Introduction
Why animations are an important component of an app, who is this tutorial for and what you'll learn
Last updated
Why animations are an important component of an app, who is this tutorial for and what you'll learn
Last updated
Tying up the users to your app is the most important and yet one of the most puzzling parts of the app development. Studies have shown that users acquire a very strong impression about your app within the first 30''; Including of course splash screens or empty lists and loading indicators, that we’re all going to agree that are pretty much impossible to avoid in most of the apps. Given this fact it's easy to understand that catching the user's interest instantly is one of the most important things in modern development. The other one would be meaningful, non-distracting feedback on their actions. What they both have in common? They're both achievable with the use of motion.
There are multiple ways you can add motion to your app and make it come alive using the different Android's animation APIs. This tutorial is focusing on the newest ones.
Animations have been around since the very first Android versions. The first animation APIs though made their appearance in HoneyComb 3.0 (API level 11). That's 7(!) years ago! They still got quite popular only after the Material design guidelines were released by Google in 2014. Fast forward 2 years, they announced ConstraintLayout, a new container class as an alternative to the 'RelativeLayout' and the LinearLayout. The advantages of that new layout would be that all the developers could use the new Android Studio's drag-n-drop GUI builder. With just a drag-n-drop gesture, you would only have to provide the x,y coordinates of the view and it would work like magic Meanwhile, other awesome APIs, tools and classes like the AnimatedVectorDrawable and the by Alex Lockwood shaped (and shook) the Android animation world.
This year, ConstraintLayout got a makeover and a lot of new features were added (while in the meantime the GUI builder is getting much better and faster as well). One of the biggest ones was the introduction to the MotionLayout. According to the release notes, MotionLayout is a layout designed to provide a rich framework for declarative animation and input-driven motion. But enough with the Android animation history! Time to start building!
This workshop mainly focuses to people that have little to no experience with the ContraintLayout (and its subclass, the MotionLayout), the path morphing and the transitions. It will guide you through step by step on how to create clean and animated layouts without the pain, just the gain!
Android Studio 3.1.3 or higher
a device or emulator running Android API level 21 or higher
A basic understanding of Kotlin