Fade image in and out

Hi folks,

I've been trying to find the best way to fade an image in and then out again, but all my research has yielded were options to fade between two images, but I'd much rather like to know if anyone has a method to just fade one image in, then out.

I'm not too familiar with control transparencies, so I'm hoping someone will be able to help me with this.

Specifically, I'm working with a small Image box, not a Picture box.

Any help is appreciate, thanks!

There is no such thing as control transparencies, not really. Fading can be done using a backbuffer to hold the original image (whether its an memory bitmap or hidden picturebox with AutoRedraw=True). Either way, you'd want to use AlphaBlend API. You're not going to be able to fade an image control

The idea is via use of a timer or a DoEvents loop
1) Clear area to be drawn
2) Use AlphaBlend to render image at a reduced opacity
3) Pause & repeat as needed

Try searching forum for: fade picture

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LaVolpe

There is no such thing as control transparencies, not really. Fading can be done using a backbuffer to hold the original image (whether its an memory bitmap or hidden picturebox with AutoRedraw=True). Either way, you'd want to use AlphaBlend API. You're not going to be able to fade an image control

The idea is via use of a timer or a DoEvents loop
1) Clear area to be drawn
2) Use AlphaBlend to render image at a reduced opacity
3) Pause & repeat as needed

Try searching forum for: fade picture

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Thanks, Fox. I would have liked to have done this about 5 to 10 years ago. I love fade-in and fade-out for images and so did my sponsors. I had no idea that it was available back then. Dang it. I missed the boat. :sick:

Canadian Weather Man, if you'd like to play with my Alpha Image Control. It can do what you are asking, but the control may be overkill for what you need. See it linked in my signature below. To fade, sample code might look like:

Code:

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Private Sub Command1_Click()
    Timer1.Tag = "FadeOut"
    Timer1.Interval = 60 ' ??
    Timer1.Enabled = True
End Sub

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
  If Timer1.Tag = "FadeOut" Then
        AlphaImgCtl1.TransparencyPct = AlphaImgCtl1.TransparencyPct + 10 ' step at 10%
        If AlphaImgCtl1.TransparencyPct = 100 Then Timer1.Tag = "Pause"
  ElseIf Timer1.Tag = "Pause" Then
        Timer1.Tag = "FadeIn" ' fade back in now
  Else
        AlphaImgCtl1.TransparencyPct = AlphaImgCtl1.TransparencyPct - 10 ' step back 10%
        If AlphaImgCtl1.TransparencyPct = 0 Then Timer1.Enabled = False ' done; stop timer
  End If
End Sub

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Edited: Modified sample routine for a complete fade out then fade in