Question

In an activity, I’m trying to make a custom transition between two Activities. I want the current Activity to shrink towards its to about half its size, then have the x-values perform a scale transformation so it looks as if the Activity is rotating in 3-D. Then, after that animation is over, I want the same animation in the exact opposite order to happen on the new Activity.

My question is, how can I have a pause in the animation, so that the animation for the entering Activity does not start until after the exiting animation has ended? I have to use the overridePendingTransition method, so all animations passed must be int values from R.anim. Otherwise, it would be easy using AnimationListener. But I cannot think of a way to do it.

Any ideas?

EDIT: I’ve since figured it out, so you can check out the answers!

Answer 1

For anyone who is trying to accomplish the same thing, I figured it out. The secret is to use android:startOffset in the XML. The code is as follows:

The exit animation:

<set xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
  <scale
      android:fromXScale="1.0" android:toXScale="0.8"
      android:fromYScale="1.0" android:toYScale="0.8"
      android:pivotX="50%p" android:pivotY="50%p"
      android:interpolator="@android:anim/accelerate_interpolator"
      android:duration="100" />
  <scale
      android:fromXScale="1.0" android:toXScale="0.0"
      android:fromYScale="1.0" android:toYScale="1.0"
      android:pivotX="50%p" android:pivotY="50%p"
      android:interpolator="@android:anim/accelerate_interpolator"
      android:duration="150"
      android:startOffset="100" />
</set>

The entrance animation:

<set xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
  <scale
      android:fromXScale="0.0" android:toXScale="1.0"
      android:fromYScale="1.0" android:toYScale="1.0"
      android:pivotX="50%p" android:pivotY="50%p"
      android:interpolator="@android:anim/accelerate_interpolator"
      android:duration="150"
      android:startOffset="250" />

  <scale
      android:fromXScale="0.8" android:toXScale="1.0"
      android:fromYScale="0.8" android:toYScale="1.0"
      android:pivotX="50%p" android:pivotY="50%p"
      android:interpolator="@android:anim/accelerate_interpolator"
      android:duration="100"
      android:startOffset="400" />
</set>

Then the Java code:

startActivity(new Intent(this, YourNextActivity.class));
overridePendingTransition(R.anim.enter_anim, R.anim.exit_anim);

This creates a smooth, well-timed animation that makes it seem as if the next Activity being created is on the “back” of the current Activity.