Restarting a WPF Storyboard

Question

What is the proper way to stop and restart a storyboard from .net code?

I'm trying ...

myStory.Stop(this);

Expecting that a subsequent call to .Begin(this); would restart from the timeline at zero, but instead, the storyboard picks up right where it was stopped.

I have tried

.Remove(this);

and I tried

.Seek(TimeSpan.Zero);

which also didn't work.

More details ... Here is my storyboard sample.

<Storyboard x:Key="overlay">
    <DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames BeginTime="00:00:00" Storyboard.TargetName="textone" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(UIElement.Opacity)">
        <SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:03.0" Value="0"/>
        <SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:03.0" Value="1"/>
        <SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:06.0" Value="1"/>
        <SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:06.0" Value="0"/>
    </DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
    <DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames BeginTime="00:00:00" Storyboard.TargetName="texttwo" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(UIElement.Opacity)">
        <SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:07.0" Value="0"/>
        <SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:07.0" Value="1"/>
        <SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:10.0" Value="1"/>
        <SplineDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:10.0" Value="0"/>
    </DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
</Storyboard>

So the text in the textone runs, and if you close the screen, and return to the screen quickly, the texttwo, actually plays over a newly started storyboard. So the original (from the first screen) storyboard is still around and playing, even though I've removed, and stopped it.

Answer 1

You would need to do myStory.Remove(this) before calling myStory.Begin(this) to have it start over from scratch. This is because calling Storyboard::Stop just stops the animation clocks, but leaves them intact. A subsequent call to Begin, will simply act as a resume. I agree that this is somewhat counterintuitive, however if you read the documentation ClockController::Stop, you will see the following in the remarks:

This method changes the target clock's CurrentState to Stopped.

A Stopped clock can be restarted by using the Begin, Seek, or SeekAlignedToLastTick method.

Answer 2

What about using Storyboard.Seek(TimeSpan.Zero)? Similar to seeking in a Stream, this should bring you back to the beginning of the animation.

I commented that you should also make sure that the IsControllable property is set to true. Keep that in mind!

Storyboard.Seek method

Answer 3

Sorry Scott, I wasn't paying attention. Did you try to set the FillBehavior on the Storyboard. Set the FillBehavior to Stop resets the animation. Not sure why Stop doesn't do it though...