Help making really advanced DVD menus.

[Supercookie07]

Can anyone help me making advanced DVD menus?
And not just the ones made with DVDStyler or DVD-Lab.
This is one of my favorite examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWVGN3SiAd8
Major thanks to anyone that can help me!

[_Al_]

Don't, your life will be much happier

First you need to pick up an authoring software, because general theory and practical approach in a concrete app might be confusing. Well it might not, but you'd need to start with Scenarist, DVD Maestro or DVD Lab Pro. So go with DVD Lab Pro. To switch from those three to the rest of whatever there is, you'd only follow the principle.

Menu on DVD only appears that way. It consist of intro (not always), which is video and audio, it is basically part of main menu cell 1. Then as soon as you can see that clover leaf to pop up over button that is actual another cell, cell2 where you can select button. Also video and audio , this time in a loop, and you can select things. You'd need subpicture to define that clover leaf as a selection pop up. To understand how to define subpicture you can get from here

[Supercookie07]

Well, I heard that you can author complex DVDs with PgcEdit, and that the motion DVD menus are just short videos overlayed with buttons.
I just need help with the video part.

[_Al_]

That is just a composition. You'd need editing software (Adobe Premiere or Magix Vegas) together with standard motion graphics and visual effects software like After Effects. What you design for that composition (animation, videos, images) that's another story. You might need bunch of other software.

[lordsmurf]

You have to make the assets first.
- audio = SoundForge, etc
- video = Premiere, etc
- images = Photoshop, etc

Then assemble. I use Ulead DVDWS2 (Windows XP VM) or DVD Studio Pro (Mac)
Other options = DVD Lab, maybe Sony/Magix Architect, Scenarist or Maestro eons ago < and all have craptastic UIs
NOT TMPGEnc, freeware, Encore

That favorite menu of yours is easy for me to do, especially in DVDWS2. It just takes time, mostly to composite the motion clips (not the thumbnails)

[poisondeathray]

I just need help with the video part.

What do you need help with ?

Is it all planned out yet ?

Do you have stuff for the video part ? eg. if you have parts from your main dvd movie title, you can cut parts from that to make up the motion menu - it's basically video editing and compositing . But if you need to create stuff from scratch, animate it , etc... that becomes much more difficult

[Cornucopia]

What I saw was an intro video that was actually a "motion menu".

It is built so that it works like this...
(Frames)
A B C D E F G H I J K

where F through K are laid out such that they will look natural and almost seamless when they loop (you can test loop out by duplicating clip and adjusting transition point).

Buttons do not appear until loop point, which IIRC, loop part can last up to 2 min. for DVD spec motion menus.

Rest of the clip just seems to show standard menus. (Though I didn't finish watching. TLDR).

With Pshop and good NLE & Authoring apps (Vegas, PPro, etc with DVDA, Encore, etc), you could easily create as good or better. Given enough time & effort & design talent.

Scott

[DB83]

Sorry but 'advanced' menus are vanity projects.

Spend days, even weeks, in creating them and the first time you see the finished product it looks great. Watch it even a few times you get bored and since it is a menu there is no way to skip bits to go on to the selection.

I know because I have been as guilty on this as the next. And like Lordsmurf have used DVDWorksop and DVDLab Pro for these.

[lordsmurf]

Sorry but 'advanced' menus are vanity projects.

Spend days, even weeks, in creating them and the first time you see the finished product it looks great. Watch it even a few times you get bored and since it is a menu there is no way to skip bits to go on to the selection.

I know because I have been as guilty on this as the next. And like Lordsmurf have used DVDWorksop and DVDLab Pro for these.

You speak truth.

It's just vanity, and almost nobody cares but the author. I've made quite a few things I'm proud of, got some good creativity flowing, but I know it was for me more than anybody else. Very often, it was just to say "wow, I made something really cool and complex". If I wanted feedback, I'd have to ask "how did you like the menu", because nobody ever volunteers comments on menus. And it was a courteous "they're really nice" or some such, pretty lukewarm yet complimentary. In 15+ years, I've gotten not even 15 praise comments (never anything negative). Comments are always reserved for the content.

Menus just need to be clean and functional, and ideally attractive (meaning no stupid newbie design mistakes, like Comic Sans or placing content in the non-safe zone). Not fancy/motion/advance unless you just have time to kill for a person art project.

Case artwork was far more popular. For some, still is, but in the streaming HTPC/DLNA era, mostly "was".

People cared less about disc artwork than they did the menus.

since it is a menu there is no way to skip bits to go on to the selection.

Nah, you didn't author links/assets well in that case. There should always exist a way to quickly jump to content/assets.
Either that, or you trapped yourself with a menu that had no escape, also bad.