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Adding GIF-animation using GDI+

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29 Jan 20023 min read 467K   9.5K   117   99
Norm demonstrates how to coerce GDI+ into displaying animated GIFs

Motive

How many of you developers are using GDI+? I reckon, not many. As a seasoned Windows C++ programmer developing for desktop applications, I've been  using the archaic GDI on regular basis. Since the release of GDI+ (see (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/gdicpp) I've been using GDI+ in new applications and also converting existing applications to use GDI+. There numerous compelling reasons why you should be using GDI+, here are some:

  • Successor to GDI
  • Compatible with .NET
  • Optimizes many of the capabilities of GDI
  • Supports: Gradient Brushes, Independent Path Objects, Transformations and the Matrix Object, Scalable Regions, Alpha Blending and support for multiple image formats:
    • BMP
    • GIF
    • JPEG
    • Exif
    • PNG
    • TIFF
    • ICON
    • WMF
    • EMF

During my development of Windows GUI based applications with GDI+, I've come across the need to display animated GIFs, whilst GDI+ does not support displaying animated GIFs directly, in can be done with a little coding.

Implementation

Firstly lets look at drawing a simple image using GDI+.

void CMyWnd::OnPaint()
{
	CPaintDC dc(this);
	
	Graphics graphics(&dc); // Create a GDI+ graphics object

	Image image(L"Test.Gif"); // Construct an image
	
	graphics.DrawImage(&image, 0, 0, image.GetWidth(), image.GetHeight());	
		
}

Straight away we can see the simplistic C++ interface for using GDI objects. This makes it a sure fire way for using GDI objects. There is no need for using

SelectObject
to select GDI objects in and out of the device context.

For those of the readers who are not familiar with the format of an animated GIF, animated GIF is actually a series of GIF frames with a delay time associated each frame, therefore each frame can have a different delay time.

My implementation of encapsulating an animated GIF functionality derives a class called from ImageEx from the GDI+ Image class. The first task is to determine whether or not a GIF is of the animated kind. The following code demonstrates this:

bool ImageEx::TestForAnimatedGIF()
{
	UINT count = 0;
	count = GetFrameDimensionsCount();
	GUID* pDimensionIDs = new GUID[count];

	// Get the list of frame dimensions from the Image object.
	GetFrameDimensionsList(pDimensionIDs, count);

	// Get the number of frames in the first dimension.
	m_nFrameCount = GetFrameCount(&pDimensionIDs[0]);

	// Assume that the image has a property item of type PropertyItemEquipMake.
	// Get the size of that property item.
	int nSize = GetPropertyItemSize(PropertyTagFrameDelay);

	// Allocate a buffer to receive the property item.
	m_pPropertyItem = (PropertyItem*) malloc(nSize);

	GetPropertyItem(PropertyTagFrameDelay, nSize, m_pPropertyItem);


	delete pDimensionIDs;

	return m_nFrameCount > 1;
}

m_pPropertyItem->value is actually a pointer to an array of longs, each long is a delay time which corresponds to a GIF frame. Because

GetPropertyItem
returns a different size depending on what property using interested in, a Size is require and its the programmer responsibility to allocate and deallocate the memory associated with GetPropertyItem. The size is determined by calling GetPropertyItemSize supplying property tag your interested in.

Once the number of frames and delay times have been retrieved from the image, a thread is created which calls to

DrawFrameGIF 
until the object destructs. See DrawFrameGIF below:

bool ImageEx::DrawFrameGIF()
{

	::WaitForSingleObject(m_hPause, INFINITE);

	GUID pageGuid = FrameDimensionTime;

	long hmWidth = GetWidth();
	long hmHeight = GetHeight();

	HDC hDC = GetDC(m_hWnd);
	if (hDC)
	{
		Graphics graphics(hDC);
		graphics.DrawImage(this, m_rc.left, m_rc.top, hmWidth, hmHeight);
		ReleaseDC(m_hWnd, hDC);
	}

	SelectActiveFrame(&pageGuid, m_nFramePosition++); 

	if (m_nFramePosition == m_nFrameCount)
		m_nFramePosition = 0;


	long lPause = ((long*) m_pPropertyItem->value)[m_nFramePosition] * 10;

	DWORD dwErr = WaitForSingleObject(m_hExitEvent, lPause);

	return dwErr == WAIT_OBJECT_0;
}

One other interesting aspect of this class is it has the ability of loading a image directly as a resource from an executable. I usually import my GIF into a project and give it a resource type of "GIF" and then rename the resource ID from a numeric constant to a string (see the example code).

Conclusion

If you familiar with the concepts and programming of GDI, GDI+ provides some advance features and the interface almost mirrors the .NET GDI namespace. The sample apps and code include the full listings for implementing animated GIF in your code applications. For code reference just search for GDI+ within the code. One thing I haven't included in this article is starting up and shutting the GDI+ subsystem.

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here


Written By
Software Developer (Senior) Software Kinetics
United Kingdom United Kingdom




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Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralRe: Create animated GIF Pin
NormDroid25-Jan-07 22:48
professionalNormDroid25-Jan-07 22:48 
GeneralGDI+ function to identify moving GIF image programatically Pin
mukta_here8-Sep-06 3:31
mukta_here8-Sep-06 3:31 
QuestionProblem with Image object in GDI+ (VC++) Pin
Dhananjayak0214-Aug-06 4:10
Dhananjayak0214-Aug-06 4:10 
AnswerRe: Problem with Image object in GDI+ (VC++) Pin
Infro3-Sep-06 11:45
Infro3-Sep-06 11:45 
AnswerRe: Problem with Image object in GDI+ (VC++) Pin
ddzh22-Nov-07 22:50
ddzh22-Nov-07 22:50 
GeneralGDI+ Buffered image Pin
darb29-Aug-06 13:47
darb29-Aug-06 13:47 
GeneralRe: GDI+ Buffered image Pin
NormDroid9-Aug-06 23:36
professionalNormDroid9-Aug-06 23:36 
GeneralMagnificent !!!!! Pin
Hiigara3-Nov-05 3:12
Hiigara3-Nov-05 3:12 
GeneralRe: Magnificent !!!!! Pin
NormDroid7-Apr-06 23:03
professionalNormDroid7-Apr-06 23:03 
GeneralAnimated GIFs with transparecy Pin
liqutttt13-Apr-05 8:10
sussliqutttt13-Apr-05 8:10 
GeneralRe: Animated GIFs with transparecy Pin
defrog11-Oct-05 4:45
defrog11-Oct-05 4:45 
GeneralRe: Animated GIFs with transparecy Pin
Claudio Sampaio25-Apr-06 11:02
Claudio Sampaio25-Apr-06 11:02 
GeneralRe: Animated GIFs with transparecy Pin
user88481-Sep-06 16:30
user88481-Sep-06 16:30 
GeneralRe: Animated GIFs with transparecy Pin
KenDang8-Aug-07 5:02
KenDang8-Aug-07 5:02 
GeneralRe: Animated GIFs with transparecy (The best way for transparency!!) Pin
Greg Ellis11-Nov-08 11:19
Greg Ellis11-Nov-08 11:19 
QuestionRe: Animated GIFs with transparecy (The best way for transparency!!) Pin
Istvan Lengyel27-Nov-08 5:03
Istvan Lengyel27-Nov-08 5:03 
GeneralRendering Time of each Frame Pin
Kohaku-Chan20-Dec-04 10:36
Kohaku-Chan20-Dec-04 10:36 
GeneralRe: Rendering Time of each Frame Pin
TDK90000016-Oct-05 22:00
TDK90000016-Oct-05 22:00 
QuestionHow to create a multi-frame .gif file in C#? Pin
jackyxio23-Jul-04 23:36
jackyxio23-Jul-04 23:36 
QuestionHow do I change the Color Palette of Gif Image Pin
pubududilena2-Jul-04 17:04
pubududilena2-Jul-04 17:04 
GeneralAnyone tried using this with an MFC dialog application using Visual Studio 2003 Pin
Steve Messer16-May-04 18:13
Steve Messer16-May-04 18:13 
GeneralRe: Anyone tried using this with an MFC dialog application using Visual Studio 2003 Pin
defrog11-Oct-05 5:39
defrog11-Oct-05 5:39 
GeneralRe: Anyone tried using this with an MFC dialog application using Visual Studio 2003 Pin
Steve Messer11-Oct-05 15:20
Steve Messer11-Oct-05 15:20 
QuestionHow to display .gif file on the toolbar and react to user click ? Pin
guoalan3-May-04 8:31
guoalan3-May-04 8:31 
GeneralAbout Save DC Pin
AlvinYoung28-Mar-04 14:55
AlvinYoung28-Mar-04 14:55 

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