[natethomas]

And an edit following your edit.

[un1versal]

Assuming is not always a bad thing, in a international community like this one, the assumption should always be that in any given instance there's non native speakers taking part, and could be the ones doing the writing or the ones doing the reading or both.

But somehow even for the more enlightened participants, this always seems to be the last thing one gives any thought to and then it suddenly makes everyone a little apprehensive and on edge.

[Piers]

I still think the animation is going far too far. As a boot screen animation it's good, but for the start up of software it's an archaic idea. Kodi is optimised enough that it doesn't require a long time to start. Obviously that's from my tests on my own hardware, which includes a RPi, Atom and Turion. All three of those are low powered and slow and there's rarely a time where they take more than a second or two to start.

It's the same reason I disable the splash screen - that adds more loading time from clicking the button to being able to access my media.

[topfs2]

I still think the animation is going far too far. As a boot screen animation it's good, but for the start up of software it's an archaic idea. Kodi is optimised enough that it doesn't require a long time to start. Obviously that's from my tests on my own hardware, which includes a RPi, Atom and Turion. All three of those are low powered and slow and there's rarely a time where they take more than a second or two to start.

It's the same reason I disable the splash screen - that adds more loading time from clicking the button to being able to access my media.

I'm sure it will be possible to disable.

Please keep the thread without these negative comments, this thread is about creativity, not what every random user thinks.

[Piers]

I still think the animation is going far too far. As a boot screen animation it's good, but for the start up of software it's an archaic idea. Kodi is optimised enough that it doesn't require a long time to start. Obviously that's from my tests on my own hardware, which includes a RPi, Atom and Turion. All three of those are low powered and slow and there's rarely a time where they take more than a second or two to start.

It's the same reason I disable the splash screen - that adds more loading time from clicking the button to being able to access my media.

I'm sure it will be possible to disable.

Please keep the thread without these negative comments, this thread is about creativity, not what every random user thinks.

It's constructive feedback from a user, whether positive or negative feedback should be essential. The animation is a good idea and it should be somewhere, and you mentioned an option to disable it, but I think it's too long. The other issue I see is with the audio. Some AVRs take a second or two to produce sound when starting up Kodi (or Windows may take time to initialize the audio drivers) - that will certainly cause half the animation to have no sound on both my Sony AVRs, or possibly sound jumping in half way.

[RockerC]

Off-topic but indirectly related; would be really cool if support for Animated GIF and APNG images as fanart backdrops and in the skins GUI could make it into Kodi v15

There was some progress on this by Ace here http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=141442

This way animations like this could not only be used be used as a start-up intro but also by skinners and in different type of fan art and covers/thumbnails inside Kodi

[David Foster]

If I might add my constructive criticism... It is a really cool animation so far. But I'm not overly fond of programs that knock me out of my recliner when I start them. I have some really nice speakers, if you know what I mean. Therefore, I second any vote for an option to disable the audio (or at least tone it way down).

[joethefox]

sure! if you talk to me, this animation could be disabled by default, without sound, etc etc... just like an hidden gem. This topic is about the creation of a cool animation intro

[Piers]

sure! if you talk to me, this animation could be disabled by default, without sound, etc etc... just like an hidden gem. This topic is about the creation of a cool animation intro

+1

Edit: setting it as a default for a first time install makes sense, then disabled until enabled from that point forward.

[topfs2]

The discussion on the settings is highly offtopic but I can say that its very unlikely that we will let power users dictate it. I.e. I'm guessing it will be on by default but possible to disable.

[ZwartePiet]

Some posters had mentioned trying to give the animation more meaning. How about:

1) Fade into a square stop button.
2) Spin it progressively faster.
3) Have the Kodi logo expand out as though it were experiencing centripetal force.
4) Fade in "KODI" below or to the side as it slows to a stop.

The stop button represents the shutdown system. The spinning logo represents the loading spinner found on most skins. The Kodi logo represents what has just been loaded. Hence, the animation symbolically explains what is happening.



EDIT: I took some boot times using a Raspberry Pi running OpenELEC 4.2.1 (Gotham 13.2). Since the Raspberry is about the weakest thing running Kodi (albeit very optimized), this is sort of a worst case scenario.

00:00:93 - Rainbow Screen
00:01:30 - Transition/Bootloader
00:05:66 - OpenELEC Logo
00:04:61 - XBMC Gotham Logo
00:03:93 - Skin Loading Logo (ReFocus)

00:20:45 - Total Time

Assuming the Kodi animation is taking place of the XBMC logo, it only makes sense to me if it's a few seconds long (or shorter). Personally, the less stuff flashing across the screen the better. Blank screen, fade in to Kodi spinning animation, nothing until the home menu appears. Simple, clean, relaxing.

[Ned Scott]

Specific feature or not, power users already use intro movies: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=124124 ;)

[natethomas]

I used to use an old Apple TV intro movie back in the Xbox days, if I remember correctly. I think one of our old skin guys, Chief, made it.

[Piers]

The discussion on the settings is highly offtopic but I can say that its very unlikely that we will let power users dictate it. I.e. I'm guessing it will be on by default but possible to disable.

Well that makes the Kodi team opinion of users very clear, think that's the first time I've heard that feedback from users is not welcomed.

[Ned Scott]

The discussion on the settings is highly offtopic but I can say that its very unlikely that we will let power users dictate it. I.e. I'm guessing it will be on by default but possible to disable.

Well that makes the Kodi team opinion of users very clear, think that's the first time I've heard that feedback from users is not welcomed.

I think there's some confusion here. topfs2 isn't talking about feedback when he says letting users dictate it. By "dictate" I think he means how power users would change the settings in a certain way.

EDIT: or none of the above?