Scenarist Navigation Structure

[dvdmiester]

I've been trying to figure out Scenarist for the past week and it's complicated but I'm making good progress. I can do motion menus, subtitles, multiple angles and audio tracks etc. But here's my question.

What is the "proper" way to set up the navigation structure?

Should I make a new VTS for each video?
Should I put everything under a Language folder?
What is supposed to be in the Video Manager folder?

I appreciate anyone input, Thanks.

[SaSi]

Good questions.

Will answer the first question last.


Should I make a new VTS for each video?

Not nececarily, but it's a good practice depending on content. For example, if you want to fit 4-6 episodes on a DVD and want to have a master menu plus individual navigational (chapters) menus for each episode, it's good to have 4 titles with their Root menu each, plus a Title menu for the DVD. However, all episode disks I've seen are done the other way round. All 4 episodes are PGCs in the same Title. It's up to you to decide, however there can only be 99 titles in a disk

Please note that for some obscure reason, the MASTER-DVD menu is called Title menu and the SUB-MENU for each title is called ROOT Menu. Sounds odd, but that's how it is.


Should I put everything under a Language folder?
Certainly not, and my guess is that you will fail in trying to do so. The Language folder (and here I'm also answering your 3rd question) is part of the Video Manager, which is the MASTER_MENU_AND_ENTRY for the DVD. It's supposed to hold entry menus for individual languages, so that the DVD player can ask you in which language you want your menu to appear. In such cases (e.g. DVD contains menus in English, German and French), all these menus will be stored in the Video Manager, under separate language folders. Supposedly, the structure will be the same for each language, only the bitmaps will be different to contain text in different languages. Additionally, it may be that the menus in each language will select appropriate soundtracks and subtitles. Of course, each menu for each language can be totaly different. It's up to the author to decide.

In general terms, the navigational structure could be the following:

In Video Manager you create a Language Folder in a language (e.g. English) and there you store the master menu for the DVD (Title Menu). If you have more than one movies, the Title menu is used to navigate between them.

If you only want a single movie, you only create a single Title. If you want to have chapter navigation menu, you can create a Root Menu in the title.

If you want to have more than a movie or multiple episodes, then it's better to create a Title for each movie or episode and store chapter navigation points as separate root menus in each title. In that case you use the Title menu for selecting movies/episodes.

Another point to take into consideration is aspect ratio. If you want to create a DVD with a movie and an interview, then if the movie is in 16:9 and the interview is in 4:3 you must have two Titles since you can't mix aspect ratios in a single title. (I've seen one DVD where the movie has been hard-letterboxed and made into 4:3 and the movie and trailer (4:3) are in the same title. I call it poor authoring.

It's a good idea to create a paper-flowchart of what you want to achieve and put down the assets you are going to use in each block.

Well, the issue is quite broad and the above just begin to scratch the surface. Hope they helped anyhow.

By the way, I am insterested to fiind how you created an animated menu. Can't seem to master this one myself. Any hints would be appreciated.

[dvdmiester]

Thanks, that did help - I also ordered a book from amazon.com that should help to.

Animated/Motion menus aren't as hard as they might seem. If you can make a still menu (in Scenarist) then you can make a motion menu just as easily.

First, start off by dragging your video clip into the track editor.
Then double-click the track.
- From here the process is just the same as if it were a still menu.
Then drag your subpicture file underneath the video clip.
Then define your buttons in the simulation window (the same as you would for any still menu).
Add an audio track if you wish, and that's it.

[SaSi]

Thanks for your explanation on motion menus. Have tried exactly that, so I'm happy I'm not off the right track. However, can you imagine any reason why the menu insists on becoming active after the video is finished?

The idea is to have a looping video with some static parts (the labels) active all the time using the defined button areas. My (2) attempts to that ended up in a working menu, however the video played once, stopped and from that moment on the button areas could be selected.

My tests were done with a project compiled and played with PowerDVD. I think it's a valid player to test the operation.

[dvdmiester]

First let me say that PowerDVD should be fine to test anything.

It sounds as if the start to video time may be the entire length of the video which may be the cause of your problem.

In the track editor click on the subpicture track and in the property viewer scroll down until you see start time to video, if you want the buttons to be active from the start it should be set to 00:00:00:00. If it already is set to that then the problem must be elsewhere.

After the video plays once, does it turn black or pause on the last frame of it.