Handling images(.jpg, .bmp etc) in u-boot

[bhargavak]

Hi

I have currently implemented u-boot splash screen, a battery charging animation(as a series images) in u-boot on my board(OMAP44xx), all of the above by creating a GIMP header (.h) for each of the image.

The problem I'm facing is, the size of the u-boot binary is ever increasing, as the headers for each image is very large even though all of them take up only 1/4 of the screen size(WVGA).

Now, I'm supposed to implement a full screen size splash screen and add a few more images to accommodate extra levels of battery charging.

With this added my u-boot.bin goes upto 4-5MB (and that is bad right ??)

I just came to know that there is a method where we can create a partition and put images(.bmp) into the EMMC flash.
I saw the u-boot's manual where there is a description about a environment variable 'splashimage'.

My concern here is, can someone please elaborate the procedure mentioned there ?
I do not have a network connection to my board(OMAP44xx), I just have a microUSB cable connection my PC and the board.

If there are any other methods to implement the whole thing better, suggestions a welcome.