Android Animation - Flip
You can do that with ScaleAnimations
set on a ViewFlipper
. I do a similar thing without the second scale. I have two animations, one for the view going out and one for the view coming in. I'll post them here as a starting point for you.
shrink_to_middle.xml
<set xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<scale
android:interpolator="@android:anim/linear_interpolator"
android:fromXScale="1.0"
android:toXScale="1.0"
android:fromYScale="1.0"
android:toYScale="0.0"
android:fillAfter="false"
android:duration="200" />
<translate
android:fromYDelta="0"
android:toYDelta="50%"
android:duration="200"/>
</set>
grow_from_middle.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<set xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<scale
android:interpolator="@android:anim/linear_interpolator"
android:fromXScale="1.0"
android:toXScale="1.0"
android:fromYScale="0.0"
android:toYScale="1.0"
android:fillAfter="false"
android:startOffset="200"
android:duration="200" />
<translate
android:fromYDelta="50%"
android:toYDelta="0"
android:startOffset="200"
android:duration="200"/>
</set>
Then in the app I set them to the ViewFlipper
like this:
mViewFlipper.setInAnimation(context, R.anim.grow_from_middle);
mViewFlipper.setOutAnimation(context, R.anim.shrink_to_middle);
Like I said, this is not exactly what you described, but it's pretty close and will get you started.
--EDIT--
Here is the code using the pivotX and pivotY (well, just pivotY in my case):
shrink_to_middle.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<scale
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:interpolator="@android:anim/linear_interpolator"
android:fromXScale="1.0"
android:toXScale="1.0"
android:fromYScale="1.0"
android:toYScale="0.0"
android:pivotY="50%"
android:fillAfter="false"
android:duration="200" />
grow_from_middle.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<scale
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:interpolator="@android:anim/linear_interpolator"
android:fromXScale="1.0"
android:toXScale="1.0"
android:fromYScale="0.0"
android:toYScale="1.0"
android:pivotY="50%"
android:fillAfter="false"
android:startOffset="200"
android:duration="200" />
Just to notify that I've developed a new library FlipView that includes and extends this specific animation (flip) described by CaseyB. I mean a fully customizable library where you will be able to swap any kind of views and layouts with any kind of animation and shapes you desire, included the Gmail image flipping.
Please have a look.