Solution 1:

I am using this in a current project of mine, it is basically pretty simple. You define a new animation style in your styles.xml, like this:

<!-- just defines top layer "Animation" -->
<style name="Animation" />

<!-- the animations must have been defined in your "anim" folder, of course -->
<style name="Animation.MyAwesomeAnimation" parent="android:style/Animation.Activity">
    <item name="android:activityOpenEnterAnimation">@anim/myawesomeanimation_enter</item>
    <item name="android:activityOpenExitAnimation">@anim/hold_long</item>
    <item name="android:activityCloseEnterAnimation">@anim/hold_long</item>
    <item name="android:activityCloseExitAnimation">@anim/myawesomeanimation_exit</item>
</style>

Then set this style in a theme (themes.xml):

<style name="Theme.MyAwesomeTheme" parent="Theme.Default">
    <item name="android:windowAnimationStyle">@style/Animation.MyAwesomeAnimation</item>
</style>

And then you can simply set these themes to every activity you like in your AndroidManifest.xml:

<activity
    android:name=".MyAwesomeActivity"
    android:theme="@style/Theme.MyAwesomeTheme" />

Now I wish you big fun with activity animations! :-D