Which is the most elegant and modular way to chain animation in a Core Animation context?
I mean to do animations that starts just when other finis
I don't believe you can "nest" CA animations as you have in your example.
You need to specify a delegate for the animation and put your second "transition" within the animationDidStop:finished: selector of the delegate.
Might want to have a look at Apple's Animation Types & Timing Programming Guide.