.graphics.drawable.DrawableContainer
From class android.graphics.drawable.Drawable
From class java.lang.Object
From interface android.graphics.drawable.Animatable
From interface android.graphics.drawable.Drawable.Callback
From interface java.lang.Runnable

XML Attributes

android:drawable

Reference to a drawable resource to use for the frame. If not given, the drawable must be defined by the first child tag.

Must be a reference to another resource, in the form "@[+][package:]type:name" or to a theme attribute in the form "?[package:][type:]name".

This corresponds to the global attribute resource symbol drawable.

Related Methods

android:duration

Amount of time (in milliseconds) to display this frame.

Must be an integer value, such as "100".

This may also be a reference to a resource (in the form "@[package:]type:name") or theme attribute (in the form "?[package:][type:]name") containing a value of this type.

This corresponds to the global attribute resource symbol duration.

Related Methods

android:oneshot

If true, the animation will only run a single time and then stop. If false (the default), it will continually run, restarting at the first frame after the last has finished.

Must be a boolean value, either "true" or "false".

This may also be a reference to a resource (in the form "@[package:]type:name") or theme attribute (in the form "?[package:][type:]name") containing a value of this type.

This corresponds to the global attribute resource symbol oneshot.

Related Methods

android:variablePadding

If true, allows the drawable's padding to change based on the current state that is selected. If false, the padding will stay the same (based on the maximum padding of all the states). Enabling this feature requires that the owner of the drawable deal with performing layout when the state changes, which is often not supported.

Must be a boolean value, either "true" or "false".

This may also be a reference to a resource (in the form "@[package:]type:name") or theme attribute (in the form "?[package:][type:]name") containing a value of this type.

This corresponds to the global attribute resource symbol variablePadding.

Related Methods

android:visible

Provides initial visibility state of the drawable; the default value is false. See setVisible(boolean, boolean).

Must be a boolean value, either "true" or "false".

This may also be a reference to a resource (in the form "@[package:]type:name") or theme attribute (in the form "?[package:][type:]name") containing a value of this type.

This corresponds to the global attribute resource symbol visible.

Related Methods

Public Constructors

public AnimationDrawable ()

Added in API level 1

Public Methods

public void addFrame (Drawable frame, int duration)

Added in API level 1

Add a frame to the animation

Parameters
frame The frame to add
duration How long in milliseconds the frame should appear

public int getDuration (int i)

Added in API level 1

Returns
  • The duration in milliseconds of the frame at the specified index

public Drawable getFrame (int index)

Added in API level 1

Returns
  • The Drawable at the specified frame index

public int getNumberOfFrames ()

Added in API level 1

Returns
  • The number of frames in the animation

public void inflate (Resources r, XmlPullParser parser, AttributeSet attrs, Resources.Theme theme)

Inflate this Drawable from an XML resource optionally styled by a theme.

Parameters
r Resources used to resolve attribute values
parser XML parser from which to inflate this Drawable
attrs Base set of attribute values
theme Theme to apply, may be null

public boolean isOneShot ()

Added in API level 1

Returns
  • True of the animation will play once, false otherwise

public boolean isRunning ()

Added in API level 1

Indicates whether the animation is currently running or not.

Returns
  • true if the animation is running, false otherwise

public Drawable mutate ()

Added in API level 3

Make this drawable mutable. This operation cannot be reversed. A mutable drawable is guaranteed to not share its state with any other drawable. This is especially useful when you need to modify properties of drawables loaded from resources. By default, all drawables instances loaded from the same resource share a common state; if you modify the state of one instance, all the other instances will receive the same modification. Calling this method on a mutable Drawable will have no effect.

Returns
  • This drawable.

public void run ()

Added in API level 1

This method exists for implementation purpose only and should not be called directly. Invoke start() instead.

See Also

public void setOneShot (boolean oneShot)

Added in API level 1

Sets whether the animation should play once or repeat.

Parameters
oneShot Pass true if the animation should only play once

public boolean setVisible (boolean visible, boolean restart)

Added in API level 1

Set whether this Drawable is visible. This generally does not impact the Drawable's behavior, but is a hint that can be used by some Drawables, for example, to decide whether run animations.

Parameters
visible Set to true if visible, false if not.
restart You can supply true here to force the drawable to behave as if it has just become visible, even if it had last been set visible. Used for example to force animations to restart.
Returns
  • boolean Returns true if the new visibility is different than its previous state.

public void start ()

Added in API level 1

Starts the animation, looping if necessary. This method has no effect if the animation is running. Do not call this in the onCreate(Bundle) method of your activity, because the AnimationDrawable is not yet fully attached to the window. If you want to play the animation immediately, without requiring interaction, then you might want to call it from the onWindowFocusChanged(boolean) method in your activity, which will get called when Android brings your window into focus.

public void stop ()

Added in API level 1

Stops the animation. This method has no effect if the animation is not running.

public void unscheduleSelf (Runnable what)

Added in API level 1

Use the current Drawable.Callback implementation to have this Drawable unscheduled. Does nothing if there is no Callback attached to the Drawable.

Parameters
what The runnable that you no longer want called.