How do I create custom DVD menus?

[aple]

I'm pretty handy with PS and AE. I've made an introduction slide in PS and want to know how to put this in AE. Any suggestions?

[poisondeathray]

I'm pretty handy with PS and AE. I've made an introduction slide in PS and want to know how to put this in AE. Any suggestions?

I don't understand your question. AE supports .psd import

[aple]

Yeah, sorry, I meant, how do I create a DVD menu with After Effects? But after researching it for a while I figured out AE can't do that.

So, new question, what's your preferred software for creating DVD menus and burning? I stumbled upon RZ DVD Creator and it looks pretty good, but I'm sure there's something you gurus use that's better.

[poisondeathray]

Most people still use photoshop and AE, but only for generating assets

Encore is the authoring application provided by Adobe , but you could still use those assets that you made in photoshop or AE in other authoring applications



Have a look at adobe.tv or lynda.com for tutorials

[aple]

Yeah, I've heard of Encore, but I just can't get it right now.

Any freeware alternatives?

Btw, thanks for being so helpful. You've chased me around here answering my questions thoroughly for a few days now.

[poisondeathray]

You shouldn't have bought photoshop and AE piecemeal. If you buy a suite it's much less expensive, and you get Dynamic Link (you can link all the programs together, it really speeds things up). The Production Premium Suite includes Encore, photoshop, premiere, illustrator, audition, AE, AME, bridge, a few other things. Right now there is a 50% off promotion as well for changing editors (such as avid or fcp), that's less expensive than what you probably paid for AE alone. And you don't even need to prove it. If you're a student or teacher it's even cheaper as you can get academic pricing.

But anyways, there are a bunch of free authoring tools; have a look here
https://www.videohelp.com/tools/sections/authoring-dvd

gui for dvd author
dvdauthorgui
dvd styler

[aple]

Ended up getting Encore. It works great at what it does, but "Building a DVD Image" is taking for-ever. Sucks so bad.

I'm too impatient for video transcoding, converting, rendering, etc. Probably just need to get a good workflow down, know more about it, and get a better computer.