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androidanimationviewbackground-color

Animate change of view background color on Android


How do you animate the change of background color of a view on Android?

For example:

I have a view with a red background color. The background color of the view changes to blue. How can I do a smooth transition between colors?

If this can't be done with views, an alternative will be welcome.


Solution

  • I ended up figuring out a (pretty good) solution for this problem!

    You can use a TransitionDrawable to accomplish this. For example, in an XML file in the drawable folder you could write something like:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <transition xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
        <!-- The drawables used here can be solid colors, gradients, shapes, images, etc. -->
        <item android:drawable="@drawable/original_state" />
        <item android:drawable="@drawable/new_state" />
    </transition>
    

    Then, in your XML for the actual View you would reference this TransitionDrawable in the android:background attribute.

    At this point you can initiate the transition in your code on-command by doing:

    TransitionDrawable transition = (TransitionDrawable) viewObj.getBackground();
    transition.startTransition(transitionTime);
    

    Or run the transition in reverse by calling:

    transition.reverseTransition(transitionTime);
    

    See Roman's answer for another solution using the Property Animation API, which wasn't available at the time this answer was originally posted.