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Root My first Bootanimation from scratch!! Sparkling Droid X!!

kensdavid

Well-Known Member
Aug 12, 2010
141
45
40
Hey guys,

I appreciate everything the community has done for me, so today I sparked my creative gene and built a bootanimation to give back!!

Here you go!! :D (the animated gif is much slower than the actual boot...this should give you a basic idea though...)

Sparkling Droid X boot animation!



Enjoy it!!

Here's another!! (borrowed the gem from CVPCS...)

Bling + Blue Gem Boot Animation!

 
Great work kensdavid! Can you post some tools to how you made your bootloader? I've been wanting to make my own for a while now.

Sure! It's intimidating at first, but really not that bad when you know the right steps!

I used the following:

  1. Adobe Photoshop (You can use any graphics editor, including GIMP, which is free...)
  2. Notepad++
  3. 7-Zip

There are a few important things to know:
  • A boot animation is comprised of folders containing images & desc.txt
  • You may use any number of folders, and can name them whatever you want, but convention is generally as follows: part0, part1...etc.
  • The images you create can be PNG's or JPG's - but PNG's are highly recommended
  • Each folder of pictures may not exceed 3MB
  • Be sure Windows does not cache thumbnails - if a thumbs.db ends up in your zip file, it won't work! (Tools->Folder Options->View Tab->Do not cache thumbnails
  • desc.txt can NOT be edited using Notepad - it loses its file structure and Windows adds incorrect characters that break its usability - you must use Notepad++ (which is a free download).

Now that that's covered - Here are the steps!

  1. Download any bootanimation.zip as a starting point
  2. Unzip it and take a look at the structure - you'll want to copy this structure as a beginner
  3. Create your new image in Photoshop, use 480x854px canvas size
  4. Create your first image, and save it as a PNG that ends in 0000.PNG (All of your images must be sequential, the next will end in 0001.PNG etc.) Now you will have 1 PNG and 1 PSD.
  5. To create your next image, you may choose to duplicate your layer in Photoshop, make changes, and make your first layer invisible before saving your next PNG. This can be helpful if you want to track all your changes and make sure that the images flow correctly.
  6. After you have all your pictures in your folders, and have checked that you have not exceeded the 3MB/folder limit, it's time to edit your desc.txt.
  7. Right click an existing desc.txt (from bootanimation.zip) and 'Edit in Notepad++'
  8. The first line has 3 parts separated by spaces. The first 2 parts are resolution, so a bootanimation made for DroidX should start with "480 854". The 3rd part is the framerate, which will determine the speed of playback. I've seen this framerate as high as 30, but you might want to start around 15 while you're testing...If you have a total of 5 images, 15 will show all your images 3 times / second.
  9. The second line has 4 parts. The first is just the letter p, which means play. Second is the # of times to repeat the playback of your folder - if you want this folder to loop, set it to 0. Third is the pause timer, set it to 0 if you don't want time between folders, otherwise you can choose how many seconds to delay. Fourth is the folder name to be played - note that in most bootanimations this will be part0 - but you can name it whatever you want.

    An example of a desc.txt, that plays the images in the 'part0' folder once and then loops the images in the 'part1' folder might look like this:

    480 854 15
    p 1 0 part0
    p 0 0 part1

  10. After this has been saved in Notepad++ we will package the file using 7-Zip
  11. Select only the image folders and desc.txt, right click, then 7-Zip->Add to archive...
  12. We will use Store Only for compression level, since this just needs to be packaged, not compressed (if it is compressed at all the DX will not play it back)
  13. Name your file bootanimation.zip and you are done!
  14. With your DX plugged in, run the following ADB commands, or move your bootanimation to your /data/local folder using RootExplorer (ADB happens to be much easier for this task)
    ADB push c:\bootanimation.zip /data/local
    ADB reboot
  15. Watch the magic happen!

If you run into any problems - read through the post thoroughly...it should cover most issues! Let me know if you run into problems!

-Ken
 
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