[Atrix 4G Themes and Apps] chaosjh:
I decided to make a guide on what i've learned so far about bootanimation to make it easier for both the makers of and users alike.

Sections:

Concept

What is needed?

The desc.txt

Making a flashable zip

Concept

A bootanimation is what you see when you load the phone. However, what many don't know is how you can manipulate these files. A bootanimation is made up of a .zip containing the desc.txt and folder/s that contain the frames. The animation may also call to a sound file outside of the zip. the framework looks like this:

system-media-

|

bootanimation.zip- <--"store" or no compression

| |

| folder1-

| | |

| | anime_0001

| | anime_0002

| folder2-

| | |

| | anime_0003

| | anime_0004

| desc.txt

sound1

sound2

This is a somewhat complex animation and not all animations require all of the above.

Another thing to note is the type of files you can use. Actually, anything that the phone can normally display/play, you can use. This means .jpeg, .png, .mp3, and .ogg are all usable file types in your animation.

A little note also, you don't need to have super quality pictures. If you find your animation getting rather large, try lowering the quality of the pictures. You won't notice the difference and it save a lot of memory. (think dvd vs. blueray)

What is needed?

Ideally, you need multiply pictures named anime_0001.XXX and counting up. Then you need to write a desc.txt (preferably with notepad++ or equal) telling the system when and how to display the images. You will also need a sound file if you want sound. (optional)

Here is a list of helpful programs to make your animation:

7-zip 32-bit 7-zip 64-bit (or equal)

Notepad++ (or equal)

Paint.net (or equal, i rather like this picture editor)

The desc.txt

The desc.txt tells the system what to play when and for how long. You may not need notepad++ to make it, but some bootanimations you mod may be in code and notepad++ will then be required. I just suggest getting use to using notepad++ to save frustration.

Using Notepad++, create a new file. The text you need will look like this:

540 960 15

p 1 10 part1

s sound1.ogg

-540 is the width of the target device, 960 is the height, and 15 is the frames/second the animation will be played

-p means display pictures in folder, 1 is how many times to loop the folder (a 0 here is infinite), 10 is a delay at the end of the last loop (in frames) a 0 here means no delay, and "part1" is the folder name in the bootanimation.zip

-s means play sound in the media folder, "sound1.ogg" is the actual name of the file

You can make this file as complex is as simple as your animation requires. The sound file will play at the start of the folder being displayed. Here is an example of a complex desc.txt:

540 960 30

p 1 0 part1

s firstsound.mp3

p 1 0 part2

s secondsound.mp3

p 0 0 part3

this desc.txt tells the system to play the part1 folder once with sound1, then without a delay, display the part2 folder with sound2, and, again no delay, play the part3 but keep repeating it (useful for an ending frame).

A simple desc.txt could be:

540 960 1

p 0 0 part1

Then only put one picture in the part1 folder. This will basically just display a pic until the phone loads.

Making a flash-able Zip

To make it easy for users to install your animation, you should make a flash-able zip they can use in recovery. This is easy. Use notepad++ to make a file called "update-script" (with no file type). I won't go into great detail in the options you can do with the script but this is what it needs to say for our purposes:

show_progress 0.1 0

copy_dir PACKAGE:system SYSTEM:

show_progress 0.2 10

Save this file. You, then need to make a zip on "store" or no compression with the following format:

thenameyouwant.zip-

META-INF/com/google/android/"update-script" -no quotes, i just used them so you know it's not a folder

system/media/bootanimation.zip

sound1.ogg (optional)

Alternatively, I provided a zip of the script already in the correct format, just unzip, place your bootanimation.zip in the system/media folder and re-zip with no compression. You can rename that zip to whatever you want.

I also provided an example bootanimation.zip (this is NOT an actual animation, DON'T try to flash or use, just look at it's structure)

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'll be around ;)