How to Create & Install Your Own Boot Animation For Your PlayStation Vita

Hi, and welcome to my brief tutorial about installing your very own PlayStation Vita boot animaton or image.

First of all, here's a list of the requirements you'll need for the whole process:

• A hacked PSVita with enso.
• A file manager in your PSVita, like VitaShell.
• CBS-Manager installed in your PSVita.
• ImageMagick
• cbanim.exeUpdated!
• The image or gif you want for your PSVita.

Using cbanim.exe

Now, you can either use the Windows Command Processor (cmd.exe) or Windows PowerShell. Both work fine. I would also recommend to put all the files in a fresh folder, as the application creates lots of files while converting and compressing, depending on how many frames your .gif has.

So, with your files ready, start a command line window in your folder. You can find the option in Files, or by typing "cmd" on the address bar of the File Explorer. It should look something like this:

Windows Command Processor

F:\fhtgames\cbanim>_

Bear in mind that the path in cmd.exe will be different in your computer than in this example.

The syntax for the command window is:

And each option is:

• -intype: Input file type. Required.
  Available options:
  • -r: RAW files.
  • -g: GIF files.
  • -p: PNG/JPG files.
  You can add an 's' at the beginning of the either -g (-sg) or -p (-sp) to resize the output file to the resolution of the PSVita (960×544).
  You can also add an 'l' (lowercase L) in the same way as 's' to resize the output image to 960×128. Do not use both at the same time, though, as the app won't recognize the option.
  In both cases, the original input file will be unaffected.
• filename%d: Specifies the name of the source file for the boot.Required.
  The %d represents the frame number if you have the frames for your boot animation in separate files. For example, you would write boot_%d.png and the application will use all the images boot_0.png, boot_1.png, boot_2.png, etc.
  Adding %d is not required if you're using an still image or a .gif, which in case, will extract all frames and use them automatically.
• [optional flags]: Different settings you can use in the application for customizing the boot file. As this section suggests, these are optional. You can experiment with these for your perfect custom boot!
  The available options are:
  • -noloop: The animation will only play once.
  • -nocompress: The animation will not be compressed. Not recommended as it may seriously slow down the animation.
  • -nopreload: The animation won't be preloaded to RAM, but directly from the animation file.
  • -slowmode: Your animation will be slower, but with the benefit of posible less artifacts.

Here's an example of a command line:

Windows Command Processor

F:\fhtgames\cbanim>cbanim -g anim.gif -noloop -slowmode_

In this case, the application will create an animated boot image from a gif, that will loop once, will slower the animation and will compress the images.

If correctly done, the application will begin to convert the file, compress it and create boot_animation.img that will finally be used in CBS-Manager. The finished window should look like this:

Windows Command Processor

F:\fhtgames\cbanim>cbanim -g anim.gif -noloop -slowmode
extracting...
wait ( anim.gif )
...done
converting...
converting frame-0.png
converting frame-1.png
converting frame-2.png
converting frame-3.png
converting frame-4.png
converting frame-5.png
converting frame-6.png
converting frame-7.png
converting frame-8.png
converting frame-9.png
converting frame-10.png
converting frame-11.png
converting frame-12.png
converting frame-13.png
converting frame-14.png
converting frame-15.png
converting frame-16.png
converting frame-17.png
converting frame-18.png
converting frame-19.png
converting frame-20.png
converting frame-21.png
converting frame-22.png
converting frame-23.png
converting frame-24.png
converting frame-25.png
converting frame-26.png
converting frame-27.png
converting frame-28.png
converting frame-29.png
converting frame-30.png
...done
compressing...
compressing frame_0.rgba
compressing frame_1.rgba
compressing frame_2.rgba
compressing frame_3.rgba
compressing frame_4.rgba
compressing frame_5.rgba
compressing frame_6.rgba
compressing frame_7.rgba
compressing frame_8.rgba
compressing frame_9.rgba
compressing frame_10.rgba
compressing frame_11.rgba
compressing frame_12.rgba
compressing frame_13.rgba
compressing frame_14.rgba
compressing frame_15.rgba
compressing frame_16.rgba
compressing frame_17.rgba
compressing frame_18.rgba
compressing frame_19.rgba
compressing frame_20.rgba
compressing frame_21.rgba
compressing frame_22.rgba
compressing frame_23.rgba
compressing frame_24.rgba
compressing frame_25.rgba
compressing frame_26.rgba
compressing frame_27.rgba
compressing frame_28.rgba
compressing frame_29.rgba
compressing frame_30.rgba
...done
creating output file [boot_animation.img]
combining [boot_animation.img]...
adding frame_0.rgba.gz
adding frame_1.rgba.gz
adding frame_2.rgba.gz
adding frame_3.rgba.gz
adding frame_4.rgba.gz
adding frame_5.rgba.gz
adding frame_6.rgba.gz
adding frame_7.rgba.gz
adding frame_8.rgba.gz
adding frame_9.rgba.gz
adding frame_10.rgba.gz
adding frame_11.rgba.gz
adding frame_12.rgba.gz
adding frame_13.rgba.gz
adding frame_14.rgba.gz
adding frame_15.rgba.gz
adding frame_16.rgba.gz
adding frame_17.rgba.gz
adding frame_18.rgba.gz
adding frame_19.rgba.gz
adding frame_20.rgba.gz
adding frame_21.rgba.gz
adding frame_22.rgba.gz
adding frame_23.rgba.gz
adding frame_24.rgba.gz
adding frame_25.rgba.gz
adding frame_26.rgba.gz
adding frame_27.rgba.gz
adding frame_28.rgba.gz
adding frame_29.rgba.gz
adding frame_30.rgba.gz
...done [boot_animation.img]

F:\fhtgames\cbanim>_

And you're done! You can find boot_animation.img in your folder, ready to be installed in you PSVita.

Installing The Custom Boot To Your PSVita

With boot_animation.img ready, now you need to copy the file to your PSVita. For that, you can use VitaShell via USB or FTP and copy it to the following location:

ur0:tai/boot_animation.img

Now, open CBS-Manager in your PSVita and follow the process of installation. You can add a delay of 5, 10 or 15 seconds to the boot if you want to further test your boot image.

Finally, reboot your PSVita, and enjoy your new custom boot!

Updates

• Updated the CBAnim Package to the lastest version of PSP2-CBAnim released on May 20th, 2019.
• October 1st, 2019: Further improves to the page with better CSS implementation and optimization to the mobile version.
• October 1st, 2019: Fixed additional spelling errors and discrepancies between the cmd and powershell versions of the tutorial.
• June 2nd, 2020: Updated download link. Now the file is hosted externally for better performance.
• September 29th, 2021:
  • Final update of the guide, as the PSP2-CBAnim tool has been depricated.
  • Completely rewrote the CSS to use grid.
  • Updated logos.

Credits

SKGleba — for the creation of the application PSP2-CBAnim.
MrAnvil935 — for a hotfix in the initial release of the cbanim.exe application.
And to the r/vitahacks subreddit.