Panning Menu Background

[TerryNG]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could help me with a menu design. I have a rather large image that I'm wanting to use as a menu background. I would like to have it look like the camera is panning around the image instead of showing the whole image as the background. Is there an easy way to do this? I usually use Vegas for my video editing, so if it could be done in that it would be ideal.

Thanks
Terry

[Alex_ander]

DVDLabPro 2 has special panoramic menu option.

[TerryNG]

Thanks for the post, I'll check it out.

[guns1inger]

It depends what sort of effect you want.

If you just want the camera to pan left to right, then back again, constantly in the background, use Track Motion and keyframes in Vegas to create a video clip, and use this as your menu background.

If you want the menu to move around the image when choices are made then it becomes more complex, which is where DLP 2's panorama option might help.

[TerryNG]

I was hoping to have a bit of vertical motion in the menu, but if horizontal would be easiest, then I can deal with that. The source image is pretty big, 3140x4710, so I should be able to do some cutting and rearranging to make it wide enough to make it look good.

Edit for clarity: I'm just wanting constant panning in the background, totally independent from any selections that are being made. If you've seen the menus for the dualdisc version of the Nine Inch Nails album The Downward Sprial, that's what I'm wanting to go for without the color changing effect.

[guns1inger]

With Track Motion you can zoom in and out, move up, down, left, and right or diagonally.

Again, though, what effect are you after for the menu ?

[TerryNG]

Track motion sounds like the way to go, thanks for the help.

[mats.hogberg]

Pans (of still images) can easily be created with MS PhotoStory.

/Mats

[TerryNG]

hmmmm, never heard of photostory. I'll have to give it a look.

[mats.hogberg]

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx

/Mats

[guns1inger]

If you use Photostory (and it is actually pretty good for a Microsoft freebie) install the templates from Papajohn's site. They improve the quality a lot. Photostory's biggest failing is that it only outputs WMVs. It is also limited to a single move per image, although by repeating images you can fake around it. Track Motion, on the other hand, can do anything, including 3D moves if required.

[TerryNG]

Yeah, I've been playing with Track Motion in Vegas and it's giving me exactly what I wanted.

Thanks again to everyone who offered help.