Video menu with buttons

I am creating a menu using after effects. I have all my buttons in place when i want them to appear, but i don't know how to bring it back into Encore. I've tried "create button" in after effects but once i bring it back into encore i can't figure out how to make it work as the button. And once i assign a video to a button my video menu doesn't play anymore. Does anyone know how to make this work?

You create the menu in Encore (or Photoshop); the end product of the AE project is a video background.
Review this encore help file.
Edit: I suspect that you did not turn off the visibility of the AE buttons.
Here is a tutorial (in CS3) that starts with an Encore menu and pulls it into AE for the animated background.
You can also do the buttons in AE - not something I've done. Here's the relevant help page.

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Background Video Menu with Buttons on Top

Hi there.
I am trying to create a menu that has a looping video background with the buttons on top of the video.
I have created a short, 1min video in PPro, and imported it into the background of the menu by first creating a blank menu, then alt/dragging it into the blank menu.
When I place a button on top of the video, the video no longer plays.
Can I do it so that the video plays in the background and the buttons on top are active?
Thanks,
David

Hi Bill.
Here's the screen cap.I've included a screen cap of only the layers at the bottom, in case it's too small to read.
I'm not sure what you mean by muxed. It gives you the option to pick-whip to both audio and video, or alt/drag both audio and video onto a blank menu background. Do mean using a different file format than .m2v?

Trying to properly code a menu with buttons that can go back and forth between external swf files

I have a project I've been working on that, when properly coded, has a "main menu" with 4 "doors" (buttons). When the corresponding buttons to these "doors" are clicked, it should go to and play an external .swf file. If that doesn't make sense, think of a DVD menu. You click play movie, it plays the movie. When the movie is over, there's two buttons on that swf file to either play the movie over or go back the main menu, which is an external .swf file (Remember, we go to the movie from the menu, which is a seperate file). So far, the buttons work. The menu works. However, from the movie, at the conclusion, when I click the button to go back to the main menu, it displays the movie clip and the buttons, but none of the buttons work. I'm starting to think it has to do with the fact the main menu was written in AS3 and the movie was made in AS2. If anyone can assist me in being to able to keep both files and still navigate between the two, being able to bring up the menu from the movie and be able to play the movie again, and so on and so on, that'd be GREAT. I'm somewhat of a noob to Flash, but I learn quickly and I'm open to any suggestions. Here's the code for main menu, which I guess acts as the parent file, and the movie. If I get this to work, I essentially would duplicate the same actions for the other 4 doors, once I complete the environments for them. Thanks
Main.Fla/Swf (written in AS3)
(This is the action on the first frame, that has all the buttons. For this question, I'm just trying to properly code for 'Door4', which is the "door" to the movie.)
import flash.display.Loader;
stop();
var myLoader1:Loader=new Loader ();
Door4.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, jayzSwf);
function jayzSwf(myevent1:MouseEvent):void
          var myURL1:URLRequest = new URLRequest("jayzspeaks.swf");
          myLoader1.load(myURL1);
          addChild(myLoader1);
          myLoader1.x = 0;
          myLoader1.y = 0;
Movie.Fla/Swf (written in AS2)
(This is action on the button that returns to the menu)
on (release) {
          this.createEmptyMovieClip("container",this.getNextHighestDepth());
          container.loadMovie("main.swf");

At least you're going in the correct (mis)direction. You have AS3 loading AS2. So that's not a huge hurdle.
I believe all you really need to do is send your Main.swf a signal that the content it loaded (e.g. jayzspeaks.swf) is done and you want to get rid of it.
The code I pointed you to asks you to (upon download and import then) instantiate it in both AS2 and AS3. They give a very simple easy to understand line of code.
// as2, load this in jayzspeaks.swf
var myBridge:SWFBridgeAS2 = new SWFBridgeAS2("connectionID", clientObj);
// as3, load this in main.swf
var myBridge:SWFBridgeAS3 = new SWFBridgeAS3("connectionID", clientObj);
Make sure the connectionID matches between them. Set it to whatever you want.
When you're done with your as2 loaded content you'd send a signal (over localconnection) back to the AS3 Main like they say:
myBridge.send("someFunctionToUnloadContent");
myBridge.close();
You'd need to make the as3 function "someFunctionToUnloadContent()" (example purposes only name) and it should unload the jayzspeaks.swf that was loaded in the loader.
Make sure you get that close in there so you don't drill up a bunch of localconnection objects just like the simple source code says.

Help!!! How to create simple menu with buttons.

I basically need help on how to create a menu with Up, Left, Next and Back buttons.
Then it must have a submenus like Telephone, Lights, Fans and Television.
and more sub sub menus of On and Off buttons.
Ive jut started to learn Labview and a newbie at it.
It could be really nice if someone could make an example.
Would appreciate it if it could work like Ipod interface.
Thanksssss! Pls help!

Duplicate post.

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

Can a button be placed and selected on a video menu?

I'd like to create a main menu from a short video loop and place one or two buttons at certain locations. Can this be done? The video would stop and then connect to the button's track, right? Would I be able to have sound attached to the button's click? Should I make a duplicate video menu with the (linked-to) sound?

You can set up a motion menu and set a loop point (or you can add buttons to movie tracks) and the buttons can be placed on the menu. When the video reaches the end of the motion it will jump back to the loop point.
Usually a button being pressed will pause a motion menu (sometimes more obivious than others based on the player) and then jumps to the track. You can find a workaround to fake a button click sound via transitions (but most do not use that in DVDs) but if you are thinking something akin to mouseDown events in Director or Flash, that is not available as a command

Can you embed a video player with a tracklist with in the menu?

I'm constructing a dvd but I would like to have all the videos playing in a smaller video player with audio on the main menu page. I'd like to have a track list next to the video player within the menu so the person viewing can quickly scroll through all the videos.
It's a bit hard to explain so I drew a diagram of what I'd like to do:
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/1733/test2td.jpg
Thanks for all your help!

Welcome to the discussions!
As you have found out, you won't be able to do this the way I think you are imagining is possible... DVDs just don't work the way that Flash or web pages do. There are significant limitations to prevent this from happening in a smooth manner, and as Eric intimated, you'll need to build a whole shedload of menus to even simulate the effect... and as you go through your track list and jump to each 'sub menu' you'll have to start each video clip from the beginning on each menu.
If you really wanted to you could have a whole series of duplicated sub menus that each have different clips from the same track and then use a set of scripts to select one at random so that the viewer doesn't repeatedly see the same start of a clip as they land on the same entry in your track list. Instead they'll see a randomly selected alternative from the same track.
But to even want to do this you've got to be certifiable...
Let alone the fact that each menu is a separate entity on your disc and there is no way you'll move smoothly between them as if it is one nice slick Flash movie - it'll have pauses and appear to stutter at each change.
What people tend to do instead is have a button for each of the tracks and put a video clip inside the button so the viewer can see all of the clip footage on one menu screen. A little 'old fashioned' in style, but massively more practical to achieve!

Freeze between the end of a timeline and a menu with video.

Hi,
I have a timeline with some content advisor in the beginning of my encore cs3 project, then redirects to another timeline with a segment of a video, after that it redirects to the menu with another video (that video is the continuation of the previous one, and it is where the fusion occurs.)
The problem is that after redirect to the menu, it freezes for 2 secs. Is there any way to avoid that freeze? Or at least smooth it?

Bruno Gargaglione wrote:
Thanks for answering me.
However I still have some questions regarding this proccess:
1) Why AVI or MOV instead of M2V? If I export avi or mov from PP I will get my footage transcoded in encore.
2) Why can't I use in PP the PSD Menu I am using in my project in encore (without having to export from Encore)?
and the most important:
3) When I turn off visibility for all menu layers, how come they show up after it? After the loop point?
I understood almost the entire proccess and the reason you have to turn off the visibility for all menu layers but not how they show up after the loop point.
How?
1. You could export an M2V file from Premiere if you like, but then you'll need to make doubly sure that you have no visible menu layers in Encore, or Encore will render the motion menu and re-transcode your m2v to m2v again. If you used an AVI instead, Encore will transcode it to M2V. Either way, it will end up as M2V on the DVD. The key thing is to avoid re-transcoding.
2. I don't really understand your question. Do you want to somehow use the same PSD file Encore is using as your menu? If so, you'll have to dig in the Sources folder for that. It's really much simpler to export the PSD from Encore and use that. There is no quality loss in doing this, and far less chance of messing up your Encore file structure than if you go digging around in the Sources folder for the original that Encore uses. Just export the menu as a PSD from Encore and use that in Premiere...trust me, I'm a doctor.
3. You do this so that Encore doesn't render your menu Photoshop layers over the first video clip you are using as your menu video background.
* Regarding your last "How?" question...there are no menu layers on a menu when it's written to DVD - a menu is written to disc as an MPEG-2 still file (or in a motion menu case such as yours, an MPEG-2 video file) with a button highlight overlay to show your button selection status.
Message was edited by: jbowden

Making menu with video thumbnails

I'm creating a menu with video thumbnail. I want the video thumbnail to use chapter 2 on the timeline but when the user click the play button, I want the timeline to start from chapter 1. How do I do that?

I think now that JSB and I are proposing the same method.
Your original post:
I'm creating a menu with video thumbnail. I want the video thumbnail to use chapter 2 on the timeline but when the user click the play button, I want the timeline to start from chapter 1. How do I do that?
If what we proposed doesn't work, what happened and why was it not what you want.
You have timeline, with a button linked to that timeline chapter 1. When the button is selected, you want the video to play from the beginning.
You now want to add a video thumbnail. Ignore whether there are other chapters or not. The thumbnail for the button is going to look to the timecode for the poster frame for that button link (chapter 1) to determine what to play in the thumbnail. Select chapter 1 on the timeline, go to any location on the timeline, and set the poster frame. It doesn't matter whether the poster frame location is in chapter 2, 3 or whatever, that is the poster frame for chapter 1, and therefore for your button.
Hunt, do you see why that won't work?

Is it possible to have a menu with just one button highlight when someone rolls over it?

is it possible to have a menu with just one button highlight when someone rolls over it? if so how would you do it as i tried doing an invissble button but it didn't work?

Get yourself a copy of Total Training for Encore DVD 1.5 by Daniel Brown. This exact scenerio was explained in section 4) Building Menu and
section 7) Advanced techniques.
I refer to Dan's video time & time again. It's from 2004 but he's still right on the mark regarding the generation of every aspect of creating a DVD.
They now offer their entire online.
www.totaltraining.com
Good luck

Using pre-designed transitions with video menu

I created a video menu and I want to use one of the pre-designed transitions that can with DVD SP. However when I hit the play button and the transitions starts the menu jumps to the loop point to play the transition. Is there anyway to get it to run the transition from whatever point the menu happens to be at or do these transitions just work better with still menus as apposed to video menus.
Thank You
Vince

Hi
No way for this to function the way you like. When you press a button the disc needs to go somewhere - so it picks your loop point. DVD transitions in better suited for still menus or menus with little movement.

I want to create an external video widget with iAd. I followed the steps and copied the Url and paste it in the Video pop-up menu in the Properties section of the inspector. When i select 'preview' the video doesn't play and the Url that i pasted is gone.

i want to create an external video widget with iAd to use in an iBook. I followed the steps and copied the Url and paste it in the Video pop-up menu in the Properties section of the inspector. When i select 'preview' the video doesn't play and the Url that i pasted is gone.
hope someone can help!

May have something to do with whether or not the URL can be reached while building your widget. I've got a video on the web. When I enter the URL into the field for the video object and click to another field, the URL is replaced with some text indicating that it is accessing the video then updates itself to displaying just the name of the video file.
It shows just fine in preview and I can see the full path to the video when I export the widget so it should work for you.
Is the video accessible from your Mac while you're laying out your widget?
-Mark

My classic has come up with a sreen which 5 lins of text (in large font) Line 1 says 5 in 1 line 2 sdrampass L3 chksum any ideas I've tried the MENU CENTRE BUTTON with no joy HELP

My classic has come up with a screen which has 5 lines of text (in large font) Line 1 says 5 in 1 Line 2 sdrampass L3 chksum Any ideas ? I've tried the MENU + CENTRE BUTTON with no joy HELP

Hi starbugdriver,
I recommend trying the iPod classic troubleshooting assistant here:
iPod classic Troubleshooting Assistant
http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/classic/
Have a good one!
- Ari

Help With "Buttons" To Fade In On "Play First Title Menu"

Hi All
Thank you all for your help! I got my video to work finally on a DVD player in SD. I am now trying to have my menu buttons fade in on an imported video file from Motion. I need to find out how I can have the buttons fade in "disolve fade" after my text plays on the opening of my video. The buttons play right away, and I need to delay their entry on the main menu, say 3-5 seconds before the menu movie starts, Any Ideas? Thank You all for your help on here! Tim C.

Set the loop point to the time when the buttons are fully faded in
http://dvdstepbystep.com/motion.php
http://dvdstepbystep.com/useelements.php (step 12 on)
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3552197&#3552197
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3949547&#3949547
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3832336&#3832336

Hello. Having a problem with skype. i am online, all buttons work, however i can not make a video call the button simply doesnt work. Messages works. voice calls works. Please help.

Hello. Having a problem with skype. i am online, all buttons work, however i can not make a video call the button simply doesnt work. Messages works. voice calls works. Please help.

Sounds like you need to contact skype.

Video menu with buttons

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