Interpolator in Android with Example

Last Updated : 23 Feb, 2021

An interpolator is a function (in the mathematical sense) that outputs values "interpolated" between a range of values that are given to it as input. Interpolation is simply a method to generate new data points between two fixed data points. The exact values of these generated data points are determined by the kind of interpolation is performed. For example, in linear interpolation, all the generated values are evenly distributed between the fixed points. While an understanding of interpolation is helpful, it isn't necessary to get started animating your views in your apps. In fact, the animation perspective of interpolation might prove helpful in understanding it! So, let's get started. In this example, we'll create a simple app with a list of buttons. Each of these buttons is for a specific type of interpolated animation which kicks off when you press it. The animation is a simple horizontal translation that moves the button to the right.

The Interpolator Interface

In the Android development framework, Interpolator is defined as an interface. This allows methods to accept an interpolator that can bring its own configuration and not tie developers to a specific implementation. As of this writing, there are 11 indirect subclasses of the Interpolator interface. They are:

Linear Interpolator: The generated values between the two fixed points are evenly distributed. For example, consider a = 1 and b = 5 to be the fixed points. Linear interpolation between a and b would look like: 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4 -> 5, where the numbers between 1 and 5 have been generated.
Accelerate Interpolator: This interpolator generates values that initially have a small difference between them and then ramps up the difference gradually until it reaches the endpoint. For example, the generated values between 1 -> 5 with accelerated interpolation could be 1 -> 1.2 -> 1.5 -> 1.9 -> 2.4 -> 3.0 -> 3.6 -> 4.3 -> 5. Notice how the difference between consecutive values grows consistently.
Decelerate Interpolator: In the sense that the accelerate interpolator generates values in an accelerating fashion, a decelerate interpolator generates values that are "slowing down" as you move forward in the list of generated values. So, the values generated initially have a greater difference between them and the difference gradually reduces until the endpoint is reached. Therefore, the generated values between 1 -> 5 could look like 1 -> 1.8 -> 2.5 -> 3.1 -> 3.6 -> 4.0 -> 4.3 -> 4.5 -> 4.6 -> 4.7 -> 4.8 -> 4.9 -> 5. Again, pay attention to the difference between consecutive values growing smaller.
Accelerate Decelerate Interpolator: This interpolator starts out with a slow rate of change and accelerates towards the middle. As it approaches the end, it starts decelerating, i.e. reducing the rate of change.
Anticipate Interpolator: This interpolation starts by first moving backward, then "flings" forward, and then proceeds gradually to the end. This gives it an effect similar to cartoons where the characters pull back before shooting off running. For example, generated values between 1 -> 3 could look like: 1 -> 0.5 -> 2 -> 2.5 -> 3. Notice how the first generated value is "behind" the starting value and how it jumps forward to a value ahead of the starting value. It then proceeds uniformly to the endpoint.
Bounce Interpolator: To understand this interpolator, consider a meter scale that's standing vertically on a solid surface. The starting value is at the top and the end value is at the bottom, touching the surface. Consider now, a ball that is dropped next to the meter scale. The ball on hitting the surface bounces up and down a few times until finally coming to rest on the surface. With the bounce interpolator, the generated values are similar to the list of values the ball passes by alongside the meter scale. For example, the generated values between 1 -> 5 could be 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4 -> 5 -> 4.2 -> 5 -> 4.5 -> 5. Notice how the generated values bounce.
Overshoot Interpolator: This interpolator generates values uniformly from the start to end. However, after hitting the end, it overshoots or goes beyond the last value by a small amount and then comes back to the endpoint. For example, the generated values between 1 -> 5 could look like: 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4 -> 5 -> 5.5 -> 5.
Anticipate Overshoot Interpolator: This interpolator is a combination of the anticipate and overshoot interpolators. That is, it first goes backward from the starting value, flings forward and uniformly moves to the endpoint, overshoots it, and then returns to the endpoint.

Creating the App

To better understand the above-mentioned classes and see them in action, it's highly recommended you follow along with an actual project and run the app as you build it.

Enable and Setup View Binding (Optional)
View binding is a neat little feature that was introduced not too long ago that makes it easier to work with views in your app. Essentially it does away with findViewById calls and gives you handles to views that are easier to use. They also make your code cleaner. It's a very simple process and you can see how to turn it on and set it up in the official docs. This step is optional, however, and if you prefer to wire up your views manually, you can proceed with that as well. The end result just needs to be that you have handles to the buttons you aim to configure.
Create the Layout
In your activity_main.xml file, create the list of buttons as shown in the code section below. The layout basically consists of repeated code for the different buttons, so if you understand what's going on with one button, you can apply the same to the other buttons as well.

Step 1: Working with the activity_main.xml file

Go to the activity_main.xml file and refer to the following code. Below is the code for the activity_main.xml file.

XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ScrollView     xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"     xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"     xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"     android:layout_width="match_parent"     android:layout_height="match_parent"     tools:context=".MainActivity">      <LinearLayout         android:layout_width="match_parent"         android:layout_height="wrap_content"         android:layout_margin="16dp"         android:gravity="center"         android:orientation="vertical"         android:padding="16dp">          <TextView             android:layout_width="wrap_content"             android:layout_height="wrap_content"             android:text="Interpolators"             app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"             app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"             app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"             app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />          <androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatButton             android:id="@+id/linear"             android:layout_width="wrap_content"             android:layout_height="wrap_content"             android:layout_marginTop="16dp"             android:text="Linear"             android:textColor="#FFF" />          <androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatButton             android:id="@+id/accelerate"             android:layout_width="wrap_content"             android:layout_height="wrap_content"             android:layout_marginTop="16dp"             android:text="Accelerate"             android:textColor="#FFF" />          <androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatButton             android:id="@+id/decelerate"             android:layout_width="wrap_content"             android:layout_height="wrap_content"             android:layout_marginTop="16dp"             android:text="Decelerate"             android:textColor="#FFF" />          <androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatButton             android:id="@+id/bounce"             android:layout_width="wrap_content"             android:layout_height="wrap_content"             android:layout_marginTop="16dp"             android:text="Bounce"             android:textColor="#FFF" />          <androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatButton             android:id="@+id/overshoot"             android:layout_width="wrap_content"             android:layout_height="wrap_content"             android:layout_marginTop="16dp"             android:text="Overshoot"             android:textColor="#FFF" />          <androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatButton             android:id="@+id/anticipate"             android:layout_width="wrap_content"             android:layout_height="wrap_content"             android:layout_marginTop="16dp"             android:text="Anticipate"             android:textColor="#FFF" />          <androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatButton             android:id="@+id/cycle"             android:layout_width="wrap_content"             android:layout_height="wrap_content"             android:layout_marginTop="16dp"             android:text="Cycle"             android:textColor="#FFF" />          <androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatButton             android:id="@+id/accelerateDecelerate"             android:layout_width="wrap_content"             android:layout_height="wrap_content"             android:layout_marginTop="16dp"             android:text="Accelerate Decelerate"             android:textColor="#FFF" />          <androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatButton             android:id="@+id/anticipateOvershoot"             android:layout_width="wrap_content"             android:layout_height="wrap_content"             android:layout_marginTop="16dp"             android:text="Anticipate Overshoot"             android:textColor="#FFF" />      </LinearLayout> </ScrollView>

Step 2: Working with the MainActivity.java file

Setup ObjectAnimator Object: For this example, we'll use a single ObjectAnimator to animate the different buttons. We'll also use a fixed duration of 2 seconds for the animations to play out, this gives us ample time to observe the animation behaviors. You can have this set up with 2 lines of code as below.

Java

// 2-second animation duration final private static int ANIMATION_DURATION = 2000; private ObjectAnimator animator;

Setup Animations on Button Click: Now that we have the pre-requisites setup, we can finally get to configuring the buttons to trigger their respective animations. For each button, you can configure the specific property to animate, its duration, and the interpolation, among other things. The basic three-step configuration is performed as shown in the code snippet below:

Java

// Linear binding.linear.setOnClickListener(clickedView -> {     animator = ObjectAnimator.ofFloat(binding.linear,"translationX", 200f);     animator.setInterpolator(new LinearInterpolator());     animator.setDuration(ANIMATION_DURATION);     animator.start(); });

Below is the complete code for the MainActivity.java file. Comments are added inside the code to understand the code in more detail.

Java

import android.animation.ObjectAnimator; import android.os.Bundle; import android.view.View; import android.view.animation.AccelerateDecelerateInterpolator; import android.view.animation.AccelerateInterpolator; import android.view.animation.AnticipateInterpolator; import android.view.animation.AnticipateOvershootInterpolator; import android.view.animation.BounceInterpolator; import android.view.animation.CycleInterpolator; import android.view.animation.DecelerateInterpolator; import android.view.animation.LinearInterpolator; import android.view.animation.OvershootInterpolator; import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity; import com.example.doobar.databinding.ActivityMainBinding;  public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {        // 2-second animation duration     final private static int ANIMATION_DURATION = 2000;       private ActivityMainBinding binding;     private ObjectAnimator animator;      @Override     protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {         super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);         binding = ActivityMainBinding.inflate(getLayoutInflater());         View view = binding.getRoot();         setContentView(view);          // setup animation buttons          // Linear         binding.linear.setOnClickListener(clickedView -> {             animator = ObjectAnimator.ofFloat(binding.linear, "translationX", 200f);             animator.setInterpolator(new LinearInterpolator());             animator.setDuration(ANIMATION_DURATION);             animator.start();         });          // Accelerate         binding.accelerate.setOnClickListener(clickedView -> {             animator = ObjectAnimator.ofFloat(binding.accelerate, "translationX", 200f);             animator.setInterpolator(new AccelerateInterpolator());             animator.setDuration(ANIMATION_DURATION);             animator.start();         });          // Decelerate         binding.decelerate.setOnClickListener(clickedView -> {             animator = ObjectAnimator.ofFloat(binding.decelerate, "translationX", 200f);             animator.setInterpolator(new DecelerateInterpolator());             animator.setDuration(ANIMATION_DURATION);             animator.start();         });          // Bounce         binding.bounce.setOnClickListener(clickedView -> {             animator = ObjectAnimator.ofFloat(binding.bounce, "translationX", 200f);             animator.setInterpolator(new BounceInterpolator());             animator.setDuration(ANIMATION_DURATION);             animator.start();         });          // Overshoot         binding.overshoot.setOnClickListener(clickedView -> {             animator = ObjectAnimator.ofFloat(binding.overshoot, "translationX", 200f);             animator.setInterpolator(new OvershootInterpolator());             animator.setDuration(ANIMATION_DURATION);             animator.start();         });          // Anticipate         binding.anticipate.setOnClickListener(clickedView -> {             animator = ObjectAnimator.ofFloat(binding.anticipate, "translationX", 200f);             animator.setInterpolator(new AnticipateInterpolator());             animator.setDuration(ANIMATION_DURATION);             animator.start();         });          // Cycle         binding.cycle.setOnClickListener(clickedView -> {             animator = ObjectAnimator.ofFloat(binding.cycle, "translationX", 200f);             animator.setInterpolator(new CycleInterpolator(2));             animator.setDuration(ANIMATION_DURATION);             animator.start();         });          // Accelerate Decelerate         binding.accelerateDecelerate.setOnClickListener(clickedView -> {             animator = ObjectAnimator.ofFloat(binding.accelerateDecelerate, "translationX", 200f);             animator.setInterpolator(new AccelerateDecelerateInterpolator());             animator.setDuration(ANIMATION_DURATION);             animator.start();         });          // Anticipate Overshoot         binding.anticipateOvershoot.setOnClickListener(clickedView -> {             animator = ObjectAnimator.ofFloat(binding.anticipateOvershoot, "translationX", 200f);             animator.setInterpolator(new AnticipateOvershootInterpolator());             animator.setDuration(ANIMATION_DURATION);             animator.start();         });     } }

Output: Run the App

Having built the buttons and having set them up to trigger animations when pressed, you're all set to fire up the app and see your animations come to life. And you're done! That's how you use interpolators in your animations to spice them up and not make them look monotonic.