DVD Lab Pro 2's Render Menu Motion - Intro and Loop Questions?

[xhonzi]

DVD Lab Pro 2 & Render Motion Menu:
I'm creating animated chapter menus. I've already used Render Menu to creat the looping part of the menu. What I want is a lead in where the background is shown for half a second or so and then the chapter previews do a cross-screen intro. This is where I'm running into trouble.

If I set the "Intro Effect" option to "Cross Screen", and the time to 1 second, then the chapter previews all cross screen, but so does the image I'm using as the background. If I re-render but de-select the background, then the previews come over correctly, but it's all rendered with a black background and I'm not sure what to do with it at that point.

By "background" I really do mean "a picture that I've puy behind everything else." I tried to turn this picture into an actual "background", but found no apparent way to do that. I coud easily remove the background with a right click, but that is sort of the opposite of what I was trying to do.

I've been looking at these two how to's:
http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/Helppro/render.htm
http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/Helppro/motioncell.htm

They seem to be talking about the subject in which I am interested, but don't have the details for helping me.

Thanks!

[xhonzi]

Is there a better forum (at Videohelp or another site?) to ask this question? I thought this would be the best one.

[Safesurfer]

Is there a better forum (at Videohelp or another site?) to ask this question? I thought this would be the best one.

Yes, try www.mmbforums.com which is the official forum for Mediachance products. Scroll down for DVD-Lab Pro forum.

[guns1inger]

FWIW, as a long time DVD Lab Pro user, I never use the built in render motion/transition tools. I find the process cumbersome and the quality average. I do all my motion assets in Vegas (any editor will do, I just happen to use Vegas), then I import these into DLP and do all my assembling. The process works much smoother, gives me a wider range of tools to work with, and produces a far better result.