Core Animation: Simplified Animation Techniques for Mac® and iPhone® Development

Chapter 10. Other Useful Layers

In This Chapter

• CAShapeLayer

• CAGradientLayer

• CAReplicatorLayer

Core Animation provides a plethora of layers to help you accomplish many and various tasks. This chapter covers several notable layers, including

• CAShapeLayer, a layer that provides a simple way to composite a shape in the layer tree using a Core Graphics path.

• CAGradientLayer, a layer that enables you to simply draw a gradient in your layer tree by specifying the colors, a start point, end point, and gradient type.

• CAReplicatorLayer, which replicates any sublayers that have been added to it. These replicated layers can be transformed (as discussed in Chapter 5, “Layer Transforms”) to produce dazzling effects.

The layers discussed in this ...