I spent days trying to figure this out. Being a newbie I tried many things and none of them work. Finally, I have a solution so I will post it here.
There are 2 steps:
- Animate when things appear.
- Make things appear when scrolling.
Part 1: I found out these two great tutorials for newbies:
- The most basic one
- The one that actually animates when stuff appears
Part 2: I simply find the solution in this answer
Part 1 Step by Step:
- Add the line import { BrowserAnimationsModule } from '@angular/platform-browser/animations';to/src/app/app.module.tsand then also:
@NgModule({
  // Other arrays removed
  imports: [
    // Other imports
    BrowserAnimationsModule
  ],
})
- In the component.ts you want to animate, add: import { trigger,state,style,transition,animate } from '@angular/animations';And then:
@Component({
  // Here goes the selector and templates and etc.
  animations: [
    trigger('fadeInOut', [
      state('void', style({
        opacity: 0
      })),
      transition('void <=> *', animate(1000)),
    ]),
  ]
})
- Finally, in the HTML item you want to animate, add [@fadeInOut].
If everything was done correctly, you should now have an animation (but it happens as soon as the webpage loads and not when you scroll.
Part 2 Step by Step:
- Create a file .ts like for example appear.tsand copy-paste this code:
import {
    ElementRef, Output, Directive, AfterViewInit, OnDestroy, EventEmitter
  } from '@angular/core';
  import { Observable, Subscription, fromEvent } from 'rxjs';
  import { startWith } from 'rxjs/operators';
  //import 'rxjs/add/observable/fromEvent';
  //import 'rxjs/add/operator/startWith';
  @Directive({
    selector: '[appear]'
  })
  export class AppearDirective implements AfterViewInit, OnDestroy {
    @Output()
    appear: EventEmitter<void>;
    elementPos: number;
    elementHeight: number;
    scrollPos: number;
    windowHeight: number;
    subscriptionScroll: Subscription;
    subscriptionResize: Subscription;
    constructor(private element: ElementRef){
      this.appear = new EventEmitter<void>();
    }
    saveDimensions() {
      this.elementPos = this.getOffsetTop(this.element.nativeElement);
      this.elementHeight = this.element.nativeElement.offsetHeight;
      this.windowHeight = window.innerHeight;
    }
    saveScrollPos() {
      this.scrollPos = window.scrollY;
    }
    getOffsetTop(element: any){
      let offsetTop = element.offsetTop || 0;
      if(element.offsetParent){
        offsetTop += this.getOffsetTop(element.offsetParent);
      }
      return offsetTop;
    }
    checkVisibility(){
      if(this.isVisible()){
        // double check dimensions (due to async loaded contents, e.g. images)
        this.saveDimensions();
        if(this.isVisible()){
          this.unsubscribe();
          this.appear.emit();
        }
      }
    }
    isVisible(){
      return this.scrollPos >= this.elementPos || (this.scrollPos + this.windowHeight) >= (this.elementPos + this.elementHeight);
    }
    subscribe(){
      this.subscriptionScroll = fromEvent(window, 'scroll').pipe(startWith(null))
        .subscribe(() => {
          this.saveScrollPos();
          this.checkVisibility();
        });
      this.subscriptionResize = fromEvent(window, 'resize').pipe(startWith(null))
        .subscribe(() => {
          this.saveDimensions();
          this.checkVisibility();
        });
    }
    unsubscribe(){
      if(this.subscriptionScroll){
        this.subscriptionScroll.unsubscribe();
      }
      if(this.subscriptionResize){
        this.subscriptionResize.unsubscribe();
      }
    }
    ngAfterViewInit(){
      this.subscribe();
    }
    ngOnDestroy(){
      this.unsubscribe();
    }
  }
- Import it using import {AppearDirective} from './timeline/appear';and add it to the imports as:
@NgModule({
  declarations: [
    // Other declarations
    AppearDirective
  ],
  // Imports and stuff
- Somewhere in the class do:
hasAppeared : boolean = false;
onAppear(){
    this.hasAppeared = true;
    console.log("I have appeared!");   // This is a good idea for debugging
  }
- Finally, in the HTML add the two following:
(appear)="onAppear()" *ngIf="hasAppeared" 
You can check this is working by checking the console for the message "I have appeared!".