[TUTORIAL] Samsung QMG Boot Animation Creation: An Easy Guide

[bogarty]

Part of making a great rom lies in personalizing it with a great startup animation. When it comes to Samsung however, things can get a bit tricky as samsung likes to deviate from the norm by using their own unique boot animation format. Thus, instead of the standard "bootanimation.zip", which contains the whole startup animation and whatever image or loop you would like to have appear at the end until the device boots up, with Samsung things get split up into 2 separate files. These files are called "bootsamsung.qmg"(the start of the animation) and "bootsamsungloop.qmg"(the end of the animation that repeats until startup or whatever still image at the end that you'd like to land on). Recently I tried to make one such animation and managed to get it right on the first try, but since making animations for Samsung devices seems to be somewhat of an elusive topic on the net I decided to make an easy to understand tutorial.

So, here we go then. Let's get started, but first let's make sure we have the required things.

REQUIREMENTS:
- Samsung Theme Designer: http://developer.samsung.com/bada-themes/tools-sdks/Samsung-Theme-Designer-2-0-4
- Photoshop(or another image editing program)
- A ROOTED DEVICE
- A Root Explorer App(like "ES File Explorer", "Root Browser", etc.)
- An awareness of the target device's screen resolution size in pixels.(ie. 480x800, 1440x2560, etc.)

Alright, now here are the steps to making a Samsung boot animation.

NOTE: For the purposes of this tutorial we're just going to keep things simple by only working with 3 images that will alternate repeatedly, but you can always do more images to create a more elaborate animation if you want.

NOTE 2: If you already have your own images from a bootanimation.zip, then you can just skip steps 1 and 2.)

STEPS:
1) Create Your Images In Photoshop - Just start by creating a new image in Photoshop. The image dimensions must be the same as your device's screen resolution. Mine is 480x800, so that's what I made. Now do whatever you like with the images. I just made 3 images for mine with the title of the rom and just used the fill tool in Photoshop to add different colors to the text and the background. Then I saved the image in PNG format and used the fill tool to change the colors again and then saved that file too under a different name. I did this 3 times and ended up with 3 different images of different colors and put them in a folder on my computer. I just named the folder "boot", but you can call it whatever you want.

2) Create The Full Animation - For this part you're going to want to turn those 3 images you made into about 30 images by duplicating them so that the image doesn't flash by too fast in the animation. Just open the "boot" folder where you saved the images and right click on the name of the first one and select copy. Then paste it 9 times so you end up with 10 duplicate images. Now do the same thing for the other 2 images to make a total of 30 images(10 of each) in this folder. Now go to the first set of images and name them whatever you want, but name them in sequence using this format here. Start with "yourimagename_000.png", then "yourimagename_001.png" on up through "yourimagename_009.png". Then go to the second set of identical images and start naming those starting where you left off with "yourimagename_010.png" and so on and do the same for the third set. You should end on "yourimagename_029.png" with 30 images.

Next make another folder. I called this folder "loop" just to keep things organized. Afterwards, copy the previous 30 images from the "boot" folder into the "loop" folder, so that you now have a total of 60 images in 2 folders, with the same 30 images in each. Then, go into the "loop" folder and start renaming the images in there in sequence. Make sure to start from where you left off in the previous folder so that you end up with "yourimagename_030.png" through "yourimagename_059.png" in there. These will be the images that loop at the end until the phone boots up.

3) Set Up Your Animation Project - Open Samsung Theme Designer and under "Create New Theme" select "Feature(NonTouch) Phone". Then under "Select Model" just click on the one near the bottom that has the word "Spring" in it. Then under "Select Showcase" just click on "Default" and just type any name you want to call your project in the "Name" box. You might want to then just make sure to save it to the same folder location where you have your image folders stored just to make things easy and after all that, then just click on "Ok".

4) Define The Animation Parameters - Once you have your project loaded, just ignore the preview that you see in the window(as it's irrelevant ALWAYS) and click on the "View" tab at the top of the theme designer and click on "Tree View Window" just to make sure that you can see that menu in the left pane. Then near the top of the tree view under "Idle Component" click once on "Idle Background" to pull that menu up on the right. Now, in the "Idle Background" window, click on where it says "fixed" under "Background Type" and change it to "animated". Then change "Frames" to "30", because that's how many images we have in our first folder, and change the "Duration" to "50"(usually between 30-450 is best) and make sure "Repeat" is set to "False" for this one.

5) Building The First Animation - After you have everything set, then let's start by building the first part of your animation. To do this you need to go back to your "boot" folder where you stored your first 30 images and select them all. Now drag and drop them all into the "Animation Object Window" pane at the bottom of theme designer to fill the 30 empty frames with your images. Then click the "Save" button at the top left of the theme designer to save your work before finalizing your project. Now click on the "Home" tab. Then in the top right of theme designer click on "Export Theme" and export the theme to your same project folder. The project name doesn't matter. It takes a few seconds to export too, but once it does just click "Ok" and then on "Yes" to open the folder where you saved the file. Then rename the "yourprojectname.smt" file in that folder to "yourprojectname.smt.zip" and open the zip file. Extract ONLY the "IdleBgAnimObj.qmg" to your project folder and rename it to "bootsamsung.qmg". BOOM! You're done with the first part of your animation.

6) Building The Second Animation - Now to make the second part. The second animation is the part that loops at the end and is pretty easy as it's basically the same process as the first part with only a couple of changes. First thing you want to do is click "Save As" at the top left of the theme designer and change the name of this new animation to something else. Then, you want to click on one of the images in the "Animation Window" at the bottom and just keep hitting delete until they're all gone. Now, since we made the images in our "boot" and "loop" folders exactly the same images, then we can just once again set the "Frame" to "30" and the "Duration" to "50". The only difference this time actually is that we want to set "Repeat" to "True" so it loops. Then open your "loop" folder and drag the next 30 images and drop them in the "Animation Object Window" like you did with the first 30 above and export. Once you extract the "IdleBgAnimObj.qmg" file this time, however, you will be renaming this one to "bootsamsungloop.qmg". After that you are done creating your animation files!

7) Copying The Files & Fixing Permissions - Now that you've created your animation you will want to test it to make sure it looks right and that everything works. Plug your device into your computer and navigate to your device storage in a new window. Then, from your original project folder window, drag and drop the "bootsamsung.qmg" and "bootsamsungloop.qmg" files over to anywhere you want on your devices sdcard. Next, open your root explorer app on your device and navigate to the place where you copied the files. Select both and either move or copy them to the "System/Media/" folder. BE SURE TO BACKUP THE ORIGINAL FILES TO ANOTHER FOLDER ON YOUR DEVICE FIRST though, just for safe keeping, as this will overwrite the originals. Then, once you've moved the files, you want to make sure they have the right permissions. To do this touch and hold on each of the files and click on either "Permissions" or "Properties", whatever it says in your app, and look for the permissions. The only permissions you want to have checked for each is both "Read" and "Write" for "Owner" and only just "Read" for both "Group" and "Others". So the abbreviated version should read "rw-r--r--".

8) Testing Your Animation - After that you're all done. The only thing you have to do now is just reboot and see if it looks the way you want. If the animation is too fast or slow, then you just need to go back and adjust the "Duration" setting in each of your projects and do steps 5 through 7 again. If you're doing a more elaborate animation where each frame is different and the finished product doesn't look right then you may just need to go back and rework some of your images. Other than that, if you've followed these steps correctly, you should now have successfully made your very first Samsung boot animation. Congrats! You can now add it to your own custom rom or just use it on your own device.

I hope this helps some of you by the way. Feel free to respond to this thread if you have any questions or comments regarding the Samsung QMG boot animation creation process. Thank you!
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HERE ARE SOME SAMPLE ANIMATIONS THAT I'VE MADE USING THESE STEPS:

HONOR 8 Boot Animations
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=70645944
"ASCENSION" Boot Animation
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=70324907
"ASH vs EVIL DEAD" ANIMATION(w/ Sound):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/themes/boot-animation-ash-vs-evil-dead-sound-t3307025
"TWILIGHT ZONE" ANIMATION(w/ Sound):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=64538922
"DOS STYLE" ANIMATION(For Galaxy Core Prime).
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=64186973
HERE'S THE SIMPLE ANIMATION THAT I MADE WHILE CREATING THIS TUTORIAL TOO.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=64093741

Please be sure to hit the "Thanks" or Donate button below if this helped you out!

 

[Koognod]

I've tried this multiple times and am still not able to boot after swapping the files, changing the permissions and rebooting the device. I've also tried multiple settings in the duration ranging from zero to 30 (which happens also to be the amount of frames in my image sequence). the only alteration I've made from this guide (which I believe to be irrelevant) is the naming of the pings, in which I just left them named 001, 002 so forth without any prefix. Oh also I have left the closing boot in place (figured I'd change it after I get the first one working), that wouldn't be a big deal would it (The beginning and ending boot animation being different)? Oh btw, I have also tried with loop on and/or off, neither booted for me. Am I missing something? The images were in 480x800 resolution as per the device. I feel like I really should have had it right the first time. This is the guide I was following originally http://forum.xda-developers.com/gal...animations-t2217795/post39844577#post39844577 (obviously with the specs changed for my device), which is similar to this guide just not as detailed or in depth maybe, but I've followed the steps and I just can't seem to be able to duplicate the results. Maybe I could upload the images or my boot that I created or something for you to look at but I dunno if that would even help or what that would accomplish.

---------- Post added at 04:59 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:57 AM ----------

I've tried this multiple times and am still not able to boot after swapping the files, changing the permissions and rebooting the device. I've also tried multiple settings in the duration ranging from zero to 30 (which happens also to be the amount of frames in my image sequence). the only alteration I've made from this guide (which I believe to be irrelevant) is the naming of the pings, in which I just left them named 001, 002 so forth without any prefix. Oh also I have left the closing boot in place (figured I'd change it after I get the first one working), that wouldn't be a big deal would it (The beginning and ending boot animation being different)? Oh btw, I have also tried with loop on and/or off, neither booted for me. Am I missing something? The images were in 480x800 resolution as per the device. I feel like I really should have had it right the first time. This is the guide I was following originally http://forum.xda-developers.com/gal...animations-t2217795/post39844577#post39844577 (obviously with the specs changed for my device), which is similar to this guide just not as detailed or in depth maybe, but I've followed the steps and I just can't seem to be able to duplicate the results. Maybe I could upload the images or my boot that I created or something for you to look at but I dunno if that would even help or what that would accomplish.

Also found this page regarding framerate description http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2189934 Still no help to me though, unfortunately...

 

[bogarty]

I've tried this multiple times and am still not able to boot after swapping the files, changing the permissions and rebooting the device. I've also tried multiple settings in the duration ranging from zero to 30 (which happens also to be the amount of frames in my image sequence). the only alteration I've made from this guide (which I believe to be irrelevant) is the naming of the pings, in which I just left them named 001, 002 so forth without any prefix. Oh also I have left the closing boot in place (figured I'd change it after I get the first one working), that wouldn't be a big deal would it (The beginning and ending boot animation being different)? Oh btw, I have also tried with loop on and/or off, neither booted for me. Am I missing something? The images were in 480x800 resolution as per the device. I feel like I really should have had it right the first time.

If you set the duration to 0 you will see nothing. It should be at least 20 or 30 probably, but I'm not sure how elaborate your animation is or how often you want it to change. If you look at my animation everytime it changes color that's 50 duration x 10 frames. The duration by the way is in milliseconds. You're right about the image names though. The title doesn't really matter as long as alphabetically & numerically it falls in the right order. Maybe try starting at "000" though. Also, are your images in PNG format? Again too, make sure that the number of frames matches the number of images in each of your animations as well.

 

[Koognod]

I realize that now, I only had it set to zero the very first time I tried to render (have tried at least 4 times since then starting at 1 and most recently at 30). I will try next extending the duration to 80 maybe. Oh also i have gone back to look at the files and I did start with 000 although I believe this to be necessary only so you can drag and drop the images into the software and have them still be in order.

Sent from my OG 420 using Tapatalk

 

[bogarty]

I realize that now, I only had it set to zero the very first time I tried to render (have tried at least 4 times since then starting at 1 and most recently at 30). I will try next extending the duration to 80 maybe. Oh also i have gone back to look at the files and I did start with 000 although I believe this to be necessary only so you can drag and drop the images into the software and have them still be in order.

Yeah, name doesn't really matter just the sequence. The duration will probably always do better higher than 30 I think too unless you have a very low number of frames. How many frames do you have for each animation btw?

Sent from my SM-G360T1 using Tapatalk

 

[Koognod]

4 for some 2 for the rest. Theres only 30 frames in all

Sent from my OG 420 using Tapatalk

---------- Post added at 06:02 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:54 AM ----------

So 80 didn't work, still bootlooped =(

Sent from my OG 420 using Tapatalk

 

[bogarty]

4 for some 2 for the rest. Theres only 30 frames in all.

So, you have about 15 frames for bootsamsung.qmg and 15 for bootsamsungloop.qmg then maybe? Are you duplicating some of the images like I mentioned above or is each one different? Do you want it to loop at the end or just hang on a final image? You can go as high as 5,000 duration if you just have one or two images that you want to hang on in the bootsamsungloop.qmg, but I found that that doesn't work as well as just duplicating some of the images and providing a lower duration(ie. frame rate). Also, if you have a significantly low amount of frames and/or duration too, it may be that it's happening but it's just flickering by too fast.

Sent from my SM-G360T1 using Tapatalk

 

[Koognod]

So, you have about 15 frames for bootsamsung.qmg and 15 for bootsamsungloop.qmg then maybe? Are you duplicating some of the images like I mentioned above or is each one different? Do you want it to loop at the end or just hang on a final image? You can go as high as 5,000 duration if you just have one or two images that you want to hang on in the bootsamsungloop.qmg, but I found that that doesn't work as well as just duplicating some of the images and providing a lower duration(ie. frame rate). Also, if you have a significantly low amount of frames and/or duration too, it may be that it's happening but it's just flickering by too fast.

Sent from my SM-G360T1 using Tapatalk

No sorry, I only have made one folder so far because I was only focusing on getting the beginning animation working. so 30 frames for the total sequence. Also, if it were flickering by to fast my device would still be able to boot all the way, I could imagine, which has not been the case.

 

[bogarty]

No sorry, I only have made one folder so far because I was only focusing on getting the beginning animation working. so 30 frames for the total sequence. Also, if it were flickering by to fast my device would still be able to boot all the way, I could imagine, which has not been the case.

It's true it would just kick to the standard samsungbootloop.qmg after your animation if you only did the first part and only replaced the bootsamsung.qmg. I would say first though maybe, just put back the originals to make sure it still boots fine, then try making it work. Also, remember that the more complicated your animation is, the more complicated this process will be. Make sure your permissions still say that they're "rw-r--r--". Make sure that resolution is right and everything else is too, etc. Did you download the newest theme manager too? The link I provided should be fine. Also, if there's any steps you skipped because maybe you already did some stuff, maybe try starting from the beginning(except the image creation of course), but once you get it working right I think it's pretty easy to make more from here on out. Maybe try the animation emulator in theme manager too on the home tab. It won't show you the whole display, which is normal, but it will show you the rate of change between frames and whether or not it seems to be working.

Sent from my SM-G360T1 using Tapatalk

 

[Koognod]

It plays in the emulator. Also I have been restoring system from saved recovery in order to replace my custom animation in between flashes. My permissions have been set proper as well. Resolution too it says 480x800. It really confused me as well that my animation not working caused my phone to bootloop but as I've said I really can't find a step I'm missing.

Sent from my 000 using Tapatalk

 

[bogarty]

It plays in the emulator. Also I have been restoring system from saved recovery in order to replace my custom animation in between flashes. My permissions have been set proper as well. Resolution too it says 480x800. It really confused me as well that my animation not working caused my phone to bootloop but as I've said I really can't find a step I'm missing.

Yeah it should be working if you followed those steps. We have the same device after all. The only thing I could say is maybe try making a super simple one first and get that working, then slowly build on it with more images as you go along. I rebuilt these files while I was making this tutorial to make sure I didn't miss anything and it still works fine. Also, you don't have to reflash the whole rom everytime to go back. Just copy back the originals. That's why I definitely always prefer copying over moving myself, as that way you always have the originals somewhere on your device.

 

[Koognod]

Oh snap, finally saw a glimpse of it!!

Sent from my 000 using Tapatalk

---------- Post added at 07:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:36 AM ----------

Think I might have maybe figured out the issue.

Sent from my 000 using Tapatalk

---------- Post added at 07:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:36 AM ----------

I believe the culprit was maybe the fact I hadn't picked the same device in samsung theme manager you recommended. I had read previously it didn't matter. Once I tried again following your guide more thoroughly I got it to boot.

Sent from my 000 using Tapatalk

---------- Post added at 08:02 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:45 AM ----------

Thank you again, sorry about giving you such a hard time. Especially since your tutorial is on point.

Sent from my OG 420 using Tapatalk

 

[bogarty]

Oh snap, finally saw a glimpse of it!!
Think I might have maybe figured out the issue. I believe the culprit was maybe the fact I hadn't picked the same device in samsung theme manager you recommended. I had read previously it didn't matter. Once I tried again following your guide more thoroughly I got it to boot. Thank you again, sorry about giving you such a hard time. Especially since your tutorial is on point.

I'm so glad to help!

 

[drago10029]

REQUIREMENTS:
- Samsung Theme Designer:[/B] http://developer.samsung.com/bada-themes/tools-sdks/Samsung-Theme-Designer-2-0-4
- Photoshop

Could this also be accomplished with Gimp photo editor?

---------- Post added at 07:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:56 PM ----------

also can they be made to 60 frames instead? for smoothness purpose

 

[bogarty]

Could this also be accomplished with Gimp photo editor?
also can they be made to 60 frames instead? for smoothness purpose

Not sure what Gimp photo editor is, but probably not as the QMG format is pretty exclusive to Samsung. Why wouldn't you want to use the theme designer?
You can use as many frames as you want though. My last animation had about 200 frames. It just depends on how much you want the animation to change. The example I gave in this tutorial was just a simple one to make it extra easy to learn. You can do up to 500 duration btw to make the frame last longer, but if it's still not long enough, then you just have to duplicate some frames.

 

[drago10029]

Not sure what Gimp photo editor is, but probably not as the QMG format is pretty exclusive to Samsung. Why wouldn't you want to use the theme designer?
You can use as many frames as you want though. My last animation had about 200 frames. It just depends on how much you want the animation to change. The example I gave in this tutorial was just a simple one to make it extra easy to learn. You can do up to 500 duration btw to make the frame last longer, but if it's still not long enough, then you just have to duplicate some frames.

I meant can I use GIMP instead of photoshop? it's a open source free photo editor. Photoshop is like a lot of money that some people don't have

 

[bogarty]

I meant can I use GIMP instead of photoshop? it's a open source free photo editor. Photoshop is like a lot of money that some people don't have

Oh shoot...haha! Sorry. To me the term "Photoshop" is a specifically universal term for just making decent images. It won't matter where you make your animation, but it will matter for your Core Prime that they are exactly 480x800 resolution. They should probably be PNG format too if you can produce that. Also, obviously, the names of each frame must be numbered properly.

 

[drago10029]

Oh shoot...haha! Sorry. To me the term "Photoshop" is a specifically universal term for just making decent images. It won't matter where you make your animation, but it will matter for your Core Prime that they are exactly 480x800 resolution. They should probably be PNG format too if you can produce that. Also, obviously, the names of each frame must be numbered properly.

cool thanks, and is there anyway to make a bootanimation run 60 fps instead of 30?

 

[bogarty]

cool thanks, and is there anyway to make a bootanimation run 60 fps instead of 30?

Well, 30 was just the number of frames I used total for each animation in the example. Not the frames per second. If you had 60 frames per second for a 2 minute boot animation, then you'd have to make 7,200 images, so you don't want that. It doesn't do that anyway though. The animation is more like a gif than a video, where each frame lasts awhile. The speed is altered in "duration" too, but I believe it's in milliseconds, which isn't very fast. That's why you might have to duplicate some frames to allow for enough time so that each image can be seen.

For instance, in my DOS animation(linked in the OP), I used about 185 frames(which was 36 images duplicated) for the first animation, but only 20 frames(which was only 4 images duplicated) for the second animation(ie. the looping part at the end). In other words, I had to be duplicate each image 5 times and put the each animation at a duration of 450, so that it would last long enough to appear at the proper speed, as I don't think the duration goes higher than 500ms. There's an emulator in theme designer where you can preview your animation too, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to show the true speed, so you may have to just make the animation a few times and test it out each time until it displays at the speed you want. Anyhow, I hope this helps.

 

[Casper5point0]

How's it going, so I've started playing with creating custom boot animations on my SCH-I545 running on OF1.
Instead of using a photo shop program I've used a video to jpg converter to create image files from some anime vids then built them into qmg on Samsung Theme Designer.
I've also have successfully created sound clips to go with the bootup. I use a free online ogg converter. I've had full success with this process.
Its just a matter of tweaking the fps/duration to get "my desired" play out length. Once I get this down I'd like to share my animations. Could you direct me to the best thread to post them to.