No, it wouldn't since it doesn't have any explicitly set reference back to the view it's attached to. However, if you later set the animation's delegate to an object that has a strong reference to the animation (directly or indirectly), you will have a retain cycle, since the animation instance will retain its delegate. You will have to clear the delegate at some point in order for it to be released.
It's very easy to test these. Simply add a debug logging message to your view controller's -dealloc
method. When you dismiss your view controller, ensure that you see the log message from its -dealloc
method. If you don't, you know you have a memory issue with that view controller somewhere, and you can begin debugging why.