Create Dynamic Wallpaper
Alma Wass
Well the good news in that case is that they're just MP4 video files with the following sorts of attributes, which means you can create them with any video production app/suite you like. See Apple's ownOrange Fish as an example.
Thanks Max. That was very helpful. Although I am wondering whether it is a technical limitation or a policy restriction on the part of apple. Samsung android has these kind of wallpapers for years now.
But if someone was to create a custom video with these settings is there away to set it as a wallpaper? I downloaded the Orange Fish video and transfered it to the Library on my phone but I do not see an option to set it as my wallpaper.
I also came across this dump of all of the system live wallpapers, but they don't seem to work as Live Photos. When I load them with PHLivePhoto.requestLivePhotoWithResourceFileURLs I get the following error: Error: Invalid video metadata
One of the most popular dynamic wallpaper options is the built-in one for your current macOS version. This wallpaper shifts its look throughout the day. In the morning, the wallpaper looks bright and colorful, but as the day progresses, it transforms into a darker appearance.
3) Look at the top of the System Settings window and make sure it says Automatic next to your dynamic wallpaper name. Some wallpapers, like Macintosh, offer an additional option that lets you choose Color.
There are a few ways out there to make Dynamic Wallpaper for macOS. Dynamic Wallpaper Club may tempt you because it is a free resource, but it took the site about five days to compile my five-image Dynamic Wallpaper. It also requires all your uploaded images to be the exact same canvas size and several other frustrating nuances.
Therefore, to make things smooth, I offer Dynaper for macOS as my recommendation for making your own Dynamic Wallpaper. It allows quick, drag-and-drop creation of Dynamic Wallpaper, with the ability to set exact times for your wallpapers to change. There is also a tool for creating Light and Dark Mode wallpapers.
The following set of 5K-ready images is featured by the 24 Hour Wallpaper app for macOS, which includes over 100 unique time-based wallpapers. If you are really into Dynamic Wallpapers, you should get this app. They also sell individual packs on their own wallpaper gallery.
Each HEIC file includes about 10+ images that change based on your location, time, and can also dynamically toggle based on Light and Dark Mode. If you want the images to cycle across all images throughout the day, you need to set your macOS system settings to Auto-Mode (not Light or Dark). The following previews just show an early day and evening preview. Download the HEIC file using the link below each preview set.
The next wallpapers we have are by @BasicAppleGuy, who regularly posts Apple musings on his blog, as well as great wallpapers. His blog has bonus versions of these dynamic wallpapers, ready for your iPhone, and non-dynamic versions of each one!
Post is over 30 days ...which website link is gone and did you do a search via a search engine to find dynamic wallpaper? Took me a few seconds of my time to locate these for you.... google or bing or DuckDuckGo are real amazing results
I imagine that the file itself is probably some sort of mapping/dictionary from time values to images, but I haven't been able to open it as any sort of image collection. Sure, I can open it with Preview, but it only shows one of the images.
I believe there has to be a way of creating custom wallpapers similar to this default one. The question is how to open such files properly (to see them as collections) and, more importantly, edit them?
The HEIC format is a container for HEIF or High Efficiency Encoding Format. This container allows multiple HEIF-encoded images to be contained within one container. The HEIC file in question contains 16 images that allow the wallpaper to change throughout the day. Currently, there is no software that I can find for the Mac that allows for the encoding of these multi-image HEIC files (collections, as they are technically called). However, I have found a tool that is part of the libde265 library called heif-enc that allows such encoding via a command line interface. I'm still struggling with it to get it to work the way I want, but that should theoretically allow very similarly packaged images to be created.
EDIT: Just wanted to clarify a couple of things. I built the libde265 tools on ubuntu, not MacOS. Also I've yet to find if there is something in the EXIF data of that particular wallpaper that tells MacOS which wallpaper to display when, or if the system is just expecting exactly 16 images and displays them in order. Also there's a linux plugin for GIMP that allows opening HEIC files, but in the case of collections, it asks you to choose which image to open and does not allow for the exporting of multi-image collections (at least for now).
As we noted in our previous hands-on looks at iOS 14.3, Apple has brought back the Set Wallpaper action to the Shortcuts app. With this handy action, users are able to create dynamic wallpaper that can be triggered using automations, such as when connecting an iPhone to power, or at certain times of the day. In addition, this tutorial shows you how to (temporarily) disable the annoying Shortcuts banner notification for that uber-clean look.
Note: please keep in mind that some of the parameters mentioned in this tutorial are just personal suggestions. Shortcuts brings forth the ability to create tons of customization, so feel free to experiment and make it your own.
Step 4: Create a new automation by tapping the Automations tab at the bottom of the main page of the Shortcuts app. Tap the + button in the upper-right-hand corner and select Create Personal Automation.
Step 5: Select your Automation trigger, which can be location based, time of day based, etc. In this tutorial, I set my automation trigger to Charger, so whatever I charge my iPhone the wallpaper changes. Ensure that you have Is Connected selected and click the Next button in the upper right-hand corner.
Step 6: Tap Add Action and search for and select Run Shortcut. Tap the Shortcut variable, and select the Random Wallpaper shortcut that you created in the previous section from the menu that appears. Tap the Next button in the upper right-hand corner to continue.
When your shortcut automation executes, iOS will display a banner notification at the top of the screen to indicate that the shortcut has been triggered. Unfortunately you cannot permanently disable the notification, as it will be restored upon reboot. Perhaps there will be an option to disable the notifications permanently in the future.
What you can't do natively in macOS is set up your own dynamic wallpapers. For this job, you need a third-party application, and there are a couple of really good ones you can check out: Equinox and Dynaper. There's also the Dynamic Wallpaper Club website, which features a gallery of many high-quality dynamic wallpapers, plus a tool for making your own through the web interface.
To get started, you need at least two images to make a dynamic wallpaper, and what they show and how you make them is up to you: They can represent the same place at different times, but they don't have to.
You can download Equinox for free from the Mac App Store, and once you've got it running, you need to choose how your new dynamic wallpaper will work: Solar (images change based on sunrise and sunset times in your region), Time (images change based on any other specific timings), or Appearance (images change based on whether macOS is in light or dark mode).
On the next screen, you need to add one or more pictures to form your dynamic wallpaper (if you add one that you later want to remove, right-click on it and choose Delete image). You can drag and drop images into the program window, or click Browse to pick them manually. For the Appearance option you just need two images, but there's no limit to how many you can use for the other modes (click and drag images to change their order once they've been imported).
Click Create, and after a few moments of calculation, your new dynamic wallpaper is created. Equinox gives you plenty of options on the next dialog: You can save the new image to disk, share it to another app, or set the dynamic wallpaper directly inside Equinox. If you want to start again with a fresh batch of images, click New.
On the Dynamic Wallpaper Club website, you do have the option of building your own dynamic wallpapers, though you will need to sign up for a free account. Through the web interface you can choose your images and pick your timings. It's not quite as slick as Equinox, but it's there if you need it (make sure you uncheck the Public wallpaper box if you don't want to share your creation with the Dynamic Wallpaper Club community).
Actually setting a dynamic wallpaper is straightforward: Open the Apple menu, then System Settings, then select Wallpaper. Click Add Photo and Choose, then point macOS towards the dynamic wallpaper that you've made. You'll see that the picture type is set as Dynamic in the top right corner, and the pictures will be cycled through automatically, based on the timings you've provided.
Recently, whilst browsing Reddit, I came across an old thread on r/wallpapers showcasing a collection of 8-bit desktop wallpapers each of which displaying a beautiful landscape at a different time of day. The thread linked to the following Imgur gallery containing all of the images.
These images by themselves have little use but over the next few years several contributors had grouped together, using these wallpapers, to produce a live wallpaper for android, an integration with Windows and OSX, and a web implementation. Yet the Linux community were not getting much love from the project.