Need advice for tech direction for some simple animation

[Donutz]

I'm using c#/vs2010, and I need to do some reasonably simple animation
in WinForms. XNA seems like massive overkill, older DirectX requires
me to "downgrade" my .net compatibility to (I think) 2.0, and the
latest DirectX sounds like it gives only minimal (if any) support for
XP. I'm just trying to avoid the usual "going down several blind
alleys" process. So my parameters are:

- Windows forms, writing in vs2010, c#
- Would like to avoid massive downloads
- Would like to avoid requiring end-users to add massive installs to
run the program
- Would like to avoid massive learning curve

I have a feeling this is more of a lesser-of-many-evils rather than a
no-brainer, so any information on what to consider before deciding
would be appreciated.

 

[Donutz]

Note that regarding the points you make above, the "massive" questions are
mostly dependent on you, not the API: even WinForms can be a least a bit
tricky to learn from scratch if you're not already familiar with the basic
paradigm, and the size of the download/install is going to be primarily
affected by the artwork involved, not the code used for the animation.

Granted, but I'm thinking more along the lines of end-user having to
install, say, XNA runtime in order to use my software. I don't
actually know if that would be required for XNA, but I did note that
the developer download for using XNA is 1.3 GB, so I'm
extrapolating...

As far as learning curve, I'm familiar enough with WinForms to be able
to do a simple series of frames driven by a timer, and it might still
come to that. But I am looking at this as at least partly an
opportunity to learn a little more about graphics programming, so it's
an opportunity to try something different. I just don't want to bite
off a task of learning a new technology that's bigger than the actual
project. So if there are any "obvious-in-retrospect" factoids
available from someone who's just been through this particular meat
grinder, I'd like to hear about it.