iDVD 4.0 - Customizing

[scottrwn98]

Okay, I'm fed up with trying to make motion menus to adjust to the stupid pre-set themes that come with iDVD.

So I am going to make my motion menus and such (fonts and colors) and I do a Save Favorites. Okay, Now I have MOTAGE as my DVD format and when I make a folder, the BACK button is stuck in the middle of the screen where data and text could be placed.

I know that you can modify the text arangements and back button X and Y positions, but I don't understand how to read the PATCH files within my theme contents. It looks like HTML or XML format.

Is there a link I can read on what each fuction and command does so I can make my own preset theme and have the buttons and text be aranged around my motions menus (as well as the stupid back button placed in the center of the screen)?

Thanks,

[willrob]

I'm not sure what MOTAGE is, but when I create a new folder, I can place it anywhere in the window if I uncheck "Snap to Grid." When I open that folder to go to the next menu, the back button is in the lower left hand corner. I'm not sure it can be moved to the center of the screen, and I'm not sure how yours got there.

[zorankarapancev]

Yes, iDVD can be finicky.

Sometimes it helps if you trash the iDVD preferences.

To do that, go to your user directory's Libary. Make sure iDVD is not launched. Inside that folder, open the Preferences folder and look for Apple.com.iDVD.plist. Drag it to the trash and empty the trash. When you launch iDVD next time, new preferences will be created.

[scottrwn98]

Actually, I found out how to move the menu buttons and the BACK button.

All you do is Save Favorite and Show Contents of that favorite. Under Resources, there is another folder called English.Proj or something and it has the PATCH file in it. I edited that to set up presents for buttons adn back button positions.

So I guess if you can get to it, you can edit your own themes in iDVD.

Thanks for the tip though.

[live4ever]

I don't know if you've seen these guides yet, but they are a great resource for making and distributing your own themes (the process works for iDVD 4 as well).

http://www.michaelbraly.com/archives/000017.html

[scottrwn98]

Actually I read that and that is what made me peek and poke around with the PATCH files.

It is a lot of trial and error; You have to re-load iDVD once you modify a theme. I figured out how to auto snap my links to the grid rather than having to "line" them up with Free Position. You have to set the X and Y for all of the buttons so when you click and drag them, they will snap according to what you assigned.

[willrob]

I guess I mis-read your original post. I thought you were complaining that the back button was centered in your screen and youu wanted to know how to get it back wehre it belongs.

When you play with the snap to grid placement, how is that different than the button snap to grid iDVD ships with. Are you changing the places where the grid intersects; and when you drag a clip in does it snap automatically to the next available spot?

One of iDVD 4's themes (the Movie Marque) is very sensitive to the alignment of items if they are in two columns. When the disk is burned the up-down and right-left buttons on the remote produce unpedictable results. Rather than move sequentially through the items, the highlight hops around. Perhaps your editing technique would be a way to fix that.

[scottrwn98]

No no, the back button was in the middle of the Y axis to the left of the screen rather than in the lower left corner. So I moved it to the lower left.

And yes, I am customizing where the objects snap to grid.

When you are editing the file, its like this:

If one button is placed --
x = 120, y = 100

If two buttons are placed --
x = 120, y = 80
x = 120, y = 120

So when you place one movie or folder, it places the it at 120, 100. When you add another movie or folder, it will push the first objet up to 120,80 and place the new object to 120,120.

You have to put those X and Y points in manually (which is better than having to line up 10 movie clips (free position) on a custome theme) ... in this case, if you need to design another DVD, you can just load that preset THEME and just click and drag the 10 MOV's into the window and they all line up according to what you programmed.

I work in Commercial Production and when we make DVD's for clients that want 20 commercials, its easy to preset the theme, rather than having to take 20 spots and maunally trying to line them up by eye so they look straight. Most of the time they want different spots.

The file is called "Description.plist" under the theme file (ie. mytheme.favorite) and just show contents Contents/Resources/English.lproj/