Switch my updatepanelanimationextender for a more suitable control for simply displaying a loading div/gif?

Question

I have a hidden div that is pulled down over an updatepanel while it loads, using an updatepanelanimationextender. It's incompatible with some of the ajax.net stuff with the current version ajaxcontroltoolkit:

<cc1:UpdatePanelAnimationExtender ID="UpdatePanelAnimationExtender1"
TargetControlID="upnlCreatevisits" runat="server">
<Animations>
    <OnUpdating>
       <Parallel duration="0">
            <ScriptAction Script="onUpdating('Loader_upnlCreatevisits', 'divupnlCreatevisits')" />
        </Parallel>
    </OnUpdating>
    <OnUpdated>
        <Parallel duration="0">
            <ScriptAction Script="onUpdated('Loader_upnlCreatevisits', 'divupnlCreatevisits');" /> 
        </Parallel>
    </OnUpdated>
</Animations>
</cc1:UpdatePanelAnimationExtender>

What can I use instead? I wrote two javascript functions which you can see that handle showing and hiding the div, I guess I just need a control that has an onupdating and onupdated method to trigger them.

AnimationExtender isnt really suitable because there's no animation going on (fading etc.)

Thoughts?