best software to create dvd menus?

[ams30gts]

whats the best software out there to create dvd menus?


i making a dvd of all kinds of video clips from my dv camcorder. they are of random things from different times so i wanted to make a nice menu to organize it all.

[petar]

What's the best car?

Each user will swear into his own one (otherwise he/she won't be using it). I use DVD-Lab and TDA. Suit my needs (and my budget) but I wouldn't say they're the best. Most have free trials. Try and see. TDA is a good one to start. DVD-Lab if you want more flexibility but it's more complex.

[roma_turok]

If menu too complex I use DVD Menu Studio in my work

[Capmaster]

Among authoring progs I like Ulead DVD Movie Factory. Very easy to use yet flexible enough to have music as a background, a slideshow function, the ability to mix .JPG stills with .MPG and .AVI movie clips.

Nero Vision Express is nice for fancier menus. It has menu buttons that are thumbnails of the video clip actually playing, a fancy sort of motion menu. It's pretty slick. It also allows more flexibility than DVDMF for music options.

Like Petar said it's all a very personal thing, like the best DVD burner, video editing app or brand of coffee.

[ams30gts]

ok. thanx for the input. ill try out those progs

[lordsmurf]

Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects and Abode Photoshop all coupled together will make professional quality motion menus without any problem. At least the objects.

The menu system still needs assembly in an authoring program like ReelDVD or Encore.

I myself am still learning this approach. This is best visually.

[noki]

TMPGEnc DVD Author for simple, functional template-based menus.

[Capmaster]

Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects and Abode Photoshop all coupled together will make professional quality motion menus without any problem. At least the objects.

The menu system still needs assembly in an authoring program like ReelDVD or Encore.

I myself am still learning this approach. This is best visually.

ReelDVD, Photoshop and Premiere ....you can tell that Lordsmurf has deeper pockets than the unwashed masses like us What, no Scenarist?

[awai]

I like dvd-lab over photoshop for producing menus because it can produce anti-aliased subpictures by combining the three subpicture colors together. Makes really nice looking masks. It would be an incredible pain to do this in photoshop. I don't think mediachance's DVD Menu Studio can do this either.

Even if you don't plan on using dvd-lab to mux your data, dvd-lab is still an excellent menu designer.

Can any other apps do this? i.e. produce anti-aliased subpictures?

[racer-x]

awai,

You can make all your sub-pictures in Photoshop along with the menu. Save as psd, and import into DVD-Lab. That's what I do. If you want anti-aliased pictures, edit with vector tools.

But as lordsmurf pointed out, the best possible quality comes when you render your your menus with a good NLE. * always encode graphics as Progressive scan, it produces best quality.

[lordsmurf]

you can tell that Lordsmurf has deeper pockets than the unwashed masses like us What, no Scenarist?

No, just pockets that stretch over a 3-4 year period.

Also, things are not that expensive if you have friends that can use student discounts (or are eligible yourself) or you are able to find the software used.

No Scenarist.

[indolikaa]

Also, things are not that expensive if you have friends that can use student discounts

I'll second that!

Thanks, mom!

[awai]

racer-x, I know that you can make your subpictures in photoshop.

What dvd-lab does is give you the option of using several sub-picture colors together to produce *anti-aliased* highlights. So, if your shapes are not rectangular (i.e. curves, text), the highlights will look really nice.

Technically, you could probably do this in photoshop. But it would be so laborious that it would practically be impossible.

The only downside with combining the subpictures to produce an anti-aliased highlight is that you are limited to one highlight color.

[lordsmurf]

Technically, you could probably do this in photoshop. But it would be so laborious that it would practically be impossible.

This depends on your skill level honestly. I've been using this program for almost 8 years now, so I don't think it would be too involved. It's not as hard as colorizing a B&W photo or B&W film at least. Now THAT's intensive.

[racer-x]

awai wrote:

What dvd-lab does is give you the option of using several sub-picture colors together to produce *anti-aliased* highlights. So, if your shapes are not rectangular (i.e. curves, text), the highlights will look really nice.

Technically, you could probably do this in photoshop. But it would be so laborious that it would practically be impossible.

It's a simple matter of duplicating the layers, then change the colors of each layer the way you want. When you import the psd into DVD-Lab, all the layers are imported with it.

By default, the text is anti-aliased already. If you want to draw anti-aliased objects, use the Vector Drawing Tools.

I recomend buyng a good book on Photoshop. It is the only way you'll learn what it can do. I bought Photoshop Wow book. It is the first book I've ever bought! I normally learn things very quickly, but Photoshop is very powerful and dificult to learn. The book was money well spent.

[awai]

awai wrote:

What dvd-lab does is give you the option of using several sub-picture colors together to produce *anti-aliased* highlights. So, if your shapes are not rectangular (i.e. curves, text), the highlights will look really nice.

Technically, you could probably do this in photoshop. But it would be so laborious that it would practically be impossible.

It's a simple matter of duplicating the layers, then change the colors of each layer the way you want. When you import the psd into DVD-Lab, all the layers are imported with it.

By default, the text is anti-aliased already. If you want to draw anti-aliased objects, use the Vector Drawing Tools.

It's not a matter of anti-aliasing the objects. It's a matter of creating 3 subpicture layers such that when combined, the edges are anti-aliased.

I don't think you can just duplicate the layers. Each subpicture would then contain the same information. What you'd have to do is separate your objects into 3 different luminance quantizations and create three separate layers containing just those.

Not impossible, but enough of a hassle that if dvd-lab can do it for you, why not let it? You can always just let dvd-lab export the psd file. Use it in another app if you want.

[awai]

This turned out to be not so hard after all.

1. Changed the background to black.
2. Changed all highlightable object styles to pure white. At this point, you should have what looks like a regular mask.
3. Posterized the image to 4 levels.
4. Changed the image type from RGB to index
5. Changed the grey level index colors to red and blue.