Is it possible to set an animated gif file as live wallpaper in android?

Question

I'm new to Android platform. I wish to develop a live wallpaper application. When i was searched regarding this in search Engine's, many of them created a live wallpaper as their code (using SurfaceView and Canvas), I'm not much aware in this. Here my doubt is, any possible to set a .gif images as a live wallpaper.

Answer 1

This is the basic wallpaper service (as supplied in the Live Wallpaper Tutorial) hacked to display an animated gif.

First - create a project & set up your manifest as a Live wallpaper.
Then - download a gif, like this one
   

Save that gif in res/raw/nyan.gif in your project.
Create a live wallpaper service, like shown in this example.

public class NyanNyanService extends WallpaperService {     static final String TAG = "NYAN";     static final Handler mNyanHandler = new Handler();      /**      * @see android.service.wallpaper.WallpaperService#onCreate()      */     @Override     public void onCreate() {         super.onCreate();     }      /**      * @see android.service.wallpaper.WallpaperService#onCreateEngine()      */     @Override     public Engine onCreateEngine() {         try {             return new NyanEngine();         } catch (IOException e) {             Log.w(TAG, "Error creating NyanEngine", e);             stopSelf();             return null;         }     }      class NyanEngine extends Engine {         private final Movie mNyan;         private final int mNyanDuration;         private final Runnable mNyanNyan;         float mScaleX;         float mScaleY;         int mWhen;         long mStart;          NyanEngine() throws IOException {             InputStream is = getResources().openRawResource(R.raw.nyan);             if (is != null) {                 try {                     mNyan = Movie.decodeStream(is);                     mNyanDuration = mNyan.duration();                 } finally {                     is.close();                 }             } else {                 throw new IOException("Unable to open R.raw.nyan");             }              mWhen = -1;             mNyanNyan = new Runnable() {                 public void run() {                     nyan();                 }             };         }          @Override         public void onDestroy() {             super.onDestroy();             mNyanHandler.removeCallbacks(mNyanNyan);         }          @Override         public void onVisibilityChanged(boolean visible) {             super.onVisibilityChanged(visible);             if (visible) {                 nyan();             } else {                 mNyanHandler.removeCallbacks(mNyanNyan);             }         }          @Override         public void onSurfaceChanged(SurfaceHolder holder, int format, int width, int height) {             super.onSurfaceChanged(holder, format, width, height);             mScaleX = width / (1f * mNyan.width());             mScaleY = height / (1f * mNyan.height());             nyan();         }          @Override         public void onOffsetsChanged(float xOffset, float yOffset, float xOffsetStep,                 float yOffsetStep, int xPixelOffset, int yPixelOffset) {             super.onOffsetsChanged(xOffset, yOffset, xOffsetStep, yOffsetStep, xPixelOffset, yPixelOffset);             nyan();         }          void nyan() {             tick();             SurfaceHolder surfaceHolder = getSurfaceHolder();             Canvas canvas = null;             try {                 canvas = surfaceHolder.lockCanvas();                 if (canvas != null) {                     nyanNyan(canvas);                 }             } finally {                 if (canvas != null) {                     surfaceHolder.unlockCanvasAndPost(canvas);                 }             }             mNyanHandler.removeCallbacks(mNyanNyan);             if (isVisible()) {                 mNyanHandler.postDelayed(mNyanNyan, 1000L/25L);             }         }          void tick() {             if (mWhen == -1L) {                 mWhen = 0;                 mStart = SystemClock.uptimeMillis();             } else {                 long mDiff = SystemClock.uptimeMillis() - mStart;                 mWhen = (int) (mDiff % mNyanDuration);             }         }          void nyanNyan(Canvas canvas) {             canvas.save();             canvas.scale(mScaleX, mScaleY);             mNyan.setTime(mWhen);             mNyan.draw(canvas, 0, 0);             canvas.restore();         }     } } 

This will basically scale the nyan-nyan cat to fit the screen and animate it perpetually.

A Live wallpaper manifest looks sort-of-like this (this example does not contain a configuration activity):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"     package="your.nyan.nyan.package"     android:versionCode="1"     android:versionName="1.0" >     <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="10" />     <application         android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"         android:label="@string/application_nyan" >          <service              android:label="@string/wallpaper_nyan"             android:name=".NyanNyanService"             android:permission="android.permission.BIND_WALLPAPER">             <intent-filter>                 <action android:name="android.service.wallpaper.WallpaperService" />             </intent-filter>             <meta-data android:name="android.service.wallpaper" android:resource="@xml/nyan" />         </service>     </application> </manifest> 

The AndroidManifest.xml has a reference to a file in res/xml, in this case named "nyan.xml":

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <wallpaper xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" />