BootAnimations Explained

No doubt, if you've owned your Android phone for some time, you'll have usd a custom boot animation at some point. No doubt you'd also wondered how to make your own fancy boot animation. Well, this guide will explain exactly how to do it, and more importantly, explain everything in great detail. 

Pre-requisites

- Assuming you're a Windows user, download 7-zip (best free zip tool out there)

- Image editing software (Photoshop, GIMP, etc)

- Adobe Flash if you know how to use it and want to speed up the process (not explained in this guide; but will help you to quickly animation bootanimations, which can then be saved as images in however many frames you specify). 

Bootanimations explained

A bootanimation.zip file is an archive in store mode (no compression). Within it, are as many folders as you specify (generally one or two), and a control file (desc.txt), which tells Android what to do with the folders full of images. 

So, before we go any further, look at the below image, which explains exactly what each function of the boot animation control file does:

So, in the example above, part0 will be a folder containing any number of images which will play once, in sequence, at 30FPS. Once part0 has been played, the part1 folder will play through in sequence an unlimited number of times, until the phone boots - giving the effect of an animation. 

Next, we'll look at making your own boot animation, from scratch, to further explain the basics. 

Boot Animation example - BASIC - Using Photoshop/GIMP

1. Before you begin making the boot animation, create a new folder. For the sake of our tutorial, call it bootanimation

2.  In the folder, create another new folder, called part0 

part0 will contain images, which will be played through once only in our example bootanimation. By that, I mean; if your part0 folder has 40 images in it, it will load each image one after the other, and stop at the final image, and keep that one displayed until the phone boots. 

3. With part0 created, it's time for you to start creating an image. We'll make a simple one to begin with. So, using Photoshop as an example, create a new image which is the resolution of your handset. Let's say you're using a phone with a 240x320 resolution, like a wildfire. Create an image with the size: 240x320px.

Give the image a black background, and grab an image you want to use as the fade-in logo. Paste it as a new layer, and set the layer to 0% opacity, so all you can see is the black background. 

4. Save the image as image001.png, in the part0 folder.

5. Now, in Photoshop (or GIMP), give your logo layer an opacity of 5%, then save the image as image002.png in the part0 folder

6. Repeat step 5, increasing the opacity of the logo layer by 5% each time (10, 15, 20 etc) and saving each image as the following number (image003.png, image 004.png, image 005.png, etc), until your logo reaches 100% opacity. Once you reach this stage you will have 20 images for your (incredibly) basic boot animation. 

7. Open your bootanimation folder, and create a new text file, using notepad or any other text editor (I recommend notepad++ or textedit). 

8. Open the text file, and type the following:

240 320 30

p 1 0 part0

9. Save the text file as :

desc.txt

10. Using 7-zip, add the CONTENTS of bootanimation.zip (part0 and desc.txt) to a zip file called bootanimation.zip, and most importantly:

SET THE COMPRESSION RATION TO STORE MODE!!!

If you do not do this, the animation will not work. 

Congratulations, you just made your first basic bootanimation.zip!