Dropping a Track into a Drop Zone?

Attempting a complex menu: Client wants a "live" menu throughout a video so that the viewer can navigate at any time while the video is playing. I have accomplished this by using a large Drop Zone in a menu and setting the loop point to the length of the embedded video, and setting an End jump to Still. The user can then select another section to view by clicking on another button on the live menu - or, "all of the choices all of the time".
The problem: Client wants to include a "?" button onscreen at all times so that (hypothetically) if the viewer wanted to "pause" the video they were watching and look at another menu of "FAQ" buttons/select one/watch a video, then the viewer could then select a "Resume" button on-screen and it would return them to a location near where they were prior to when they clicked the "?" button.
I do not believe this can be done based on the "live" menu design. My understanding is that there is a Last Chapter Viewed function that will memorize where the viewer was when they left a Track, but that it will only work if the video that was being watched was a Track, and not an embedded video in a Drop Zone. You cannot drop a Track into a Drop Zone, and Tracks are the only place you can embed chapter markers, so you cannot refer to a Last Chapter Viewed in the "live" menu I created.
In other words, a raw MPEG2 clip cannot have chapter markers placed in it, then dropped into a Drop Zone because chapter markers can only be done on a Track, and Tracks cannot be used inside a Drop Zone. (sorry if that is redundant - this is odd)
Do I have that right? I need to know if this can/cannot be done so that my client can consider an alternative.

Thank you so much! I tried to find this in the manual, but not knowing what it is called it was obviously not easy. I am glad you were able to figure out what I was talking about despite the shortcomings of my video editing vocabulary.
I am slowly discovery that I love to edit in FCE. I have volunteered to edit the video from a children's play my church puts on each year. Each year it seems to get more difficult as we add more cameras. I finally took the plunge this year with FCE as iMovie did not seem up to the challenge.
I have audio from a professional sound board, and synced that up with the camera that has the best angle. I have locked the sound board audio, and then I delete any new audio that is added when I add video tracks....Which now that I look at my timeline it does not seem to be adding any audio when I add clips from the viewer which suits my purposes just find, but I am not sure why.

Similar Messages

How do I get pics into Drop Zones for Templates?

I am having a problem that is probably simple, but for the life of me, I can't figure it out. I opened a templated in Motion and noticed that some of the templates have drop zones, a la iDVD.
Okay, so I found some pics in the browser but when I went to drag them into the drop zone, the image did not go into into the drop zone, and instead a new layer was created. I've tried this countless times and can't seem to gt the pictures to go in the drop zones.
Am I doing anything wrong?

The problem is one of interpretation. What you are seeing are grey "replace media" items which need to be replaced with what you want. They aren't 'drop zones' ala IDVD or DVDSP (basically it's an image with a mask or overlay over it giving it that 'drop zone' look)
There are many ways of changing/replacing the "media" items (this is Apple after all ;):
1) If you press F5, you open up the "Layers/Media/Audio" window. Click "Media" and you'll see all the elements used to make up the template, including "replace 1.jpg" etc.
2)Click on one of the "replace" files. Then click the "Inspector" tab in the Browser window. Then you'll see a window that says "Linked Objects." and below that "replace media file." Click "Replace media File" and then choose the file you want to insert/replace (you'll have to de-select "Show Matching Names Only" to be able to replace it with your own file)
OR:
1) press F6 and open the Timeline window.
2) Scroll down and you will see a layer called "Replace"
3) Open up that layer (click the triangle) and you will see Replace 1, Replace 2, etc (depends on your template)
4) Drag the image you want to insert/replace into the template to the sublayer called "replace 1" etc.
There are other ways, but these two are the most 'stable' I have found.

Can't import jpegs into drop zones in 7.0 themes

I've followed the thread regarding mac book pros and hang ups with iDVD 08 and the 7.0 themes. I have a G5 and can't get the 'Revolution' 7.0 them on main menu to allow me to 'drop' a jpeg into its drop zone. I drag the jpeg over, the green sign appears like its going to allow it to be dropped, it drops but the zone remains black like nothing is there. When I go to the info tree for the drop zones, its shows up like it is there, but on the main menu it remains empty. Any one with any suggestions? Thanks in advance for any info.

Roger,
What happens if you click on the Drop Zone button and drag the image there?
This frequently helps solve some problems. Quit iDVD. Search for the file named com.apple.iDVD.plist and trash it. (A new one will be created next launch of iDVD.) Or look in: User/Library/Preferences. This may solve project loading errors too. Restart and use Disk Utility to Repair Permissions.
You'll need to reset some Preferences.

Dropping Video into a drop zone...

Is it possible to put video in a drop zone without losing any qaultiy? I have video clips that I insert into drop zones that are over 1GB, but once inserted, the file size of my project only says 256MB. I would like that video clip to be uncompressed for best quality.

If your working in DVD SP, all video assets are converted to Mpeg2, if not before bringing it into DVD SP, then during the build by compressor 2.
If your exporting out of FCP, using QT conversion, STOP! You should be using "QuickTime Movie" as your export, (first option in FCP 5 export.) You should also, to save time, uncheck the self contained movie option, this creates a reference movie that compressor can use and take a fraction of the time to export.
Using QuickTime conversion just adds a whole new layer of compression to your video, using the QT Movie export doesn't and references the source footage, (no loss of video quality. This file is then used by Compressor 2 to create the Mpeg 2 file for DVD SP.
PS: don't remove any of the FCP render or source files, till Compressor is finished creating the Mpeg 2 file. The Mpeg2 file that is created, doesn't need any of the source footage to work in DVD SP, (like the FCP footage and reference movie does.)
Using Compressor as a stand alone App, gives you far better control over the quality of the video asset, than letting DVD SP automatically use Compressor during the build, plus it save time during the build, due to the fact that all assets are already in Mpeg2 format.

Can i backtime a clip into a template drop zone?

trying to use a transition template but when i drop the clip into the outgoing clip's drop zone well it goes in from an in point which makes aligning the transition with it's ingoing and outgoing clips a major pain in the ***. Ideally I'd like to just back time the outgoing clip. Can i do this? any other workaround suggestions?
thanks

thanks. i'm not sure if i did exactly what you meant, but i found a pretty good workaround. I put a marker in the template where the new clip starts, then i line that marker up with the edit point between the clips, giving me the ins and outs as you said.
cheers

I have 3 consecutive movie clips that I am trying to drop into the drop zone but it only recognizes the first one and only produces the firts one in a DVD. How can I drop all three movie clips into one drop zone

On IDVD, I have 3 consecutive movie clips that I am trying to drop into the drop zone to create a DVD but it only recognizes the first one I dropped and only produced the first one in a DVD. How can I drop all three movie clips into one drop zone.

I have had some luck doing the following: Export each clip from imovie as a quicktime clip. Open iDVD and create a new project. Import a few stills into iDVD and then click on the button that gets created to get into the screen where the individual slides appear. Drag each quicktime into that screen and arrange in the order you want. You can then delete the stills. The button that appeared when you dropped in the stills will launch a complete show.

Insert Movie into drop zone?

When I drop my movie in which is a logo animation I made in Lightwave the logo goes way beyond the edges in height and width. If I scale the drop zone To the size of the movie (320x240), it just scales the movie up along with it. What gives?

How are you making the drop zone?
If you drag the movie from the bin to the menu, you can scale to any size in inspector
If you are setting it into a pre-made shape such as with borders) you can still adjust in inspector but the movie is part of the inspector
(Also note that you should be careful about posting the same issue a few times in a short period of time, people will answer, just give it some time)

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.

Idvd 08 Picture looks cropped when I put it into drop zones

On the idvd drop zone , I put a picture in the drop zone and it crops half the person's face, how do I make it fit correctly In the drop zone for the menu pic?
Thanks

The short answer is that you probably do not have your sequence set to match your clip's properties.
bogiesan

How do you adjust the timings of a video placed in a drop zone?

Hi,
I brought a template online and have dropped a video into one of the drop zones. It plays fine, although I would like it to start in a different place and fade the sound in and out.
How do I go about doing this?
Thanks

Trim the Out point of your video so that the entire clip is not in your project (this is so you can slip the video and audio). This step may or may not be necessary if the drop zone is not the same length as your video clip.
Open the timing pane (F6). Hold down OPT while dragging the layer to slip the clip in the project. This will also slip the audio. Once you have it in the right spot, click the audio display button at the bottom of your timing pane (it looks like a little speaker). This will show you your audio track.
Select the audio layer and go to add behavior/audio/audio fade in out. In the inspector, adjust the behavior to taste.
Andy

Master Template Drop Zone Causes Frame Offset Problem

I created a template in Motion with two drop zones. When I use it in Final Cut as a master template, and drop in two video clips, the clips are offset about 4 frames from the originals. I can see this when I toggle the template's track on and off to see the underlying clips that got dropped in from my timeline. The cut points don't match up to what winds up in the template's dropzones for some reason.
This is a problem, because I'm using the template as a transition between full screen and a PIP-type effect.
The weird frame offset causes a visual glitch that I have to correct by adjusting the start/end points. This is extremely time consuming, as I have to apply the template to a huge number of clips.
I'm using the latest version of Final Cut Studio.

Just discovered that the frame offset increases the further I am into a clip.
I took a part from the beginning.. frame offset = 2 frames.
Took one closer to the end of a 4 minute clip.. frame offset = 14 frames.
The video is encoded in ProRes422 at 29.97 fps, and the Motion template is 29.97 also. Any ideas?

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

Drop Zones from Motion to DVD-SP ...?

I have done a template in Motion with a drop zone in it.
I want this drop zone to be usable in DVD Studio Pro.
When I import the .motn file into DVDSP and drag it on it displays the drop zone OK as a down-pointy arrow drop zone symbol in the right place in my template.
But when I try and drag a MOV asset to it, nothing happens except the usual "Set Background", "Create button & Track" etc.
How do I drag an asset onto that drop zone which I can see right in front of me in my template?
Thanks,,

Those are really good. I like the Plasma TV one and the 9-block 3D.
In Motion I can zoom and spin drop zones though, and it's this animation that would be very nice to see in DVD-SP.

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

How to add more drop zones or movies in an idvd menu

I was building a dvd in idvd and ran out of drop zones to fill but I couldn't figure out how to add more drop zones.
I tried different templates but I could find none that had more than 12 drop zones.
Then I was adding movies to the main menu and idvd refused to allow more movies added when I reached 10 movies. It said that the template did not accept more movies.
I tried a few other templates and could not get it to accept more.
I don't want to add submenus because the movies being used do not lend themselves to being put into different submenus.
Is there some way to add more than the default drop zones in an idvd template and to add more movies in a menu without having to use submenus?
Thanks for any advice.

I couldn't figure out how to add more drop zones
Sorry, the templates 'are what they are'.
I don't want to add submenus because the movies being used do not lend themselves to being put into different submenus.
You need to figure out how to work with what is available.
If you want more freedom, buy Apple's Final Cut Studio and learn to use DVD Studio Pro.

Dropping a Track into a Drop Zone?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for