WPF animation that is always running when the control is visible - wpf

Question

I have a (lame) user requirement to make a control super visible.
Sadly that means a flashing background (Ug).
So, the control is a Border that holds a TextBlock is only visible in fairly rare scenarios.
I have looked at a few animation examples and they all have a "Trigger" on them. Most commonly when the user clicks on something.
Is there a way to just have the animation running all the time (if the control is visible of course)?

Answer 1

here you go, RepeatBehavior="Forever" will keep the animation running until stopped or removed
you can trigger a color animation with auto reverse enabled on the control load and let it run forever
<Border Background="Transparent">
<TextBlock Text="some text" />
<Border.Triggers>
<EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Loaded">
<BeginStoryboard>
<Storyboard>
<ColorAnimation To="SkyBlue"
Storyboard.TargetProperty="Background.Color"
RepeatBehavior="Forever"
AutoReverse="True" />
</Storyboard>
</BeginStoryboard>
</EventTrigger>
</Border.Triggers>
</Border>
if you need the animation to be triggered on visibility change then here is a way, note that the animation is applied when IsVisible property become true and stopped when it become false.
<Border Background="Transparent">
<TextBlock Text="some text" />
<Border.Style>
<Style TargetType="Border">
<Style.Triggers>
<Trigger Property="IsVisible"
Value="true">
<Trigger.EnterActions>
<BeginStoryboard x:Name="startFlashing">
<Storyboard>
<ColorAnimation To="SkyBlue"
Storyboard.TargetProperty="Background.Color"
RepeatBehavior="Forever"
AutoReverse="True" />
</Storyboard>
</BeginStoryboard>
</Trigger.EnterActions>
<Trigger.ExitActions>
<StopStoryboard BeginStoryboardName="startFlashing" />
</Trigger.ExitActions>
</Trigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>
</Border.Style>
</Border>
typically after visibility is set to false there is no visible difference if animation is still running or stopped.