I would like show a blinking indicator or an animation to indicate that processing is taking place in my app.

I have tried this already by using a timer to change the font colour on a button every .5 of a second. This works except when a mildly resource intensive task is happening, then the animation stops being displayed.

I have thought about using a progress bar, but it wouldn't be appropriate in this case.

Is there a better way to do animation?