From what I've gathered from reading about Core Animation, is that there are two ways to use it. The first way is to enable it on your custom views, and just do animation by changing view locations. The second way is to directly manipulate layers as in your example code.

I suppose that using the first method is a little easier, but not as customizable as the second. Am I correct in assuming this?

I'm creating the sliding puzzle game (15) as a learning experience, and I'm not sure which method to use.