How to loop a motion menu... seamlessly

First off, thanks for all the great info and help I've gotten off this forum lately. I'm just getting into Encore after being more used to Premiere and Photoshop, so while it seems familiar, there are lots of little questions I keep coming up with. The Lynda.com tutorials are excellent, but not real good at taking questions!
Now my issue:
I am trying to creating a looping motion menu. I have followed the steps on the tutorial, creating my AE composition via Dynamic Link, but they use a different effect than I want, and when it's time to do the looping, I don't have the same options. In the tutorial, they use the 'fractal noise' effect and in the effects controls there is a setting for 'Evolution' and 'Evolution Options' which they use to sync up the loop so it's seamless.
However, I am using the 'Wave Warp' effect, and have created the motion I want, but there are no such controls for this effect. Consequently, when I go back to Encore and place the composition into the menu, there is a visible jump at the end of the loop.
Any ideas on how I can seamlessly loop this motion?
Thanks again
bobby

Jon,
Yes, I see that this is really an AE question. Because I accessed AE via Encore, I had in my head that it was an Encore issue. But now I may be back in the Encore realm:
I used your info to set my effect at a duration of 4 secs and keyframed the first frame to 0x + 00.0°, and the last frame to 2x + 00.0°. That seemed to give me the seamless loop I wanted, as it played that way in AE. However, when I went back to Encore, I run into a problem.
On preview, and on a burned test disc, the menu played fine for one cycle (4 sec). Then it flashed to an all white background for about the same length of time. It then reverted to the motion background once through again, and continued to alternate between menu and white screen that way. I took a look and discovered that I had left the menu duration at 10 secs from an earlier setting. So I changed it to 4 secs to match the motion menu duration, assuming this would fix the problem.
It did shorten up the white flash to where it's now just what looks like 10 frames or so, but it's still there. I suppose I can try to fudge it, trimming the menu duration by a few frames until I lose the white flash altogether, but a) seems to me I shouldn't have to do that, and b) I question if the loop will be seamless after trimming like that.
Any ideas why this is happpening?
Thanks!
bobby

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How to make a motion menu

This might seem like a very stupid thing, but I just can't seem to make a menu with video in the background! I've looked in all the manuals, but it seems as if it just won't work (??)
Steps so far:
- using DVD studio pro 4
- dragged video clip to menu viewer -> set as background. no problems with playback, audio works fine too.
And it goes wrong after that... If i create a button by simply dragging a square, selecting different highlight options, it doesn't show me a result. Do I need to build the DVD before seeing such changes? I also tried dragging .psd images onto my menu, and it shows them fine, but without changes in 'states' (normal/selected/activated)
I feel like I'm missing some very minor, but important detail, can anybody help, or point me to a post/forum/ page in the manual that I missed?
Thanks in advance...
G5 Dual 2.3GHz Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Could it be that you didn't assign any 'style' to the button rectangle that you drew out?
It has happened to the best of us, I'm sure...

URGENT! Hide buttons til after loop point on motion menu?

Hi,
Is it possible to hide the buttons on a motion menu til AFTER the loop point?
I have a menu where there is a 10 second motion graphics intro, then a loop point, then 30 seconds of slight motion graphics in the background. As it should, after 30 seconds, it loops back to the loop point and only plays the last 30 seconds again and again.
The problem I am having is that the buttons appear on the menu at the start, which looks awful as they get in the way of the 10 second motion graphic intro.
Is there a way to make the buttons only appear at the 10 second (loop) point?
As a side note - I tried doing the 10 second intro on its own track, then having the track jump to the menu, but that creates a little delay that is quite noticeable.. It's not a smooth and continuous flow like the way I am doing it above.
Thanks!!!
Jason
G5 Dual 2.5Ghz, iMac 17" Core2Duo 2.0ghz, G4 900Mhz, 900mhz G3 iBook Mac OS X (10.4.7)

JF:
I add the button graphics into my background movie at the loop point. Then, I create an overlay file in Photoshop and add it to the menu? It will then only activate at the loop point, which works well since that's where the text would appear in the movie?
That's right!
I don't know is how to add the overlay in
Select your menu, and in the Inspector windows you'll find the Select Overlay option and navigate to your PSD overlay file.
I think that this Basic Menu Tutorial (from Drew13's www.dvdstepbystep.com site) could help you to create a basic overlay. Just keep the background of your file WHITE and your overlays graphics BLACK.

Issue with Motion Menu looping in CS6

Greetings all! I have been troubled with a recurring issue in a project I've been working on for a while where my Main Menu (the only one I have with a moving background) will not loop correctly. I am not an Encore veteran so there may be something simple that I'm doing wrong and just haven't caught yet... or perhaps this is some weird bug, I'm not sure. Here is what I've set up and the problem I'm having:
My Main Menu has 4 buttons: one goes to a primary video and the others are 3 submenus... all submenus work fine and can link back to the Main Menu without issue and when the Main Menu first loads, it also works fine with the video in the background playing normally. The primary video linked from the Main Menu also returns to the Main Menu as its End Action. My problem arises when the Main Menu is allowed to reach the end of its video and loops back to the beginning again before navigating away to another part of the disc. When it loops, the background video plays all the way through a second time like you would expect, however the menu is no longer interactive and no buttons can be pressed (the highlight also disappears on the second loop). Following the conclusion of the second loop, the Main Menu doesn't loop a third time but rather jumps randomly to about chapter 2 or 3 of the primary video! I have definitely not set it to do this. I was not sure what to do about the End Action of the Main Menu itself, as the "Motion" tab of the Menu's properties has a drop-down for looping the motion part... thus so far I have the End Action set to "Main Menu: Default". The motion background video is 45 seconds long and I have tried messing with the loop settings under the Motion tab, but it hasn't seemed to make much of a difference, it still breaks. Just for clarification, this is an error which I didn't notice right away because it appears to loop through the menu a second time normally, but the error occurs after the first play of the motion menu. Also, it happens both in preview and when I burn it to a disc.
If anyone else has experienced an issue like this or happens to know what I did wrong, please let me know so I can finally get this DVD project over with! I would be most grateful! Thank you!

Project corruption most frequently occurs because one or more changes are made and Encore gets "confused." But we rarely know why some such changes behave correctly and others do not.
If you must change an asset use a different name, never ever simply overwrite.
This just may be the issue then... Using Adobe's fancy "Dynamic Link" thingy I did edit a few assets after importing them into Encore. Sadly, I think Encore is definitely confused by this as now every time I open my project it prompts me to re-import one of the assets because it detected "changes" when in fact I have not changed it more than once and it is just trying to re-import the same thing over and over. I really wish I'd known to take these measure beforehand as I'm not sure how long it'll take now to rebuild the project completely, but I suppose I have no other choice if I want a working menu... wish me luck!
I'd like to note, however, that the asset that it always prompts me for is NOT related in any way to the Main Menu that is causing problems. It's an asset linked to from a different submenu. Also, I had planned everything out first, but as you might expect, little hiccups appear along the way and things need to be tweaked to have them work the way you want. Or maybe you think to add something later that you hadn't thought of before, it actually happens pretty often.
Still, it seems like Adobe is trying to promote the easy manipulation of assets within projects with the Dynamic Link feature. I really hate how these softwares do not even work the way they should... and yet Adobe charges people insane amounts of money for them.
Is there any good DVD authoring software that isn't so temperamental? I apologize if this isn't the appropriate place to ask... just curious for the sake of my own sanity.

Is it possible to have a video loop while audio plays in a motion menu?

Hi!
Here's the deal:
I have a seamlesly looping 8 second video clip for my motion menu, but the audio file for that menu lasts 1 minute. For rendering time/disc space and bit budgeting purposes I would like to use the video file as a loop while the audio file plays trough in my motion menu.
Is it possible to have the video file loop while the audio plays trough, or do I have to make my video 1 minute long too?
Any help will be appreciated!

The video must also be 1 minute long too.
You could always loop the 8 second clip though.
Load up Premiere, add your loop & 1 minute audio clip.
Set 2 seconds silence at the head of the audio.
Loop your 8 second clip 8 times to give you a 64 second video clip.
This will give you 2 seconds of silence at the trailing end, but there is really no other way

CS6, standard motion menu loops to black

Since I have beaning having the problem with rendering my blu-ray project, I worked on a DVD project today that I had previously completed in CS5.5
My client requested some changes, so I made the modifications in Premier Pro, created a MPG2 file,
and replaced it in the encore project. This is a motion menu (standard "NTSC_Floral Menu").
Since this worked previously I had no doubt it would work again, but when I viewed the DVD, the menu (motion) only runs for about 30 seconds and goes to black. The thumb nail buttons are still visible (non animated).
The exact same thing happens in Preview!
Loop is set to forever!

Great, thank you both for your replies.
The motion menu is not created by me but one of your standard menu's included in the library. All I did was import the video and audio, create thumbnail buttons and linked to chapter points (non motion buttons).
Also when I replaced the asset, I did not use the "replace Asset option". I essentially did it the old school way (dumb way) by importing the new video asset only (not the Audio) with a new name. The change made to the Ppro project was just text. I then deleted the old asset, recreated my chapter points and relinked to the buttons.
Again, this problem never happened in CS5.1, only now in CS6.

Setting motion menu loop point to 1 second or under causes Encore CS3 to crash

Has anyone else had this problem? I created a motion menu that I want to loop to a point just 24 frames after the beginning (the motion background fades in over 24 frames), but every time I try it causes Encore to crash when I go to preview the DVD and get to the loop point.

No.
VOB files (or Video OBjects) are the multiplexes for the timelines, and also (in the VTS_xx_0.VOB) the menu files themselves.
IFO (or InFOrmation files) tell the player what should be there.
Cells are the smallest part a menu or a timeline can be broken down into, and they need to be at least 1 second long.
(If you could see "under the hood" and have multiple cells in a motion menu, and a return call is made (after the movie has played) to cell 2 ignoring cell 1 (which could be, EG, a copyright warning or whatever) you might see:
CallSS VMGM (menu ROOT, rsm_cell 2)
which would tell the player to return to the Root menu at the second cell, bypassing the first cell completely.

Need motion menu with audio song "loop" clarification

Hi guys, I have a feeling my answer will be "that's the way it works" but I thought I'd double check anyway.
I have a menu with a motion video as the background. It is 30 seconds in length. I added a song that is 3 minutes in length. "loop forever". The result is that the motion video plays to completion and the song plays but then BOTH song and video start over. Is there any way to have the song keep playing in entirety while the motion video loops ? I have a feeling No.
If that's the case, I'm forced into choosing a video that is the same length as the song; true?
thanks in advance!

Just set the length of the motion menu to the length of the audio. The video should freeze on the last frame for the extra duration. But accor4ding to problems reported here, this often does not work correctly.
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How do I get the Adobe Motion Menu Templates to work . . .

Seems like a simple question. I downloaded my "Adobe Gift" and placed them in a new folder in the Library.
When I open an Encore 2.0 project these new menu templates do show up. But when import them in the project they appear but the motion is disabled (even when I preview it).
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Thanks. Roy

You have to render the motion menus before they will play.
-Jeff

Motion Menu backgrounds are the same through different languages... why?

I'm building a project with several still menus, but one motion menu for main title. The Project has two languages, Spanish and English, and I've created the menus for both languages. Still menus have the same background and different text objects. The motion menu has different video backgrounds for each language, and the same overlay for both. So far so good, everything works as expected in the simulation window, I can see the desired background after setting the language menu preference.
Then I build the project and... DVD player shows only the first language background, no matter the language I choose in preferences. But this happens only in the motion menu, still menus work fine.
I opened the menus VOB in the build folder with MPEG Streamclip to check what happened, and the same video background appears twice. Other commercial DVD's I've checked show the different backgrounds sequentially, so the player chooses which point of the VOB must be played according to player's SPRM 0 setting.
I tried altering the order of languages in DVDSP outline editor, I had Spanish first then English, and after swapping them and building again, the menus VOB shows English background twice.
The result is no matter which language I choose to see, I always get the one that is first in outline editor.
I also tried, just for checking, assigning different text objects to both languages, and they do work as expected. But since the menu has an intro with a loop point where I want the text to appear, this is not a deffinitive option for me.
I understand this is a bug in DVDSP, so the question is... any workaround anyone may think of?
If someone knows how I can edit the vob manually that would do for now.

Hi DGuerra, based on a past thread, the missing comments may be related to using avast! and its browser add-on(s).
Firefox is so easy to customize that it's not really surprising to find differences between two systems. These can relate to the menu choices (orange Firefox button or classic menu bar), toolbar layouts, and of course, add-ons.
If you have a preference for one setup versus another, hopefully these articles can equalize some of those layout issues:
* [[Display the Firefox button menu instead of the menu toolbar]]
* [[Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars]]
You can compare extensions on the Add-ons page. Either:
* Ctrl+Shift+a
* orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons
In the left column, click Extensions.
Perhaps you can get the two side-by-side to make it easier, or to extract a text list, you can use the troubleshooting information page. Either:
* Help > Troubleshooting Information
* type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter
The button in the upper left corner "Copy text to clipboard" will grab the configuration information from entire page.

Motion Menu

Hi
Here is my DVD Navigation for the dvd I'm working on
Main Menu duration 40 sec(Motion menu where the contents and buttons are animated for 10 sec and a loop point set to 10 sec)
Then I have a scene index, special features etc.. menus from where I have a link to the Main menu. But everytime the main menu is called the entire animation is played and the buttons don't work till the loop point.
Is there anyway to link the menu to the loop point. This is Possible with spruce/scenarist which i have seen it work, any ideas how i can get this to work in Encore.
Thanks

Dinesh,
AFAIK you haven't missed anything. And if I am right and you didn't (miss anything :p) then it would make a very useful feature request:
[email protected]
or
Adobe Systems Product Feature Request From

Sound in motion menu

Hi All,
I have motion menu with sound with endless loop.
in the first loop it plays well and from the second loop and
on the sound starts in delay. Does anyone have an idea for the reason
and how to solve it?
Thanks
Shaul

This is a known issue with the use of Preview. One needs to Burn to Folder, as you are doing, or Burn a DVD RW to test. It's one of the things that one gets used to. Do not know what the exact cause of this is n Preview, but it's been around long enough, that if it were an easy fix, Adobe would have nailed it by now. Do not know if it happened back in Encore 1 (wasn't that the last ver. to use DirectShow?), but from Encore2, it's been there. Nature of the "beast."
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Hunt

Hello Every time I create a motion menu the play buttons have a fuzzy outl

Hello
Every time I create a motion menu the play buttons have a fuzzy outline. I really don't like this and would love to know how to avoid it as it looks really bad and not crisp.
Here's how i do it:
1) I create the motion menu in AEX and add in the button here. I have the button coming in about 5 seconds after the start to give a delayed effect and this will therefore be the loop point I set in DVDSP.
2) I then export out a Photoshop layers file from AEX and then bring this file into Photoshop to make the overlay. I'm not sure if I'm doing this step correctly as I then go Image/adjustments/levels and make the play button black
3) I then make the menu an .m2v and bring this and the overlay .jpg file into DVDSP.
4) When I select the play button the edges go fuzzy. This particular PLAY button was the text PLAY in white, with a black outline. Maybe this black outline had something to do with it?? I've also had heart shaped buttons for example and this does the same thing.
Hope you can help.
Many thanks, Margie

One thing that could help is not using a .jpg which is compressed. A .tif may work better (to some degree).
Not sure if you are using text highlights or something else when you mention you make the button black. Larger text (20pt plus, Sans Serif) can often help. Part of it also may be the selection process of what you are changing. Sounds like you are sending out the highlights as a seperate layer by itself. If so you do not not to switch it to Black, depending on the color you can map it out in DVD SP.
Another thing is that if the highlight is in the motion menu (unhighlighted) the highlighing may be slightly off of the underlying item making it a bit fuzzier. Could also be colors.
On pt 4, not sure if you mean select as "I pressed the button for the action" or as just moving to the button. If the former, then there can be a slight shift as the DVD itself moves to different place. Feathering the black edges may also help....

How can I make a menu with button's that fade-in?

I've built a motion menu in AE, and had added text layers/buttons that fade-in through layer>Encore>Create Button. Once I import this into Encore through dynamic link I cannot link the buttons to the motion menu. I've added a sample.
Basically all I want is the play feature, Scene selection ,and credits to be selectable after they finish fading in @ the :20 mark. I don't want the menu to loop either.
I've tried to make a static menu(from last frame in AE) play after this, but, there is a one second gap or so before that static menu plays which just looks tacky. I have tried this in preview, and rendered it to a dvd with the same result.
All the tutorials i've come across really don't answer this question either.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

I believe that Jon Geddes has a TUTORIAL, that might also be useful to you.
Sounds like you and Stanley have it worked out, but you might pick up an additional idea, or two.
Good luck,
Hunt

Motion menu / poor quality / low resolution

Hi everyone,
I'm having some trouble with motion menu resolution.
I'm working on a project that consists of six short video clips. As first play, I'm using an asset that contains all six video's. After this, I want to introduce a motion menu showing the six clips - allowing the viewer to watch certain clips again and again.
To achieve this, I created separate tracks for each of the clips, and dragged these from the outline window to the menu window.
The project is working (basically) how I want it to, except that the resolution / image quality of the clips in the motion menu is not anywhere near sufficient.
I know that the 'simulate' option is limited in this respect, but I'm talking about the menu as it is shown in apple dvd player. I first tried building the project and viewing it in apple dvd player, and even burned an actual dvd to see if that would help - which it didn't.
I have searched the manual and these forums for answers but haven't been able to find a solution.
Here's hoping someone has an idea!
Thanks in advance,
Lianne.
G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7) DVDSP 3.0.2

Hi Drew, you again Thanks for your response.
After reading the manual chapter you mentioned and a chapter it refers to, I decided that my menu does need to be rendered. It said in the manual that changing the final rendering from hardware to software should result in a better result. I tried that and I do think the resolution is marginally better - still no good though!
The video tracks themselves (which were used to create the buttons in the motion menu) look fine, even when I stretch the window to the max. This suggests to me that the video in itself is okay. I don't understand why the same clips look so bad in a menu where they are only 1/8 the size? I would expect quite the opposite...
Might it have something to do with the way I've created the buttons (i.e. dragging from the outline window?). I'm going to try and create the menu in a different way.
In the meantime, suggestions are still more than welcome!

How to loop a motion menu... seamlessly

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