Only the Classic styles Main Menu has an animation when the entire menu opens. The Windows 7 style main menu when it opens does not animate as Ivo explained to me because the user picture is a separate window that appears on top so it will either have to animate together with the main menu or show itself after the main menu is done animating. That might look weird. The Windows 7 style *does* have animations for jumplists, submenus or when you start searching but the main menu itself as a whole does not open with an animation because of the user picture issue.
That said, it might be possible for Ivo to add a simultaneous fade animation effect for the user picture and the main menu since I have seen StartIsBack++ do it so it must be possible. StartIsBack++ main menu also animates when it closes. But that's up to Ivo to decide.
