Basic Maestro Subpicture Help Needed

[BQuicksilver]

Guys, I'm having some problems getting the concept of subpictures and the three columns of transparency sliders straight. I have read the Maestro guide here, but it didn't give me enough to get that area of authoring straight, and I don't have the manual. Can anyone help me out here?

My project is a 720x480 bitmap with graphics and text (not anti-aliased) made on photoshop 7. I'd like the text (not a box around the text) to change color when selected.

Thanks in advance!!:cool:

[timmmay]

Originally posted by BQuicksilver
My project is a 720x480 bitmap with graphics and text (not anti-aliased) made on photoshop 7. I'd like the text (not a box around the text) to change color when selected.

Thanks in advance!!:cool:

Let's say you created a subpicture with a white background and a blue text exactly aligned to the text on your background picture, (you can do this in photoshop) for your button. On the subpicture slider, colormap blue, you'll have to set the slider to 0 as you don't want the subpicture showing inside your prescribed rectangular button. On the white colormap, set all the 3 slider's to 0. On the button selection and action slider's, colormap blue, you set the slider to 15 for opaque and <15 for transparency. So, when you select the text, your blue subpicture text shows up with whatever color is set on your button selection and action slider's that corresponds to the blue colormap.

It's a little confusing at first but if you play around with it you'll get it.:)

[BQuicksilver]

thanks timmmay, I've gotten a bit closer as the day's went along after a lot of reading.

Is there an easy way to make sure the text is exactly aligned?

In photoshop, do you put the text on the layer of the background, or only as part of the sublayer? I've had some issues with 'bleeding' when putting a subpicture on a background with text.

[oddyseus]

Make a photoshop psd file that contains the background of your menu and a layer with name 'Sutitle' that contains the ovelay and it would import as a background and highlight overlay in one drag.

As for the alignment u have hold down the control key and click on the text layers. This would give u the marching ants ghost of the text. Press the create layer button on the layer pallette and u r done.

Remember to merge the background and the text to one layer before saving.

[timmmay]

For the alignment you could also just right click on the text layer on the layer palette and duplicate the layer which places the new layer at exactly the same spot. Then just change the text color to the appropriate subpicture colormap.

Check-out DVD Menu Studio, it allows you do stuff photoshop-like without knowing photoshop tricks. It comes with pre-made effects that you can easily apply to your menu's. If you're a photoshop expert then it wouldn't be as powerful. But if you don't want to deal with photoshop, then DVD Menu Studio is the easy way.

[BQuicksilver]

Thanks guys, I think I have it figured out now! Couldn't have done it without you.