Motion Menus and Music

Is it possible to create a menu where the video and audio track continue as the user cycles through various menus?
I've racked my brain and thought it might be done using subtitle buttons, but even then I'm not sure how it would be worked out.
Thanks for any help,
Nels

Simple answer is no. As you go from Menu to menu the player is loading a different image and audio from a different location so continuos audio and video isn't possible
Steve

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Are there any problems with motion menus and buttons in DVDSP 2 on OS 10.4?

I have not used DVD Studio Pro 2 since upgrading to Tiger but it appears to no longer be showing moving motion on menus and buttons.
Are there any problems that I should be aware of when using DVDSP2 on OS 10.4?
I have not upgrade to a newer version only because I do not have any HD software to create DVDs.
Thanks
Paul

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If we use the forums properly they will work well...

Creating Photoshop buttons for motion menus and photoshop menus

Hi I need to create buttons in photoshop for both a photoshop menu and a motion menu on DVD studio pro program
Can someone tell me how to do it on both different menus?
I really need some DETAILS on how to do it. Thanks for your time and responses ahead of time

OK, here's what I recommend you try...
Create the footage for your motion menu background. In that footage fade in the button shapes and text for the buttons exactly as you want them to appear. Hold the final position of these buttons for at least 30 seconds. save an image of the still portion to act as a guide in photoshop. Encode that footage to MPEG2 using Compressor and import it in to DVDSP.
Take the still image in to photoshop and add a single layer to the file. On the new layer, create a shape of some kind (an underline, tick, circle, cross, box around, arrow, etc) next to the background button text. Make these shapes (for each piece of background text) black, and leave the rest of the layer white. Hide or delete the background layer and save the result as a .pict image. Import it in to DVDSP.
Take the motion footage and drop it in to a menu. use the loop point in the property inspector to define where the 'still' portion of that footage begins. Now drag the .pict overlay image in to the same menu, but hold it a second until the contextual menu appears... set it as the overlay. Drag out button rectangles around the background text and position for the shapes in the overlay. Make sure the rectangles don't overlap, and set up the target for these buttons as well as the navigation between them.
Use the property inspector to adjust the colours for the overlay - set it to be a simple overlay and in grayscale. What should happen is that when the menu plays the animated sequence starts first but as soon as the loop point is reached the overlay becomes active. The first button defined will be set as selected. You should now see the menu with the buttons faded in to position and the buttons should be clickable.
When returning to this menu you may not want the viewer to sit through the animated sequence each time. Use a script (in DVDSP4) to specify that they return to the loop point only (the bit where the buttons are) or create a second menu that is identical to the loop point and send the viewer there instead.
As you can see, there are several steps involved and I have made assumptions that you know something about menus and constructing buttons. It is all in the manual, but you will need to be familiar with Photoshop (or whatever image editor you prefer) to do this properly.
You do not need to try to make four layer shapes and bring them in to the menu, and if you attempt to add anything else from the templates panel to this menu then the image quality will suffer as DVDSP builds the disc. If you do want to add other shapes and text to the menu then don't do the export to MPEG2... keep it as a simple QT .mov file.
Please let us know how you get on after trying this method, and after reading up on those manuals

Working with motion menus and buttons

Is there a way to have the buttons only show up at a certain point during the motion menu? I don't want them in the beginning while a certain portion is playing - I want to force the viewer to watch that section.

Buttons show up at the loop point in the menu - some examples of the fade ins
http://dvdstepbystep.com/motion.php
http://dvdstepbystep.com/useelements.php

Motion Menus *Multiple menus problem(

Hi all!
Yesterday I created a motion menu according to another post here. The main issue I was trying to solve was this:
I want the viewer (ie the person watching it) to see a short animation when they navigate around in the menu.
By that I mean that when the choose button number 2 it evolves from a semi-transparent button to a full color one.
This I could accomplish by making multiple motion menus and choosing auto action in the Inspector.
However - the auto action doesn't seem to work when hovering the buttons with the mouse. Is there a way to make this work or not?
If there isn't I have to think again I guess.
Too bad since it was a pretty smart way to work around it.

Basically mouseOver/auto action will not work for many players
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1225747&#1225747

Motion menus

Hi, I'm having trouble with motion menus and buttons in DVD SP 2.0. They set up ok, but do not play in the simulator - both menu and buttons are black! If only one menu is assigned motion, it will play once, but revert to black when motion buttons are added. I'm using a G5, but at a university.
Is this unusual for 2.0 - I understand motion button should be ok, but am I missing something - like they don't work in this software version?
Any thoughts on this appreciated.
best,
BRuce

Did you ever figure out the issue? Why dvdSP 2.o wouldn't play the motion menus? I'm having the same issue.. but it's been working for years, and suddenly it doesn't work.... I wonder if it has something to do with the OS.... what version were you running?

DVD Capacity and Motion Menus HELP!!!

I am a newbie . . . . After 2 weeks or more of working on my iMovie and now iDVD, I am just about ready to burn my first dvd . . . my second attempt. My first attempt, after approximately 12 hours, left me with an error while burning . . . one or more of my buttons were out of the TV safe area. That was an easy fix. Since then, I've added a few things . . .primarily, 5 background photos with music (using the Passthrough theme). Before burning, I checked the project info and see that my "Motion Menus" is 126:11 of 15:00. I'm not sure what this means or how to fix it. I assume it's the added photos and music that I added, but find it hard to believe since it's just photos. Also the DVD Capacity is now at 8.7 GB of 4.2 GB. How did this happen and how do I fix that too? Thank You!!!

I figured it out. For those that want to know how to fix this issue with Motion Menus/DVD Capacity (overload). :)) Reduce the amount of time for each menu that contains motion using the slider. Slide to the right to reduce the amount of time, thus reducing your "Motion Menus" overload! which then reduces the DVD Capacity. Phew!! :))

Bitrate budgeting and motion menus

I'm building a project that has about 8 motion menus that use the same 30 sec..avi in the BG. This project is over 3.5 hrs. now for a DL-9 so every minute matters. Will Encore essentially point to the same asset for the motion menu each time it's used and therefore figure 30 seconds for the motion menus total? Or will Encore use it 8 times and I need to figure 4 minutes total?

Julie Ann.
The quality can easily be checked by running an MPEG-2 export of a small section of the original to test it.
Write this to an RW disc, and play it - this is probably the best way to see what the final quality will look like in the real world without wasting the time it would take to encode 3 1/2 hours and then decide you want to do a 2 disc edition instead!
Re the "dummy" chapter points.
Yes - 2 very close together is what I had in mind, but with 32 chapters I reckon you will be okay anyway. Don't use Dummy chapter points unless you really have no choice - it will mean having to remember this when setting navigation links (I did one recently and thank all the Gods I did a DL-R burn to test, as I forgot to adjust the menus for the dummy CP! That would have been embarrassing at the factory!)
What I mean by "Hidden" is a chapter point added near the place where the LB has to go, not at the end. It would not be listed in the chapter menus, and would not be referred to in any navigation. It would exist solely to give Encore somewhere to place a layer break - and ONLY if you cannot get this set using the Automatic procedure.
There is another nasty Gotcha here as well.
The maximum Layer 0 size is actually
i different
for DVD-R DL and DVD+R DL discs. Encore cannot write to DVD-R DL discs, so please be seriously careful here.

Error Message: Motion menus exceed maximum duration

Our iDVD has one Main Menu with Nine Submenu's. We used the Reflections Theme. All these have motion menus, for consistency. Each is set at a loop duration for audio of no more than 45 seconds. [10X45=450 secs or 7:30 mins]. The menu screeen allows for 8 image drop zones. We put a photo in each zone, and they scroll by repeatedly behind the menu titles/text.
[Each of the Nine Submenus contains one slideshow and one sub-submenu. These sub-submenus are not motion menus.]
When we go to burn the disc, we get the error message above. Our duration on the Best Performance setting is 29:53 mins vs. the allowed 7:30 mins.
Questions: Why does Project Info show motion menu duration at 29:53? Is there a way to reduce that by, for example, limiting the number of times the pictures loop behind the text in that theme? Or, should we be using Best Quality rather than Best Performance? (Note: the images are more important than the sound in this DVD.)
Mac OSX Mac OS X (10.4.8)
Mac OSX Mac OS X (10.4.8)
Mac HD Mac OS X (10.4.8)

We couldn't figure out how to turn the motion off on the submenus. How did you do it?
Unfortunately, I've deleted that project, but... You should be about to click on the Menus button and move the top slider (Loop Duration) all the way to the left. I think that does it. I also had to eliminate music too. I don't think clicking on the Motion button on the main window does it.

Having trouble with buttons in motion menus

I'm having some problems with buttons in motion menus:
- I've created a motion menu where some text (button names) fade in.
- I set a loop point after the text has faded in completely.
- I set the end condition to "loop"
(there is some animation after the text fades in that I would like to loop)
- I draw out 5 buttons and assign different overlay colors to each of the button states.
The problem is that each time the motion menu jumps back to its loop point.. the menu seems to stutter - the overlay color on the currently selected button turns off for a second and the button is momentarily disabled (can't be selected). This problem only shows up on the actual dvd build. The buttons work smoothly when tested in the simulator.
I can avoid this problem by losing the animation and just setting the end condition to "still".. but I was wondering if anyone knows if there is something I might have missed or could try as a workaround.
17" powerbook g4 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

This problem only shows up on the actual dvd build. The buttons work smoothly when tested in the simulator.
It could be how the DVD is reading the DVD (sort of the nature of DVD, everything is not exactly the same), because buttons will not show until the loop point and there may be a slight pause from end of animation in the menu to the loop point. And the overlay will turn off briefly when it hits the end.
Visually what you can do is make the animation in a manner so that at the loop point the buttons are part of the background itself and make sure your loop point is at that point (or slightly after) so it looks like the button is there.
For the most part the setting of still may work okay (really a creative call), sometimes listening to the same music/seeing samee animation may be too much (of course it depends on project) and you can jump to the loop point on the menu on subsequent calls

Templates with motion menus flicker

I have Encore CS6. If I use any of the templates from the library there is a very noticeable around the text on the menu. It's irritating to the point that I cannot use motion menus at all.

Yes, the m2v motion background. This results in the menu being rendered and increases the chances for changes.
I just haven't seen this, and can't imagine what would cause this from an unchanged template.
Is it only the chapter menu? Or all menus?
As an experiment, I'd remove the motion background, or perhaps better, I'd create a new project, pull in one of the offending menus, no motion, add a single timeline, and see if the problem is there. Looking to narrow down the problem.

Photoshop file error when rendering motion menus in Encore CS4

Hello
I hope someone can help me please?
I've successfully (after 3 attempts) managed to import my PP project into Encore, created the menus etc from the presets that come with Encore (Wedding Garden menu). When it comes to rendering the motion menus with the animated buttons option checked, after a couple of seconds it comes up with a Runtime C error - photoshop file (508) i think it is and it crashes.
It's a new system CS4, Windows 7 64bit, 2x2.40ghz quad core processor, 24gb ram, nvidfia 285 2gb graphics card - do you need to know anything else?
I've rendered the motion menus without ticking the animate buttons option on the 3 menus I have (it's a wedding dvd - main menu and 2 sub menus with animated thumbnails) and its worked. This is ok as a workaround but I'd really like to be able to have the menu thumbnails animated.
Many thanks
Rachel

Thanks v much i'll certainly give that a try -
if it helps - I managed to make a note of the error message after I had sent my initial posting on this topic.
[..\Port\PhotoshopObject.cpp-568]
Thanks again for posting a reply
Rachel

Motion Menus won't display video or pics!!!

I have a dual 266 ghz "Macintel" with the latest OS and I'm running DVDSP 4.0.3
Quite recently, motion menus in DVDSP won't show video or still pics placed into their respective "drop zones"... and when I "simulate" the disk in the software, they don't display there either.
I tried reinstalling DVDSP, I tried repairing permissions, I tried trashing the .plist, I tried an archive & install of the O.S. (and running the online update).
Nothing is working. What do I do????
How do I get my motion menus functioning again?

Grunze, I need to ask if you've found the answer to this dilemma? I've exhausted all I know how to do... short of reinstalling from my system disk... and NOT updating to the latest version of the O.S.
Something CHANGED when I updated to 10.4.9 that broke my motion menus.
I can't believe that not many people are experiencing this. I've got a clean system with only the standard kind of software you'd find on a graphic designer's computer... Apple iLife apps, and the Adobe CS2 apps... Font Agent Pro... not much else.
How is it nobody else is having this problem?

Flash DVD... Motion menus are coming out black

I have previously used the flash output in Encore in CS3 and CS4. First time using it in CS5. I like to use video clips as menu backgrounds and have done it many times before. I link both the video and the audio to the menu in the motion properties window. In CS5, it appears that this function works for DVDs, but not for Flash. When I do the Flash export, the menus are just a black screen with the audio I linked to.

Hey, I figured out a fix. Turns out it wasn't the clip format. Turns out that you must have a button on a motion menu, AND, you gotta have the buttons image eyeball poked out. So in this case, what I'm doing is trying to create a web site using this Flash DVD option. It's a web site that works like a DVD in a Flash player. So that means it's a web site with a full-screen option and a volume control. It allows me to take my motion graphics skills and apply them to web design without needing to know anything about Flash. Check it out:
http://gpiis03.law.stetson.edu/media/on-demand/ci_comp_01/index.html

Blu-Ray Motion menus don't work!

Hey Gang,
I posted this issue before but since I received a very limited response, I'm hoping that someone will respond to this simplier issue.
I created a empty blu-ray project. I placed the Encore Crib Motion Menu HD into the project. The menu provided NO motion even after rendering.
I then created a standard DVD project and performed the exact same steps. The motion menu now works.
I'm running a system with Vista 32 loaded & CS3.
Anyone get the motion menus to work in Blu-Ray?
Please let me know. It will take a minute to duplicate my project.
BTW, I have tried this on two seperate system yielding the same results.
Thanks!
Steve

That's right. CS4 simply behaves different to CS3!
I have never had to render out a menu to preview it. We only create motion menus for Blu-ray and only use highlight layers from Photoshop. In CS3, when you right clicked on a menu in Encore and clicked "simulate from here", you would see your highlight layers over the video immediately.
NOW, with CS4, you must render out the menu after clicking "simulate from here" to see it. VERY annoying but I'm sure Adobe did this for a good reason.
Pop-up menus I am glad to report actually work! We haven't figured out how to create motion pop-up menus yet but I suspect this is not available yet in Encore.
If anyone knows any differently, I'd love to hear it.
What's fixed and I'm SO GLAD is that during simulation, the SKIP FORWARD chapter button WORKS!!! In CS3, you had to pause the video and then could skip forward. Now, like any other normal program, while the video is playing, you can skip forward.
I would thank Adobe for fixing this but, let's face it, this just should have worked in CS3!
Regards,
Darren

Motion Menus and Music

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