Dvdmaestro navigation question

[dilshan]

After reading quite a few guides I finally learned how to author a dvd
using dvdmaestro. I still have one or two questions with regard to
creating menus with maestro but I only ask one of them.

* The movie I authored have one main menu and three submenus.
There are four thumbnails (buttons) in each submenu to select.
I have made black/white subpicture overlays for each one of
these menus exactly as described in doom9 guide. Everything
works perfectly allright but I am not entirely satisfied with
how button navigation works with maestro. What I mean is when
you navigate between different buttons in the menu (by pressing
up, down ,left or right using your remote) you only notice it
through the change of colour (the colour you assigned in button
selection step when creating the menu). I would rather like to
see a pointer (like a hand in most professionally made dvds)
being used for navigation. Can somebody shed a light if this
is possible with maestro?

[BJ_M]

yes -- you have to create those in the subpicture .. dvd menu studio is great for doing this ..

[dilshan]

Thanks for the tip. I did just as explained in Dvd Menu Studio help
page. It works perfect when I preview with Dvd Menu Studio but when
I import the menu to Maestro it doesn't work at all. This is what I
did:

* imported an already drawn menu (a bmp file 720X480)
* used "Project --> Trim Canvas" option to stretch the
menu to fill the whole menu window
* clicked on Subpicture 1 (red), drew an underline with
Rectangle tool for each menu item
* tested the result by simply clicking on the Preview
button

So far so good. Everything works perfectly with a hand moving
up and down as I navigate between buttons. Now to import part:

* clicked the DVD Menu Export button
* selected NTSC and chose DVDMaestro as my export
* selected Standard Subpicture Menu
* chose to export Adobe PSD File and export Color Map palette

Now back to DvdMaestro:

* imported Adobe PSD File and export Color Map palette
* draged the PSD file from the Asset Bin to the empty menu
window (according to guide you shouldn't see the subpicture
by now but I could)
* drew button hotspots around each menu item
* loaded the Palette file from the Color Mapping tab
* adjusted transparency sliders in Color mapping
* createed button Connections by assigning targets
* previewed it by clicking simulator button

The desired result is not to be seen. I can see rectangle underlines
I drew but they don't change colours as I navigate between buttons.
The hand I saw when I navigate in Dvd Menu Studio is nowhere to be seen. What have I missed? Please help.

[BJ_M]

in maestro , in the transparancy sliders - do this (im doing this from memory) , first row set to all 0 (then you will not see sub picture), sencond row set to all 0 except top set to 5 or 6 and change color to blue or whatever you want (i ussually use blue for my subpicture selection).
third row , set all to off except top one set to 5 or 6 and change color to red (i usssually use red for action but you can use anything you want) ..

the above is the basic setup but covers 90% of all menus ..

after you have drawn your boxs around menu items (including your hand in the box) you can select on the far left to show both main and subpicture (select yes) and then highlight your first menu item (click on it so the box changes color) , switch the selection button to on (on far left) to see what that button will look like when selected, now switch action switch on to see what that menu will look like when pressed.
repeat for all menu items ..

assuming you have grouped your subpictures in dvdmenu studio correctly - all will work (use maestro navigation checker to check) .

you can of course do the same thing in photoshop or paintshop pro.

i like the menu in Resident Evil (which i watched last night with my 6 year old son for the , i think, 5th time, one of his favorite movies)

[dilshan]

Appreciate your help. I did as you say and it works partly. What I missed last time was to set all transparency sliders in the first column (you refer to it as row) to 0. Now the colour changes as I
navigate between buttons. That's good but that hand which had the
role of a pointer when navigating between buttons in Dvd Menu Studio
is not there to be seen. What happened to it, I don't understand.
You wrote "draw your boxs around menu items (including your hand
in the box)", but I never see that hand after I imported .psd
file to maestro. Can I have missed something when I exported the
file from Dvd Menu Studio?

[BJ_M]

select "view subpicture only" instead of "both" .. if you dont see it - it isnt there ..

you may have put it on another layer in dvd menu studio

[dilshan]

I think I know why this hand in Dvd Menu Studio which functions
as a pointer is not visible when imported to maestro. It is actually not part of the menu being created. It is simply the pointer preview window has chosen (instead of an arrow which is the more common option). If you navigate between buttons using Dvd Navigator on
preview window then the only thing that happens is the
colour changes when you navigate between buttons (which is what
happens in maestro as well). I have gone through Dvd Menu Studio
help guide and it doesn't mention a word about this hand that can
be seen in preview window (presumably because there is nothing to mention as it is simply the pointer being used there).

Still I am quite satisfied with what I achieved with Dvd Menu Studio
without much effort. I would have loved to see a pointer in my menus
as it gives a proffessional outlook to the menu. Anyway, thank you for
taking your time to help me.

[Jolard]

I have never used DVD Menu Studio, although I have heard it is good.

I did something similar to what you are asking about for a Wedding DVD I recently did. I used Photoshop, if you have it available. For that one I had small hearts with arrows through them that were the pointers (similar to your pointing hand).

Here is how I did it. I took the background picture, made sure it had everything I wanted on it (menu names, etc etc) and opened it in Photoshop. Then I created a new layer in photoshop for each pointer, being careful to only use one of the 4 allowed colours for sub pictures (in my case black and red). I painted these on top of the background in the exact spots I wanted. Then I deleted the background so that all I had were the pointers over the transparent background. I then merged all the layers into one, and saved it as a jpg file (I believe you can do PSD as well). So now I have a file which is basically white, with all my pointers on it is the right locations, in black and red.

Then I open Maestro, and select the sub picture layer and import the subpicture pointers picture. Then draw the selection boxes around each of the pointers.

Now comes the tricky part. For mine, I wanted the pointers to be invisible unless they were selected. On the color side, for the first column I set Black, White and Red all to fully transparent. That is so that if they are not selected (and the background) then they are invisible. Then I set the "selected" colors so that black mapped to black, and red mapped to red. Then I set the activated colors to the same colors as selected, but slightly transparent.

The end effect is that when hit the direction buttons on your remote, it looks like the pointers are moving from one option to the next. It is a nice effect, and works well with a little effort.

[dilshan]

Thanks for this new tip. I'll have a go at it and see if it works. I have
to say though creating menus with Dvd Menu Studio is very simple.

[spidey]

Great discussion guys - the only thing I'd add is that in Maestro, when you highlight an active area it keeps the highlight and active component shown as a square.

If you use Sonic's DVD Producer, you higlight an area as a square, BUT you can use DVD Menu Studio to your full advantage, as your psd overlay, you "squarely" highlight around your active areas - however, only the component itself changes color during activity, whereas Maestro has the whole square highlight light.

DVD Producer is pretty much just Sonic's updated version of Maestro after they bought SpruceUp I believe.

[SLK001]

Sonic didn't buy Spruce Technologies - Apple did. Sonic bought the Scenarist company (Darian?). The highlight box shows up because of the way you have set your pallet and transparencies. It is possible to have only the subpicture pattern highlight - BJ_M gives these directions above.

It's really pretty easy to get it the way you want, because your settings can be viewed in real time on the Maestro menu page. Just start playing with the sliders and observe what is happening.