Creating a transparent overlay in DVD Menu Studio

[spidey]

Hi Guys,

I usually author with fixed background menu's with overlays. That has been very quick and easy. Well, I decided to try and tackle the full motion menu beast.

I am hung up on a few things unfortunately. If possible, I'll spell out my method, and if anyone has some tips or procedures I'd be very happy.

I have assembled my source clips for the motion menu. Ideally, I'd like to use DVD Menu Studio to add some icons / pictures, etc to a transparent background, copy these items to the sublayer, and render it out.

I am thinking I'd need to take the hopefully transparent background with the icons and buttons on it, and render that together with the existing video stream for the menu.

Then once in the authroing programming simply add the overlay layer over top and after activating the areas, it should be good to go.

However, I can not get the backgrounds to be transparent. It almost seems as if I'd have to embed the icons / objects / text into the video (in Vegas video) and render the vid stream out.

Then take the vid's first frame as a reference, and open that into DVD Menu Studio, then create my overlay using the circle / square / etc tools... which is not as nice aestetically.

I know that many out there I'm sure have other, and I'm sure easier methods. Any help would be very appreciated. Thank you

Tools I am Using:
Vegas Video
DVD Menu Studio
Sonic DVD Producer v 3.1.1

Thanks

Spidey

[Arky]

However, I can not get the backgrounds to be transparent. It almost seems as if I'd have to embed the icons / objects / text into the video (in Vegas video) and render the vid stream out.

Then take the vid's first frame as a reference, and open that into DVD Menu Studio, then create my overlay using the circle / square / etc tools... which is not as nice aestetically.

Spidey

Personally, I would go with the embedding method, BUT, I'd create my graphics-to-be-embedded in Photoshop (or DVD Menu Studio) first, using a transparent canvas, and keeping the graphics 'layered'. Then I'd save this layered .psd file safely (which will allow you to return and edit your graphics more easily, at a later date, if you need to), return to DVD M.S. or Photoshop, to flatten the project into one layer, import the flattened graphics layer into either Vegas, Edition, Boris FX/RED, Combustion, Commotion, or After Effects etc., to superimpose (i.e. embed it) onto the video stream, as a composite (depending on the compositing application you use, it may be necessary to have the graphics in Bitmap format in order to import them). Then I'd render this as MPEG2 for my menu stream.

Having come this far, I'd import both the new MPEG2 composited video stream and the flattened version of the Photoshop graphics into your DVD-authoring program, and allocate my subpic' mappings, as desired, to the new menu.

At your discretion, you could experiment with your subpic overlay mappings in order to get away without compositing them onto the stream, but you'd have to settle for greatly-simplified colour resolution of the graphics themselves, whereas with my method above you can have nice gradients and full colour variations within your graphic elements, since they do not have to be mapped to such a restricted colour palette as the subpic overlay itself, which should ideally only be used for simple highlights (albeit with proper variations in shape, rather than just rectangles, provided they are done correctly).

On the more basic topic of achieving a transparent background to your overlay (only within the DVD authoring program environment - this doesn't apply to graphics for compositing onto video streams - these need to be genuinely transparent, as described above in Photoshop), this is simply a matter of ensuring that your background is of a sufficiently different colour to the graphic icons themselves, such that the background colour can be 'transparently mapped-out', so as to be invisible. If you don't make the background sufficiently different in colour to all the icons, though, you might find yourself also making an icon or two invisible, if they were mapped to the same colour/channel! The only problem with this method is that (as I see it) you lose one of your subpic mapping colours/channels to the process. Much better to use Photoshop to create a genuinely transparent background, and keep your maximum for subpic colours/channels for creative flair

So, as I said to begin with, I feel the best option is to go the compositing route, provided you have enough time, because you'll get much higher resolution graphics, with colour gradients which simply aren't possible with the subpic-only method. That way, you can make the subpic overlay graphics transparent until the cursor rolls over them, at which point some subtle, semi-translucent colour would be possible, without entirely obscuring the high quality embedded graphics, and then a more opaque, brighter colour could be mapped for actual execution of the button. It'll look much classier in the longrun, I promise.

No doubt other people will have alternative methods, but that's the one which springs to my mind at this point in time.


Arky ;o)

[spidey]

Arky,

Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to go through all of that

I will begin trying to go through it. I know it'll take much time and practice, but so did authoring to begin with, and now, once you got it done, it's a breeze.

Again, than you very much, you have been very helpful

Hope you're having a great one !!!

Spidey

[Arky]

You're welcome, it's always nice to give back a little of the knowledge I have gained from personal experience, and from like-minded people on forums like this.

Incidentally, when I said:

Having come this far, I'd import both the new MPEG2 composited video stream and the flattened version of the photoshop graphics into DVD SP, and allocate my subpic mappings, as desired, to the new menu.

...I neglected to clearly point out that when you use your graphics for the subpic part of the menu, you may need to use Photoshop to apply solid blocks of colour to your icons, rather than keeping them as smoothly-gradiented full colour graphics, since this will leave your subpic looking somewhat 'eroded' once crude colour mappings are applied. You only need full colour, smoothly-gradiented graphics for the stage previously, when you embeded them on the video stream for your MPEG2 composite.

I don't always have the time to log on to the forums every day (and I have a good few forums to cover), but I will do my level best to help you if you have any further questions.

Good luck


Arky ;o)