Reply to comment

Microsoft's knowledge base article, Q179907 explains how to use a transparent CAnimateCtrl in a CView or a CDialog.

Unfortunately, the instructions don't quite work properly for displaying the animation control over another control (e.g. a CListCtrl) in a dialog - the animation control uses the dialog colour (if you don't handle WM_CTLCOLOR) or white (if you do).

The fix is simple - just set the background colour of the DC:

HBRUSH CMyDialog::OnCtlColor(CDC *pDC, CWnd *pWnd, UINT nCtlColor)
{
    if (pWnd->GetDlgCtrlID() == IDC_ANIMATE)
    {
        pDC->SetBkColor(GetSysColor(COLOR_WINDOW));  // add this
        return (HBRUSH)GetStockObject(NULL_BRUSH);   // Q179907 says this
    }

    return CDialog::OnCtlColor(pDC, pWnd, nCtlColor);
}

Apparently, this may not work with Visual Studio.NET and Windows XP. If this is the case, try handling WM_CTLCOLORSTATIC:

LRESULT CMyDialog::WindowProc(UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{
    if( message == WM_CTLCOLORSTATIC  && ::GetDlgCtrlID( (HWND)lParam ) == IDC_ANIMATE) )
    {
        CDC* pDC = CDC::FromHandle( (HDC)wParam );
        pDC->SetBkColor( GetSysColor(COLOR_WINDOW) );
        return (LRESULT)GetStockObject(NULL_BRUSH);
    }
    return CDialog::WindowProc(message, wParam, lParam);
}

Unfortunately, this doesn't work with Visual C++ 6 and Windows XP, using a manifest file: the background of the animation is painted black. You want this instead:

class CMyDialog : public CDialog
{
    //...
    CBrush m_background_brush;
    //...

    afx_msg HBRUSH OnCtlColor(CDC* pDC, CWnd* pWnd, UINT nCtlColor);
    afx_msg LRESULT OnCtlColorStatic(WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam);
};

BEGIN_MESSAGE_MAP(CMediaLibraryView, CSourceView)
    //...
    ON_WM_CTLCOLOR()
    ON_MESSAGE(WM_CTLCOLORSTATIC, OnCtlColorStatic)
END_MESSAGE_MAP()

BOOL CMyDialog::OnInitDialog()
{
    //...
    m_background_brush.CreateSolidBrush(GetSysColor(COLOR_WINDOW));
    //...
}

HBRUSH CMyDialog::OnCtlColor(CDC* pDC, CWnd* pWnd, UINT nCtlColor)
{
    if (pWnd->GetDlgCtrlID() == IDC_ANIMATE)
    {
        pDC->SetBkColor(GetSysColor(COLOR_WINDOW));  // add this
        pDC->SetBkMode(TRANSPARENT);
        return (HBRUSH)m_background_brush.GetSafeHandle();
    }
    else
        return CWizardPage::OnCtlColor(pDC, pWnd, nCtlColor);
}

LRESULT CMyDialog::OnCtlColorStatic(WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{
    HDC hDC = (HDC)wParam;
    HWND hwndCtl = (HWND)lParam;

    if (::GetDlgCtrlID(hwndCtl) == IDC_ANIMATE)
    {
        CDC *pDC = CDC::FromHandle(hDC);
        pDC->SetBkColor(GetSysColor(COLOR_WINDOW));
        pDC->SetBkMode(TRANSPARENT);
        return (LRESULT)(HBRUSH)m_background_brush.GetSafeHandle();
    }

    return Default();
}