Help with Animating Objects in Menus

[hadenp]

Here's a question for those with more authoring experience than I have:

I'd like to do a menu (or a title page that has links to the menus) in which a few still images would be seen moving on to the menu as if they were photos being placed on a table, one by one. This would take place over 5-10 seconds. I'd also like to do something like this with the text.

Any ideas of an authoring program that could do this? Or do you have suggestions as to how I can get these effects.

Thanks.

[Znooky]

There are problary many ways to achieve what you want, but this is my suggestion.

You can use ProShow to make a MPG with your moving still images. Then you can use TMPGEnc DVD Author and import the rendered MPG as a menu background and that way you will get the effect you are looking for.

// Znooky

[guns1inger]

The simplest way would be to actually film it with a DV camera, and use that footage. If you are happy with a slideshow type arrangement, the previous poster's suggestion will give you what you need. If you wan't it to look more like the photos are actually falling onto a surface then you need to look at something more complex, such as WAX2 or After Effects.

No authoring program will give you this type of effect unless it already has a canned template. You will have to prep it outside, then bring it back in for authoring.

[hadenp]

Znooky, Guns1inger -

Thanks very much for your thoughts and the tools suggestions. I'll check them out to see if I can achieve what I was thinking about.

[guns1inger]

You might also want to check out this tool ZS4, the expanded version of a freeware movie editor. It shows promise for basic compositing and motion graphics.

[hadenp]

Hey guns1inger!

I actually think your suggestion of filming will work perfectly for what I was imagining - a little movie that prefaces the menu.... But having installed both Wax2 and ZS4 (Thanks!), I'm intrigued with the possibilities.

By the way, what is meant by the term "compositing" - just combining things in the same frame?