Novel way to create dvd motion background

[navydoc]

Just thought I'd share this. If you happen to have Microsoft Plus, Digital Media Edition, you can create a motion background for your menus. The style is like the 'Ken Burns' photo style where the camera pans and/or zooms on a photo.

One of the programs included with MS Plus is "Plus! Photo Story". With it, you can import your image(s), create the pan/zoom and add audio too. The completed video is .wmv format but you can easily convert it to dvd compliant mpg2 using TMPGenc.

I used TMPGenc DVD Author to add the converted video as a motion background for my main menu. The text buttons to start the movie or select a scene gets superimposed on this motion background.

Here is a sample of one I just did for my captured movie "Sands of Iwo Jima" which I converted to dvd. The image is a screen capture of the movie title and the audio is an mp3 of the Marine Corps Hymn (TMPGenc converted the mp3 to the proper format too).

I found this to be a quick and simple way to create a unique motion background. Hope you find it useful

Sands of Iwo Jima sample (http://www.glewis.net/media/sands.wmv)

navydoc

[dvd_master]

It looks pretty interesting, but isnt it nothing but a single picture sliding across the screen with music?

It seems like a rather plain-ish effect, but hey... not everyone just buys the bigger ones.

[navydoc]

Yes, it is a "plainish" effect but remember...this is just for the background of your menu. In the authored dvd, either text buttons or chapter thumbnails (still or motion too) will be overlaid over the background. My goal was to keep the background subtle but with motion and audio. For my dvd, I set the motion to run for 20 sec then become static to make button selection easier.

The sample I created is actually the same image added twice, the first with a pan effect and the second a zoom out. The transition between the two images are done automatically with MS PLus Photo Story. Using different images could create an even more interesting effect. I just found this to be just an easy way to convert a still background image into a video, with or without sound for my menus.

navydoc

BTW, here is the dvd case label I made from scratch for this movie.
http://www.glewis.net/misc/iwo-full.gif