Drop zone (transparent) over motion menu problem

Hello.
I've created a semi-transparent photoshop file that I would like to use as a dropzone. When I import the psd file, DVDSP lists it as a "quicktime picture". When I drag the asset over my motion menu the part that is supposed to be transparent is white and covers up the entire motion background. Any ideas of what I'm doing wrong here?
Has anyone had success using transparent graphics in DVDSP 4?
Thanks.

i dont believe you can mix photoshop files the way you are intending with motion menus. I know you can create custom drop zones and patches using photoshop, but this is a more involved process than just dropping a psd over motion. I have exported tga that maintains transparency information and used them to success as drop zones. you could try that.
It would be better to bring you psd into a compositing program like motion, after effects, or even final cut, and create the motion for your menu there. Export it, compress it to m2v and bring that into dvd sp.

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How do I resize an image within a drop zone (not the drop zone itself) in motion 5?

How do I resize an image within a drop zone (not the drop zone itself) in motion 5?

I think others would be able to help if you describe a little more why you'd like to do this. Given that drop zones are a way of passing images into Motion that you want to manipulate, resizing a drop zone is the equivalent of resizing the image.
If you're having a problem with an image from Final Cut being too big or too small, select the Drop Zone in the inspector and make sure the Fit parameter is set to 'Fit' - 'Center' will result in images dropped not being scaled to fit the Drop Zone. 'Stretch' will force the dropped image to fill the space defined by the drop zone,
If the image is already cropped and scaled up in Final Cut Pro, that is the information that Motion gets - you can't scale down the image to see more of the edges that have been cropped off.
If you want more than one copy of the image passed via the drop zone, use Make Clone Layer from the Object menu.

Flash motion menu problem

Hi,
Ive made a dvd with the first play as a motion menu containing a small video clip. Ten seconds, plays once then moves to a static menu. There is nothing else in the menu (no buttons etc) and all it contains is the locked background layer that encore generates plus the movie linked through the motion tab.
I used a menu to do this other than a time line because I was getting a weird scaling thing when it jumped to the static menu. Not a 4:3 - 16:9 issue, just a slight scaling. Both are set to 720x576 WS PAL.
Anyway, this menu shows up fine when I preview the dvd in encore but when I make a flash version for the client to preview, the motion menu is just black. Audio plays but no video. The rest of the dvd works fine in the flash version.
Any ideas?
Thanks for your time.

What is the AV format of the Motion Menu Asset?
Can you post a screen-cap of the Layers of your Motion Menu?
When one has a Scaling issue, and the pixel x pixel size matches, it is often a mis-match in PAR (Pixel Aspect Ratio), and is often square pixels in one case, and non-square pixels in the other. IIRC, with PAL, that would be 1.0 vs 1.4 for the PAR's. To correct that Scaling, I would carefully check the PAR of all Assets in that Menu.
Good luck,
Hunt

Video in drop zone breaking menu transition...

this seemed simple.
i have a drop zone on my main menu with a quicktime in it. no interactivity. also on the main menu is a text button. that button triggers a custom transition/wipe that i built in motion. eveything worked fine, until i placed the drop zone with the quicktime: what happens is that when the menu button is selected, the drop zone clip jumps to a different point, then applies the transition and goes to the track. but that's not all. when going back to the menu, the drop zone clip will go to somewhere in the middle of that clip, then go to the head...
the menu length is set to the length of the qt in the drop zone.
if i delete the drop zone, the trans works fine.
any ideas?

Hi:
The transition in your final disc will be a MPEG-2 video file, it will not be created on the fly while playing. That means that DVDSP will use a frame from your menu as starting point to create the transition "to the movie" video file and another one to create the "from the movie" transition. The same happens when you use a movie as background in your menu.
I don't know what rule uses DVDSP to select what frame to choose to build the transition, but you cannot expect that your transition will start in the frame that you are seeing in any moment. Do you know what I mean?
Alberto

Sync Drop zone w buttons in Main menu

I created buttons for different tracks and a drop zone in my main menu. I can only have a track in that drop zone looping. I want to have the particular track display on my drop zone when ever my arrow selects that particular button on my main menu, so I will know this button has what video content. Is it possible to do that?

Just to make sure we are on the same page, if you look at
http://www.dvdstepbystep.com/1.jpg and you want to scroll down the buttons on the left so the area in the black square to the right shows a different video (not still) you would need different menus. If that black area is just a still, then you can use layered menus.
If you want to hide/reveal little clips to the right of the button for instance, http://www.dvdstepbystep.com/2.jpg, then you would put the movie clips in the background of the menu and hide/reveal the section of the background

Photo too large for drop zone

Often when I drag a photo into the drop zone of a main menu, the photo goes in but is displayed so large that much of the subject is cropped out. Anyone have a way of shrinking the photo down so that the entire photo can be seen in the menu?

I have found that size of the photo is rarely a problem. The problem is simply getting that portion of the photo you are interested in to show. The drop zone photo areas are small, therefore, you generally are placing photos of people that were taken from distances of 5 to 10 feet. The faces are the key to being satisfied with the photo in the drop zone ( or the car, or the motorcylcle, etc.) FORTUNATELY, you can drop the photo in the zone, and then place your cursor on the photo and move it around so that exactly the area of the photo you are concerned with will show! By moving my photos ( in effect a cropping occurs without the loss of any part of the photo. It would be like looking at a 4X6" photo and placing a 1X3" frame on it. Move the frame around to get what you want and VOILA! Hope this enables you to accomplish your drop zone objective.

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

Drop Zones Not Appearing

The drop zones on the main menu of the DVD do not appear. I open the Drop Zone editor and it has a box for the Menu, but not a box for the drop zone. However, the sub menus are the same theme and have drop menus. I have tried Command-I and click the box at the bottom, but nothing.
Please help. Thank you.

That is so strange. I have drop zones on the above iDvd'08 theme that I can activate with a simple check mark or get rid of them by unchecking the same box.
If your software isn't allowing for such an option then I'd consider re-installing iDvd'08.
You do know that after you check or uncheck that tiny box at the foot of the inspector, that you then need to click on the screen which then activates or deactivates the drops zone/s. At least that's the way mine works. For example ....
Click Here
Btw ... before you do any re-installing of this software, please try a separate user account and launch iDvd from the new account to see if this duplicates the very same behavior or not.
Good luck on this and I'll check back with you later. (Wife and I have a date).
Message was edited by: SDMacuser

Scripting video in drop zones? possible? necessary?

is it possible to have different video play in a drop zone when a viewer returns to the menu. is this something that can be scripted? Or do i have to create a separate menu for each diferent piece of video in the drop zone and assigne that menu as the return point for the next menu with a different video in the drop zone at the time of returning from the end of a chapter? what do you think?
-trevor

You can target loop point from the track and the drop zone will be the same length in - in other words lets say the drop zone is a 30 second clip and you set the loop point in the menu to 20 seconds into the menu if you target the loop point via a script as a return the drop zone will play from 20 seconds on (as will the rest of the menu)
But it is really not very elegent nor does it sound like what you want - each drop zone will have to be timed
The script is
Jump Menu :: (Loop) //loop is a checkbox option in the inspector

PROJECTOR Theme no longer has Drop Zone?

iDVD 5.0.1
I used this earlier in the year to burn a DVD with the PROJECTOR theme (old theme) and there was a Drop Zone on the main menu to put a pic in the Movie Screen.
I pulled out the old DVD I made and there it is.
Now when I try to use the PROJECTOR theme on a new Project, I don't get a Drop Zone for the Movie Screen (?)
What happened?
All the other Themes still have their Drop Zones.

Are you sure?
Have you tried double clicking on the screen in the theme? That should bring up both visual and audio drop zones.
If that fails, try deleting iDVD's preference file (close iDVD first):
Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.idvd.plist
then open iDVD again. Does it work now?

Upgrade to Final Cut 10.0.7 destroyed my generators created in Motion that include drop zones. Anyone experienced the same problem ?

In Motion 5 I created generators that included a drop zone. The objective it to bring them into Final Cut and insert into the drop zone a clip of the same duration.
In FCX 10.0.6 I used to bring a clip to the time line and re size it to the exact duration of my generator. Then I bring the generator to the time line and selected the generator, click in the drop zone of the published parameters menu and select this clip I wanted to insert. The result was the generator using my clip and the clip playing during all the duration of the generator with the generator effect.
Now, with 10.0.7 I can’t make that work. When I click in the clip I would like to import into the drop zone, the result is that there’s just a frozen image of the clip (in the same place I clicked with the mouse)
Is this a known problem of 10.0.7. It used to work well in 10.0.6
Thanks for your help !

I can't see that the update would have any effect on custom generators as they are housed separately from FCP X.
Many weird things happen as a result of corrupt preferences which can create a vast range of different symptoms, so whenever FCP X stops working properly in any way, trashing the preferences should be the first thing you do using this free app.
http://www.digitalrebellion.com/prefman/
Shut down FCP X, open PreferenceManager and in the window that appears:-
1. Ensure that only FCP X is selected.
2. Click Trash
The job is done instantly and you can re-open FCP X.
There is absolutely no danger in trashing preferences and you can do it as often as you like.
The preferences are kept separately from FCP X and if there aren't any when FCP X opens it automatically creates new ones . . . instantly.

I've encountered problems with drop zones in generators from Motion 5 toFCP X 10.0.7.

The clips won't import properly and come up as stills rather than videos. In one of my generators (with three drop zones) only one will display the clip - the other two play as stills (frozen?). I've tried having the playhead parked at the start of the clip when adding them to the generator, but it produces the same results.
Any solutions?

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

Drop Zones in DVDSP menu templates

I like to occasionally use the menu templates that come with DVDSP. One thing that frustrates me is the quality of the playback video in the Drop Zone of the template. The image has a somewhat jagged/blocky look to it. It is not as smooth and clear as the original m2v file. Is this an encoding problem? What can I do to correct this situation.
The original work is done in FCP5 and then encoded to m2v using the Quicktime Conversion options. I usually chose the settings for a 6 bit target rate with a 7 max, one time VBR, and "Better" motion detection.

What David said - any footage on a menu that includes other shapes or items from the palette will get encoded to MPEG2. If you have already used MPEG2 as the source footage then DVDSP will pass it through another enocde process, and you will lose quality... your best bet therefore is to use .mov files in this case.

Apple motion 5 template drop zones play only 1080p video clips. 720p will play outside of dropzone.

I am also getting a -1 error when trying to export with the 720p clip in a dropzone. I bought the clip stock and they didn't offer this one in 1080p. Is there any explanation as to why this clip will not run in the dropzone but does on the canvas?

You shouldn't be "loading" drop zones in Motion. You should be doing that in FCPX (as long as the drop zone source well is published.) You do not have to use Motion to "bake" video for import into FCPX. Install the template for FCPX [ place the effect folder in ~/yourHomeFolder/Movies/Motion Templates/<TypeOfEffect>/<CategoryFolder - create a new one if you want>/<place effect folder here> ]
The types of effects are Effects, Titles, Generators, Transitions.
The effect you bought came in a folder. That folder structure must be maintained for FCPX. That usually means: a Motion document (.moef, .moti, .motr or .motn file), 2 .pngs and a Media folder. If any of these are missing, it will not work in FCPX.
To use the drop zone in FCPX, apply the effect to the clip (or if it is a Title, place the title over the storyline); click on the Drop Zone source well, then click on the clip you want to apply to the drop zone from either the Event browser or the storyline. You'll see a "2-up" display, and you should see an "Accept" button in the viewer to finalize the application to the drop zone.
If you have the same problems in FCPX, let us know!

Motion 3 template drop zone content won't play in FCP

I am new to Motion. I made a custom template and brought it into FCP. It inserts and previews fine. In FCP I place a clip into one of the masked-out "drop zones" under the "controls tab" and here is where I run into the problem:
The clip shows up ok in the template but doesn't play once I render; all I get is a static still from it.
I sense that I am almost there... any suggestions?
many thanks,
Alan
intel iMac, G4 Powerbook Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Hi, this problem has been solved over in the Quicktime discussions:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5106282&#5106282
Turns out you need to install Qmaster to play HDV files in QT (without FCP installed).

Drop zone (transparent) over motion menu problem

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