menu fade's/outro's.

[mike909]

How do I create a menu where the buttons fade in?On hollywood dvd's the menu's have motion and stuff (which is easy enough to put into a menu) but what I havn't figured out yet is how they have button's fade in. Is this done in After Effects? I am using encore dvd, photoshop CS, and premier pro. I am decent at these apps, but havn't used After Effects at all yet.

[guns1inger]

There are two parts to this. First, create a motion menu with the buttons fading in at the appropriate point in time. It is best to have this happen at a point where the menu can be looped. The buttons you have created here are for show only. They are not real buttons, and cannot be used in your authoring program. This can be done in Premiere as well as after effects.

Next, load this into an authoring package that supports what you are trying to achieve. DVD Lab Pro, Scenarist, DVD Maestro can all do this. Don't know if encore can. How it is implemented is down to the package. In DVD Lab Pro you set a chapter point where the subpicture start to function. You will have to build the subpictures to match the menu choices you have fading in.

[mike909]

Ok, thanks. That explains it better. The actual motion buttons are not real, they just pop the real buttons over them that look exactly the same (probably not hard to do, since the creation of the menu will be done in photoshop/premier). I'm sure Encore will do the subpicture technique you speak of, I just need to figure it out. ( I am used to this challenge, as a user of adobe products). Well, I will give it a shot on my next project and post back with any success/failure. Thanks for the quick advice.

[mike909]

Ok, I figured it out. Actually it seems quite easy now. Basically you make your movie as the backround to the menu, and as long as your button's look the same (which is quite easy, if you use photoshop and premier/AE) on the menu picture as they do on the movie 'behind' it...your all set. The loop point helps if your doing a fade in animation or the like, because then it won't keep repeating that animation, rather just restart at the 'loop point'. The loop point also tells Encore when to start allowing the button highlights (which prevents people from browsing the buttons while the menu animation is still going). Being able to load photoshop files directly into premier as sequences, really makes this a seamless task. From premier you can output as whatever for Encore, and import the photoshop file as a menu in encore and make only the button 'highlights' visible. It's all very seamless (typical of adobe products...once you figure them out it all makes perfect sense). Anyways I still havn't got a handle on how to make the menu throw a different animation once the button is selected (kind of like those 'outro's' you see on hollywood productions when you hit the play button). I will work on figuring that out now.

[shteeve]

i've done this using the freeware dvdauthorgui. the downside is that there is a pause between the intro clip and the looping menu which kinda ruins the effect. but as a free solution, it ain't bad!

[mike909]

Well, I have achieved what I wanted to by making the beginning of the 'selected button's' movie start with the fading of the menu. This is probably not the best way to do it, but it achieved what I wanted. Will have to keep looking to find the best way to do it. ( I know this is not the way they do it on hollywood dvd's because when you rip the vob's the menu's are all different than the movie's themselves.)

[guns1inger]

Saw you reference back to this in another post. The solution is simple, but you can't get away from the pause (commercial disks have it as well). You need to have the button call a transition clip, that auto calls the movie when it's done. It's that simple. The pause will be there, but how noticable it will be is down to how much audio you have on your menu, and how the player handles it.

[SLK001]

Well, I have achieved what I wanted to by making the beginning of the 'selected button's' movie start with the fading of the menu. This is probably not the best way to do it, but it achieved what I wanted. Will have to keep looking to find the best way to do it. ( I know this is not the way they do it on hollywood dvd's because when you rip the vob's the menu's are all different than the movie's themselves.)

That's the way Hollywood does it. Your button on the main menu only references the "outro" part (actually, it's another menu). The outro scenes have no buttons (real, anyway), and just jump to the movie once completed. The pause is only noticeable because you are looking for it. All commercial DVDs that use this technique have the pause, too. With careful background matching, it can look seamless.

[mike909]

So basically, the 'play' button just links to a short outro movie, and you designate the real movie as the 'end' action for the outro movie. That's how I kinda figured it worked. Easy enough.

[guns1inger]

yep