The ROG Phone 8 Pro comes with a lot of cool features tailored for gamers, and one of those is the new AniMe Vision display that sits on the back. When looking at the back of the phone you might never notice that the display is there. That’s because it’s hidden when not in use. It’s essentially the same type of display you can find on ASUS’s ROG Zephyrus laptops, only those are called the AniMe Matrix displays. They’re the same thing though, and they use a ton of programmable Mini LEDs to make up little pictures and animations.
With the AniMe Vision display on the ROG Phone 8 Pro, you can choose from a collection of pre-loaded animations that ASUS provides. This includes things like the ROG Eye logo, a “Game Start” message, and a few others. There are also quite a few animations for different phone functions. Things like battery percentage, and incoming calls and messages. There’s even an animation for a media visualizer that pops up when you play music on the phone.
The coolest part though, is that you can customize the animations with your own stuff. This includes uploading your own animations. Now, this isn’t entirely new. It was available with the ROG Vision display that first popped up with the ROG Phone 5 series and stuck around till the ROG Phone 7 series. The big difference is that because the AniMe Vision uses Mini LEDs the animations look kind of like retro pixel graphics. This will limit what you can use for an animation if you want it to look good. But you can play around with stuff and find something that fits your preference. With all of that said, if you’re unsure how to customize the animations, this guide will walk you through it.
How to customize the AniMe Vision animations on ROG Phone 8 Pro
There are a few ways to customize the AniMe Vision display, so we’ll go over all of them with steps for each one. The process is pretty simple and doesn’t take long. But if you aren’t sure where to look it can be easy to miss.
Uploading your own animations to the AniMe Vision display
This is probably going to be the most enjoyable method to use as you have the opportunity to add some pretty cool animations. That being said, the AniMe Vision display will support GIF and PNG formats only. GIFs will be the animations you want to use if you want something that isn’t a static image. You also need to make sure that whichever image type you choose is a specific size. The image you use has to be 254 x 128 or it won’t be compatible. It also needs to be mono-color (black and white).
With that in mind, let’s go over how to set it up.
Find a picture you want to use
The obvious first step is finding something you want to use. You have a wide world of options. Just remember that if you want the animation to look good you’ll have to think more carefully about what you use. If you need some inspiration, GIF images of stuff in retro pixel graphics are good choices. Things like Pac-Man, Link from the Legend of Zelda, Mario, Yoshi, and any iconic characters from older games could work really well. But feel free to use your imagination and find something you like. You can also find some being shared by other ROG Forum community users here.
Download the image
This is another obvious step here, but we felt it was worth mentioning solely for a couple of reasons. It might be more convenient to download the image on the phone but it will need to be no larger than the size listed above. With this in mind, it might be easier to find an image on the PC and use something like GIMP to resize it properly, then transfer it to the phone for use. But find your images however it’s most convenient for you.
Launch the Armoury Crate app
Now that you have the image downloaded, launch the Armoury Crate app. This is where you’ll find a lot of the unique ROG Phone 8 series features that other phones don’t offer.
Go to the ‘Console’ tab and tap “more settings” on the AniMe Vision section
Next, go to the Console tab. This is where you’ll be able to find and adjust the special features that the phone offers. It’s also where you can access and enable the different phone profiles, including X Mode for peak performance while gaming. Scroll to the AniMe Vision section and tap on the More Settings button.
Tap on one of the functions
Most of the functions will support custom AniMe Vision animations. However, there are a few which only support the pre-loaded options. Such as Screen Off, the Timer Countdown, and Music Visualizer. Anything else will allow the customization.
Tap the “+” button in the bottom corner and select Import
Once you tap the + button you’ll see a little pop-up menu of options. Select the “import” option to use your own GIF or PNG.
Select your GIF images
Remember, it has to be 254 x 128 or it won’t work. if you have other GIF images saved on your phone, they’ll pop up along with the ones that are compatible. Just select the compatible GIFs you want to import and then hit “add.”
Tap on the “Custom” tab for the desired function
Once you have the GIF images uploaded, go back to the function you want to use them on and tap on the Custom tab. Here you’ll see any custom imported GIFs that you can apply. Select the one you want and it will automatically apply to the display. Also, make sure the toggle is enabled so the AniMe Vision animation is on.
Draw your own animation
This is a pretty neat way to customize the AniMe Vision display if you want to get a little more creative. The neat thing with the Draw option is you can add filters to whatever you draw to be a part of the animation. Like flashing or fading in and out.
Keep in mind getting something that looks nice here may be a little harder, but again, play around with it until you get something you like.
Tap the “+” button and select Draw
Just like before with the import option, you’ll tap the + button to bring up the pop-up menu and this time select the draw option.
Draw your animation
Once you tap on the draw option, you’ll need to turn your phone sideways and hold it in landscape mode. You can then draw your animation on the designated part of the screen. If you wish to preview it before saving, tap the eye button in the top right corner. This will put a preview of it on the back of the phone.
Add a filter
After you’re done drawing what you want, tap on the magic wand icon in the legend on the right-hand side of the display. This will bring up the filter options you can select from. Choose one and then check the preview again if you wish.
Save your animation
Now that you’re done coming up with something, you can save it by hitting the save disk icon next to the preview icon. Go back to the custom tab and it’ll be there along with any GIFs that you imported.
Add some text or a gamer tag
The last thing you can do when customizing is add some text or a gamer tag. This is a neat way to add some personal touches.
Tap the “+” button and select the text icon
Go back to the desired function and then tap the + button again, and this time select the text icon.
Type your text
Type in anything you want here. It can be your gamer tag, your name, a short message, or really anything. But please use common sense and make sure what you type is appropriate. You also have a maximum of 20 characters.
Choose the font and speed
Now that you’ve typed something in, you can also change the font and speed of the text. Again, you can preview it on the back if you want, then hit the save icon once you’re done. And that’s pretty much it. These are all the ways you can customize the AniMe Vision display on the ROG Phone 8 Pro. Any text animations you create will be visible in the custom tab along with the others.