Question

On button “press” I execute an animation as follows:

//create sprite
animatedSprite = [[CCSprite alloc] initWithFile:@"transparentPixel.png" rect:CGRectMake(0, 0, 218, 218)];
SET_POS(animatedSprite, 167, 51);
[self addChild:animatedSprite z:5000];
//animate sprite            
[animatedSprite runAction:[CCAnimate actionWithAnimation:[[CCAnimationCache sharedAnimationCache] animationByName:@"skill1use"]]];
//run cleanup fnktion
[animatedSprite performSelector:@selector(removeFromParentAndCleanup:) withObject:[NSNumber numberWithBool:YES] afterDelay:3];            
[animatedSprite release];

previously I loaded the frames with:

[[CCSpriteFrameCache sharedSpriteFrameCache] addSpriteFramesWithFile:[CCDirector sharedDirector].contentScaleFactor>1?@"[e-mail]":@"skill_01_ani.plist"];
[[CCAnimationCache sharedAnimationCache] addAnimation:[CCAnimation animationWithSpriteSequence:[CCDirector sharedDirector].contentScaleFactor>1?@"[e-mail]":@"skill_01_ani%04d.png" numFrames:34 delay:1/24.0] name:@"skill1use"];

However, the animation runs much smoother after the first time, the first time it takes a while until it starts. Am I preloading the animation wrong? Is there a way to have the animation run smoothly the first time too?

UPDATE

If I set following in the preview it runs fast the first time:

CCSprite *animatedSprite = [[CCSprite alloc] initWithFile:@"transparentPixel.png" rect:CGRectMake(0, 0, 218, 218)];
[self addChild:animatedSprite z:5000];
[animatedSprite runAction:[CCAnimate actionWithAnimation:[[CCAnimationCache sharedAnimationCache] animationByName:@"skill1use"]]];
[animatedSprite performSelector:@selector(removeFromParentAndCleanup:) withObject:[NSNumber numberWithBool:YES] afterDelay:3];
[animatedSprite release];

Since it is the same as running the animation. However, this only works if I actually show the animation (with addChild and everything)

Answer 1

As far as I know, at the first time this action creates CCAnimation object and stores it in CCAnimationCache. Try to precache your animation or initialize it in your init method, then just store it. And on your button click just recreate action, not animation.