Making Android open-source is probably the smartest thing Google has ever done with their platform. Putting control in the hands of thousands of dedicated developers has left us with some fairly spectacular results. If you know what you’re doing, there’s a way to customize just about every part of Android.
Download the boot animation from the links given above. If you have an android device with an 720P resolution Display, then download the 720P version. I'm performing this on OnePlus 2 which has 1080P display so I have downloaded 1080P version of the boot animation zip file.
Even the boot animation can be changed if you know how. If you’re tired of that boring start-up that came with stock, fret not because it can be changed. This isn’t the most complex hack (we’re not changing how Android handles multitasking). However, it is a nice option to customize another part of your phone. On a purely practical level, we’re a little sick of hearing the noisy boot-up noise for MIUI. This guide can help you change your animation so it’s exactly what you want.
Background
The Android boot animation is stored within one very special file named bootanimation.zip inside the phone’s memory. Change the .zip, change the animation. It’s as simple as that.
What’s not simple is how Android stores bootanimation.zip. For some unknown reason, Android actually keeps two copies of the animation file. One is stored at /data/local and the other at /system/media.
The difference between these locations is minor. The /data/local copy does not require root access. The phone also uses this animation before the other. The other one in /system/media does require root. However, installing a new animation to /system/media means that it will survive a factory reset. It’s a trade-off.
Regardless of which location you decide to use for your new boot animation, be absolutely sure to back up the original files. When replacing bootanimation.zip, keep a copy of the original .zip file saved to your computer. To be absolutely sure, you may want to make a Nandroid backup before doing any modifications.
How It Works
This section is intended to inform those who might wish to make their own start-up animation. If you have no interest in doing so, feel free to skip ahead. Understanding exactly how bootanimation.zip works is not necessary to install a new one.
If you copy bootanimation.zip to your computer and unzip it, inside will be a collection of files. There will be folders labeled part0, part1, part2 and so on. Also included will be desc.txt.
For our MIUI ROM, the boot animation was split into two parts. Part 0 had a huge list of image files which it used for the animation. Part 1 simply held the final screen at the end of the animation.
Custom Boot Animation Android Download For Windows 10
Desc.txt contains extremely simple instructions telling the phone how to run the animation. The first line lists the width, height, and frame rate of the animation. So 480 800 24 means to run the animation at 480×800 resolution and 24 frames per second.
The next two lines refer to the animation files. “P” invokes a part folder.The next number tells the phone how many times to play that part of the animation. So our second line “p 1 0 part0” means that the animation files in the part0 folder will play once. If we put zero, then the animation will loop until fully booted. The most notable use of looping animations is CyanogenMod 7’s spinning blue arrow.
The second number in that line is the pause time. This tells the phone how long it should pause DURING/BEFORE/AFTER/ the animation. Pause time is measured in frames, so 24 would be 24 frames of pause at 24 frames per second. Thus it pauses for one second. Our 0 means the phone pauses for zero frames (no time).
Creating Your Own Boot Animation
The first step is drawing the animation. Create a series of images which form one continuous animation. The frames must be labeled by increasing numbers, e.g. 000.png and 001.png and so on. Each part of the animation goes into a separate folder, starting with part0 and part1 and so on.
Finally open Notepad and write out a few lines of instructions. The first line should be the resolution and frame rate of the animation. The resolution must match that of your device. If you don’t know what that resolution is, see this page. The frame rate should match the one in the original desc.txt.
The next lines dictate the parts. Each part folder requires one line of instruction. Write out the numbers for each part of the animation. Once finished, save the file as desc.txt.
The final step is creating the .zip file. Select all the part folders and desc.txt. Right-click on the files and select Send To > Compressed folder. Windows should quickly create the new file. Be sure to name it bootanimation.zip and nothing else.
Various Methods of Changing the Boot Animation:
Installation by ROM
Although there is a universal procedure for changing the animation, certain ROMs and themes come with their own rules for flashing. The MIUI ROM lets you change the boot animation within its Themes app. You can download custom animations within the app, no modifications needed.
Boot Animation Zip Download
Installation by Flashing
Other themes come as .zip files which can be flashed within ClockworkMod. This is much easier and definitely recommended. When downloading a theme from XDA or elsewhere, be sure to check the page. It might be a flashable .zip.
- To flash a .zip file, simply copy it to the SD card.
- Reboot into recovery mode.
- Now go to “Install .zip” and choose the file from your card. CWM should run the file.
- Reboot once finished.
Installation via ADB
Obviously, this method assumes that you have the Android SDK installed. It’s sort of necessary. If you feel the need to change the boot animation in a really cool programmer way, here’s how.
- Download an animation and rename it to bootanimation.zip.
- Copy the .zip file to the directory where the SDK is installed and within the platform-tools folder. So it’s (installation directory)android-sdkplatform-tools. Paste the file here.
- Plug in the phone and turn on USB debugging.
- Open Command Prompt and type “cd (installation directory)android-sdkplatform-tools“.
- Type “adb remount” to mount /system as read-write. You should get a success message.
- Enter in “adb shell” then “su” to double-check that you’re in root mode.
- Navigate to the animation folder by typing “cd /system/customize/resource“.
- Rename the original to the PC by entering “mv bootanimation.zip bootanimation.bak”. Now the original is there if you want to restore it, but the system won’t use it.
- Type “adb push bootanimation.zip /system/customize/resource” to copy the file over. That’s it!
Note: Here we are assuming that the file bootanimation.zip is located at “/system/customize/resource“. In case the file is located at some other location on your phone, replace “/system/customize/resource” by that specific file path.
Installing the Fun Way
If these above options are not open to you, we turn to the fun way. Installation is as easy as copy and paste. Non-rooted users can copy to /data/local, rooted to /system/media. Be warned that copying files to /system requires a file explorer which can mount /system as read-write. We recommend Super Manager for this (be sure to enable root in the settings).
- Before copying anything, make a backup of the original boot animation. Copy and paste it into a safe folder on PC. If something happens, you can restore the backup using these instructions. Just install it like you would a custom animation.
- Connect the phone to the PC.
- Copy bootanimation.zip to SD card.
- Now go into Super Manager and paste it into /data/local or /system/media. Again, the second option requires root.
For our MIUI ROM, there was also a bootaudio.mp3 file. It was this pesky piece of music that made our phone so noisy. We deleted it and sure enough, the phone booted silently. Of course, this also means that you can install custom boot audio. We recommend this musical masterpiece.
To change the boot audio:
- Find an mp3. It should be relatively short as most phones don’t take much time to turn on.
- Rename the mp3 to bootaudio.mp3.
- Copy it to the SD card.
- Now open Super Manager and copy the mp3 to /system/media.
Changing boot animation through Windows with BootAnimation Manager
Changing the boot animation can get confusing. One guy over at XDA has developed a simple point-and-click Windows utility to manage boot animations. You still have to provide your own animation files, but it does everything else from backing up the original to copying over the new one.
Give it a try. If you don’t mind installing one more program, Bootanimation Manager looks promising. We certainly appreciated its ease of use.
Known Problems
As much as we would like to think that phone manufacturers are okay with us cracking open their products, they’re not. Certain companies are a little… possessive about their phones, and that includes the boot animation.
Stock ROMs from HTC and Samsung are notoriously difficult to change. They don’t like you interfering with the boot animation. Samsung uses their own data format that can’t be replicated or replaced. HTC usually stores their bootanimation.zip at /system/customize/resource and no copy at /data/local. For some devices, the file may be stored at some other locations.
This is rather unfortunate. Stock Samsung users, you’re out of luck. There’s simply nothing we can do other than recommend rooting and flashing a new ROM. HTC users can still change the animation, but absolutely have to have root. If you have other trouble, let us know in the comments.
Featured Animations
Boot animations are quite popular. The Android community is very fond of making them. As such, there’s a lot to download. We recommend spending some time with Google or search for some at XDA forums.
However, not all boot animations are made equal. Here are a few that really caught our eye.
Final Thoughts
A custom boot animation is a great way to make your phone a little more you. To be honest, we were much more impressed by the CM9 animation than the boring (and obnoxiously loud) one that came with our MIUI ROM. Custom boot animations are worth it.
When we are comparing our Android to an iPhone, one of the strongest points that we argue is on the power of customization. Android is known for the level of customization one can do to make their phone stand out of the crowd. Wallpapers, themes, widgets and custom launchers, you name it. With the right set of apps installed, you will never grow old of the looks on your Android.
Changing a wallpaper or creating a custom widget is just like scratching the surface of the endless world of customization. Did you know that you can even change your Android’s boot animation if you have root access on your device? It’s very easy to achieve it and if you love to make your phone different from the rest, this is what the missing secret ingredient is. So let me show you how it can be achieved.
Note: Before we begin, I would advise you to take a Nandroid backup of your phone just in case. The process is fairly simple, but then we have Murphy’s 4th law. Also, some Samsung devices might not be compatible with this trick on TouchWiz ROM. But if you have a custom ROM installed, nothing like it.The Good Ol’ Way using Root File Explorer
This is a manual method in which you have to download the boot animation file form the internet and then replace it with the one you have on your phone. You can search and download the boot animation from various online repositories. Here’s a link on XDA to get started. Just make sure you download the correct resolution file. Most of the files that you download will be named as bootanimation.zip. But if that’s not the case, rename the file and transfer it to your phone.
Now open ES File Explorer and ensure you have enabled root explorer in its settings. Navigate to the folder /system/media and you will find a file named bootanimation.zip. Rename it as bootanimation.zip.bak. This will help you to revert to stock animation in the future. Having done that, paste the bootanimation.zip file that you downloaded from the internet to /system/media.
One last thing before you reboot would be to fix the file permission. Long tap on the new bootanimation.zip file and change the permissions to rw-r—r—and save the settings.
Now when you reboot your phone, you will have your new android boot animation ready for you.
Using an App, The easy way.
For those who loves the food served on the table, rather than making a meal for themselves, there’s always an app for them. Boot Box is a simple app for Android using which you can search, download and even applies boot animations on your phone quite easily. The app also gives you a fix for devices like Samsung in which boot animations are saved in .QMG format.
Boot Animation Zip
After you install the app, it will detect your phone’s native resolution and ask you to select the download resolution for boot animations that fits best on your device screen. Following that, you will be given the option to back up the current boot animations you have. This is the moment you will be asked to grant the app root access.
Once everything is in place, you can browse the catalog, preview the boot animations and install them as per your choice. Things can’t get easier than this. One cool feature about the app is the scrambler that randomizes boot animation each time you boot your device. Pretty cool! Right?
Conclusion
So that was how you can apply custom boot animation on your Android smartphone. HTC devices must have their bootloader unlocked and Samsung users need to take some necessary precautions before trying out the trick. If you have any doubts about the process, I would advise you to take it up in our forum before changing any boot animations.
Also See
#Android apps Samsung Custom Boot Animation
#customizationDid You Know
The B612 app is named after the B-612 asteroid which appears in 'The Little Prince' novella.