Question

How do you implement kCATransitionPush using CAAnimation subclasses in iOS?

CAAnimation *animation;
// How do you create an animation that does the same than:
// CATransition *animation = [CATransition animation];
// [animation setType:kCATransitionPush];        
[self.view.layer addAnimation:animation forKey:nil];

[UIView beginAnimations:nil context:nil];
[UIView setAnimationDuration:1];        
[self.view addSubview:change];
[UIView commitAnimations];

I’m aware that UIView animations can also be used, but it would help me to understand Core Animation better if I could implement a kCATransitionPush transition from the ground-up.

Answer 1

In order to execute the animations simultaneously over the two layers, you must add the adequate CAAnimationGroup to each layer.

[nextView.layer addAnimation:nextViewAnimation forKey:nil];
[currentView.layer addAnimation:currentViewAnimation forKey:nil];

nextViewAnimation would be:

CAAnimationGroup *nextViewAnimation = [CAAnimationGroup animation];
NSMutableArray *nextAnimations = [NSMutableArray array];

[nextAnimations addObject:[self opacityAnimation:YES]];  // fade in

CGPoint fromPoint = CGPointMake(forward ? nextView.center.x + nextView.frame.size.width : nextView.center.x - nextView.frame.size.width, nextView.center.y);
[nextAnimations addObject:[self positionAnimationFromPoint:fromPoint toPoint:nextView.center]];  // traslation in

nextViewAnimation.animations = nextAnimations;

and currentViewAnimation:

CAAnimationGroup *currentViewAnimation = [CAAnimationGroup animation];
NSMutableArray *currentAnimations = [NSMutableArray array];
[currentSceneAnimations addObject:[self opacityAnimation:NO]]; // fade out

CGPoint toPoint = CGPointMake(forward ? currentView.center.x - currentView.frame.size.width : currentView.center.x + currentView.frame.size.width, currentView.center.y);
    [currentAnimations addObject:[self positionAnimationFromPoint:currentView.center toPoint:toPoint]];  // traslation out

currentViewAnimation.animations = currentAnimations;

These methods create the basic animations:

- (CABasicAnimation *)opacityAnimation:(BOOL)fadeIn {
CABasicAnimation *a = [CABasicAnimation animationWithKeyPath:@"opacity"];
a.fromValue = [NSNumber numberWithFloat:fadeIn ? 0.0 : 1.0];
a.toValue = [NSNumber numberWithFloat:fadeIn ? 1.0 : 0.0];
return a;
}

- (CABasicAnimation *)positionAnimationFromPoint:(CGPoint)fromPoint toPoint:(CGPoint)toPoint {
CABasicAnimation *a = [CABasicAnimation animationWithKeyPath:@"position"];
a.fromValue = [NSValue valueWithCGPoint:fromPoint];
a.toValue = [NSValue valueWithCGPoint:toPoint];
return a;
}

With the boolean forward you can simulate the transition “from left” or “from right”.