Video intro to still Menu

Question

Hi all..
There is quite possibly a very obvious answer to this but a quick search here didnt reveal anything. My last DVD i made with a video intro (track) leading to a separate menu which graphically was like the last frame from the movie intro or opening track. It didnt flow smoothly as smoothly as i would like as there was a little flicker in the movement from the opening track to the main menu so this time i would like if possible to have the buttons appear at the end of the video intro where i have a background already prepared for the text. The video mv2 i have placed in the Menu to paly once. I understand how to make the overlay menu but i want it to come in at the end of the video clip. Is this possible?
Many thanks and sorry if this is a dumb question
Dave

Answer 1

You are basically creating a motion menu with a loop point - your background footage needs to include the animation and the fade in of any button text, as Silal points out. You then need to hold the button text still (whether or not other parts of the menu continue to move) for AT LEAST 30 seconds - which should be long enough for the user to make a choice. Many DVDs hold the image still for a lot longer than this.
Take a frame from the section where the button text is still and use it as a background in photoshop. Add a new layer and create ONLY the objects that you want to be your button highlights - an underline, a star, a tick or dot... whatever. Hide the background layer and save the result out as a .pict file. You can use colours or gray scale, but you will only have four shades/tints in all to play with inside DVDSP. Import the .pict file (which will look mostly white with unconnected shapes that will line up with the menu text) into DVDSP.
Drop your motion sequence into a menu and look in the property inspector. Slide the 'loop point' control to a position just after where the button text has faded in and become still. Add the .pict file as the menu overlay and now treat it as a normal menu - draw out the button rectangles, assign targets, etc. You can use the property inspector to change the colours of the highlights if you need to.
When you return to this menu it will (by default) play from the very beginning, which means the user will see all of the animation again. You can use different techniques to ensure that they don't, depending on the version of DVDSP that you are using.
In v4 there is an option to return to the loop point - to use it you need to create a script and add the relevant command using the script editing tools. It is a one line script and you set the track end jump and/or menu call to point to the script. The user will then only see from the still portion onwards.
In earlier versions of DVDSP you do not have this command. You need to either create two menus, one with the animation and still section and the other with just the still section. The animated version is the first menu, but all jumps and menu calls go to the second menu so that the user only sees the still piece.
Alternatively you can get in to doing some post build editing using tools like DVDAfterEdit or MyDVDEdit. These allow you to break in to the codes for the DVD and add your own controls. It is a relatively simple matter to add in a conditional statement which sets a value after the menu has played once. If the value is set then all further jumps to the same menu will go to the loop point. Whilst it is relatively simple to do, it is not for the feint hearted... and as with any work like this you only ever do it on a copy and make sure it is working before you release it to your client. There are tutorials to help you do this if you want to try it, but I strongly suggest you use either of the other two approaches first!