Boot Animations:Tutorial & A Place To Post Your Own. UPDATED 04/10/2011 NEW ANIMATION - EVO Shift 4G Themes and Apps

Boot Animations:Tutorial & A Place To Post Your Own. UPDATED 04/10/2011 NEW ANIMATION
How To Create Your Own Boot Animations
Here is a flashable zip from sparksco that will install any bootanimation placed on the root of the sdcard
Download Here
Just place the bootanimation on the root of the sd, then flash this from recovery.
Created Boot Animations Are At The End Of This Post​
There are five steps in creating a boot animation:
1. Creating the images;
2. Creating the desc.txt file;
3. Creating the bootanimation.zip file;
4. Pushing the boot animation to the phone;
5. (Optional) Adding a boot audio file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Creating The Images.
If you have even seen a flip book (flip the pages fast enough, and a succession of images appears to become animated), then you understand the basics of a boot animation. This is nothing more than a flip book for the digital age, and so all that is required is a collection of images, that when viewed very quickly in succession, appear to be animated (of course with most filming being done digitally these days, one could argue that this is all movies).
Creating these images will take days if you choose to create each one individually, so here is the trick to make this worth doing. Either create a flash animation, or find one you enjoy (you tube is a good place to look for flash animations, and if you do a quick google search you can see how to download youtube videos).
Once you have the flash animation you like, use video editing software to convert it into a series of JPEG or PNG images. I suggest using Avidemux ( http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/ ), which is a free, cross-platform, open-source video editor.
This will chop it up to many files. Since you do not want too large of a bootanimation.zip, I suggest the removal of intermittent files (such as every 5th file) to end up with 50-150 images.
Now on to the editing, for which I suggest using GIMP ( http://www.gimp.org/ ), which is a free, open-source, cross-platform graphics editor (similar to photoshop). To ensure that the images appear as you would like when turned into an animation, you can resize each image to 480 x 800 (or place each image on a background of these dimensions). The nice thing about GIMP is that it works with terminal commands, so it is possible to resize the entire folder of images with one line of code in the terminal. It should be noted that this step is optional, as the desc.txt file will allow you to choose the proper rendering size. While in GIMP you can do any graphical edits you like to the images, but be sure to make these as small as possible to ensure a smooth running boot animation.
I will say no more about graphics editing, as there are plenty of online tutorials for this.
Be sure to save each image as a JPEG or PNG, and rename each in succession. Thus the first image will be named something like
Code:
image_001.png
, the second
Code:
image_002.png
and so on (look in any boot animation if this is unclear).
The last thing to note on these images, is that you can choose to have an initial animation run, then at some point have the image start looping. Consider for example the Cyanogen boot animation which comes at you, bounces, then starts with the spinning blue flames. If you desire to have it loop at some point in the animation, this will be taken care of with the desc.txt file, just keep this in mind while creating the images.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2. Creating The desc.txt File
The purpose of the desc.txt file is to (i) define the dimensions for which the image should be rendered, define the speed at which images are changed, and define the looping (if any).
The desc.txt file for the stock shift boot animation looks like
Code:
480 800 15
p 1 1 android
The 480 800 refers to the image size, this is what you need for the shift.
The 15 refers to the frames per second. Depending on the images you used, this can vary widely for the best look. When I make these, I try many different values and see which looks best.
p refers to "pointer" leave this as is.
The first number after p refers to the number of times to play, thus in this case, it is played once. If you desire it to loop, set the value to 0.
The next number refers to the number of freezes on the last frame (in FPS). Thus, in this case, 1 FPS.
Finally, android refers to the folder in which the images files are contained, and tells the phone to execute an audio file.
Now, if you desire to only have part of the images loop, then you will need more than one folder. Suppose you have 120 images named image_001.png through image_120.png, and it is desired to have all of your images play through once, then restart at image_090.png and loop until boot is complete. You would make two folders, say part0 and part1. In folder part0 you would then place all 120 images and in folder part1 you would place image_90.png through image_120.png. In this case a desc.txt file could look like
Code:
480 800 25
p 1 0 part0
p 0 0 part1
Note that there is a blank line left after the last folder. Be sure to include this.
There are a multitude of combinations that will work on the desc.txt file, and it will usually take some trial and error before you have one that is right for your particular animation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3. Creating the bootanimation.zip
Though this seems like the simple part, it is where most of the issues occur. This is due to the fact that if the file is zipped with any level of compression, the phone will not be able to read it. IF THE ZIP IS NOT MADE WITH ZERO COMPRESSION, THIS WILL RESULT IN A BLANK SCREEN DURING BOOT
Create a folder named "bootanimation" on your desktop. In this folder place only the folders containing your images and the desc.txt file, AND NOTHING ELSE (in the previous example one would place the folders part0 and part1, along with desc.txt into the folder bootanimation).
If using windows, 7zip will do zero compression zipping. Since I do not use windows, I will leave this up to you to figure out. With Linux, open the terminal and enter
Code:
cd ~/Desktop/bootanimation
zip -0 bootanimation * */*
If all was done correctly, you will now have a working boot animation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
4. Pushing The Boot Animation To Your Phone.
BEFORE DOING THIS, MAKE A NANDROID BACKUP
This can either be done using adb, or via the phone terminal.
ADB & Linux: Place the bootanimation.zip file on your desktop, then open the computer terminal and enter
Code:
adb push ~/Desktop/bootanimation.zip /system/customize/resource/bootanimation.zip
adb reboot
ADB & Windows: Place the bootanimation.zip file on your desktop, then open the computer terminal and enter
Code:
adb push C:\Your_User_Name\Desktop\bootanimation.zip /system/customize/resource/bootanimation.zip
adb reboot
Phone Terminal: Place bootanimation.zip on the root of your sdcard, then in the phone terminal enter
Code:
mount -o rw,remount -t ext3 /dev/block/mmcblk0p26 /system
cp /mnt/sdcard/bootanimation.zip /system/customize/resource/bootanimation.zip
Then reboot the phone.
If your boot animation is not working, recheck all of the above steps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
5. (OPTIONAL) Adding A Boot Audio File
Find a desired audio file in .mp3 format, and rename it to VERSION11SAMELENGTH.mp3.
To make it executable you will need to edit the desc.txt file to
Code:
480 800 25
p 1 0 android
p 1 0 part0
p 0 0 part1
The new line
Code:
p 1 0 android
tells the phone to play the audio file once, with no freeze. You can of course edit the number of times it should play (the first number after p), but should not mess with anything else.
Now you need only to push the file to your phone
This can either be done using adb, or via the phone terminal.
ADB & Linux: Place the VERSION11SAMELENGTH.mp3 file on your desktop, then open the computer terminal and enter
Code:
adb push ~/Desktop/VERSION11SAMELENGTH.mp3 /system/customize/resource/VERSION11SAMELENGTH.mp3
adb reboot
ADB & Windows: Place the VERSION11SAMELENGTH.mp3 file on your desktop, then open the computer terminal and enter
Code:
adb push C:\Your_User_Name\Desktop\VERSION11SAMELENGTH.mp3 /system/customize/resource/VERSION11SAMELENGTH.mp3
adb reboot
Phone Terminal: Place VERSION11SAMELENGTH.mp3 on the root of your sdcard, then in the phone terminal enter
Code:
mount -o rw,remount -t ext3 /dev/block/mmcblk0p26 /system
cp /mnt/sdcard/VERSION11SAMELENGTH.mp3 /system/customize/resource/VERSION11SAMELENGTH.mp3
Then reboot the phone.
You now have a custom boot animation with a custom audio file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Enjoy, and be sure to post your creations.
My Bootanimations
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Click to collapse
Hyper Surface Animation
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Download Hyper Surface Animation
Shell Animation
Download Shell Animation
Download Shell Animation Audio File
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rain Animation
Download Rain Animation
It is designed to move to the music in this file:
Download Rain Animation Audio File
Try them together, if the music is not to your liking (Clip from Beethoven's Bagatelle in A minor), just replace it with whatever you like.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Animations by Nitro3a
Download
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Animations by riggsandroid
Download
Blue Bee
Orange/Red Bee
Green Bee
Pink Bee
Grey Bee
BIOS Bee
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

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Did this simple one.
Only looks grainy because of resizing. Looks fine full size.
DL zip here - rename to appropriate .zip name based on ROM you are on.

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yeah great wu clover. thanks for the time

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No problem, I used to love making these, but found it so tricky at first. With a few tips it is really easy.

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Has anyone tried this?

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Boot animation Simple.
cloverdale said:
Has anyone tried this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I made a simple boot ani the only problem I did was try to use the desc.txt to call a different sound file following the rules that Motorola uses for their phones. Needless to say it still plays the original boot sound from sprint. I put the custom mp3 file in /system/customize/resource and it still plays the default sprint sound when booting. I haven't figured out where the sound file is supposed to go yet, but I haven't looked very hard either.
Here is the simple boot ani I made. The Background is transparent not white. Also note that this update zip will only work with CWM 2.5.X
Here is smaller size boot ani.

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7zip commands for Windows 7
These are the commands that I used to make a boot animation using 7zip on a windows platform.
Code:
7za a -mx0 nitro3a.zip part0
7za a -mx0 nitro3a.zip part1
7za a -mx0 nitro3a.zip desc.txt
a = add to zip
-mx0 = Zero compression
nitro3a.zip = If you can't figure this out hmmm.....*Think happy thoughts*the zip file name (at the time the rom I was using you could put as many zip files on your sd card and it would randomly pick one as your boot animation)
part0 = First folder in the sequence
As I said earlier you might be able to zip it all in one command and I just did it the wrong way but I do it this way because I know it works. You might be able to switch up which image folder zips first I don't know I just did it on order because it seemed logical , but I am sure that all the image folders have to be added before you add the "desc.txt" file.

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Nitro3a said:
These are the commands that I used to make a boot animation using 7zip on a windows platform.
Code:
7za a -mx0 nitro3a.zip part0
7za a -mx0 nitro3a.zip part1
7za a -mx0 nitro3a.zip desc.txt
a = add to zip
-mx0 = Zero compression
nitro3a.zip = If you can't figure this out hmmm.....*Think happy thoughts*the zip file name (at the time the rom I was using you could put as many zip files on your sd card and it would randomly pick one as your boot animation)
part0 = First folder in the sequence
As I said earlier you might be able to zip it all in one command and I just did it the wrong way but I do it this way because I know it works. You might be able to switch up which image folder zips first I don't know I just did it on order because it seemed logical , but I am sure that all the image folders have to be added before you add the "desc.txt" file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you. I have no idea how to things on windows these days. I always appreciate someone filling in the details.

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I am going to start moving the posted animations to the OP. If anyone has an issue with this, please let me know.

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I've made one successfull animation, using the factory desc file and just changing the file names to match the original.
I have now made a different version that I'm having issues with...
I'm editing the file like you said, but for some reason I get white screen flashes during the animation. One at the very start and another everytime the second part of the animation repeats itself.
Any ideas why this is happening?
currently my desc file looks like this
480 800 15
p 1 0 android
p 1 0 part0
p 0 0 part1
I also tried this one (and some with different FPS values)
480 800 15
p 1 0 android
p 1 1 part0
p 0 1 part1

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BuddahWolf01 said:
I've made one successfull animation, using the factory desc file and just changing the file names to match the original.
I have now made a different version that I'm having issues with...
I'm editing the file like you said, but for some reason I get white screen flashes during the animation. One at the very start and another everytime the second part of the animation repeats itself.
Any ideas why this is happening?
currently my desc file looks like this
480 800 15
p 1 0 android
p 1 0 part0
p 0 0 part1
I also tried this one (and some with different FPS values)
480 800 15
p 1 0 android
p 1 1 part0
p 0 1 part1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Search through all of the image files, and make sure the numbering is consecutive, and that there are no missing numbers (such as image0005.png, image0007.png).

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No, there weren't any... but I did delete some trying to fix it and that did make it worse.
Any chance it could be something with how the pngs are saved? I didn't use photoshop this time like I did the first time. I used After Effects to save my movie as a png sequence.
EDIT: I figured out the flashes. There are hidden files in the folders that contain pictures. On windows7 they are "ds.store" or something. Pretty much the same as .thumb files that allow you to see thumbnail previews. These must be removed or they will show as white flashes in your animation.

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BuddahWolf01 said:
No, there weren't any... but I did delete some trying to fix it and that did make it worse.
Any chance it could be something with how the pngs are saved? I didn't use photoshop this time like I did the first time. I used After Effects to save my movie as a png sequence.
EDIT: I figured out the flashes. There are hidden files in the folders that contain pictures. On windows7 they are "ds.store" or something. Pretty much the same as .thumb files that allow you to see thumbnail previews. These must be removed or they will show as white flashes in your animation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That makes a lot of sense. Damn windows

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well I figured out it may not have been windows! I usually do everything on mac, but didn't have an easy way to zip without compression... so I used windows for that part and the ADB part because it is slightly simpler.
I tried a couple different ways and some terminal commands on mac that also ended up zipping the ds_store files, so I guess they are a file that is hidden when you zip stuff that way.
Anyways tonight I figured out that I can just run the command you listed in step (3) and it works just fine without putting the ds_store files in!
So now after editing my images and videos, I wont have to switch to windows to zip and push them anymore!!!

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I used root explorer to replace the bootanimation.zip.
Just backed up my original to my sdcard and then overwrited it with a custom one after.

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I just wanted to let everyone know that I will not be around much for awhile, so please do not get upset if you think I am ignoring questions. I am working on a huge project at work (I am a researcher at the NIH, working on a major project from the SSA), and have been putting in 60 hour work weeks. People with terminal illness are dependent upon my work, so it comes before my health, my hobbies, and definitely before a phone. When things settle down a bit, I will become more active again. Talk to you all soon.

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Work has been too much, and I had to take a break and make myself a new boot animation. Check the OP for this update.

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So I tested this out I was able to get a premade boot ani to work but when I make my own it dosent work I think its the zipping part because I took the orignal boot an unzipped and rezipped just to test and it still dosent work is there an app I can DL on my phone or something special I have to do on my windows 7 7-zip program... I made a family guy boot ani will try to load once I get it to work
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

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Try changing the zip compression level from Normal to Store after you've added your files to the archive. I think that's what he meant by a zero compression zip file. :S
EDIT: OP states:
The nice thing about GIMP is that it works with terminal commands, so it is possible to resize the entire folder of images with one line of code in the terminal.
What is the terminal command for windows? Where would I find that? Thanks in advance.

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If you open the start menue search cmd it will open then in the 7-zip help section under contents cmd line ver then syntax it explains it but I can get it to work termanal tell me that its not a program or batch file
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App