Fun with Sprites – Sky Defense - Cocos2d-x by Example Beginner's Guide - page 123

Animating a sprite in Cocos2d-x
The key thing to remember is that an animation is just another type of action, one that
changes the texture used by a sprite over a period of time.
In order to create an animation action, you need to first create an Animation object. This
object will store all the information regarding the different sprite frames you wish to use in
the animation, the length of the animation in seconds, and whether it loops or not.
With this Animation object, you then create a Animate action. Let's take a look.