How do I get an animated gif to work in WPF?

Question

I couldn't get the most popular answer to this question (above by Dario) to work properly. The result was weird, choppy animation with weird artifacts. Best solution I have found so far: https://github.com/XamlAnimatedGif/WpfAnimatedGif

You can install it with NuGet

PM> Install-Package WpfAnimatedGif

and to use it, at a new namespace to the Window where you want to add the gif image and use it as below

<Window x:Class="MainWindow"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:gif="http://wpfanimatedgif.codeplex.com" <!-- THIS NAMESPACE -->
    Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">

<Grid>
    <!-- EXAMPLE USAGE BELOW -->
    <Image gif:ImageBehavior.AnimatedSource="Images/animated.gif" />

The package is really neat, you can set some attributes like below

<Image gif:ImageBehavior.RepeatBehavior="3x"
       gif:ImageBehavior.AnimatedSource="Images/animated.gif" />

and you can use it in your code as well:

var image = new BitmapImage();
image.BeginInit();
image.UriSource = new Uri(fileName);
image.EndInit();
ImageBehavior.SetAnimatedSource(img, image);

EDIT: Silverlight support

As per josh2112's comment if you want to add animated GIF support to your Silverlight project then use github.com/XamlAnimatedGif/XamlAnimatedGif

I post a solution extending the image control and using the Gif Decoder. The gif decoder has a frames property. I animate the FrameIndex property. The event ChangingFrameIndex changes the source property to the frame corresponding to the FrameIndex (that is in the decoder). I guess that the gif has 10 frames per second.

class GifImage : Image
{
    private bool _isInitialized;
    private GifBitmapDecoder _gifDecoder;
    private Int32Animation _animation;

    public int FrameIndex
    {
        get { return (int)GetValue(FrameIndexProperty); }
        set { SetValue(FrameIndexProperty, value); }
    }

    private void Initialize()
    {
        _gifDecoder = new GifBitmapDecoder(new Uri("pack://application:,,," + this.GifSource), BitmapCreateOptions.PreservePixelFormat, BitmapCacheOption.Default);
        _animation = new Int32Animation(0, _gifDecoder.Frames.Count - 1, new Duration(new TimeSpan(0, 0, 0, _gifDecoder.Frames.Count / 10, (int)((_gifDecoder.Frames.Count / 10.0 - _gifDecoder.Frames.Count / 10) * 1000))));
        _animation.RepeatBehavior = RepeatBehavior.Forever;
        this.Source = _gifDecoder.Frames[0];

        _isInitialized = true;
    }

    static GifImage()
    {
        VisibilityProperty.OverrideMetadata(typeof (GifImage),
            new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(VisibilityPropertyChanged));
    }

    private static void VisibilityPropertyChanged(DependencyObject sender, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        if ((Visibility)e.NewValue == Visibility.Visible)
        {
            ((GifImage)sender).StartAnimation();
        }
        else
        {
            ((GifImage)sender).StopAnimation();
        }
    }

    public static readonly DependencyProperty FrameIndexProperty =
        DependencyProperty.Register("FrameIndex", typeof(int), typeof(GifImage), new UIPropertyMetadata(0, new PropertyChangedCallback(ChangingFrameIndex)));

    static void ChangingFrameIndex(DependencyObject obj, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs ev)
    {
        var gifImage = obj as GifImage;
        gifImage.Source = gifImage._gifDecoder.Frames[(int)ev.NewValue];
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Defines whether the animation starts on it's own
    /// </summary>
    public bool AutoStart
    {
        get { return (bool)GetValue(AutoStartProperty); }
        set { SetValue(AutoStartProperty, value); }
    }

    public static readonly DependencyProperty AutoStartProperty =
        DependencyProperty.Register("AutoStart", typeof(bool), typeof(GifImage), new UIPropertyMetadata(false, AutoStartPropertyChanged));

    private static void AutoStartPropertyChanged(DependencyObject sender, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        if ((bool)e.NewValue)
            (sender as GifImage).StartAnimation();
    }

    public string GifSource
    {
        get { return (string)GetValue(GifSourceProperty); }
        set { SetValue(GifSourceProperty, value); }
    }

    public static readonly DependencyProperty GifSourceProperty =
        DependencyProperty.Register("GifSource", typeof(string), typeof(GifImage), new UIPropertyMetadata(string.Empty, GifSourcePropertyChanged));

    private static void GifSourcePropertyChanged(DependencyObject sender, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        (sender as GifImage).Initialize();
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Starts the animation
    /// </summary>
    public void StartAnimation()
    {
        if (!_isInitialized)
            this.Initialize();

        BeginAnimation(FrameIndexProperty, _animation);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Stops the animation
    /// </summary>
    public void StopAnimation()
    {
        BeginAnimation(FrameIndexProperty, null);
    }
}

Usage example (XAML):

<controls:GifImage x:Name="gifImage" Stretch="None" GifSource="/SomeImage.gif" AutoStart="True" />

How about this tiny app: Code behind:

public MainWindow()
{
  InitializeComponent();
  Files = Directory.GetFiles(@"I:\images");
  this.DataContext= this;
}
public string[] Files
{get;set;}

XAML:

<Window x:Class="PicViewer.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
    <Grid>
        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <ColumnDefinition Width="175" />
            <ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <ListBox x:Name="lst" ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Files}"/>
        <MediaElement Grid.Column="1" LoadedBehavior="Play" Source="{Binding ElementName=lst, Path=SelectedItem}" Stretch="None"/>
    </Grid>
</Window>

I, too, did a search and found several different solution in just a thread on the old MSDN forums. (link no longer worked so I removed it)

The simplest to execute seems to be to use a WinForms PictureBox control, and went like this (changed a few things from the thread, most of it the same).

Add a reference to System.Windows.Forms, WindowsFormsIntegration, and System.Drawing to your project first.

<Window x:Class="GifExample.Window1"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:wfi="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Forms.Integration;assembly=WindowsFormsIntegration"
    xmlns:winForms="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Forms;assembly=System.Windows.Forms"
    Loaded="Window_Loaded" >
    <Grid>
        <wfi:WindowsFormsHost>
            <winForms:PictureBox x:Name="pictureBoxLoading">
            </winForms:PictureBox>
        </wfi:WindowsFormsHost>
    </Grid>
</Window >

Then in the Window_Loaded handler, you would set the pictureBoxLoading.ImageLocation property to the image file path that you want to show.

private void Window_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    pictureBoxLoading.ImageLocation = "../Images/mygif.gif";
}

The MediaElement control was mentioned in that thread, but it is also mentioned that it is a rather heavy control, so there were a number of alternatives, including at least 2 homebrewed controls based on the Image control, so this is the simplest.

Its very simple if you use <MediaElement>:

<MediaElement  Height="113" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="12,12,0,0" 
Name="mediaElement1" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="198" Source="C:\Users\abc.gif"
LoadedBehavior="Play" Stretch="Fill" SpeedRatio="1" IsMuted="False" />