How to: Animate a Drop Shadow Visual Effect

The following example shows how to animate the ShadowDepth and Softness of the DropShadowBitmapEffect to make it appear like the Button is lifting off of the surface of the screen after it is clicked.

Example

<Page xmlns="https://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
  xmlns:x="https://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" >

  <StackPanel>

    <Button Margin="50" Width="200" Name="myButton">
      Click Me to Animate Drop Shadow!
      <Button.BitmapEffect>

        <!-- This BitmapEffect is targeted by the animation. -->
        <DropShadowBitmapEffect x:Name="myDropShadowBitmapEffect" Color="Black"   
         ShadowDepth="0" />
      </Button.BitmapEffect>
      <Button.Triggers>
        <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Button.Click">
          <BeginStoryboard>
            <Storyboard>

              <!-- Animate the movement of the button. -->
              <ThicknessAnimation
               Storyboard.TargetProperty="Margin" Duration="0:0:0.5" 
               From="50,50,50,50" To="0,0,50,50" AutoReverse="True" />

              <!-- Animate shadow depth of the effect. -->
              <DoubleAnimation
               Storyboard.TargetName="myDropShadowBitmapEffect"
               Storyboard.TargetProperty="ShadowDepth"
               From="0" To="30" Duration="0:0:0.5"
               AutoReverse="True" />

              <!-- Animate shadow softness of the effect. As 
                   the Button appears to get farther from the shadow,  
                   the shadow gets softer. -->
              <DoubleAnimation
               Storyboard.TargetName="myDropShadowBitmapEffect"
               Storyboard.TargetProperty="Softness"
               From="0" To="1" Duration="0:0:0.5"
               AutoReverse="True" />
            </Storyboard>
          </BeginStoryboard>
        </EventTrigger>
      </Button.Triggers>
    </Button>

  </StackPanel>

</Page>

See Also

Tasks

How to: Create a Drop Shadow Visual Effect
How to: Animate a Glow Effect
How to: Animate a Blur Visual Effect
How to: Animate Multiple Visual Effects