Flow layout panel - how to animate

Question

I am developing windows form application. In that I am using FlowLayoutPanel. I am placing all the controls inside that FlowLayoutPanel panel. I am interested in doing something like the windows 8 home screen. I would place the controls inside the FlowLayoutPanel panel and have the controls one after another at a certain speed.

Is there any option to achieve that?

Actually what I am doing is,

In my form I have controls as like follows inside FlowLayoutPanel

Main FlowLayoutPanel properties.

this.flpFullLayout.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom)
                    | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left)));
this.flpFullLayout.AutoScroll = true;
this.flpFullLayout.BackColor = System.Drawing.SystemColors.Control;
this.flpFullLayout.BorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.BorderStyle.FixedSingle;
this.flpFullLayout.FlowDirection = System.Windows.Forms.FlowDirection.TopDown;
this.flpFullLayout.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(2, 32);
this.flpFullLayout.Name = "flpFullLayout";
this.flpFullLayout.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(1014, 559);
this.flpFullLayout.Controls.Add(this.pnlDummy1);
this.flpFullLayout.Controls.Add(this.pnlAddUserFull);
this.flpFullLayout.Controls.Add(this.pnlDummy2);
this.flpFullLayout.Controls.Add(this.pnlAccess);
this.flpFullLayout.Controls.Add(this.pnlDummy3);
this.flpFullLayout.Controls.Add(this.pnlDashBord);

In form load I am reducing dummy panel sizes through background worker.

Thread.Sleep(200);
            if (pnlDummy2.InvokeRequired)
                pnlDummy2.Invoke(new MethodInvoker(delegate
                {
                    for (int len = 570; len > 0; len -= 10)
                   {
                        Thread.Sleep(2);
                        pnlDummy2.Size = new Size(950, len);
                        flpFullLayout.ScrollControlIntoView(pnlAddUser);
                    }
                    pnlDummy2.Visible = false;
                    flpFullLayout.ScrollControlIntoView(pnlAddUser);
                }));
            else
            {
                for (int len = 570; len > 0; len -= 10)
                {
                    Thread.Sleep(2);
                    pnlDummy2.Size = new Size(950, len);
                    flpFullLayout.ScrollControlIntoView(pnlAddUser);
                }
                pnlDummy2.Visible = false;
                flpFullLayout.ScrollControlIntoView(pnlAddUser);
            }
            Thread.Sleep(200);
            if (pnlDummy3.InvokeRequired)
                pnlDummy3.Invoke(new MethodInvoker(delegate
                {
                    for (int len = 570; len > 0; len -= 10)
                    {
                        Thread.Sleep(2);
                        pnlDummy3.Size = new Size(950, len);
                        flpFullLayout.ScrollControlIntoView(pnlAddUser);
                    }
                    pnlDummy3.Visible = false;
                    flpFullLayout.ScrollControlIntoView(pnlAddUser);
                }));
            else
            {
                for (int len = 570; len > 0; len -= 10)
               {
                    Thread.Sleep(2);
                   pnlDummy3.Size = new Size(950, len);
                   flpFullLayout.ScrollControlIntoView(pnlAddUser);
                }
                pnlDummy3.Visible = false;
                flpFullLayout.ScrollControlIntoView(pnlAddUser);
            }

I am doing this things to achieve simple animation. Is there any easy way to do like this.

Answer 1

If you're doing this with Windows Forms, you're limiting yourself to what you can realistically achieve.

If you are rolling this solution yourself, you'd be better off rolling a completely custom control.

If you have some spare cash, there are already component companies out there who provide a windows 8 style, metro tile interface.

For best results, ditch Windows Forms and use WPF.