Custom button sizes and function

Question

I've read a lot of posts on custom buttons, but none address how to make my .psd pen button move from selection to selection. Also, for some reason, the pen appears, but it is very tiny. I made the pen a size of 720x480, used a mask and made it transparent. I just want the pen to move to whatever link I have on my main menu screen. And I can't get the pen to appear at each line link. Any ideas?

Answer 1

The tutorial link in the previous post is what you want. Here's another one: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=134402 Scroll down a few posts and you'll see the steps.
Basically, you've got to make another file, called an overlay in Photoshop (or GIMP). There ARE some buttons in DVDSP that will do what you want, but not all of them. You're looking for the buttons to be invisible until you select something.
The "simple button" (I think it's called) will do this. Most of the buttons in DVDSP that look white in the shapes tab can be set to 0 opacity for the normal state, meaning invisible. There are others that aren't white colored as well, but you need to test them out.
To test, I'd just do ahead and drag a button over, start with the square simple button. Drag it over to the menu. It should say button 1. Add text if you want and then click the button with the mouse so it's selected.
Cycle through the various states, normal, selected, and activated, and note the color changes. Change the "normal" state colors in the button inspector so that it has a setting of 0 for opacity. If the button disappears then you're good to go. If it doesn't, then you need to use a different button then.
You should really learn the photoshop overlay method though as it allows you to really customize your buttons and use any shape in the exact way you want. For one of my last menus, I had a menu overlay where the buttons where little martini glasses that moved from menu item to menu item. It is a very valuable skill to learn for DVDSP!
Look in the zip file the previous poster uploaded. In there is an overlay file. Use that on your menu (but not the other files) and you'll see football shaped buttons appear whenever you select a button. This is what you want to do. Create an overlay with arrows in the appropriate locations. Even though you'll have many black arrows together, only one at a time will appear in DVDSP *** you select them.
I hope I managed to clear it up a little and didn't confuse further!