Background clip longer than preview clips?! dvd lab pro

[jjpro11]

i cant figure this one out. i have a video as my background. on top of that i have my text, links, etc and my video previews that link to my movies. i want to shuffle the loop points and make each video preview about 8 seconds.. however my background video is 26 seconds.. when i render motion it renders everything to 26 seconds. what do i need to do so that i get 8 second looping clips and a 26 second looping background? please help.. i need to get this done. thanks!

[stantheman1976]

I think they have to be the same length. I had a similar problem recently. I had background music that was 30 seconds and motion menus that were 10 seconds. So when I authored the background music would cut off and loop after 10 seconds. There may be ways around this that I don't know, but from what I can tell that's default.

[machf]

You realize that for what you're attempting to do, you'd need to have a 104-second menu? So that the background is looping 4 times, and the previews 13 times in that whole period before starting over again... And your background music would have to be 104 seconds long too...

[guns1inger]

Please don't post in multiple forums. Once is enough.

As I responded over in the newbies forum

Don't use DVD Lab Pro to do it. I create all motion menu backgrounds in Vegas, but any NLE will do. I use DLP to create the menus, links etc, but never video. DLP will always create the menu to match the running time of the background video clip.

As for the 104 second - not sure where that comes from.

[machf]

104=l.c.m. of 26 and 8. With a 104-second background video and music (made by repeating the original 26-second background animation 4 times), I'd hope the preview animations would be made (automatically) to loop as many times as needed to fit it. Since they are meant to be 8 seconds long, they would loop exactly 13 times in 104 seconds.

[guns1inger]

DLP is ignoring his 8 seconds and using 26 because that is the length of the background video clip. In fact, all he needs is a 24 second clip to get his 3 x 8 second loops.

To do what he wants he needs to bring his 26 second clip, plus his 8 second clips into a half decent editor, create his clip, then drop into DLP. Much faster and more accurate.

[machf]

IIRC, DLP has a "repeat if shorter" option for the motion menus' clips. That, combined with the "shuffle" option and a 104-second background, should produce the results he wanted in the first place...

[guns1inger]

I have never liked DLPs video options, nor found them to be reliable or able to produce good quality output. It may now have the to option, but you still don't get any real control.

[jjpro11]

do you export the still part of your menu from DLP as an overlay format then put it on vegas? from there you add the background video under it so it sits on top of the background video? how do you put in the video previews though? i want them to link directly to the video.. do you do that in DLP or vegas? my menu is a scene selection type, only its a dvd featuring a bunch of separate videos.. not an actual full length movie. thanks.

[guns1inger]

I usually don't use large selection sub-pictures - often it is only a simple line or symbol. I use a lot of Wing Dings type fonts for this type of thing. I never use any of the built in templates in DLP either. If I need frames or a layout for the videos to sit in, I will design that in Photoshop first, bring it into Vegas, then move on to DLP. It takes a little more planning, but I am happier with the results.