yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Acer Iconia A500] JaeKar99:
Creating a Boot Animation for Android Based Systems (specific to the Acer Iconia Tablet)

I have seen requests for a tutorial or some instructions regarding making/building boot animations.. This is a beginning and is in a rough stage of the editing process.. It may take some time to get all the pieces assembled and all the contingencies covered.

Thanks to all the themers, devs, and mods I have worked with and their support in learning and using my my boots in their work..

vache

nitsuj17

gunnermike53

GrainOsand

adrynalyne

and a bunch more that I cannot think of right now

You will need some tools

– All that are listed here are free or you already have them:

First off to get your raw material (videos) you will need to get YouTube Downloader.

This will give you the option to pull down videos you may choose to use for your image sources.

Next you will need Free Video to jpg Converter.

This is the best tool (free) to extract individual images from the video that you have.

Some form of picture or image editor will also be needed: gimp, paint, or Photoshop works well.. Gimp is free.

Faststone Image Viewer.

This tool is used to batch change files. This is a nice program because it can rename, rotate, or completely convert whole batches of image files for you.

You may also need a video editing program that is capable of putting captions on the video sequence or can edit longer sequences to shorter or cut and piece them together. Any should work fine. I use MSLIve Movie Maker.. I am sure that there are many more available.

You can also get GifSplitter program to pull animated gif files apart into the respective images then those can be packed into a boot..

You will also need a file zip utility. 7zip works best for me:

This will be needed to package the image files so that they are playable by the device.

You will also need program to edit the desc.txt file.. best program out there is Notepad ++. I do not use any other program so if there is another out there I have not used it. Do not use MSWord or other word processor. It will corrupt the file in a fashion that makes the boot not play.

Once you have your tools you move on to the next step...
[Acer Iconia A500] JaeKar99:
Part III - Trouble Shooting

Trouble shooting:

Boot plays but is bent/skewed to one side

: The images were edited incorrectly when cropped. The crop was not symmetrical. This will also happen if you compress the jpg images too much in a You will need to redo the images from the video sequence then crop and repack.

Boot starts to play then stops and goes to black:

make sure that the folder names are the same between the desc.txt file. There may not be a blank line at the end of the desc.txt file. The file sizes may be too big and the files cannot be played. Boots with image files greater than 500K per image will lock up on some devices. You may have to run the video through a converter to get it to a resolution low enough to run on the device without locking it up, bogging down or failing to loop. This is more likely to happen with (HD files); 720 and 1080 files that are directly converted to jpgs and then run as the boot animation.. I do not know why this happens but by running the video through like Windows Live Movie Maker it will allow it to work.. This does not happen to all videos.. If it happens I suggest converting the wmv to an avi and then reprocessing the video to jpgs.

Boot plays but only loops the first folder:

the number after the ‘p’ in the second line should be a ‘1’ not a ‘0’.

The boot plays very slow and cannot play all the way through before the device is done booting.

Image sizes are too big, or the fps in the first line is too low and you need to raise the number. Reduce the size of the files (compression) – be cautious of this, it has been known to corrupt the images and will cause them to skew/bend or freeze up upon play.

Boot will play then flash and start over – or will loop (as designed) with flashes:

Windows image editor side effect. When you are viewing files in the windows picture viewer it will place a hidden file in the folder usually thumbs.db or imagethumb.db or other *.db file. This will cause the boot to flash white as the player tries to play the image sequence. This file must be removed from the folder for your boot to work right – when it is in the ‘stored’ format you can right click then select 7zip in the dropdown go over to open archive and then examine the contents of each folder if you see a *.db file – delete it. That will correct the problem.
[Acer Iconia A500] JaeKar99:
Reserved if needed.
[Acer Iconia A500] TFordham:
Fantastic! I love your work, but wouldn't have known where to start with trying it on my own. This is something I have wanted to do for some time, and now...if I can find the time (!)....this is a start. Thanks!!

Someone should sticky this.
[Acer Iconia A500] matrix.bharath:
Thanks

wohoooo... and the procedure is so big :) thanks to you. but i guess i would let you know on the boot animation itself
[Acer Iconia A500] crashpsycho:
This looks awesome will definitely give it a shot in my spare time is there any way to get sound boot animation on the iconia or no. Haven't seen any but was just wondering.? lets see if I don't blow up my tablet with my boot animation lmao

KrAsH-SSyKo a500 Minimalist 3.2.1 Netflix update OC 1.5 ghz like a BeAsT
[Acer Iconia A500] JaeKar99:
Hopes are that it is clear enough for people to have good success with making many boot animations..

Unfortunately boot sounds are not going to work on the Iconia at this point. All of my attempts have failed, and no reports of success in other forums.
[Acer Iconia A500] HD87:
do the images have to be in png?

If I download a 720p youtube video & convert, the images are @ 1280x720p,

can I use that resolution for the boot animation & enter the size in the desc.txt?

& when you say max file of 9 Megs.. will it not play if its around 11 megs?

Also: How do you edit the naming of all the images in FASTSTONE? I did each one individually.. Lol! 001,002.. if its up to 100 can the last one be "100"? or does it have to be 0001, 0002, 0100?

I'm just getting a black screen... Frustrating yes! lol..
[Acer Iconia A500] JaeKar99:
Good deal questions!

The images do not have to be in png format, png will make the images very large in size and the Android system will play either png or jpg... but I do not mix them. I prefer jpg (smaller and they get the job done).

The image resolution that I use (1285 x 805) is the best I have found for the Iconia. If you go smaller you get the weird border artifact.

The file size issue is tricky depending on what video file format you are using. If you download directly and then convert the vid to jpgs.. you will get black screen lock ups (sometimes) - to work around this I have used the YouTube Downloader to convert the video to either WMV or AVI to reduce the data density in the images.. this typically reduces the overall size.

It will play any size (11 meg is getting larger).. the larger the size (of the images) the longer it takes to render the images.. the boot will start and stop and sometimes start then just go black.. I can get some as large as 22 megs to play... it depends on the individual images.

To edit all the names at one time... open Faststone go to the folder that you are going to rename.. Select all the images that need to be renamed: go to Tools - Batch Rename.. the convention I use for renaming is ### this will start with 001... 999.. start it up and you are done.. You can choose to use the four digit extension if you want.

If you are just getting a black screen the first place to check is the desc file.. there may be an error there - easiest fix. You could have a naming convention off (folder names not right or spaces not in the right place).

The next issue may be that 7zip or the other zip utility may have compressed the file.. that will render it unplayable. If both of those are correct you may consider the image sizes.. and go with a lower def file at first to see if it will play..

Let us know how your efforts turn out. I struggled for 3 days on my first boot before it would play correctly.. don't give up.

FYI: There is an irc room on freenode #acer-a500 If anyone is interested in a location to dialog.
[Acer Iconia A500] elsuirad:
So, that means I can use .jpg since it's size is smaller than PNG format.

Will try it after I made some loop images.

Thanks a bunch!
[Acer Iconia A500] verdigny:
Hi,

How many "parts" can we have? Is it limited to 2 "parts"?

Thanks
[Acer Iconia A500] JaeKar99:
You are not limited by "part" folders.. I have used as many as eight in phone boots without complications.
[Acer Iconia A500] timehunter:
But I don't reboot my tablet enough to really need to mod my boot animation. :-P
[Acer Iconia A500] buffaloquinn:
How to post new animation

I'm still new here but I did throw together an animation. How to I post it like the ones I've seen here. I have tried to link to the Animated gif I created and put on Mediafire with no luck. And how to I post the link to the finished product?
[Acer Iconia A500] z-control:
Great work JaeKar99 !

How do you define the number of frames ?

sometime i see 22 or 30 or 33

TIA
[Acer Iconia A500] JaeKar99:
It is going to be dependent on how long you want the images to run or loop.. For example if you have 150 frames and you want it to run for 10 seconds you set the fps at 15 (or about).

If you want it to run through the folder looping a number of times: for example you may have only one folder (part0) playing over and over - containing 75 images. One may set the frame rate at 25 to play those 75 frames over 3 seconds... then it will start the loop over at the beginning until the tab fully boots.

The faster the frame rate the smoother the animation.. The slower the more stop-action like it may appear.

Hope that helps.
[Acer Iconia A500] z-control:
yes of course !

thanks a lot
[Acer Iconia A500] bobby38:
Thanks, could be very useful
[Acer Iconia A500] bytemehard:
Hey JaeKar99

Thanks for this tutorial......

Decided to give a boot animation a try.

I have a success finally. Was getting pissed off for a while. Those zip files are picky SOBs
[Acer Iconia A500] treojoew:
Problems after image conversion.

I hope this is not a dead thread... I am creating boot images for a different device. The bootanimations that others have posted and created are working. I used a free program called Batch Image Resizer to ONLY rotate the images in a working animation -90 Degrees because the animation was playing portrait style but in the landscape position and I was hoping to fix this. After rotating the images the file format is the same (png in this case) and the size and names of the images are all the same. When I load this new animation I get nothing but black screen until the device is booted. I did also try to edit the desc.txt file and change it from 400 x 800 to 800 x 400 just in case but still now luck.

Whats up with that? and how do I rotate an animation +/- 90 Degrees and keep it working?
[Acer Iconia A500] JaeKar99:
Hey,

Glad to see you are trying your hand at boot animations.. What device are you creating them for?

Usually if you are getting a black screen it has to do with either the zip being compressed or the desc.txt file has an error in in it somewhere.. Last line needs to be blank, and if there could be a hidden space or tab it will cause this to happen..

Typically reorienting an image 90 degrees will not affect the playing of a boot.. Unless the program you are using has in some what adulterated the images..

I use Faststone image viewer to batch convert, rename and orient the images without issues..

Hope that helps..
[Acer Iconia A500] treojoew:
Thanks for the response. I am creating for a 7" tablet, NOVO 7 Advanced.

I created two sets of images from AVI's using the tool you suggested.

I batch resized one set to 800x480 and another set I made bigger by doing a batch canvas resize that added 30 pixels to the left and right to make them 800x480. I used a program called IrfanView.

I then replaced the images in known working animations with mine and then used NP++ to edit just the size part of the desc.txt file to 800 480.

Then select the image folder and desc.txt file and right click and use 7zip and "add to bootanimation.zip.

Do you see any obvious errors with that process? If not I will assume it is my image editing that is the problem.
[Acer Iconia A500] JaeKar99:
I believe you are correct. The image editing is likely the cause. Not sure of an easy remedy. When I start mixing differing batches of images (done at different times or in different programs) I will usually get a highly skewed image.

I have not added pixels to images. Typically I get into issues with non-symetric crops..

To get two different video sets linked I will link the two avi/mov/wmv, or other file in a movie maker (Windows Live Movie Maker) then cut it up using the video to jpg program.. that way I can ensure contiguous image settings...
[Acer Iconia A500] treojoew:
I noticed in an animation made for my device that the images and description.txt image size was actually 2 pixels larger than the screen (802x482). My question is, do the images and description size have to match the screen resolution or do they just have to match each other and "fit inside" the screen?

If they just have to fit inside the screen I might be able to get away without editing the images as they are very close in size to an exact screen match.
[Acer Iconia A500] JaeKar99:
No, the images to not have to be the same size in pixels.. I would suggest starting smaller and working your way up to full resolutions..

The Iconia cannot handle the full 800x1280 resolution images - it stalls and blacks out ... I have to keep the image size at about half that to get it to run through fully.

It is the same for almost all the devices that I have made boot animations for.. (HP Touchpad excluded).. As long as they are all the same width and height you should get a result.
[Acer Iconia A500] treojoew:
FANTASTIC! Success. I switched to using the FastStone image editor and it worked. Now I will focus on the speed of the animation and additional image folders. I am working on an LCARS boot animation and will post my finished product.
[Acer Iconia A500] JaeKar99:
Excellent!..
[Acer Iconia A500] treojoew:
Almost there.

I am seeing a white screen in between my two sets of images. The reason I am going with two separate image folders is because I want the first to play once and the second to loop until boot.

Here is the text from my desc file;

768 480 10

p 1 0 folder

p 0 0 folder1

I do not see a reason for the white screen between folders, do you?
[Acer Iconia A500] JaeKar99:
Yup.. There is a hidden file (or two) in your image directory (s).. "thumbs.db, or imagethumb.db".. it is a side effect of working in windows.

When you have zipped up the bootanimation.zip file right click then use 7zip to open the file look in all the directories for any hidden files.. click on them and delete..

Parts 0 and 1 should only contain jpg or png files... any combination of other files will cause it to flash white.
[Acer Iconia A500] treojoew:
I saw and removed a thumbnail from each folder. That got rid of the flash between folders but not the one at the end of the second folder...?

I have attached my zip if you'd like to have a look...
[Acer Iconia A500] JaeKar99:
I just pulled it down.. Loaded it on my Iconia and it ran without issues.. Looks good.

I could not find a db file or any other file that could cause the white flash....

There could be a file that I cannot see but that is unlikely. The desc.txt and all the images look clean.

I rezipped and cleaned the db files out.. attached is the version I used. Download Link

You can give it a run and see if if still gives you the flashes.
[Acer Iconia A500] oddmidge:
If you are using WinRar to zip them make sure the compression mode is set to store.

Not sure if this has been stated but that was my major problem.
[Acer Iconia A500] juzmatt71180:
Hi all, Noob here :) sorry if this comes across as a stupid question, but this is my first ever attempt at customising my A501. I am having trouble finding the data/local folder on the tablet. Ive tried using a file explorer like astro on the tablet itself, and by looking through windows explorer while plugged into my laptop, but no good... I can find "data" folders, but not data/local... What am i doing wrong!!! Please help if you can!

Cheers
[Acer Iconia A500] Tuxerito:
Interesting
[Acer Iconia A500] No47:
Thanks! I experienced that problem and found this post googleing for a solution.

Out of curiosity: The only reason for skewing that I can think of is a wrong number of rows/columns, which results in a part of the next line to be shown at the end of the current one. As long as the picture-size is as defined in desc.txt, I don't see any reason for such an effect to occur.

So why does this happen?
[Acer Iconia A500] JaeKar99:
I like your hypothesis. I really do not have one that can adequately address the outcome given the information.. it very well as simple as "the kernel cannot accurately read the images with unsymmetrical crops..
[Acer Iconia A500] felix1234:
Black screen

Hi JaeKar99

I am trying to convert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdXl8qr-gkk to a boot animation. Your instructions are clear and easy to follow. I am trying to make it stay on the logo at the end. However my file will go black half way. I think I have done everything on the first page, can you take a look for me please?
[Acer Iconia A500] JaeKar99:
felix1234,

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you been wicked busy. I a couple of reasons that could contribute to the problem One is in your desc.txt file.

1285 805 15

p 0 0 part0

p 1 0 part1

Your numbers are in the wrong place..

Try:

1285 805 15

p 1 0 part0

p 0 0 part1

The other is that part0 has 280+ images in the folder.. Try splitting the images over a couple of folders. I have read some reports from metpolds that anything over 250 may cause blackouts.
[Acer Iconia A500] metpolds:
@felix1234..... Not trying to hi-jack JaeKar99's thread (who is a friend) but in the last reply to you he mentions my post in another animation thread which concerned the number of frames one could use in an animation. In case it helps here are my conclusions about number of frames::::::::::::

My aim here was to be able to give hard facts about overall size in Mb's and size in respect of number of frames and "parts" that could be used.

(1) FRAMES - Up to 240 frames per "part" work but 250 fail. I was content to leave it at that and not attempt to find the exact frame at which it fails. In other words you can go safely up to 240 frames.

(2) "PARTS" - There has to be a limit to the number of "parts" you can use but it seems that for all practical purposes this shouldn't be a concern. I have used in my tests up to 7 "parts" each with between 200 - 240 frames per "part".

(3) SIZE in Mb's - Please see the test result which follows.

I was uncertain before I did my tests as to whether it was (a) The number of Frames OR (b) The size of each frame OR (c) Overall size in Mb's, which was the determining factor on whether an animation would run on the Tab or fail.

I am confident in stating that the NUMBER of frames is the critical factor not the size in Kb's/Mb's of the frames involved. My test that proved this to my satisfaction involved building an animation which was comprised of 5 "parts" with an average size of 220 frames per "part" and an average size of 180 Kb's per frame. When loaded on my Tab it was 138.76 Mb's in size and although when it ran it stalled and stuttered a bit, it did in fact run and the Tab booted. Which I feel proves it's the number of frames not the overall size which determines whether a boot animation will run or not. Previous animations of 250+ frames failed irrespective of the overall size.

I genuinely hope that the foregoing may be of interest and assistance to anyone delving into the construction and building of boot animations.

I envisage that this may be of assistance to those of you ripping HD frames because of the sizes involved.
[Acer Iconia A500] jnktechstuff:
okay my video is this:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxQ1DZHi1OA

and my txt file is this

1285 805 20

p 0 0 part0

all im getting is a black screen

heres my whole folder

http://www.4shared.com/zip/GAw_VZNL/bootanimation__1_.html

help me when you can i did alot to fix this animation up, its now 1:00 in the morning, im going to bed but i hope you can help!!!!!!!
[Acer Iconia A500] JaeKar99:
Did you get it to play? It sounds like you may have compressed the file.
[Acer Iconia A500] jnktechstuff:
How do you not compress it? Using jzip
[Acer Iconia A500] JaeKar99:
I use 7zip and set the compression on 'store'..
[Acer Iconia A500] jnktechstuff:
Thanks
[Acer Iconia A500] crazyredneck77:
hi

hello i used your method , got the boot animation working great then all of the sudden it skips frames in the boot animation , cuts out an entire scene.

only thing that i changed was the boot logo in between when it was working and now.

when i preview the animation in rom toolbox pro every scene shows, but as soon as i move it to system/media and reboot the scene is skipped
[Acer Iconia A500] JaeKar99:
What is the size of your ROM? It is likely due to the image sizes.

Sent from the 8th dimension using quantum entanglement.
[Acer Iconia A500] crazyredneck77:
8GB Total , 6GB remaining

the boot animation is in hd so the .zip file is decently big , about 12.1 MB

thanks for the reply
[Acer Iconia A500] pauete:
Great thread, congratulations and thanks!

Enviado desde mi Lenovo A789 usando Tapatalk 4 Beta
[Desire Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] brad808:
For some reason my camera flash and my torch app is very blue looking. For a very split second when you first turn on the flash it looks proper white and then it dims down and looks a lot more blue. almost like the flash is being made of blue/yellow. which gives my pictures a very strange look. Any idea how to fix this?

Running CM 7.1
[Desire Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] mercianary:
Must be a hardware issue, can't imagine your rom being able to affect that (check with other rom's to be sure).

Take a picture of a white piece of paper so we can see.

I'd go with a warranty repair/replace if it was noticeably bad.
[Desire Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] brad808:
So this is what it looks like...

I just flashed latest cm nightly 183 and same problem.

The thing I find strange is that for a very quick time the light is bright and white and then dims down and turns a blueish tint
[Desire Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] davebugyi:
Try a sense-based ROM and MIUI.

But That must be a hardware issue.
[Desire Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] brad808:
Just flashed stock ruu and same issue so I'll try and take it in for a warranty and see what happens
[Desire Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] JBO1018:
Definitely a hardware problem.

Sent from my HTC Thunderbolt
[Desire Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] brad808:
They sent it away for a harware fix under warranty.

Plus I got a desire hd because my contract was almost up so 3 year pricing on that :D
[Vibrant Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] archie53:
Have to do a warranty exchange and wondering what the best way to send the phone back to TMobile. I know I can Odin to JFD and wipe the internal, but was looking to able to send it back with 2.2 on it, not 2.1, and can't seem to find a stock 2.2. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
[Vibrant Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] badaphooko01:
why send it in with 2.2? Most people that have this phone are still stuck on 2.1
[Vibrant Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ipetloudog:
Odin to 2.1 then install kies mini to update to official froyo. Thats what i did to cover my tracks [and again this wknd]