DVD Menu Studio

[Peplogic]

Hey Guys and Gals...

I have D/L's DVD Menu Studio to go with DVD Lab to take my menu creation a step further....

Anyone have any feelings on this program...it's a lot more difficult then i thought it was going to be and Im wondering if it is worth the time, or if there is a better program to use!

Thanks

Peplogic 8)

[Arky]

I don't get time to use DVD Menu Studio as often as I'd like, but I am a fully-licensed user and I really like the program. Basically, it's either that or Photoshop, and for menu authoring I really prefer Menu Studio in many respects. It's more intuitive, for a start, the vector editing is pretty powerful, and the 3-D lighting adds interest to menus with very little effort. The canned effects will leave you wanting more, quite soon, but then you don't get anywhere near as many with Photoshop, anyway. Add to that the fact that DVD MS takes care of the relevant pixel sizes/resizing (although to be fair, the latest version of Photoshop does include purpose-made templates for DV work), and I think you have a great little program that will reward your perseverence to familiarise yourself with it. It's also an outrageous bargain at the price.


Arky ;o)

[sync]

How do you get the menus from DVD Menu Studio into DVD-Lab?

[non-linear]

How do you get the menus from DVD Menu Studio into DVD-Lab?

I think you go up to 'Menu' - 'Load Menu', then select the menu file.

[sync]

That option doesn't work with the Menu Studio file.

I exported from Menu Studio, but when I import it, the image is too small.

[Josef K]

I like to think of DVD-lab as DVD authoring with good menu capabilities while I think of DVD Menu Maker as menu creation software with drawing capabilities. I have created some menus in Photoshop but for this particular situation I find Photoshop too cumbersome for me. I'm sure there are people who struggled to get to grips with using it 'because it's Photoshop and it's the best' but it really is a productivity killer for me. Photoshop was never designed with DVDs in mind and, as Arky says, DVD Menu Studio is much more suited because that's its goal.

I tend to think along the lines of less is more, though, so DVD-lab alone has all I need. If I wanted a background with sophisticated effects then I would use Photoshop - but only for the backgrounds or textures and such. I wouldn't waste my time with subpictures, etc.

Really, you have to ask yourself if you're happy with the menus you're creating now. Do you really want to think about adding some gaudy effect when a nice simple solid colour or gradient is so much easier to look at? I always say that unless you're a talented digital artist with a good eye then leave the 'special effects' alone because they require a great deal of subtlety to look just right - and 'special effects' are what DVD Menu Studio has that DVD-lab does not.

[Josef K]

How do you get the menus from DVD Menu Studio into DVD-Lab?

File-> Bitmap Export.

Then select PSD from the dropdown list on the top left and export

Import into an open menu in DVD-lab.

[sync]

How do you get the menus from DVD Menu Studio into DVD-Lab?

File-> Bitmap Export.

Then select PSD from the dropdown list on the top left and export

Import into an open menu in DVD-lab.

Excellent. Thanks.

Menu Studio is pretty nice. It wish it had more alignment tools though.

[Josef K]

Excellent. Thanks.

Menu Studio is pretty nice. It wish it had more alignment tools though.

No problem. The interesting thing is that you can then open the menu in Photoshop and tweak it a little bit more if you like, adjusting colours, brightness/contrast and the like. The subpictures are kept in separate layers so you won't harm them but you can change your background.

I'll tell you what irritates me about DVD Menu Maker: the fact that I click on 'Snap to grid' on the toolbar and, not only does it not remember that I prefer it to snap to grid without having to click it but it also defaults to 20 pixels spacing... Annoying...

[sync]

I probably will need to tweak it in Photoshop.

I just noticed that DVD-Lab seems to have seriously distorted the color of my background image.

[BJ_M]

it will change color to the standard dvd menu colors safe colors .. it is in options i think ...

[sync]

The image is a still from a tv capture. I thought it would have safe colors, but now I remember that I tweaked it in Photoshop. I guess I need to do that in the NTSC color space, assuming there is such a thing in PS.

[Josef K]

I guess I need to do that in the NTSC color space, assuming there is such a thing in PS.

Image -> Mode -> Convert to Profile...

or

Image -> Mode -> Assign Profile...

Choose NTSC (1953).

When using the Assign Profile command, you may see a shift in color appearance as color numbers are mapped directly to the new profile space. Convert to Profile, however, shifts color numbers before mapping them to the new profile space, in an effort to preserve the original color appearances.

[sync]

Working with menus in PS is a lot easier than I expected. I'm not sure if I need Menu Studio now.