Drop zone QT format question

sorry to reask this, but apple couldn't answer it, so i'm a bit stumped.
1. what is the best way to use non standard sized qt's in drop zones? i want to use a QT that's roughly 380 x 220 as an animation on the menu. it get's very pixelated at 100%, plus it's difficult to determine the 100% size when scaling in dvd sp, as it brings it in at the default of 180 x 120. in my tests i've had to generate the animation at 2x the size to get a decent result.
apple uses a 640 x 480 QT in one of their tutorials on the discs, but it is sized down. i need to use a non-standard size.
it would be easier to compose the entire static background image with the animation, but the quality of the background image through the mpeg compressor is horrible.
2. you never would need to field render a clip that is not full screen in dvd sp, right?
any ideas?
macbook pro 2.33 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Didn't want to start a new thread....
I'm just a recent beginner with DVDSP4. I have the same problem more or less. I followed Colin's post instructions above, which appear to be the same as in the User manual page 276.Neither method really works.
My situation is that I can position my 6 x 8 landscape format photo easily horizontally as per these instructions, but but not vertically. No movement possible up and down. The heads of 2 people are still cut off, although there's plenty of headroom around these people in the photo.
Just can't figure out what to do, or what I'm doing wrong.
Regards. Robert

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Drop Zone question

Hi, using DVDSP4, I created a drop zone, then dropped a still photo asset into the drop zone. I need to now move the asset, that is, show a different portion of the asset in the drop zone. How do I do that? THANKS!

Didn't want to start a new thread....
I'm just a recent beginner with DVDSP4. I have the same problem more or less. I followed Colin's post instructions above, which appear to be the same as in the User manual page 276.Neither method really works.
My situation is that I can position my 6 x 8 landscape format photo easily horizontally as per these instructions, but but not vertically. No movement possible up and down. The heads of 2 people are still cut off, although there's plenty of headroom around these people in the photo.
Just can't figure out what to do, or what I'm doing wrong.
Regards. Robert

Motion Drop Zone template question

I am using a drop zone template to make a short promo video. I am trying to figure out how to transition from the drop zones flying in to open the video full screen to play. So the effect I want is a bed of music and the motion template flying in 6 drop zones. I want to see a drop zone expand into like a 20 second spot and then fly the drop zones again, pick a different one to expand into the full movie and so on. I have about 3 minutes to make this promo. I am using Final Cut Studio 3 and Motion 4.
What behaviors is there in Motion to do this or do I need to just bring in the motion file into FCP and use some sort of transition there?
Jeff

Which template are you trying to use?
I'd maybe do it this way...
1. Create the project in Motion using a frame that is twice the size of your editing format in FCP. If you're editing DV in FCP, use one of the HD templates. If you're using HD in FCP, you'll need to change the properties of the project to about 2160 pixels high. but the dropzones should be able to hold a full size clip.
2. Render it all out full size.
3. Import it into FCP and drop it into your timeline, set it to 25% or 50% scale, don't let FCP scale it to fit the sequence.
4. You will be able to use the scale and position (center) keyframes to zoom in on any single dropzone to fill the frame at 100%.
That's just one of many simple ways to do this without using a camera in the template. If you're new to Motion, save that for a later project.
Mark or others will have more interesting suggestions later.
bogiesan

Drop Zones formats ?

Can someone tell me if you can use FCE Final Cut Movies in the drop zones on the themes in iDVD 5.0 ?

Hi lucey,
Here is what the Apple KB article says: iDVD 5 Help: Preparing your Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro movie to work with iDVD.
Power Mac G4 (QuickSilver) Mac OS X (10.4.3)

First Time Mac User: Question Re: iDVD Drop Zone on Standard Theme

Oh My! I love this program and have spent all day on it. How do I add more than just 6 pictures to the watercolor theme? If I put numerous photo's in one drop zone, it only displays one of the photo's? Frustrated!!!! Observe

Two ways to do this is to make up a series of short slideshows in iPhoto or FotoMagico and drop it into each drop zone. Or you can even use YOUR slideshow in each drop zone by just selecting the autofill button on your menu. You can adjust each "movie" to play from different points and also change the "loop" time for your theme so that it only plays for 30 seconds or so (time it to suit the music).

Drop zone of loop in the film stip template, works in simultor, not burning

Droping a loop from the film into the drop some in a chapter menu and it shows up on the simulator. when I go to burn or build etc there is just white where the loop should be. everything else is workinng fine just but no loop- any ideas out there?
thnx

OK bigger problem- the all NTSC DVD that used the same template [film strip] also had no problem in the simulator, but I just build/formated it, and the drop zones in the menu buttons whent all white again- same as yesterday. I also checked and they were all software based in the menu prefs. something is wrong here, there is like a "flash frame" of the first frame of the loop, frozen for a split second. and then when the motion starts it all goes to white in zone. I am really flumixed here, did I change something in the targets or is it still burn realted? but why does it work in the simulator, like a charm and then it does not burn????? FRUSTRATED

Adding pictures to a theme, but not in the drop zones...

I don't know if this is a really noob ou really tricky question, but here it goes : )
I'd like to add a/some picture(s) to a iDVD theme, but not in the drop zones. I'd like my pictures to appear as layers, choose whoch one goes in front, and so on...
Is there any way to do that?
Thx, and happy new year ; )
iMac 24' 2,16GHz CodeDuo2 GeForce 7300 GT 1Gh DDR Mac OS X (10.4.8)

In that case you would need to prepare the background as a QT movie exactly the way you want to display it as a background movie and then drag and drop that prepared QT file to iDVD.
I've never done this type of movie in iLife apps alone but I have with FCP & DVD SP which offers these additional video editing options for sizing pip and frames in an existing movie / menu.
Also check the help Menu for iDVD6 (and iMovie) if you haven't already. I did a search for you and here's what I came up with:
Changing the background image of a DVD menu
You can replace the background image in a menu with your own image. Images in menu backgrounds are cropped to fit the standard DVD window size, but the aspect ratio of the original image is preserved. If you want your image to fit the DVD window exactly, first use an image-editing application to resize the image to 640 x 480 for standard video and 854 x 480 for widescreen.
When you replace a background image, you can also choose to keep the drop zones or remove them completely.
Here are ways to change the background image:
Drag a picture file from the Finder or the Media pane to a DVD menu background, outside a drop zone. Before you drop the picture, press the Command key and choose "Replace background" or "Replace background and drop zones" from the contextual menu that appears (shown above). Then release the mouse button.
Click the Menu button and drag a picture file from the Finder to the background well in the Menu pane. If your theme has drop zones, the drop zones disappear.
Click the Media button, then click Photos. Drag a photo from your iPhoto library or another folder to your DVD menu. If your theme has drop zones, the drop zones are retained.
Choose File > Import > Image, locate and select an image, and click Import. If your theme has drop zones, the drop zones are retained.
To remove a background image and return to the default image for the theme, click the Menu button and drag the image out of the background well (shown above).
Hope this answers your question/s.
SDMacuser

Editing a picture to fit into theme drop zone

I have cropped a picture in iphoto to remove a damaged portion and to reposition the important part of the picture to show in the Memories theme in idvd but the original photo keeps appearing.
I have several questions.
Can I move a picture in the drop zone in a theme like Memories that is horizontal to better show the important part of the picture rather than the midpoint?
Why does my original photo and not the cropped photo appear in the drop zone even when the picture I see shows the cropped picture?

This is where DVDSP out performs iDvd. There is much more latitude (literally) within apple's pro apps for exactly this type of work. It is possible within iDvd also (to a marginal extent). But there's only so much i-apps will offer when compared to apple's pro apps. Hence the need for a graphics editing app (ie, PhotoShop).
It actually becomes a bit frustrating without the additional features / tools to do the work that's needed to customize your iDvd in this respect. It's almost as if one is at the mercy of the software along with it's built in limitations. It is a shortfall IMO, even though it is intended as a consumer app.

Image in drop zone not sharp

Using a DVD SP menu template, I have dropped images into button drop zones. The .jpg files when viewed in photoshop are much sharper than when they are seen in the DVD menu format, even though the images as button images are even smaller than when the image is viewed outside of DVD SP. The unsuarp image stays there when I burn a DVD and test on a television or TV screen too, so it's not a matter of how it looks in simulate.
Any ideas on why the drop zone images are not sharp / how to solve to problem?
Thanks in advance.

Hi Pamela
Have just had a go at this operation on a brand new project and I did not get any of the problems you mentioned both as buttons and drop zones, have you tried it out in a brand new project to see if you get the same results as before, also you could try saving your files as a TIFF from photoshop to see if that increases the quality of what you get from a jpeg.

Drop zones in iWork

While using a template in iWork you can drag a picture from the Media Browser into a 'drop zone' type area that is preformatted for a portrait/landscape picture and it has a nice frame and drop shadow around it. How can I create these 'drop zones' for my own templates? Do I need to be a developer for this? What does it take?
(I know I can go into Photoshop and create a page with transparency for the background and do 'cut-outs' but I don't want cut-outs. They are limited.)
Thanks for any input.
iMac G5 17 1.8 Ghz SuperDrive, MBPro 2.16 C2D 2GB Mac OS X (10.4.8)

"Drop zones" in Keynote are nothing more than backgrounds with cutouts, and whatever graphical fanciness has been added. In Pages, there are Placeholder Images (defined in the Format menu, under the Advanced flyout menu), and these images can have default rotation, masks, and dropshadows, but again the framing will be a graphical feature, and not a feature of the placeholder itself.

Drop zone content fills entire screen for some reason. Help!

Hi, everyone. I've used iDVD for years, but have not had this problem before. I'm trying to use the 4:3 template called "Projector". There is only one drop zone, which should show what the projector is playing. However, when I right click the area and "Fill with Content" (I want video playing there), it doesn't just fill the small square where it's supposed to. Instead, it just takes up the entire screen of the project, completely overlapping the template. In other words, I can't even see the Projector template anymore.
Has anyone else had this experience, or even better, have a solution to it?
Thanks!

Actually, that's a perfectly acceptable way to add content to that drop zone. I've been doing it for years. With a single click on the video box (once "fill with content" is selected), you're even able to adjust where the video starts and ends. If you're just looking to load on general video from your iMovie project, it's a great shortcut to use.
I know the other method of loading content into the drop zone. But that didn't really answer my question as to why the entire screen was filling up with content. I've re-installed the software twice, which fixes it, but I'm just wondering why that problem keeps occurring over time.

Moving an image around in a drop zone in DVD studio

Hi there
I am pretty new to this DVD studio program, and I often am using templates to make my client DVDs. One major major problem I always come across is when I have to drop images in, they always dont fit properly, let me show you one for example
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/8978/picture8vt.png
This always happens when I drop images in Final cut. Is there a way I can move my Image around that box?
Thanks in advance!
Message was edited by: blackout2008

if you click on a corner handle of the drop zone then press shift and drag the corner outwards, the drop zone will snap fit to match the format ratio of the image revealing the complete image
the reason you wont be able to move the image sideways is that there wont be any image to reveal-if the image is a different ratio to the drop zone, the image will fit inside the drop zone either by hieght or width
if the drope zones dont provide what you want-its very simple to create your own in a graphics application

Motion 5 / FCP X - Frustrating Drop Zones

I've been (trying) to use Drop Zones lately on a number of projects and while I've been able to kludge things here and there to get them to work properly, they sure have frustrated me. The projects I'm working on need snippets of properly timed video floating around the screen, usually within the opening sequence for the video. The trouble is I've never been able to really figure out the timing for these things.
1) Initially, the logical thought was (for me, at least) to set at least an in point for the video before dropping it into the Drop Zone in FCP X. That certainly didn't work because it appeared as though FCP X totally ignored my clip's in point. I wanted that clip video to start exactly at the beginning of that drop zone.
2) Since that didn't work I did some Internet research and someone posted that Drop Zones ignore clip in points. They said that when selecting the clip for the drop zone to place the cursor on the exact frame where you want the video to start before applying it to the Drop Zone. Well, that works to an extent.
Here's what I found after doing some experimentation in both Motion 5 and FCP X (latest versions of each). First, I created a video with timecode in it so that I could accurately track where the video really started on the first frame of the individual Drop Zone. The video starts with 10 seconds of color bars followed by 5 minutes of burned in timecode, then another 10 seconds of color bars. I created a simple Motion Generator with four Drop Zones - upper left, upper right, lower left and lower right. Each Drop Zone was placed exactly 10 seconds apart. So, for example:
For the first test I placed each Drop Zone within one Group in Motion. Drop Zones start at the following timecode for each location as follows:
UL: 00:00:00:00
LL: 00:00:10:00
UR: 00:00:20:00
LR: 00:00:30:00
After publishing the project, I loaded it into FCP X. I used the same timecode video for each Drop Zone starting it at timecode value 00:01:00:00. Now, one would think that each drop zone window, having been placed exactly 10 seconds apart, would show timecode values for the inserted videos also each 10 seconds apart. But they don't! All four Drop Zones show exactly the same timecode value. They are acting as if all four were placed within the Motion 5 timeline starting at 00:00:00:00. But they weren't.
So, I thought, what would happen if I placed each Drop Zone in Motion in a separate Group? I created four Groups, each one holding only one Drop Zone. It didn't make a difference. The timecode videos in each window were still in sync with one another.
The only way I can get this to work properly is to offset the beginning of each clip by -10 seconds. Unfortunately, if there's not enough "preroll" in the clip to do that, I'm out of luck.
But it gets stranger! Further experimentation leads me to believe that all of the Drop Zones within a project reference themselves to the very first Drop Zone within the project. I picked a new point within the timecode video - in this case, the 2 minute point (00:02:00:00) and dropped it into the UL drop zone. I did the same then for the other three and now they all track based on that 00:02:00:00 point within the video!
But it gets even stranger!!! I tried one more experiment, this time loading the Drop Zones in reverse order. That seemed to work. But still, why should I have to mess around like this trying to sync drop zones in some of weird order?
The question is, why do Drop Zones work this way and what can be done to fix this problem? However I select the first frame of video for a particular drop zone should be what that drop zone references when rendering. Ideally it would be great to be able to use an in point on the clip, but I'm also happy with just moving the clip's cursor to the first frame. It's easy enough to do. Hopefully the software team working on these apps can come up with a solution that makes sense. Thanks.
John

I've had this too and the fix then was to delete my project render files (FCP that is).
Russ

Help with DROP ZONES!!

Hi. Firstly, sorry if I'm not able to explain myself in the proper terminology...very new to Pages and all.
Here is my query:
How do you create a Drop Zone (if that's what it's called)? i.e.The zones on the templates that enable you to drop a picture (any image) in them and they fill the shape entirely. So instead as using a solid colour as a fill, you'd use an image?
Thank you!!

pseudo,
Welcome to Apple discussions.
In Pages' parlance, it's called a Placeholder. Just insert an image, any image, into your Pages document. Select it. Click on Format > Advanced > Define As Media Placeholder. That's all there is to it.
-Dennis

What is the reason for so many Drop Zones in iDVD?

Thank you Tboake and Terry for helping with my project. Now I am convinced that to create my show which mixes pictures, Text, movie clips and music, as well all the other effects, iDVD is the right way to start.
However I have a question regarding the significance of "Drop Zones". For example if I select as a theme "Reflection White" there are 8 drop zones. What exactly are we supposed to do with these drop zones?
• Do we drop all pictures of a show in one zone?
• Do we drop only one picture in each zone?
• Do we drop the movie clip in the next zone?
• Does each zone represents a different chapter in my show?
• For example if my trip involves 8 cities and I want to make a show for each city do I drop the pictures taken in one city in one zone, the second city in the next zone and so on.
It was very helpful reading "Authoring iDVD 6" by Ken Stone as suggested by you, but even though if he works out all the details he really never explains what these zones are about.
Frank Secco

Frank
Ditto everyone's comments. The menus make for a flashy introduction to the movie itself. If you are planning to give a talk/verbal introduction, for instance, when you "show" the movie, it can help to entertain and tantalize your viewers while they wait for you to finish.
Otherwise, they seem to add a lot of rendering time if the main event is the film itself.
I usually use pretty basic ones for projects that we will not spend a long time waiting to ask to play. My kids use more interesting ones to impress their teachers at school and get better grades! For those we often add a short audio clip/song, to make it less silent as well as animated.
Also, some themes are better than others at providing you with appropriate spacing for your chapter markers. I usually experiment with few different themes to be sure that my chapter markers all fit and don't overlap, etc.
Terri

Drop zone QT format question

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