Android Fade In / Out Animations with Examples

In android, Fade In and Fade Out animations are used to change the appearance and behaviour of the objects over a particular interval of time. The Fade In and Fade Out animations will provide a better look and feel for our applications.

Generally, the animations are useful when we want to notify users about the change’s happening in our app, such as new content loaded or new actions available, etc.

To create an animation effect to the objects in our android application, we need to follow below steps.

Create XML File to Define Animation

We need to create an xml file that defines the type of animation to perform in a new folder anim under res directory (res à anim à fade_in.xml) with required properties. In case anim folder not exists in res directory, create a new one.

To use Fade In or Fade Out animations in our android applications, we need to define a new xml file with <alpha> tag like as shown below.

For Fade In animation, we need to increase the alpha value from 0 to 1 like as shown below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><set xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:interpolator="@android:anim/linear_interpolator">
   <alpha
        android:duration="2000"
        android:fromAlpha="0.1"
        android:toAlpha="1.0">
    </alpha>
</set>

For Fade Out animation, we need to decrease the alpha value from 1 to 0 like as shown below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><set xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:interpolator="@android:anim/linear_interpolator">
    <alpha
        android:duration="2000"
        android:fromAlpha="1.0"
        android:toAlpha="0.1" >
    </alpha>
</set>

Once we are done with creation of required animation XML files, we need to load those animation files using different properties.

Android Load and Start the Animation

In android, we can perform animations by using AnimationUtils component methods such as loadAnimation(). Following is the code snippet of loading and starting an animation using loadAnimation() and startAnimation() methods.

ImageView img = (ImageView)findViewById(R.id.imgvw);

Animation aniFade = AnimationUtils.loadAnimation(getApplicationContext(),R.anim.fade_in);img.startAnimation(aniFade);

If you observe above code snippet, we are adding an animation to the image using loadAnimation() method. The second parameter in loadAnimation() method is the name of our animation xml file.

Here we used another method startAnimation() to apply the defined animation to imageview object.

Now we will see how to implement fade in and fade out animations for imageview on button click in android applications with examples.

Android Fade In & Fade Out Animations Example

Following is the example of implementing a fade in and fade out animations to fade in /out image on button click in android applications.

Create a new android application using android studio and give names as FadeInOutExample. In case if you are not aware of creating an app in android studio check this article Android Hello World App.

Once we create an application, open activity_main.xml file from \res\layout folder path and write the code like as shown below.

activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:paddingLeft="10dp"
    android:paddingRight="10dp">
    <ImageView android:id="@+id/imgvw"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="250dp"
        android:src="@drawable/bangkok"/>
    <Button
        android:id="@+id/btnFadeIn"
        android:layout_below="@+id/imgvw"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Fade In" android:layout_marginLeft="100dp" />
    <Button
        android:id="@+id/btnFadeOut"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignBottom="@+id/btnFadeIn"
        android:layout_toRightOf="@+id/btnFadeIn"
        android:text="Fade Out" />
</RelativeLayout>

As discussed, we need to create an xml files to define fade in and fade out animations in new folder anim under res directory (res à anim à fade_in.xml, fade_out.xml) with required properties. In case anim folder not exists in res directory, create a new one.

Following is the example of creating an XML files (fade_in.xml, fade_out.xml) under anim folder to define fade in / out animation properties.

Now open fade_in.xml file and write the code to set fade in animation properties like as shown below.

fade_in.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><set xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:interpolator="@android:anim/linear_interpolator">
   <alpha
        android:duration="2000"
        android:fromAlpha="0.1"
        android:toAlpha="1.0">
    </alpha>
</set>

Now open fade_out.xml file and write the code to set fade out animation properties like as shown below

fade_out.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><set xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:interpolator="@android:anim/linear_interpolator">
    <alpha
        android:duration="2000"
        android:fromAlpha="1.0"
        android:toAlpha="0.1" >
    </alpha>
</set>

Now open your main activity file MainActivity.java from \java\com.tutlane.fadeinoutexample path and write the code like as shown below

MainActivity.java

package com.tutlane.fadeinoutexample;import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;import android.os.Bundle;import android.view.View;import android.view.animation.Animation;import android.view.animation.AnimationUtils;import android.widget.Button;import android.widget.ImageView;
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
    private Button btnfIn;
    private Button btnfOut;
    private ImageView img;
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        btnfIn = (Button)findViewById(R.id.btnFadeIn);
        btnfOut = (Button)findViewById(R.id.btnFadeOut);
        img = (ImageView)findViewById(R.id.imgvw);
        btnfIn.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                Animation animFadeIn = AnimationUtils.loadAnimation(getApplicationContext(),R.anim.fade_in);
                img.startAnimation(animFadeIn);
            }
        });
        btnfOut.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                Animation animFadeOut = AnimationUtils.loadAnimation(getApplicationContext(),R.anim.fade_out);
                img.startAnimation(animFadeOut);
            }
        });
    }
}

If you observe above code, we are adding an animation to the image using loadAnimation() method and used startAnimation() method to apply the defined animation to imageview object.

Output of Android Fade In / Out Animations Example

When we run above program in android studio we will get the result like as shown below.

If you observe above result, whenever we are clicking on Fade In or Fade Out buttons, the image size varies based on our functionality.

This is how we can implement fade in and fade in animations for imageview in android applications based on our requirements.