drive<U> method

  1. @optionalTypeArgs
Animation<U> drive<U>(
  1. Animatable<U> child
)

Chains a Tween (or CurveTween) to this Animation.

This method is only valid for Animation<double> instances (i.e. when T is double). This means, for instance, that it can be called on AnimationController objects, as well as CurvedAnimations, ProxyAnimations, ReverseAnimations, TrainHoppingAnimations, etc.

It returns an Animation specialized to the same type, U, as the argument to the method (child), whose value is derived by applying the given Tween to the value of this Animation.

Given an AnimationController _controller, the following code creates an Animation<Alignment> that swings from top left to top right as the controller goes from 0.0 to 1.0:
link 
Animation<Alignment> alignment1 = _controller.drive(
  AlignmentTween(
    begin: Alignment.topLeft,
    end: Alignment.topRight,
  ),
);

The alignment1.value could then be used in a widget's build method, for instance, to position a child using an Align widget such that the position of the child shifts over time from the top left to the top right.

It is common to ease this kind of curve, e.g. making the transition slower at the start and faster at the end. The following snippet shows one way to chain the alignment tween in the previous example to an easing curve (in this case, Curves.easeIn). In this example, the tween is created elsewhere as a variable that can be reused, since none of its arguments vary.

link 
final Animatable<Alignment> tween = AlignmentTween(begin: Alignment.topLeft, end: Alignment.topRight)
  .chain(CurveTween(curve: Curves.easeIn));
// ...
final Animation<Alignment> alignment2 = _controller.drive(tween);

The following code is exactly equivalent, and is typically clearer when the tweens are created inline, as might be preferred when the tweens have values that depend on other variables:
link 
Animation<Alignment> alignment3 = _controller
  .drive(CurveTween(curve: Curves.easeIn))
  .drive(AlignmentTween(
    begin: Alignment.topLeft,
    end: Alignment.topRight,
  ));

This method can be paired with an Animatable created via Animatable.fromCallback in order to transform an animation with a callback function. This can be useful for performing animations that do not have well defined start or end points. This example transforms the current scroll position into a color that cycles through values of red.
link 
Animation<Color> color = Animation<double>.fromValueListenable(_scrollPosition)
  .drive(Animatable<Color>.fromCallback((double value) {
    return Color.fromRGBO(value.round() % 255, 0, 0, 1);
  }));

See also:

Implementation

@optionalTypeArgs
Animation<U> drive<U>(Animatable<U> child) {
  assert(this is Animation<double>);
  return child.animate(this as Animation<double>);
}