Question about full motion menus

[t0lik]

Hi guys, can you help me out with my quest to perfect the motion menus? I created a few of them successfully, but I can't seem to figure out how to make the text and titles look better. Right now the way I make the menu is I create a small video file I want to use as a background and the title of the DVD and "Play Movie", and "Chapters" text I create along with the video (it's part of the video). As a result, they don't look as sharp as if it was some type of Photoshop graphics overlay over the video background. Is there a way to make video background, and somehow place graphics (text) on top of the video, so it looks sharper and more defined? I'm using Photoshop, Vegas Video 3, Adobe AE 5.5 PB and DVD Maestro 2915a. Any help would be appreciated.

[Arky]

There is absolutely no question that if quality is paramount for you, then it's a job for After Effects every time. Make sure you are anti-aliasing your text composites (I can't remember what the exact term for this is in AAFX, but it'll be very obvious). I'm no expert with AAFX, but I always use it for this purpose, and I get awesome clarity on my composites, which really does make itself apparent in the final motion menu, during DVD playback. I regularly (but not always) make oval buttons in Photoshop, and use Eyecandy to apply a marble effect, and then a convincing bevel, which gives a great 3dimensional appearance. Then I simply add text to the image, flatten the layers, and drop it on top of my AVI in After Effects. Great results every time.


Arky ;o)

[t0lik]

Thanks. I'll try that...