How Do You Set A Button To Return To (Scenarist)

[MrVideo]

Scenario: A menu contains a selection of two episodes to play and a selection to return to the main menu.

When the user selects to play episode #1, I want the Title/MO/Playlist to return to button #2 as the activated button, meaning that all the user needs to do to play the next episode is click it.

I've not compiled what I'm working on yet, as it is not finished. The only way I could see to set the button to #2 was to do that BEFORE doing a JumpTitle when button #1 is selected. No idea if that will work or not upon return to that menu.

The manual is no help in this regard.

Any tips are appreciated.

[rik1138]

You need to create a dummy button in your menu (auto-activate). This button is the default button that the menu goes to whenever you jump to it. In this button, you have commands to jump to button #1, #2, etc based on a value you store in a GPR.

So, at the end of Episode 1, you store a '2' in GPRx (x being whichever one you want to use). The dummy would then jump to button #2 if it finds a '2' in that GPR..., or Button #1 if there's a '1', etc. You could even set a '3' in that GPR after the second episode and your dummy button could then send you straight to the Main Menu or maybe a Special Features menu after playing that episode.

That's how I usually control button highlighting... There are probably a few different ways of doing it, but I know this works well... Pretty much every menu I create has a dummy button for button default control.

Rik

[MrVideo]

Thanks, I'll work on setting that up.

My first muxing of the project failed, not because of menu issues, but due to size. Everything fit when I did a simple multiAVCHD project. I was 49 MB larger than the BD-R piece of media. I'm recoding the source.

The method I used to get to a different button didn't cause an error, but I also do not know if it would have worked. I need to get PowerDVD reinstalled in the computer (I recently rebuilt it), so that I can try playing the BDMV directory.

I still have to figure out pop-up menus.

[rik1138]

I don't think it would have worked because you have to set a 'default highlighted button' in the IG itself. That's the button the menus go to whenever they are entered (by default, this is the first button you create in the IG tree...) Not like DVD where it remembers the last button # you were on when you come back to the menus...

[MrVideo]

It didn't. I took my big project and copied it and then cut it down so that it would fit onto a DVD, so that I could test it out. High bitrate video on a DVD does not mix.

There isn't a 'default highlighted button' but there is a default Active and default Selected. In one of the menus, because I had nothing set, it started out at the third button.

When I created DVDs, I always returned to the next selection in the list :D

In any event, I'll be playing with dummy button creation for this particular test menu to get it worked out.

Thanks

[MrVideo]

Well, the new test project with the dummy button didn't work either.

Here are some images with an explanation about the image underneath the link.

Image #1 (http://vidiot.com/images/ScenaristTest-01.png)
Navigation in the main menu to set the GPR before calling the promo menu so that the promo #1 button is activated.

Image #2 (http://vidiot.com/images/ScenaristTest-02.png)
The dummy button Navigation. The AutoAction is set for the button. The two tests are shown at the top, with the contents of the top test being shown

Image #3 (http://vidiot.com/images/ScenaristTest-03.png)
The commands that are set when the button for playing the first promo. The GPR is set to 2. For the playing of the 2nd promo, the GPR is set to 1.

But, for some reason, it always goes back to button 2.

I've not run the above, as the first test never had the main menu setting the GPR before going to the promo menu. But, when I played the 2nd promo, when it finished, the 2nd button was the active button, not the first.

Any idea what I've done wrong?

[rik1138]

You appear to be using the wrong command... First though, on the Page #1 - Promos Menu, make sure Default Selected Button Ref is linked to the Dummy button. That's the setting for default highlighted button (highlight, select, same thing...)

Your button commands for the dummy need to be SetButtonPage, not EnableButton. The EnableButton command is used to turn on (off with Disable) buttons completely. If you Disable a button, it doesn't exist to the user at all. So, for the Dummy button, the first command would be:
SetSystem
SetButtonPage
Button- Data Type: Button Entried, Value: Button#1[ID:1]

Leave Page set to NotSet. If you are just changing buttons in a Page, this should be left alone. Only change this if you are actually jumping to another Page...

Rik

[MrVideo]

@rik1138:

Bingo, that was it. The manual leaves a lot to be desired. If they described the operation as "SetPageButton," it might have made more sense.

I have no idea as to where to even change the "NotSet" setting. Again, I've seen it mentioned in a couple of places in the manual, but the manual has no pages actually describing how that would be changed, or why.

One thing I've discovered that that just like a DVD, you can't get to the end of a video segment unless you actually set a chapter mark near the end.

The next piece of the project is to get the pop-up menu functioning. I've been given a hint by a user putting together a big project over on another forum that I'll be doing.

What annoys me is that the output from PhotoShop Designer can't be directly placed against a menu. Even though I carefully placed where I wanted my button images to go within PhotoShop, the importing of the assets only places them into folders. From there you have to drag the button images to the buttons and align them again. If there is a way to automatically take the Designer PS output and assign it to a menu, I'd sure like to know what it is.

Thanks for your help, it is appreciated.

[rik1138]

Learning Designer can be a fricking nightmare... :) But, if it's done correctly, you import the designer file and everything is placed perfectly... That's really the main point of Designer (that and creating color palettes), otherwise you could just drop PNGs into Scenarist yourself and move them around. Something isn't being done correctly in the Photoshop file (maybe the layer names aren't correct or something), but it should place the buttons exactly as you have them in the PSD...

[MrVideo]

I'll go back through the PhotoShop steps, but there were no errors regarding layer names, etc. and it created the scenarist.designer file. Scenarists apparently figured that it was an asset file instead of an IG file.

Unfortunately, I have to stop working on this personal project and get back to work on a consulting software project that has a very short deadline.

When I am able to get back to this, I'll try and report the steps I used. But, it is going to be a while.

[mp3dom]

There are 2 ways to use Designer. The first (and more time-consuming) is to generate manually the structure inside Photoshop with the correct syntax and then export the project. The second way is to export PNGs with special names (for example mm_act.png with active buttons, mm_nor.png with normal buttons, mm_sel.png with selected buttons) then using scripts in Photoshop to import the images, made sections and let the script create the structure for you.
The second way is more user-friendly for graphic designers.

[MrVideo]

I thought that I had created the correct syntax. Here is a layer list for one of the menus:

PS Layer Sample image (http://vidiot.com/images/DesignerPS_Layer-01.png)

And yes, there isn't a normal button, as that is part of the background image. It is extremely difficult to do embossing with 8 bit color :D So, the active and select images are images to the left of the menu text. Acts more like DVD item selection.

[rik1138]

Try adding a Normal button anyway (you can always delete the graphic in Scenarist to make it invisible, or use a completely transparent graphic). It's possible that Scenarist isn't recognizing it as a valid button without the normal state, and is just treating it like a bunch of graphics. I've always had all 3 states on buttons (even if S and A were sometimes the exact same thing), and just the Normal state if I just want a non-button graphic on the screen... So I'm not sure if that will affect it or not...

Also, for the Background image, put 'I: ' in front of it, that tells designer to ignore it. The background image shouldn't be part of the IG itself, that would be your video stream...

[MrVideo]

Ah, the "I:" in front of the background. Yes, I did indeed forget that and it may very well be the reason why.

I'll try it first with the background layer change and see if that works better. If not, I'll add the transparent normal image.

Thanks.

[MrVideo]

OK, digging into the Designer PS manual, I found the error, or I hope I have, as I am in the process of testing it.

First off, you can't rename the background layer. It is ignored.

We all missed the fact that I got the DS: and IG: layers reversed.

D'oh!

[rik1138]

Heh, oops...

What version of Photoshop are you using? In CS3 and CS4 you can rename the background layer (don't have any version older to test with)... I think Designer will just ignore anything it doesn't recognize anyway, but I like have the I: there just to be sure, and to make sure it's not using that graphic when it generates the common palette.

[MrVideo]

Interesting, I'm using CS4 and when I tried to rename the background layer, I wasn't given the ability to do so. Normally that is done by right-clicking the layer. No option to change the properties.

According to the manual, the Background layer is ignored. When I created a common palette, it wasn't an issue.

My next piece of the project is to get the pop-up menu created.

[rik1138]

Interesting, I'm using CS4 and when I tried to rename the background layer, I wasn't given the ability to do so. Normally that is done by right-clicking the layer. No option to change the properties.

According to the manual, the Background layer is ignored. When I created a common palette, it wasn't an issue.

My next piece of the project is to get the pop-up menu created.

Ah, never tried to rename it that way... Just double-click on the layer, it'll bring up a properties box with 'Layer 0' in the Name field. You can then change it to whatever you want... Seems to make it normal layer too, as then the right-click now shows all the normal properties...

I wonder if Designer ignores a layer called 'Background', or specifically the one Photoshop is considering the Background.

You can probably use the same IG for the Popup menu (just make a copy of it). Just declare it a popup instead of always-on, and maybe tweak some of the button commands since it will be in the movie...

Unless you want design a unique pop-up menu... But most of the work is identical, it's just how the menu is declared that makes it different.

Rik

[MrVideo]

Ah, never tried to rename it that way... Just double-click on the layer, it'll bring up a properties box with 'Layer 0' in the Name field. You can then change it to whatever you want... Seems to make it normal layer too, as then the right-click now shows all the normal properties...

OK, now I see what is going on. You can rename any layer, as long as it isn't already named Background. Because you were naming a layer with a different name, you were allowed to do so.

I wonder if Designer ignores a layer called 'Background', or specifically the one Photoshop is considering the Background.

According to the Designer PS manual, that is indeed the case.

You can probably use the same IG for the Popup menu (just make a copy of it). Just declare it a popup instead of always-on, and maybe tweak some of the button commands since it will be in the movie...

Unless you want design a unique pop-up menu... But most of the work is identical, it's just how the menu is declared that makes it different.

In my case, the menus are not usable as pop-up menus. There is zero text in the IG resources. All of the menu text is on the background image that was turned into the menu movie background. Why? The lack of 24 bit color. The text on the menu is embossed, which has lots of shades. Trying to reduce that to a 8 bit indexed color palette would make it look horrible, especially when blown up on an HD screen. If this were a BD-J project, then it wouldn't be an issue, as 24 bit color is supported.

Plus, the menu is rather large. So, I have to create a pop-up menu that is smaller, which will appear at the bottom. I've created a background image for that and believe that I can add that image as part of the IG button background and do the same trick with the active and selected PNG images, which are solid color images. Basically, just like a DVD menu.

Too bad that HDMV doesn't support 24 bit color. Oh well. Better than nothing.