DVD-Lab - Way to preview link object (button) visual look?

[Colmino]

I'm struggling with this one. I am trying to use an arrow object - one of the ones which comes with DVD-Lab by default. I'm resizing it to something smaller and half the relative vertical length. I'm telling DVD-Lab to use anti-aliasing rather than three different unique colors. Well, the result is a bit of a mess. The arrow's pixels are inexact, as are those of its anti-aliased border.

Now, I understand why this is the case. A DVD link's graphics have only limited superimposing capabilities, with basically no filtering for the edges. Fine. What I'd really like is to be able to preview what the arrow is going to look like, without having to render the whole DVD to check how the arrow looks. Then I could finetune it as needed, to avoid the imperfections I'm seeing with this first attempt.

Any idea how this is done in DVD-Lab? (Pro?)

[Colmino]

To elaborate my situation with the buttons.. What I would really like is to be able to slap together, say, a 60 by 30 pixel masterpiece, with two or three colors (however many the DVD format can support), surrounded by non-graphics of course, and import the result into DVD-Lab, or, more ideally, do this from within DVD-Lab since it's such a simple function. Instead, near as I can tell, the best I can do is take one of the arrows it provides, try resizing it and changing its geometry, and pray that when the menu renders, the arrow doesn't look like crap.

So it's pretty clear I'm overlooking something, here.

[heiber]

You could compile the DVD with the Test Compile option selected. This will put in a placeholder for the movies and reduce the time it takes to compile and test out your menus.

[Colmino]

Thanks. I've been using that function. With its help, I have been able to determine that ANY resizing of a default object is going to result in imperfect edges. I still have no clue what I can do to create a button object with more precise control over the resulting look.

[Colmino]

Welp. I tried creating a new arrow in Photoshop, and what I ended up with was a rectangle with an arrow in the middle of it. Worthless for my needs.

Here's the deal. I'm using a motion menu, and that means the type of button icon I can use is limited to one of those transparent two-color jobs. Problem is, I don't know how to MAKE one of those types of buttons, and resizing one of the arrows that comes with DVD-Lab results in edges with obvious resizing defects.

This can't be a unique scenario. People surely need to make their own buttons all the time. What is used, and how do you avoid the fact that the resulting file is in fact a rectangle?

[Colmino]

Update to this problem. I just dragged DVD-Lab's arrow object to my DVD and left the size as-is. And the edges in the final DVD are STILL jagged! I don't get it.

[guns1inger]

Have you tested how it looks on a TV ? I find DVD Labs overlays tend to look much worse on the PC monitor than on the TV.

[Colmino]

Well, the only TV I have access to is a plasma display, so that's not much help. Besides, things shouldn't be designed just to look good on a display device that has the "advantage" of built-in quality reduction.

I've been experimenting with DVD-Lab's resizing. It is curious and frustrating. I have taken one of the default arrow objects and rendered several dozen resizes so I could investigate their look in the final DVD. I used size ranges from like 55x20 to 55x40, for example.

Every single case has resulted in jagged edges. Most of them even somehow managed to make the vertical edge (which is perfectly straight) jagged! There's something seriously screwed up, here.