On the Windows Phone 7 device, when you run some of the standard apps (as well as the Facebook app), while the app is loading data it shows an animation of a series of dots that enter from the left and collect in the center of the screen and then exit from the right.
It seems to be a standard animation that is being used by many of the apps.
I was wondering if there is a standard animated image, or if there was sample code that would I could look at so that I could implement it in my application.
That is the ProgressBar with IsIndeterminate = true
You might like to check out this post for implementing it with a splash screen too.
Creating a Splash Screen with a progress bar for WP7 applications. - Alex Yakhnin's Blog
And these posts for implementing it in a performant manner.
Jeff Wilcox – A high performance ProgressBar for Windows Phone