Create your own Animated Homescreen Part Three

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

Inside the MadBeetle Animation Editor

The next few instructions will be centered on working with the animation under Madbeetle animation editor. AFAIK, the Smartphone homescreen does not support native animated GIFs. To play an animation, we have to encode the file to *.ANI format so that eventually it will be played on the homescreen with the help of MBAnim Plugin.

MBAnim plugin by madbeetle is a demoware. Both demo version and full version plays ANI files well. The only diference is that the demo plugin will show ‘Plugin Demo’ watermark on your animation. So you have that option to purchase the no-watermark plugin or be contented with the demo plugin. What is good about MB Anim plugin is that you only have to pay once for the plugin and you’ll get to use and install animated homescreens for free.

Now back to work…

1. Fire up AnimationEd then Frame List > Add

2. Open directory with exported frames from previous instruction. The secret in adding frames is to begin from the last file…

3. There goes our animation frames!

4. Our next task is to Add All Frames into the Animation Editor. So hit Frame List > Add All.

5. Next step is to edit ‘Step / Frame Properties’ . Hit Steps > Steps Properties.

6. We then assign ‘delay rate’ to a frame or set of frames…

7. You can preview animation under AnimationEd but you need to setup background graphics first including plugin height and position. This will give you an idea how your animation will play on the device.

8. When satisfied with the results, you can save your work as ANI file. Remember that the size of the ANI file is directly proportional to the number of frames you have on the animation.

That ends the Madbeetle Animation Editor

Part Four, XML and Signing