How do I get an animated gif to work in WPF?

Question

What control type should I use - Image, MediaElement, etc.?

Answer 1

I modified Mike Eshva's code,And I made it work better.You can use it with either 1frame jpg png bmp or mutil-frame gif.If you want bind a uri to the control,bind the UriSource properties or you want bind any in-memory stream that you bind the Source propertie which is a BitmapImage.

    /// 
 
/// Элемент управления "Изображения", поддерживающий анимированные GIF. 
/// 
 
public class AnimatedImage : Image
{
    static AnimatedImage()
    {
        DefaultStyleKeyProperty.OverrideMetadata(typeof(AnimatedImage), new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(typeof(AnimatedImage)));
    }

    #region Public properties

    /// 
 
    /// Получает/устанавливает номер текущего кадра. 
    /// 
 
    public int FrameIndex
    {
        get { return (int)GetValue(FrameIndexProperty); }
        set { SetValue(FrameIndexProperty, value); }
    }

    /// 

    /// Get the BitmapFrame List.
    /// 
    public List Frames { get; private set; }

    /// 

    /// Get or set the repeatBehavior of the animation when source is gif formart.This is a dependency object.
    /// 
    public RepeatBehavior AnimationRepeatBehavior
    {
        get { return (RepeatBehavior)GetValue(AnimationRepeatBehaviorProperty); }
        set { SetValue(AnimationRepeatBehaviorProperty, value); }
    }

    public new BitmapImage Source
    {
        get { return (BitmapImage)GetValue(SourceProperty); }
        set { SetValue(SourceProperty, value); }
    }

    public Uri UriSource
    {
        get { return (Uri)GetValue(UriSourceProperty); }
        set { SetValue(UriSourceProperty, value); }
    }

    #endregion

    #region Protected interface

    /// 
 
    /// Provides derived classes an opportunity to handle changes to the Source property. 
    /// 
 
    protected virtual void OnSourceChanged(DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        ClearAnimation();
        BitmapImage source;
        if (e.NewValue is Uri)
        {
            source = new BitmapImage();
            source.BeginInit();
            source.UriSource = e.NewValue as Uri;
            source.CacheOption = BitmapCacheOption.OnLoad;
            source.EndInit();
        }
        else if (e.NewValue is BitmapImage)
        {
            source = e.NewValue as BitmapImage;
        }
        else
        {
            return;
        }
        BitmapDecoder decoder;
        if (source.StreamSource != null)
        {
            decoder = BitmapDecoder.Create(source.StreamSource, BitmapCreateOptions.DelayCreation, BitmapCacheOption.OnLoad);
        }
        else if (source.UriSource != null)
        {
            decoder = BitmapDecoder.Create(source.UriSource, BitmapCreateOptions.DelayCreation, BitmapCacheOption.OnLoad);
        }
        else
        {
            return;
        }
        if (decoder.Frames.Count == 1)
        {
            base.Source = decoder.Frames[0];
            return;
        }

        this.Frames = decoder.Frames.ToList();

        PrepareAnimation();
    }

    #endregion

    #region Private properties

    private Int32Animation Animation { get; set; }
    private bool IsAnimationWorking { get; set; }

    #endregion

    #region Private methods

    private void ClearAnimation()
    {
        if (Animation != null)
        {
            BeginAnimation(FrameIndexProperty, null);
        }

        IsAnimationWorking = false;
        Animation = null;
        this.Frames = null;
    }

    private void PrepareAnimation()
    {
        Animation =
            new Int32Animation(
                0,
                this.Frames.Count - 1,
                new Duration(
                    new TimeSpan(
                        0,
                        0,
                        0,
                        this.Frames.Count / 10,
                        (int)((this.Frames.Count / 10.0 - this.Frames.Count / 10) * 1000))))
            {
                RepeatBehavior = RepeatBehavior.Forever
            };

        base.Source = this.Frames[0];
        BeginAnimation(FrameIndexProperty, Animation);
        IsAnimationWorking = true;
    }

    private static void ChangingFrameIndex
        (DependencyObject dp, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        AnimatedImage animatedImage = dp as AnimatedImage;

        if (animatedImage == null || !animatedImage.IsAnimationWorking)
        {
            return;
        }

        int frameIndex = (int)e.NewValue;
        ((Image)animatedImage).Source = animatedImage.Frames[frameIndex];
        animatedImage.InvalidateVisual();
    }

    /// 
 
    /// Handles changes to the Source property. 
    /// 
 
    private static void OnSourceChanged
        (DependencyObject dp, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        ((AnimatedImage)dp).OnSourceChanged(e);
    }

    #endregion

    #region Dependency Properties

    /// 
 
    /// FrameIndex Dependency Property 
    /// 
 
    public static readonly DependencyProperty FrameIndexProperty =
        DependencyProperty.Register(
            "FrameIndex",
            typeof(int),
            typeof(AnimatedImage),
            new UIPropertyMetadata(0, ChangingFrameIndex));

    /// 
 
    /// Source Dependency Property 
    /// 
 
    public new static readonly DependencyProperty SourceProperty =
        DependencyProperty.Register(
            "Source",
            typeof(BitmapImage),
            typeof(AnimatedImage),
            new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(
                null,
                FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.AffectsRender |
                FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.AffectsMeasure,
                OnSourceChanged));

    /// 

    /// AnimationRepeatBehavior Dependency Property
    /// 
    public static readonly DependencyProperty AnimationRepeatBehaviorProperty =
        DependencyProperty.Register(
        "AnimationRepeatBehavior",
        typeof(RepeatBehavior),
        typeof(AnimatedImage),
        new PropertyMetadata(null));

    public static readonly DependencyProperty UriSourceProperty =
        DependencyProperty.Register(
        "UriSource",
        typeof(Uri),
        typeof(AnimatedImage),
                new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(
                null,
                FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.AffectsRender |
                FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.AffectsMeasure,
                OnSourceChanged));

    #endregion
}

This is a custom control. You need to create it in WPF App Project,and delete the Template override in style.