Revolutionize Your Mobile App Development with Flutter’s New Animations Package
What’s New in Flutter?
The Flutter team has just released a new stable version of its cross-platform mobile framework, packed with exciting upgrades. Among these new features, the animations package caught my attention. Based on Google’s Material motion specification, this package allows developers to implement animation patterns in mobile app development, taking user experience to the next level.
Unlocking Material Design’s Motion System
Material Design’s motion system is a set of transition patterns that help users understand and navigate an app. With the animations package, you can create meaningful and beautiful UI interactions. Currently, four transition patterns are available: Container Transform, Shared Axis Transition, Fade Through Transition, and Fade Transition.
Getting Started with the Animations Package
To start using the animations package, create a new Flutter project and add the package as a dependency in your pubspec.yaml file. Then, run the required command to get the necessary packages.
Implementing Transition Patterns
Let’s dive into implementing the four transition patterns:
Container Transform
The Container Transform pattern is designed for transitions between UI elements that include a container. You can use the OpenContainer widget provided by the animations package to define the content of the container when it is closed and opened.
Shared Axis Transition
The Shared Axis pattern is used for transitions between UI elements that have a spatial or navigational relationship. You can use the PageTransitionSwitcher and SharedAxisTransition widgets to implement this pattern.
Fade Through Transition
The Fade Through pattern is used to transition between UI elements that are not strongly related to one another. You can use the FadeThroughTransition widget to implement this pattern.
Fade Transition
The Fade Transition pattern is used when an element needs to transition in or out of the screen, such as in the case of a modal or dialog. You can use the FadeScaleTransition and an AnimationController to control the entrance and exit of the transition’s child.
ShowModal Function and Overriding Default Page Route Transitions
The animations package also comes with a showModal function, which displays a modal with customizable properties. Additionally, you can override the default page route transition animation using the SharedAxisPageTransitionsBuilder, FadeThroughPageTransitionsBuilder, and the pageTransitionsTheme parameter of your MaterialApp theme.
Take Your Mobile App to the Next Level
With the animations package, you can create engaging and intuitive UI interactions that delight your users. Get started today and explore the full potential of Flutter’s new animations package!