Activity transition in Android

Question

Here's the code to do a nice smooth fade between two Activities..

Create a file called fadein.xml in res/anim

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<alpha xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   android:interpolator="@android:anim/accelerate_interpolator"
   android:fromAlpha="0.0" android:toAlpha="1.0" android:duration="2000" />

Create a file called fadeout.xml in res/anim

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<alpha xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   android:interpolator="@android:anim/accelerate_interpolator"
   android:fromAlpha="1.0" android:toAlpha="0.0" android:duration="2000" />

If you want to fade from Activity A to Activity B, put the following in the onCreate() method for Activity B. Before setContentView() works for me.

overridePendingTransition(R.anim.fadein, R.anim.fadeout);

If the fades are too slow for you, change android:duration in the xml files above to something smaller.

You can do this with Activity.overridePendingTransition(). You can define simple transition animations in an XML resource file.

An even easy way to do it is:

1. Create an animation style into your styles.xml file

<style name="WindowAnimationTransition">
    <item name="android:windowEnterAnimation">@android:anim/fade_in</item>
    <item name="android:windowExitAnimation">@android:anim/fade_out</item>
</style>

2. Add this style to your app theme

<style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="Theme.Material.Light.DarkActionBar">
      <item name="android:windowAnimationStyle">@style/WindowAnimationTransition</item>
</style>

That's it :)

Yes. You can tell the OS what kind of transition you want to have for your activity.

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    getWindow().setWindowAnimations(ANIMATION);

    ...

}

Where ANIMATION is an integer referring to a built in animation in the OS.

For a list of default animations see: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/R.anim.html

There is in fact fade_in and fade_out for API level 1 and up.

create res>anim>fadein.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <alpha xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
       android:interpolator="@android:anim/accelerate_interpolator"
       android:fromAlpha="0.0" android:toAlpha="1.0" android:duration="500" />

create res>anim>fadeout.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <alpha xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
       android:interpolator="@android:anim/accelerate_interpolator"
       android:fromAlpha="1.0" android:toAlpha="0.0" android:duration="500" />

In res>values>styles.xml

<style name="Fade">
        <item name="android:windowEnterAnimation">@anim/fadein</item>
        <item name="android:windowExitAnimation">@anim/fadeout</item>
    </style>

In activities onCreate()

getWindow().getAttributes().windowAnimations = R.style.Fade;

I overwrite my default activity animation. I test it in api 15 that it work smoothly. Here is the solution that I use:

<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
    <!-- Customize your theme here. -->
    <item name="colorPrimary">@color/colorPrimary</item>
    <item name="colorPrimaryDark">@color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
    <item name="colorAccent">@color/colorPrimary</item>
    <item name="android:windowAnimationStyle">@style/CustomActivityAnimation</item>

</style>

<style name="CustomActivityAnimation" parent="@android:style/Animation.Activity">
    <item name="android:activityOpenEnterAnimation">@anim/slide_in_right</item>
    <item name="android:activityOpenExitAnimation">@anim/slide_out_left</item>
    <item name="android:activityCloseEnterAnimation">@anim/slide_in_left</item>
    <item name="android:activityCloseExitAnimation">@anim/slide_out_right</item>
</style>

Create anim folder under res folder and then create this four animation files:

slide_in_right.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<set xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <translate android:fromXDelta="100%p" android:toXDelta="0"
        android:duration="@android:integer/config_mediumAnimTime"/>
</set>

slide_out_left.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<set xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <translate android:fromXDelta="0" android:toXDelta="-100%p"
        android:duration="@android:integer/config_mediumAnimTime"/>
</set>

slide_in_left.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<set xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <translate android:fromXDelta="-100%p" android:toXDelta="0"
        android:duration="@android:integer/config_mediumAnimTime"/>
</set>

slide_out_right.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<set xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <translate android:fromXDelta="0" android:toXDelta="100%p"
        android:duration="@android:integer/config_mediumAnimTime"/>
</set>

You can download my sample project.

That's all... :)