Causing OutOfMemoryError in Frame by Frame Animation in Android

Question

I am having lots of images as frames in my resources/drawable folder (let say approx 200). And using this images i want run a animation. The longest animation is of 80Frames. I am successfully able to run the animation on click of the buttons for some, but for some of the animation it is giving me OutOfMemoryError saying that VM can't provide such memory. It is out of VM Budget. I count the size of all of the images its about 10MB. The size of each image is 320x480 in pixels.

I try googling and found that i need to explicitly call the Garbage Collector using System.gc() method. I have done that but still i am getting some time error of memory. Can anyone please kindly help me out in this.

Some Code:-

ImageView img = (ImageView)findViewById(R.id.xxx);
img.setBackgroundResource(R.anim.angry_tail_animation);
AnimationDrawable mailAnimation = (AnimationDrawable) img.getBackground();
MediaPlayer player = MediaPlayer.create(this.getApplicationContext(), R.raw.angry);
    if(mailAnimation.isRunning()) {
    mailAnimation.stop();
    mailAnimation.start();
        if (player.isPlaying()) {
        player.stop();
        player.start();
    }
    else {
        player.start();
    }
}
else {
    mailAnimation.start();
        if (player.isPlaying()) {
        player.stop();
        player.start();
    }
    else {
        player.start();
    }
}

This is the code i have written in on click of a Button.....

Resource file inside res/drawable/anim

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<animation-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:oneshot="true" >

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0000" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0001" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0002" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0003" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0004" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0005" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0006" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0007" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0008" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0009" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0010" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0011" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0012" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0013" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0014" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0015" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0016" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0017" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0018" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0019" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0020" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0021" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0022" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0023" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0024" android:duration="50"/>

<item android:drawable="@drawable/cat_angry0025" android:duration="50"/>

</animation-list>

** The above is the resource file used in setBackgroundResource, same way I am having 10 more file for other different animation. **

Error Log

01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399): FATAL EXCEPTION: main
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399): java.lang.IllegalStateException: Could not execute method of the activity
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at android.view.View$1.onClick(View.java:2144)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at android.view.View.performClick(View.java:2485)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at android.view.View$PerformClick.run(View.java:9080)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:587)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:92)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:123)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:3683)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:507)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:839)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:597)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399): Caused by: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:507)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at android.view.View$1.onClick(View.java:2139)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  ... 11 more
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399): Caused by: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: bitmap size exceeds VM budget
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at android.graphics.BitmapFactory.nativeDecodeAsset(Native Method)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at android.graphics.BitmapFactory.decodeStream(BitmapFactory.java:460)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at android.graphics.BitmapFactory.decodeResourceStream(BitmapFactory.java:336)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at android.graphics.drawable.Drawable.createFromResourceStream(Drawable.java:697)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at android.content.res.Resources.loadDrawable(Resources.java:1709)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at android.content.res.Resources.getDrawable(Resources.java:581)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at android.graphics.drawable.AnimationDrawable.inflate(AnimationDrawable.java:267)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at android.graphics.drawable.Drawable.createFromXmlInner(Drawable.java:787)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at android.graphics.drawable.Drawable.createFromXml(Drawable.java:728)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at android.content.res.Resources.loadDrawable(Resources.java:1694)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at android.content.res.Resources.getDrawable(Resources.java:581)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at android.view.View.setBackgroundResource(View.java:7533)
01-16 22:23:41.594: E/AndroidRuntime(399):  at talking.cat.CatActivity.middleButtonClicked(CatActivity.java:83)

Same way i have different buttons for different animation... Thanks

Answer 1

I had the same problem. Android loads all the drawables at once, so animation with many frames causes this error.

I ended up creating my own simple sequence animation:

public class AnimationsContainer {
    public int FPS = 30;  // animation FPS

    // single instance procedures
    private static AnimationsContainer mInstance;

    private AnimationsContainer() {
    };

    public static AnimationsContainer getInstance() {
        if (mInstance == null)
            mInstance = new AnimationsContainer();
        return mInstance;
    }

    // animation progress dialog frames
    private int[] mProgressAnimFrames = { R.drawable.logo_30001, R.drawable.logo_30002, R.drawable.logo_30003 };

    // animation splash screen frames
    private int[] mSplashAnimFrames = { R.drawable.logo_ding200480001, R.drawable.logo_ding200480002 };


    /**
     * @param imageView 
     * @return progress dialog animation
     */
    public FramesSequenceAnimation createProgressDialogAnim(ImageView imageView) {
        return new FramesSequenceAnimation(imageView, mProgressAnimFrames);
    }

    /**
     * @param imageView
     * @return splash screen animation
     */
    public FramesSequenceAnimation createSplashAnim(ImageView imageView) {
        return new FramesSequenceAnimation(imageView, mSplashAnimFrames);
    }

    /**
     * AnimationPlayer. Plays animation frames sequence in loop
     */
public class FramesSequenceAnimation {
    private int[] mFrames; // animation frames
    private int mIndex; // current frame
    private boolean mShouldRun; // true if the animation should continue running. Used to stop the animation
    private boolean mIsRunning; // true if the animation currently running. prevents starting the animation twice
    private SoftReference<ImageView> mSoftReferenceImageView; // Used to prevent holding ImageView when it should be dead.
    private Handler mHandler;
    private int mDelayMillis;
    private OnAnimationStoppedListener mOnAnimationStoppedListener;

    private Bitmap mBitmap = null;
    private BitmapFactory.Options mBitmapOptions;

    public FramesSequenceAnimation(ImageView imageView, int[] frames, int fps) {
        mHandler = new Handler();
        mFrames = frames;
        mIndex = -1;
        mSoftReferenceImageView = new SoftReference<ImageView>(imageView);
        mShouldRun = false;
        mIsRunning = false;
        mDelayMillis = 1000 / fps;

        imageView.setImageResource(mFrames[0]);

        // use in place bitmap to save GC work (when animation images are the same size & type)
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 11) {
            Bitmap bmp = ((BitmapDrawable) imageView.getDrawable()).getBitmap();
            int width = bmp.getWidth();
            int height = bmp.getHeight();
            Bitmap.Config config = bmp.getConfig();
            mBitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(width, height, config);
            mBitmapOptions = new BitmapFactory.Options();
            // setup bitmap reuse options. 
            mBitmapOptions.inBitmap = mBitmap;
            mBitmapOptions.inMutable = true;
            mBitmapOptions.inSampleSize = 1;
        }
    }

    private int getNext() {
        mIndex++;
        if (mIndex >= mFrames.length)
            mIndex = 0;
        return mFrames[mIndex];
    }

    /**
     * Starts the animation
     */
    public synchronized void start() {
        mShouldRun = true;
        if (mIsRunning)
            return;

        Runnable runnable = new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                ImageView imageView = mSoftReferenceImageView.get();
                if (!mShouldRun || imageView == null) {
                    mIsRunning = false;
                    if (mOnAnimationStoppedListener != null) {
                        mOnAnimationStoppedListener.AnimationStopped();
                    }
                    return;
                }

                mIsRunning = true;
                mHandler.postDelayed(this, mDelayMillis);

                if (imageView.isShown()) {
                    int imageRes = getNext();
                    if (mBitmap != null) { // so Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 11
                        Bitmap bitmap = null;
                        try {
                            bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(imageView.getResources(), imageRes, mBitmapOptions);
                        } catch (Exception e) {
                            e.printStackTrace();
                        }
                        if (bitmap != null) {
                            imageView.setImageBitmap(bitmap);
                        } else {
                            imageView.setImageResource(imageRes);
                            mBitmap.recycle();
                            mBitmap = null;
                        }
                    } else {
                        imageView.setImageResource(imageRes);
                    }
                }

            }
        };

        mHandler.post(runnable);
    }

        /**
         * Stops the animation
         */
        public synchronized void stop() {
            mShouldRun = false;
        }
    }
}

Usage:

FramesSequenceAnimation anim = AnimationsContainer.getInstance().createSplashAnim(mSplashImageView);
anim.start();

• don't forget to stop it...

Answer 2

I assume that your animation frame images are compressed (PNG or JPG). The compressed size is not useful for calculating how much memory is needed to display them. For that, you need to think about the uncompressed size. This will be the number of pixels (320x480) multiplied by the number of bytes per pixel, which is typically 4 (32 bits). For your images, then, each one will be 614,400 bytes. For the 26-frame animation example you provided, that will require a total of 15,974,400 bytes to hold the raw bitmap data for all the frames, not counting the object overhead.

Looking at the source code for AnimationDrawable, it appears to load all of the frames into memory at once, which it would basically have to do for good performance.

Whether you can allocate this much memory or not is very system dependent. I would at least recommend trying this on a real device instead of the emulator. You can also try tweaking the emulator's available RAM size, but this is just guessing.

There are ways to use BitmapFactory.inPreferredConfig to load bitmaps in a more memory-efficient format like RGB 565 (rather than ARGB 8888). This would save some space, but it still might not be enough.

If you can't allocate that much memory at once, you have to consider other options. Most high performance graphics applications (e.g. games) draw their graphics from combinations of smaller graphics (sprites) or 2D or 3D primitives (rectangles, triangles). Drawing a full-screen bitmap for every frame is effectively the same as rendering video; not necessarily the most efficient.

Does the entire content of your animation change with each frame? Another optimization could be to animate only the portion that actually changes, and chop up your bitmaps to account for that.

To summarize, you need to find a way to draw your animation using less memory. There are many options, but it depends a lot on how your animation needs to look.

Answer 3

I spent a lot of time on this and have two different solutions, both good..

First, the problem: 1) Android loads all of the images into RAM, in uncompressed Bitmap format. 2) Android uses resource scaling, so on a phone with an xxxhdpi display (such as LG G3), each frame takes up a TON of space, so you quickly run out of RAM.

Solution #1

1) Bypasses Android's resource scaling. 2) Stores the bytearrays of all files in memory (these are small, especially for JPEGs). 3) Generates Bitmaps frame-by-frame, so it is almost impossible to run out of RAM.

Disadvantages: It spams your logs as Android is allocating memory for new Bitmaps and recycling old ones. It also performs lousy on older devices (Galaxy S1), but performs nicely on current budget phones (read: $10 Alcatel C1 I picked up at BestBuy). Second solution below performs better on older devices, but could still run out of RAM in some circumstances.

public class MyAnimationDrawable {
public static class MyFrame {
    byte[] bytes;
    int duration;
    Drawable drawable;
    boolean isReady = false;
}


public interface OnDrawableLoadedListener {
    public void onDrawableLoaded(List<MyFrame> myFrames);
}

public static void loadRaw(final int resourceId, final Context context, final OnDrawableLoadedListener onDrawableLoadedListener) {
    loadFromXml(resourceId, context, onDrawableLoadedListener);
}

private static void loadFromXml(final int resourceId, final Context context, final OnDrawableLoadedListener onDrawableLoadedListener) {
    new Thread(new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            final ArrayList<MyFrame> myFrames = new ArrayList<>();

            XmlResourceParser parser = context.getResources().getXml(resourceId);

            try {
                int eventType = parser.getEventType();
                while (eventType != XmlPullParser.END_DOCUMENT) {
                    if (eventType == XmlPullParser.START_DOCUMENT) {

                    } else if (eventType == XmlPullParser.START_TAG) {

                        if (parser.getName().equals("item")) {
                            byte[] bytes = null;
                            int duration = 1000;

                            for (int i=0; i<parser.getAttributeCount(); i++) {
                                if (parser.getAttributeName(i).equals("drawable")) {
                                    int resId = Integer.parseInt(parser.getAttributeValue(i).substring(1));
                                    bytes = IOUtils.toByteArray(context.getResources().openRawResource(resId));
                                }
                                else if (parser.getAttributeName(i).equals("duration")) {
                                    duration = parser.getAttributeIntValue(i, 1000);
                                }
                            }

                            MyFrame myFrame = new MyFrame();
                            myFrame.bytes = bytes;
                            myFrame.duration = duration;
                            myFrames.add(myFrame);
                        }

                    } else if (eventType == XmlPullParser.END_TAG) {

                    } else if (eventType == XmlPullParser.TEXT) {

                    }

                    eventType = parser.next();
                }
            }
            catch (IOException | XmlPullParserException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }

            // Run on UI Thread
            new Handler(context.getMainLooper()).post(new Runnable() {
                @Override
                public void run() {
                    if (onDrawableLoadedListener != null) {
                        onDrawableLoadedListener.onDrawableLoaded(myFrames);
                    }
                }
            });
        }
    }).run();
}

public static void animateRawManually(int resourceId, final ImageView imageView, final Runnable onStart, final Runnable onComplete) {
    loadRaw(resourceId, imageView.getContext(), new OnDrawableLoadedListener() {
        @Override
        public void onDrawableLoaded(List<MyFrame> myFrames) {
            if (onStart != null) {
                onStart.run();
            }

            animateRawManually(myFrames, imageView, onComplete);
        }
    });
}

public static void animateRawManually(List<MyFrame> myFrames, ImageView imageView, Runnable onComplete) {
    animateRawManually(myFrames, imageView, onComplete, 0);
}

private static void animateRawManually(final List<MyFrame> myFrames, final ImageView imageView, final Runnable onComplete, final int frameNumber) {
    final MyFrame thisFrame = myFrames.get(frameNumber);

    if (frameNumber == 0) {
        thisFrame.drawable = new BitmapDrawable(imageView.getContext().getResources(), BitmapFactory.decodeByteArray(thisFrame.bytes, 0, thisFrame.bytes.length));
    }
    else {
        MyFrame previousFrame = myFrames.get(frameNumber - 1);
        ((BitmapDrawable) previousFrame.drawable).getBitmap().recycle();
        previousFrame.drawable = null;
        previousFrame.isReady = false;
    }

    imageView.setImageDrawable(thisFrame.drawable);
    new Handler().postDelayed(new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            // Make sure ImageView hasn't been changed to a different Image in this time
            if (imageView.getDrawable() == thisFrame.drawable) {
                if (frameNumber + 1 < myFrames.size()) {
                    MyFrame nextFrame = myFrames.get(frameNumber+1);

                    if (nextFrame.isReady) {
                        // Animate next frame
                        animateRawManually(myFrames, imageView, onComplete, frameNumber + 1);
                    }
                    else {
                        nextFrame.isReady = true;
                    }
                }
                else {
                    if (onComplete != null) {
                        onComplete.run();
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }, thisFrame.duration);

    // Load next frame
    if (frameNumber + 1 < myFrames.size()) {
        new Thread(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                MyFrame nextFrame = myFrames.get(frameNumber+1);
                nextFrame.drawable = new BitmapDrawable(imageView.getContext().getResources(), BitmapFactory.decodeByteArray(nextFrame.bytes, 0, nextFrame.bytes.length));
                if (nextFrame.isReady) {
                    // Animate next frame
                    animateRawManually(myFrames, imageView, onComplete, frameNumber + 1);
                }
                else {
                    nextFrame.isReady = true;
                }

            }
        }).run();
    }
}
}

** Solution #2 **

It loads the XML resource, parses it and loads the raw resources - thereby bypassing Android's resource scaling (which is responsible for most OutOfMemoryExceptions), and creates an AnimationDrawable.

Advantages: Performs better on older devices (eg. Galaxy S1)

Disadvantages: Can still run out of RAM as it's holding all of the uncompressed Bitmaps in memory (but they are smaller because they are not scaled the way Android normally scales images)

public static void animateManuallyFromRawResource(int animationDrawableResourceId, ImageView imageView, Runnable onStart, Runnable onComplete) {
    AnimationDrawable animationDrawable = new AnimationDrawable();

    XmlResourceParser parser = imageView.getContext().getResources().getXml(animationDrawableResourceId);

    try {
        int eventType = parser.getEventType();
        while (eventType != XmlPullParser.END_DOCUMENT) {
            if (eventType == XmlPullParser.START_DOCUMENT) {

            } else if (eventType == XmlPullParser.START_TAG) {

                if (parser.getName().equals("item")) {
                    Drawable drawable = null;
                    int duration = 1000;

                    for (int i=0; i<parser.getAttributeCount(); i++) {
                        if (parser.getAttributeName(i).equals("drawable")) {
                            int resId = Integer.parseInt(parser.getAttributeValue(i).substring(1));
                            byte[] bytes = IoUtils.readBytes(imageView.getContext().getResources().openRawResource(resId));
                            drawable = new BitmapDrawable(imageView.getContext().getResources(), BitmapFactory.decodeByteArray(bytes, 0, bytes.length));
                        }
                        else if (parser.getAttributeName(i).equals("duration")) {
                            duration = parser.getAttributeIntValue(i, 66);
                        }
                    }

                    animationDrawable.addFrame(drawable, duration);
                }

            } else if (eventType == XmlPullParser.END_TAG) {

            } else if (eventType == XmlPullParser.TEXT) {

            }

            eventType = parser.next();
        }
    }
    catch (IOException | XmlPullParserException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    if (onStart != null) {
        onStart.run();
    }
    animateDrawableManually(animationDrawable, imageView, onComplete, 0);
}

private static void animateDrawableManually(final AnimationDrawable animationDrawable, final ImageView imageView, final Runnable onComplete, final int frameNumber) {
    final Drawable frame = animationDrawable.getFrame(frameNumber);
    imageView.setImageDrawable(frame);
    new Handler().postDelayed(new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            // Make sure ImageView hasn't been changed to a different Image in this time
            if (imageView.getDrawable() == frame) {
                if (frameNumber + 1 < animationDrawable.getNumberOfFrames()) {
                    // Animate next frame
                    animateDrawableManually(animationDrawable, imageView, onComplete, frameNumber + 1);
                }
                else {
                    // Animation complete
                    if (onComplete != null) {
                        onComplete.run();
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }, animationDrawable.getDuration(frameNumber));
}

If you are still having memory issues, use smaller images... or store the resource name + duration, and generate the byte-array + Drawable on each frame. That would almost certainly cause too much chopping between frames, but uses almost zero RAM.

Answer 4

I've created an animation class that displays frames based on passed in drawables resources and frames durations.

 protected class SceneAnimation{
    private ImageView mImageView;
    private int[] mFrameRess;
    private int[] mDurations;
    private int mDuration;

    private int mLastFrameNo;
    private long mBreakDelay;

 public SceneAnimation(ImageView pImageView, int[] pFrameRess, int[] pDurations){
        mImageView = pImageView;
        mFrameRess = pFrameRess;
        mDurations = pDurations;
        mLastFrameNo = pFrameRess.length - 1;

        mImageView.setImageResource(mFrameRess[0]);
        play(1);
    }

    public SceneAnimation(ImageView pImageView, int[] pFrameRess, int pDuration){
        mImageView = pImageView;
        mFrameRess = pFrameRess;
        mDuration = pDuration;
        mLastFrameNo = pFrameRess.length - 1;

        mImageView.setImageResource(mFrameRess[0]);
        playConstant(1);
    }

    public SceneAnimation(ImageView pImageView, int[] pFrameRess, int pDuration, long pBreakDelay){            
        mImageView = pImageView;
        mFrameRess = pFrameRess;
        mDuration = pDuration;
        mLastFrameNo = pFrameRess.length - 1;
        mBreakDelay = pBreakDelay;

        mImageView.setImageResource(mFrameRess[0]);
        playConstant(1);
    }


    private void play(final int pFrameNo){
        mImageView.postDelayed(new Runnable(){
            public void run() {
                mImageView.setImageResource(mFrameRess[pFrameNo]);
                if(pFrameNo == mLastFrameNo)
                    play(0);
                else
                    play(pFrameNo + 1);
            }
        }, mDurations[pFrameNo]);
    }


    private void playConstant(final int pFrameNo){
        mImageView.postDelayed(new Runnable(){
            public void run() {                    
                mImageView.setImageResource(mFrameRess[pFrameNo]);

                if(pFrameNo == mLastFrameNo)
                    playConstant(0);
                else
                    playConstant(pFrameNo + 1);
            }
        }, pFrameNo==mLastFrameNo && mBreakDelay>0 ? mBreakDelay : mDuration);
    }        
};

It is used like this:

 private ImageView mTapScreenTextAnimImgView;    
private final int[] mTapScreenTextAnimRes = {R.drawable.tap0001_b, R.drawable.tap0002_b, R.drawable.tap0003_b, 
        R.drawable.tap0004_b, R.drawable.tap0005_b, R.drawable.tap0006_b, R.drawable.tap0005_b, R.drawable.tap0004_b,
        R.drawable.tap0003_b, R.drawable.tap0002_b, R.drawable.tap0001_b};
private final int mTapScreenTextAnimDuration = 100;
private final int mTapScreenTextAnimBreak = 500;

and in onCreate:

 mTapScreenTextAnimImgView = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.scene1AnimBottom);
    new SceneAnimation(mTapScreenTextAnimImgView, mTapScreenTextAnimRes, mTapScreenTextAnimDuration, mTapScreenTextAnimBreak);

Answer 5

I had this problem and solved it by doing the two following things:

1. Cut the resolution of the animation images in half...1/4 the size in uncompressed bytes.
2. Put the images in the drawable-nodpi folder so they don't get scaled up by Android for you.

My animation was still failing to load on some phones after doing step 1. Step 2 got it working on those phones.

Hope this saves somebody else some time.

EDIT: I was still experiencing crashes after going to the Activity that plays the AnimationDrawable but I have it working now. Here are the additional things I did:

3. Do not use an animation-list in xml. Instead create the AnimationDrawable each time you need to use it. Otherwise, the next time you load the animation drawable from the resource it will still be trying to use the bitmaps you end up recycling.
4. Recycle the bitmaps in the AnimationDrawable when you are done using it. This is the magic that frees up the memory.
5. Use the Android Device Monitor to monitor the allocated bytes in your heap.

Here is code I am using for creating the AnimationDrawable:

    protected AnimationDrawable CreateLoadingAnimationDrawable()
    {
        AnimationDrawable animation = new AnimationDrawable ();
        animation.OneShot = false;
        for (int i = 0; i < kNumberOfFrames; ++i) {
            int index = (i * 2) + 1;
            string stringIndex = index.ToString ("00");
            string bitmapStringId = kBaseAnimationName + stringIndex;
            int resID = this.Resources.GetIdentifier (bitmapStringId, "drawable", this.PackageName);
            Bitmap bitmap = BitmapFactory.DecodeResource (this.Resources, resID);
            BitmapDrawable frame = new BitmapDrawable (bitmap);
            //Drawable frame = Resources.GetDrawable (resID);
            animation.AddFrame (frame, 111);
        }
        return animation;
    }

And code for freeing up the bitmaps when you are done using them. You could do this in OnPause or OnDestroy. _loadingAnimation is my AnimationDrawable created above. I would love to know what SetCallback() does for you in this case. I just copied that from somewhere else on SO.

        if (_loadingAnimation != null) {
            _loadingAnimation.Stop ();
            _loadingImageView.SetBackgroundResource (Resource.Drawable.loading_anim_full7001);
            for (int i = 0; i < _loadingAnimation.NumberOfFrames; ++i) {
                BitmapDrawable frame = _loadingAnimation.GetFrame (i) as BitmapDrawable;
                if (frame != null) {
                    Android.Graphics.Bitmap bitmap = frame.Bitmap;
                    bitmap.Recycle ();
                    frame.SetCallback(null);
                }
            }
            _loadingAnimation.SetCallback(null);
            _loadingAnimation = null;
        }

Ted

Answer 6

Similar to other answers, using rxjava:

public final class RxSequenceAnimation {
    private static final int[] PNG_RESOURCES = new int[]{
            R.drawable.sequence_frame_00,
            R.drawable.sequence_frame_01,
            R.drawable.sequence_frame_02
    };
    private static final String TAG = "rx-seq-anim";
    private final Resources mResource;
    private final ImageView mImageView;
    private final byte[][] RAW_PNG_DATA = new byte[PNG_RESOURCES.length][];
    private final byte[] buff = new byte[1024];
    private Subscription sub;

    public RxSequenceAnimation(Resources resources, ImageView imageView) {
        mResource = resources;
        mImageView = imageView;
    }

    public void start() {
        sub = Observable
                .interval(16, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)
                .map(new Func1<Long, Bitmap>() {
                    @Override
                    public Bitmap call(Long l) {
                        int i = (int) (l % PNG_RESOURCES.length);
                        if (RAW_PNG_DATA[i] == null) {
                            // read raw png data (compressed) if not read already into RAM
                            try {
                                RAW_PNG_DATA[i] = read(PNG_RESOURCES[i]);
                            } catch (IOException e) {
                                Log.e(TAG, "IOException " + String.valueOf(e));
                            }
                            Log.d(TAG, "decoded " + i + " size " + RAW_PNG_DATA[i].length);
                        }
                        // decode directly from RAM - only one full blown bitmap is in RAM at a time
                        return BitmapFactory.decodeByteArray(RAW_PNG_DATA[i], 0, RAW_PNG_DATA[i].length);
                    }
                })
                .subscribeOn(Schedulers.newThread())
                .onBackpressureDrop()
                .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
                .doOnNext(new Action1<Bitmap>() {
                    @Override
                    public void call(Bitmap b) {
                        mImageView.setImageBitmap(b);
                    }
                })
                .subscribe(LogErrorSubscriber.newInstance(TAG));
    }

    public void stop() {
        if (sub != null) {
            sub.unsubscribe();
        }
    }

    private byte[] read(int resId) throws IOException {
        return streamToByteArray(inputStream(resId));
    }

    private InputStream inputStream(int id) {
        return mResource.openRawResource(id);
    }

    private byte[] streamToByteArray(InputStream is) throws IOException {
        ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
        int i;
        while ((i = is.read(buff, 0, buff.length)) > 0) {
            baos.write(buff, 0, i);
        }
        byte[] bytes = baos.toByteArray();
        is.close();
        return bytes;
    }
}

Answer 7

I ported a solution to Xamarin Android and did some improvements.

It works well with orientation changes and specially with images around 300 width and height (the larger the image the longer it takes to load the image, the bigger the flickering).

using Android.Content;
using Android.Graphics;
using Android.OS;
using Android.Widget;
using System;

namespace ...Droid.Util
{
    public class FramesSequenceAnimation
    {
        private int[] animationFrames;
        private int currentFrame;
        private bool shouldRun;   // true if the animation should continue running. Used to stop the animation
        private bool isRunning;   // true if the animation currently running. prevents starting the animation twice
        private ImageView imageview;
        private Handler handler;
        private int delayMillis;
        private bool oneShot = false;
        private FramesSequenceAnimationListener onAnimationStoppedListener;
        private Bitmap bitmap = null;
        private BitmapFactory.Options bitmapOptions;
        private Action action;

        private static object Lock = new object();

        public interface FramesSequenceAnimationListener
        {
            void AnimationStopped();
        }

        public void SetFramesSequenceAnimationListener(FramesSequenceAnimationListener onAnimationStoppedListener)
        {
            this.onAnimationStoppedListener = onAnimationStoppedListener;
        }

        public int GetCurrentFrame()
        {
            return currentFrame;
        }

        public void SetCurrentFrame(int currentFrame)
        {
            this.currentFrame = currentFrame;
        }

        public FramesSequenceAnimation(FramesSequenceAnimationListener onAnimationStoppedListener, ImageView imageview, int[] animationFrames, int fps)
        {
            this.onAnimationStoppedListener = onAnimationStoppedListener;
            this.imageview = imageview;
            this.animationFrames = animationFrames;

            delayMillis = 1000 / fps;

            currentFrame = -1;
            shouldRun = false;
            isRunning = false;
            handler = new Handler();
            imageview.SetImageResource(this.animationFrames[0]);

            //// use in place bitmap to save GC work (when animation images are the same size & type)
            //if (Build.VERSION.SdkInt >= BuildVersionCodes.Honeycomb)
            //{
            //    Bitmap bmp = ((BitmapDrawable)imageview.Drawable).Bitmap;
            //    int width = bmp.Width;
            //    int height = bmp.Height;
            //    Bitmap.Config config = bmp.GetConfig();
            //    bitmap = Bitmap.CreateBitmap(width, height, config);
            //    bitmapOptions = new BitmapFactory.Options(); // setup bitmap reuse options
            //    bitmapOptions.InBitmap = bitmap; // reuse this bitmap when loading content
            //    bitmapOptions.InMutable = true;
            //    bitmapOptions.InSampleSize = 1;
            //}

            bitmapOptions = newOptions();
            bitmap = decode(bitmapOptions, getNext());
            bitmapOptions.InBitmap = bitmap;
        }

        private BitmapFactory.Options newOptions()
        {
            BitmapFactory.Options options = new BitmapFactory.Options();
            options.InSampleSize = 1;
            options.InMutable = true;
            options.InJustDecodeBounds = true;
            options.InPurgeable = true;
            options.InInputShareable = true;
            options.InPreferredConfig = Bitmap.Config.Rgb565;
            return options;
        }

        private Bitmap decode(BitmapFactory.Options options, int imageRes)
        {
            return BitmapFactory.DecodeResource(imageview.Resources, imageRes, bitmapOptions);
        }

        public void SetOneShot(bool oneShot)
        {
            this.oneShot = oneShot;
        }

        private int getNext()
        {
            currentFrame++;
            if (currentFrame >= animationFrames.Length)
            {
                if (oneShot)
                {
                    shouldRun = false;
                    currentFrame = animationFrames.Length - 1;
                }
                else
                {
                    currentFrame = 0;
                }
            }
            return animationFrames[currentFrame];
        }

        public void stop()
        {
            lock (Lock)
            {
                shouldRun = false;
            }
        }

        public void start()
        {
            lock (Lock)
            {
                shouldRun = true;

                if (isRunning)
                {
                    return;
                }

                Action tempAction = new Action(delegate
                {
                    if (!shouldRun || imageview == null)
                    {
                        isRunning = false;
                        if (onAnimationStoppedListener != null)
                        {
                            onAnimationStoppedListener.AnimationStopped();
                            onAnimationStoppedListener = null;
                            handler.RemoveCallbacks(action);
                        }
                        return;
                    }

                    isRunning = true;

                    handler.PostDelayed(action, delayMillis);

                    if (imageview.IsShown)
                    {
                        int imageRes = getNext();
                        if (bitmap != null)
                        {
                            if (Build.VERSION.SdkInt >= BuildVersionCodes.Honeycomb)
                            {
                                if (bitmap != null && !bitmap.IsRecycled)
                                {
                                    bitmap.Recycle();
                                    bitmap = null;
                                }
                            }

                            try
                            {
                                bitmap = BitmapFactory.DecodeResource(imageview.Resources, imageRes, bitmapOptions);
                            }
                            catch (Exception e)
                            {
                                bitmap.Recycle();
                                bitmap = null;
                                Console.WriteLine("Exception: " + e.StackTrace);
                            }

                            if (bitmap != null)
                            {
                                imageview.SetImageBitmap(bitmap);
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                imageview.SetImageResource(imageRes);
                                bitmap.Recycle();
                                bitmap = null;
                            }
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            imageview.SetImageResource(imageRes);
                        }
                    }
                });

                action = tempAction;

                handler.Post(action);
            }
        }
    }
}

This is my splash screen class: (this class reads the images from the drawable folder that are named "splash_0001, splash_0002 ...". So no need to name your image resources on an array. Increase the number of frames per second (FPS) to speed up the animation).

using Android.App;
using Android.Content;
using Android.OS;
using Android.Widget;
using ...Droid.Base;
using ...Droid.Util;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using static ...Util.FramesSequenceAnimation;

namespace ...Droid.Activities
{
    [Activity(MainLauncher = true)]
    public class SplashActivity : BaseActivity, FramesSequenceAnimationListener
    {
        private FramesSequenceAnimation framesSequenceAnimation;

        private const string
            IMAGE_NAME_PREFIX = "splash_",
            KEY_CURRENT_FRAME = "key_current_frame";

        private int FPS = 50;

        private int numberOfImages;

        protected override OrientationEnum GetOrientation()
        {
            return OrientationEnum.ORIENTATION_CHECK_DEVICE_SIZE;
        }

        protected override void OnCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
        {
            base.OnCreate(savedInstanceState);
            SetContentView(Resource.Layout.activity_splash);

            RelativeLayout background = FindViewById<RelativeLayout>(Resource.Id.splash_background);
            background.Click += Click;

            ImageView imageView = FindViewById<ImageView>(Resource.Id.splash_imageview);
            imageView.Click += Click;

            numberOfImages = GetSplashImagesCount();

            framesSequenceAnimation = new FramesSequenceAnimation(this, imageView, GetImageResourcesIDs(), FPS);
            framesSequenceAnimation.SetOneShot(true);

            if (savedInstanceState != null)
            {
                int currentFrame = savedInstanceState.GetInt(KEY_CURRENT_FRAME) + 1;
                if (currentFrame < numberOfImages)
                {
                    framesSequenceAnimation.SetCurrentFrame(currentFrame);
                }
            }

            framesSequenceAnimation.start();
        }

        private int[] GetImageResourcesIDs()
        {
            List<int> list = new List<int>();

            for (int i = 1; i <= numberOfImages; i++)
            {
                var image_name = IMAGE_NAME_PREFIX + i.ToString().PadLeft(4, '0');
                int resID = Resources.GetIdentifier(image_name, "drawable", PackageName);
                list.Add(resID);
            }

            return list.ToArray();
        }

        private int GetSplashImagesCount()
        {
            // Count number of images in drawable folder
            int count = 0;
            var fields = typeof(Resource.Drawable).GetFields();
            foreach (var field in fields)
            {
                if (field.Name.StartsWith(IMAGE_NAME_PREFIX))
                {
                    count++;
                }
            }

            return count;
        }

        private void Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            framesSequenceAnimation.SetFramesSequenceAnimationListener(null);
            GoToLoginScreen();
        }

        private void GoToLoginScreen()
        {
            Finish();
            StartActivity(new Intent(this, typeof(LoginActivity)));
            OverridePendingTransition(0, Resource.Animation.abc_fade_out);
        }

        void FramesSequenceAnimationListener.AnimationStopped()
        {
            GoToLoginScreen();
        }

        protected override void OnSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState)
        {
            base.OnSaveInstanceState(outState);

            outState.PutInt(KEY_CURRENT_FRAME, framesSequenceAnimation.GetCurrentFrame());
        }
    }
}

Answer 8

I solved my outOfMemoryError problem by cutting down the framerate brutally and scaling down the images in gimp. Depending on what you are doing you can probably get away with a lot less fps than you'd expect.

Answer 9

I have solve this problem by put all the images in array and use delay after show each of them. The array of images source in res/string <!-- Array table for the pictures to show on the spinner--> <array name="spinner_list"> <item>@drawable/arrows_loop__00000_org</item> <item>@drawable/arrows_loop__00005_org</item> <item >@drawable/arrows_loop__00010_org</item> <item>@drawable/arrows_loop__00015_org</item> <item >@drawable/arrows_loop__00020_org</item> <item >@drawable/arrows_loop__00025_org</item> . . . </array> I declare about the spinner imageView private static ImageView imagespinner;

Then in my class I call it here:

      final TypedArray imgs = getResources().obtainTypedArray(R.array.spinner_list);
    runimage(imgs, imgs.length());

and then on runimage I do the loop with delay like this:

        /* handle the spinner frame by frame */

public void runimage(final TypedArray array, int index) {

  int size = array.length();

    if(index<size) {// show in sequence the images

    final int localindex= index;

        handler.postDelayed(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                imagespinner.setImageResource(array.getResourceId(localindex, -1));// find the picture to show
                runimage(array,(localindex+1));// because use final arg need to do the increase inside
            }
        }, 55);

    }
    else // after show all images go ahead
    {
        textview2.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
        handler.postDelayed(myRunnablewait, 2000); // make some time to see text before go to ather fragment
    }

}

so I run all the images with 55milsec delay on the imagespinner. After finish do the nex job.

Answer 10

It's big problem with the sdk but it can be solved by using threads for concurrently loading the bitmap images instead of loading the entire image at the same time.