In Mint 8 or Ubuntu 9.10, you can test xsplash by running "sudo xsplash" and then press Escape or Ctrl+C to exit.
Xsplash uses the pictures located in /usr/share/images/xsplash.
Have a look in there. The backgrounds are pretty easy to customize.
For the animation, you need a multiframe PNG file.
One way to quickly generate one is to create an animated GIF (if you want quick results you can use this online throbber generator: http://www.ajaxload.info ) and then to use a program to generate a png for each frame of the animation (I'm a n00b when it comes to artwork design so I only found a Windows freeware in my laborious search on this: http://www.nigels.com/exorcist/exorst14.zip).
Once you've got a PNG for each frame, place them in an empty folder and use the following command to put them all into one multiframe PNG file:
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convert `ls *` -append out.png
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sudo xsplash -t out.png -f 11
When you contribute multiframe animations back to the community, don't forget to specify how many frames they have. I personally put the number in the filename: for instance circle2-7.png is my 2nd try at making a circle animation and it's got 7 frames.
Clem.