Arky
13th June 2002, 05:01
What I have included below, for the meantime, was originally written by myself, and by MIKEATHOME, when Flexion was still online. I am TEMPORARILY leaving this at the top of the board, as a sticky, just so that anyone who's interested in creating animated menus will have time to see it and make a start, before it gets pushed to the back of the queue (this forum moves so incredibly quickly!!).
Acknowledgements go specifically to MIKEATHOME, who wrote the Premiere method. My input was on the less-popular (and oh-so-underrated) EditDV/Cinestream solution. You choose whichever suits you...
So without futher ado - here they are. Please bear in mind that these are literally cut-&-pastes, so they will be a bit rough and ready.
*********************************************************************
Arky's EditDV / Cinestream method (used to be owned by Digital Origin, then by Media100, and now by Discreet).
1. How to make those cool moving-image buttons on DVD menus! :o) PART ONE
last updated at 08 Apr, 2001 06:03 p.m. (2 times)
Hi there!
I posted a message some time ago asking how to make those cool moving-image buttons on DVD menus (see, for example, "Trainspotting").
The beauty of this method is that it is incredibly simple because it is all drag-and-drop (hell, I learnt it on my own in a couple of hours, and you'll do it faster with these guidelines!):
***********************************************
HOWEVER, before even starting this project, please make sure that you have a DVD Authoring software package which supports Motion (or 'dynamic') menus.
For example,
'DVD Maestro'
'Scenarist'
There are others, but the following definitely **do NOT** allow dynamic motion menus:
'SpruceUp'
'DVD QuickBuilder', 'DVD Wise', 'DVD Junior'
'MyDVD' http://www.mydvd.sonic.com/
You will also need to make sure that any video footage you are intending to use during the project is in either AVI or Quicktime format - you cannot directly import MPEG streams into Edit DV, unfortunately.
Date: 25 Mar, 2001 on 06:02 p.m.
Arky
Team member
in Silver Group
posts: 942
since: 20 Sep, 2000 2. Re:How to make those cool moving-image buttons on DVD menus! :o)
last updated at 25 Mar, 2001 09:00 p.m. (2 times)
***********************************************
Read the part of the EditDV/Cinestream manual referring to PIP filter (Picture In Picture). You will see that by adding extra video tracks to the timeline from the drop down menu at the top of the screen, and then inserting the PIP filter into the FX track of each of these video tracks (you achieve this by literally dragging the PIP filter from the 'filters' box (which contains ALL EditDV's special effects and transition filters) onto the FX track of each video track in the timeline. The PIP filter may be green - I can't remember), you can determine how many separate streams you will include in your final output (in our case this will relate to the number of 'buttons' we wish to include on our menu, so for four buttons, we will need four video tracks and a PIP filter for each of these, in their respective FX tracks).
***********************************************
Note:
If you DON'T want a BLACK background in between your motion 'buttons', you will need to add one extra track (*WITHOUT* a PIP filter in it's FX track). In this case, you MUST make sure that Track 1 is the track without the PIP filter. Simply drag and drop an image or a video stream from your assets bin onto the VideoTrack 1 in the timeline and this will form the background IN BETWEEN your buttons.
***********************************************
Now simply drag and drop your desired button-videostreams, from the assets bin, onto each of the video tracks (order is irrelevant, EXCEPT for observing the above instructions regarding Track 1 IF, and only IF, you wish to have a special background in between your buttons). Please make sure that you adjust the length of all your tracks to be the same as each other, as this will make your menu work correctly when you import the rendered stream into your DVD authoring software package (e.g Scenarist, Maestro, (or DVDit! - yeuch!!). Do remember that you will want to exclude audio from your final render, as most professional DVD authoring Apps do not accept multiplexed footage. You can render the audio separately (to the identical duration of the video, of course).
At this stage, you really WILL need to read the manual, in order to understand how to use the PIP filter, but it is extremely simple to get the hang of, so please don't be daunted by the apparent complexity.
Double-click on the top-most (in terms of the entire **timeline** screen) PIP filter (not in the filter selection window!), which will be the FX track of Video track 1, if you want a black background, or the FX track of video track 2, if you want to specify the background (as I described above). This will spawn a window which allows you to set certain parameters, and please read the manual if you need assistance - personally, I found most of it very self-explanatory anyway, just by looking at the results in the preview screen in the top right of your monitor.
More importantly than this dialogue, what you will notice, if you look at the preview screen in the top right of your monitor, is a rectangle in the middle of the screen which you can drag around and alter the size of, by dragging a corner. This is going to be button number 1, so place it wherever you want it to be on your finished menu, and at whatever size you wish. Having done this, close the filter settings dialogue, and repeat the FX-track double-clicking process for each of the remaining video tracks (you must do this sequentially, because the video streams ('buttons') will show in the correct order for you to easily manipulate them on screen. Clicking on the FX track of Videostream 4, for example, will show streams/'buttons' 1,2,3 and 4, but NOT 5,6,7...etc - do each numerically in turn and things will run smoothly, without getting into a muddle!.
So, when you are satisfied with the size and positioning of all your video streams, you can render the entire composition as a single video stream, by selecting, from the drop-down menu at the top of the monitor, 'Render ***VP*** track' (I am typing this entire tutorial from memory on another computer, so bear with me if the exact labels are very slightly differently named!).
When you have finished rendering (and this may take several hours depending on the resolution / length etc of your footage), you should have a fantastic single video stream which incorporates all your original streams to look like virtual buttons on the screen.
***PLEASE NOTE*** EditDV 2.0 renders into Quicktime using Radius's SoftDV codec (but don't panic - it will IMPORT AVIs!). The quality is superb, so do not be troubled that you are not creating an AVI.
(N.B. The system-requirements specification for EditDV 2.0 states that you need a minimum PII 400, and this is absolutely correct if you want to view the full-resolution DV-Quicktime files it renders). However, I do all my work on a PII 366 notebook, and although my system won't let me PLAY the rendered Quicktime files produced by EditDV, this is not a problem in my experience, because I can still transcode these to MPEG with no problems playing back the resulting MPEG file
Now all you need to do is Encode to MPEG1 or MPEG2. Personally, I recommend MPEG2 (!) . TMPGEnc or CinemaCraft are the obvious choices here...
***********************************************
So!! now we have (hopefully!) a drop-dead-cool composite video stream in MPEG2 format which we can import into our DVD authoring software.
Now all that remains to be done is use the DVD-authoring software to overlay transparent buttons onto the moving! 'virtual' buttons we created earlier.
***********************************************
Oh HAPPY DAY!!
***********************************************
...Anyway, once you have mastered the basics of this process, I highly recommend that you play around with the pop-up dialogue you saw when you double-clicked on the PIP filters in the FX tracks. You will see (to your delight, if you are anything like me!) that it is also possible to have the streams ('buttons') moving across the screen, to begin with, before settling at their final destinations. This software is so easy to use and so cool, that all you need to do is move the cursor over the timeline, then reposition your boxes (and resize them if you like) everytime you've advanced the timeline cursor. In this fashion, you create 'Keyframes' which will show as tiny arrows on your timeline, wherever the cursor was when you moved the streams/'buttons' in the preview screen to different positions or sizes. If you select the "spline" option, you will see that Edit DV actually interpolates the intervening parts between the keyframes to render a smooth path across the screen, which may be curved or just straight. This technique of interpolation will also work to give a gradual 'zoom' or pan effect if you resized your streams during the process. I suggest that you work backwards, postioning the timeline cursor at the END of the timeline first, and getting your 'buttons' exactly where you need them to be on the preview screen, then you can play as much as you like with their positions by first moving the timeline cursor backwards (don't forget to do this first or you'll be tearing your hair out if you took ages correctly positioning the buttons! - the safest way is to save the project under a different name - e.g. ProjectMk2, before moving the buttons and timeline cursor away from the final destinations), and then manipulating the position and/or size of the buttons/boxes within the preview window, automatically creating key frames as you go.
As long as you ensure that the final destinations of the streams, towards the end of the rendered footage, are where you intend your buttons to be, there is no reason why you cannot be really creative.
What I mean by this is that ***for your 'first-play'*** stream, you can have the button-streams moving around all over the screen and then settling in their final 'button' destinations. Then, you can render a separate stream for the background to your menu which will have these 'virtual' button streams stationary (but, of course moving footage), in exactly the same destinations as the end of the 'first-play'. Another good reason for having the buttons totally stationary for the menu, is that they will look correct if you 'loop' the footage within the menu.
This would give the effect, when played in the final DVD, of moving buttons which work when they have settled, and the viewer would be none-the-wiser that they are actually two different streams - only the latter having genuine button properties, because of the overlaid button highlights during the DVD authoring-process.
Any comments, peop's?
To those of you who felt like they were being taught to suck eggs (not that any of you are grannies, I don't suppose! ), my apologies - I'mjust trying to be as helpful and explicit as I can for the newbies - no offence intended!
Regards to all,
Arky ;o)
Date: 25 Mar, 2001 on 06:39 p.m.
the movie length is irrelevant as long as it's a couple of seconds or more (there are technical limitations on how short a clip can be - it's a DVD authoring software/navigation issue) - personally I vary according to project, but somewhere in the region of 10 seconds makes the effort worthwhile. It's a compromise really, because viewers will not sit and wait to see the entire movies in the buttons - all they want to see is a recognisable piece of footage to easily jog their memory as to which bit of the film it refers to, so obviously, you need to take a great deal of care in selecting the most pertinent clips. Also, take a little time to make sure that when the miniature movie clips loop on themselves, they do so smoothly from end frame to beginning frame (i.e. try not to start a clip with bright colours and then end the clip in near darkness, or black & white, because when it loops, it will be too noticeable, and look very amateur).
N.B. I have posted a relevant solution for looping here on Doom9 not so long ago - here is the link:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?threadid=25844&highlight=looping
*********************************************************************
Acknowledgements go specifically to MIKEATHOME, who wrote the Premiere method. My input was on the less-popular (and oh-so-underrated) EditDV/Cinestream solution. You choose whichever suits you...
So without futher ado - here they are. Please bear in mind that these are literally cut-&-pastes, so they will be a bit rough and ready.
*********************************************************************
Arky's EditDV / Cinestream method (used to be owned by Digital Origin, then by Media100, and now by Discreet).
1. How to make those cool moving-image buttons on DVD menus! :o) PART ONE
last updated at 08 Apr, 2001 06:03 p.m. (2 times)
Hi there!
I posted a message some time ago asking how to make those cool moving-image buttons on DVD menus (see, for example, "Trainspotting").
The beauty of this method is that it is incredibly simple because it is all drag-and-drop (hell, I learnt it on my own in a couple of hours, and you'll do it faster with these guidelines!):
***********************************************
HOWEVER, before even starting this project, please make sure that you have a DVD Authoring software package which supports Motion (or 'dynamic') menus.
For example,
'DVD Maestro'
'Scenarist'
There are others, but the following definitely **do NOT** allow dynamic motion menus:
'SpruceUp'
'DVD QuickBuilder', 'DVD Wise', 'DVD Junior'
'MyDVD' http://www.mydvd.sonic.com/
You will also need to make sure that any video footage you are intending to use during the project is in either AVI or Quicktime format - you cannot directly import MPEG streams into Edit DV, unfortunately.
Date: 25 Mar, 2001 on 06:02 p.m.
Arky
Team member
in Silver Group
posts: 942
since: 20 Sep, 2000 2. Re:How to make those cool moving-image buttons on DVD menus! :o)
last updated at 25 Mar, 2001 09:00 p.m. (2 times)
***********************************************
Read the part of the EditDV/Cinestream manual referring to PIP filter (Picture In Picture). You will see that by adding extra video tracks to the timeline from the drop down menu at the top of the screen, and then inserting the PIP filter into the FX track of each of these video tracks (you achieve this by literally dragging the PIP filter from the 'filters' box (which contains ALL EditDV's special effects and transition filters) onto the FX track of each video track in the timeline. The PIP filter may be green - I can't remember), you can determine how many separate streams you will include in your final output (in our case this will relate to the number of 'buttons' we wish to include on our menu, so for four buttons, we will need four video tracks and a PIP filter for each of these, in their respective FX tracks).
***********************************************
Note:
If you DON'T want a BLACK background in between your motion 'buttons', you will need to add one extra track (*WITHOUT* a PIP filter in it's FX track). In this case, you MUST make sure that Track 1 is the track without the PIP filter. Simply drag and drop an image or a video stream from your assets bin onto the VideoTrack 1 in the timeline and this will form the background IN BETWEEN your buttons.
***********************************************
Now simply drag and drop your desired button-videostreams, from the assets bin, onto each of the video tracks (order is irrelevant, EXCEPT for observing the above instructions regarding Track 1 IF, and only IF, you wish to have a special background in between your buttons). Please make sure that you adjust the length of all your tracks to be the same as each other, as this will make your menu work correctly when you import the rendered stream into your DVD authoring software package (e.g Scenarist, Maestro, (or DVDit! - yeuch!!). Do remember that you will want to exclude audio from your final render, as most professional DVD authoring Apps do not accept multiplexed footage. You can render the audio separately (to the identical duration of the video, of course).
At this stage, you really WILL need to read the manual, in order to understand how to use the PIP filter, but it is extremely simple to get the hang of, so please don't be daunted by the apparent complexity.
Double-click on the top-most (in terms of the entire **timeline** screen) PIP filter (not in the filter selection window!), which will be the FX track of Video track 1, if you want a black background, or the FX track of video track 2, if you want to specify the background (as I described above). This will spawn a window which allows you to set certain parameters, and please read the manual if you need assistance - personally, I found most of it very self-explanatory anyway, just by looking at the results in the preview screen in the top right of your monitor.
More importantly than this dialogue, what you will notice, if you look at the preview screen in the top right of your monitor, is a rectangle in the middle of the screen which you can drag around and alter the size of, by dragging a corner. This is going to be button number 1, so place it wherever you want it to be on your finished menu, and at whatever size you wish. Having done this, close the filter settings dialogue, and repeat the FX-track double-clicking process for each of the remaining video tracks (you must do this sequentially, because the video streams ('buttons') will show in the correct order for you to easily manipulate them on screen. Clicking on the FX track of Videostream 4, for example, will show streams/'buttons' 1,2,3 and 4, but NOT 5,6,7...etc - do each numerically in turn and things will run smoothly, without getting into a muddle!.
So, when you are satisfied with the size and positioning of all your video streams, you can render the entire composition as a single video stream, by selecting, from the drop-down menu at the top of the monitor, 'Render ***VP*** track' (I am typing this entire tutorial from memory on another computer, so bear with me if the exact labels are very slightly differently named!).
When you have finished rendering (and this may take several hours depending on the resolution / length etc of your footage), you should have a fantastic single video stream which incorporates all your original streams to look like virtual buttons on the screen.
***PLEASE NOTE*** EditDV 2.0 renders into Quicktime using Radius's SoftDV codec (but don't panic - it will IMPORT AVIs!). The quality is superb, so do not be troubled that you are not creating an AVI.
(N.B. The system-requirements specification for EditDV 2.0 states that you need a minimum PII 400, and this is absolutely correct if you want to view the full-resolution DV-Quicktime files it renders). However, I do all my work on a PII 366 notebook, and although my system won't let me PLAY the rendered Quicktime files produced by EditDV, this is not a problem in my experience, because I can still transcode these to MPEG with no problems playing back the resulting MPEG file
Now all you need to do is Encode to MPEG1 or MPEG2. Personally, I recommend MPEG2 (!) . TMPGEnc or CinemaCraft are the obvious choices here...
***********************************************
So!! now we have (hopefully!) a drop-dead-cool composite video stream in MPEG2 format which we can import into our DVD authoring software.
Now all that remains to be done is use the DVD-authoring software to overlay transparent buttons onto the moving! 'virtual' buttons we created earlier.
***********************************************
Oh HAPPY DAY!!
***********************************************
...Anyway, once you have mastered the basics of this process, I highly recommend that you play around with the pop-up dialogue you saw when you double-clicked on the PIP filters in the FX tracks. You will see (to your delight, if you are anything like me!) that it is also possible to have the streams ('buttons') moving across the screen, to begin with, before settling at their final destinations. This software is so easy to use and so cool, that all you need to do is move the cursor over the timeline, then reposition your boxes (and resize them if you like) everytime you've advanced the timeline cursor. In this fashion, you create 'Keyframes' which will show as tiny arrows on your timeline, wherever the cursor was when you moved the streams/'buttons' in the preview screen to different positions or sizes. If you select the "spline" option, you will see that Edit DV actually interpolates the intervening parts between the keyframes to render a smooth path across the screen, which may be curved or just straight. This technique of interpolation will also work to give a gradual 'zoom' or pan effect if you resized your streams during the process. I suggest that you work backwards, postioning the timeline cursor at the END of the timeline first, and getting your 'buttons' exactly where you need them to be on the preview screen, then you can play as much as you like with their positions by first moving the timeline cursor backwards (don't forget to do this first or you'll be tearing your hair out if you took ages correctly positioning the buttons! - the safest way is to save the project under a different name - e.g. ProjectMk2, before moving the buttons and timeline cursor away from the final destinations), and then manipulating the position and/or size of the buttons/boxes within the preview window, automatically creating key frames as you go.
As long as you ensure that the final destinations of the streams, towards the end of the rendered footage, are where you intend your buttons to be, there is no reason why you cannot be really creative.
What I mean by this is that ***for your 'first-play'*** stream, you can have the button-streams moving around all over the screen and then settling in their final 'button' destinations. Then, you can render a separate stream for the background to your menu which will have these 'virtual' button streams stationary (but, of course moving footage), in exactly the same destinations as the end of the 'first-play'. Another good reason for having the buttons totally stationary for the menu, is that they will look correct if you 'loop' the footage within the menu.
This would give the effect, when played in the final DVD, of moving buttons which work when they have settled, and the viewer would be none-the-wiser that they are actually two different streams - only the latter having genuine button properties, because of the overlaid button highlights during the DVD authoring-process.
Any comments, peop's?
To those of you who felt like they were being taught to suck eggs (not that any of you are grannies, I don't suppose! ), my apologies - I'mjust trying to be as helpful and explicit as I can for the newbies - no offence intended!
Regards to all,
Arky ;o)
Date: 25 Mar, 2001 on 06:39 p.m.
the movie length is irrelevant as long as it's a couple of seconds or more (there are technical limitations on how short a clip can be - it's a DVD authoring software/navigation issue) - personally I vary according to project, but somewhere in the region of 10 seconds makes the effort worthwhile. It's a compromise really, because viewers will not sit and wait to see the entire movies in the buttons - all they want to see is a recognisable piece of footage to easily jog their memory as to which bit of the film it refers to, so obviously, you need to take a great deal of care in selecting the most pertinent clips. Also, take a little time to make sure that when the miniature movie clips loop on themselves, they do so smoothly from end frame to beginning frame (i.e. try not to start a clip with bright colours and then end the clip in near darkness, or black & white, because when it loops, it will be too noticeable, and look very amateur).
N.B. I have posted a relevant solution for looping here on Doom9 not so long ago - here is the link:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?threadid=25844&highlight=looping
*********************************************************************