My guide to 'anti-aliased' subpictures

fankey · 28th November 2002, 02:07

I'm not sure if this is obvious to most people, but it's something that I have tried to figure out for some time. Hopefully it will be of use to someone.

Note : This guide references DVDMaestro and Photoshop 7.

I was getting frustrated with making nice looking menus. Basically, I just wanted a nice soft glow to follow the current selected button. The jagged edges that I was getting with subpictures looked like crap. I played around with menu groups, but that took too long to author and was also slow navigating. The solution I came up with seems like a nice compromise of quality vs. time.

1. First make a menu using photoshop and save it as a single layer bitmap.

2. Create a subpicture image in grayscale.

3. Next, convert the subpicture to a indexed 4 color image.

4. Open the color table of your image ( Image | Color Table... ). It should look something like this.

We need to map these 4 colors to black, white, red, and blue ( the 4 colors Maestro recognizes ). Click on each color swatch, and assign it to one of the mapped colors. I went red->black->blue->white, since that's the order they show up in Maestro. It should end up like this. Save this image as a single layer file.

5. Import both images into Maestro and assign them to the appropriate layers. I set the tranparency for each map to be approximately the original gray scale value. It looks best to use the same color for mode.

The end result looks pretty nice. The effect is pretty subtle, but I think it's worth the effort. Here's a close up shot of the end result.

Let me know if anyone finds this useful - or if you have any suggestions on how to improve on this.

Arky · 28th November 2002, 02:21

Looks pretty decent to me Fankey. Good work

I think I'll make this a sticky, at least for the time being, so everyone else can read it.

Arky ;o)

TRILIGHT · 1st December 2002, 07:10

That's similar to what I did a few days ago for my Harry Potter project although it was a bit more time consuming since I created the sub-layer manually. The indexed 4 color is a great idea! Thanks for the tip, Fankey!

Fmazzanti · 23rd January 2003, 12:11

Hey, pretty cool!
However I'm not the king of photoshop, so could you explain a little bit on how do you perform steps 2) and 5) ... ?

fankey · 13th February 2003, 08:14

Quote:

Originally posted by Fmazzanti
Hey, pretty cool!
However I'm not the king of photoshop, so could you explain a little bit on how do you perform steps 2) and 5) ... ?

No problem.

Step 2 is done using the built in Photoshop layer effects. It's basically white text with a black 'Outer Glow'. To get the glow to show up properly you need to change the defaults. I changed the blend mode to Normal and opacity to 100%. The drop shadow effect is also pretty useful.

As far as step 5 goes, do you mean the color mapping part? What part are you having problems with?

SVCD4Me · 5th March 2003, 14:03

Excellent post Fankey!

I used your method to create subpic words that look embossed and match the menu fairly good. Way better than just flat text.

Thanks again.

midiguy · 19th March 2003, 06:57

hey question. I have never really messed with menus for DVDs (never really ripped to DVD-R), but I'm just wondering.. if you're menu that you are creating in photoshop is 720 x 480, won't it look skewed when it is resized to 4:3 by your DVD player? cause, I look at it this way.

the MPEG-2 video in the DVD is 720 x 480 with a 4:3 aspect, so it looks ok when it is played, but hte menu is 720 x 480 with a 1:1 aspect, so won't that mess up the aspect ratio of the menu and skew the image horizantally? correct me if I'm wrong here!

Arky · 12th April 2003, 05:26

I'm just wondering, has anyone actually tried the following software instead (this was posted quite some time ago, but seems to have fallen by the wayside on the forum , which I find strange)? I intend to buy it soon because I really liked the demo I used for 30days. You can get some really great soft drop-shadow effects etc., with minimal effort. Another really powerful option is the vector editing toolset, which allows maximum creativity and even allows limited extrusion into 3-D shapes ( hints at Boris RED/Effects in this particular respect) Great stuff:

http://www.mediachance.com/dvdmenu/index.html

Arky ;o)

mikecito · 18th April 2003, 20:58

Quote:

Originally posted by midiguy
hey question. I have never really messed with menus for DVDs (never really ripped to DVD-R), but I'm just wondering.. if you're menu that you are creating in photoshop is 720 x 480, won't it look skewed when it is resized to 4:3 by your DVD player?

That's exactly right Midiguy. In order to have menus that are not "squished", start with a photoshop image that is 720x540. Then, after saving all your changes and to export, resize the image to 720x480(allow distortion). This way, when the dvd player restretches it, it is the right size.

Hope that helps!

BTW - don't save after resizing... always keep your work file in 720x540 except when exporting to BMP for Maestro/Scenarist.

mikecito · 18th April 2003, 21:04

Arky - is it just me, or does DVDLab look like Maestro? Did they buy out Spruce? I know Spruce dropped the Maestro product... maybe these guys bought their code to make the program even better. If so - this looks like it could be really great!

Arky · 29th April 2003, 13:44

No, I know what you mean regarding the similarities, but to the best of my knowledge, Steve Jobs (Mr.Apple!)will be using the Spruce engine underneath future MAC products.

The MediaChance stuff is all written by one man, "Oscar", from the ground up. I don't think he's used an SDK. Most of his stuff is C++ with no formal training - quite remarkable when you see how good his software is. I'm really excited by DVDlab's potential.

Arky ;o)

BQuicksilver · 13th May 2003, 08:25

Just curious, guys...could you point me to a good tutorial on BASIC sublayer creation via photoshop 7 and maestro? I feel like I'm on the cusp of getting this all straight, but I could still use some help...too much to be asking specific questions yet.

mikecito · 13th May 2003, 16:41

Starting on page 7-24 of your Maestro User's manual there is a great overview and walkthrough on this very topic. Very informative and easy to follow.

BQuicksilver · 13th May 2003, 18:44

Therein lies my problem. I bought my machne off a pseudo-friend who had it on there and didn't give me the manual. Anyone know of how I can get a copy?

Edit: My version doesn't even have the proper help file, what gives?

sunnysixkiller · 29th June 2003, 05:10

My problem is when change the image mode to indexed it doesn't offer me any options, it just changes it, so I can't select 4 color.

sunnysixkiller · 30th June 2003, 20:03

Update: You must convert the image to RGB first, then index to bring up the index properties box.

AudioVideoMaster · 29th July 2003, 02:05

@ Fankey
Could you please fix your images. I get 404 not found errors on all the links. I'm interested in your anti-alised tutorial here.

Thanks

mpucoder · 29th July 2003, 02:55

I think Fankey has left the building. Fortunately, I saved the images a long ago, you can find them here

AudioVideoMaster · 29th July 2003, 13:24

Thank you.

bode · 19th November 2003, 05:12

Just what I've been searching for. Thanks for keeping those images available.

28th November 2002, 02:07	#1 \| Link
fankey Registered User Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 4	My guide to 'anti-aliased' subpictures I'm not sure if this is obvious to most people, but it's something that I have tried to figure out for some time. Hopefully it will be of use to someone. Note : This guide references DVDMaestro and Photoshop 7. I was getting frustrated with making nice looking menus. Basically, I just wanted a nice soft glow to follow the current selected button. The jagged edges that I was getting with subpictures looked like crap. I played around with menu groups, but that took too long to author and was also slow navigating. The solution I came up with seems like a nice compromise of quality vs. time. 1. First make a menu using photoshop and save it as a single layer bitmap. 2. Create a subpicture image in grayscale. 3. Next, convert the subpicture to a indexed 4 color image. 4. Open the color table of your image ( Image \| Color Table... ). It should look something like this. We need to map these 4 colors to black, white, red, and blue ( the 4 colors Maestro recognizes ). Click on each color swatch, and assign it to one of the mapped colors. I went red->black->blue->white, since that's the order they show up in Maestro. It should end up like this. Save this image as a single layer file. 5. Import both images into Maestro and assign them to the appropriate layers. I set the tranparency for each map to be approximately the original gray scale value. It looks best to use the same color for mode. The end result looks pretty nice. The effect is pretty subtle, but I think it's worth the effort. Here's a close up shot of the end result. Let me know if anyone finds this useful - or if you have any suggestions on how to improve on this. Last edited by fankey; 17th December 2003 at 07:48.

1st December 2002, 07:10	#3 \| Link
TRILIGHT Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 1,215	That's similar to what I did a few days ago for my Harry Potter project although it was a bit more time consuming since I created the sub-layer manually. The indexed 4 color is a great idea! Thanks for the tip, Fankey! __________________ Das UberGuide lives! Check it out! --> *HTTP://DVDGUIDES.TRILIGHT.NET*

18th April 2003, 21:04	#10 \| Link
mikecito Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Denise Richard's Apartment Posts: 135	Arky - is it just me, or does DVDLab look like Maestro? Did they buy out Spruce? I know Spruce dropped the Maestro product... maybe these guys bought their code to make the program even better. If so - this looks like it could be really great! __________________ ~~~~~~~~~ Mikecito www.highschoolforever.com

13th May 2003, 16:41	#13 \| Link
mikecito Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Denise Richard's Apartment Posts: 135	Starting on page 7-24 of your Maestro User's manual there is a great overview and walkthrough on this very topic. Very informative and easy to follow. __________________ ~~~~~~~~~ Mikecito www.highschoolforever.com

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28th November 2002, 02:21	#2 \| Link
Arky Moderator Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: UK Posts: 1,479	Looks pretty decent to me Fankey. Good work I think I'll make this a sticky, at least for the time being, so everyone else can read it. Arky ;o)

23rd January 2003, 12:11	#4 \| Link
Fmazzanti Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 330	Hey, pretty cool! However I'm not the king of photoshop, so could you explain a little bit on how do you perform steps 2) and 5) ... ?

5th March 2003, 14:03	#6 \| Link
SVCD4Me Registered User Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Michigan Posts: 95	Excellent post Fankey! I used your method to create subpic words that look embossed and match the menu fairly good. Way better than just flat text. Thanks again.

19th March 2003, 06:57	#7 \| Link
midiguy Registered User Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 407	hey question. I have never really messed with menus for DVDs (never really ripped to DVD-R), but I'm just wondering.. if you're menu that you are creating in photoshop is 720 x 480, won't it look skewed when it is resized to 4:3 by your DVD player? cause, I look at it this way. the MPEG-2 video in the DVD is 720 x 480 with a 4:3 aspect, so it looks ok when it is played, but hte menu is 720 x 480 with a 1:1 aspect, so won't that mess up the aspect ratio of the menu and skew the image horizantally? correct me if I'm wrong here!

12th April 2003, 05:26	#8 \| Link
Arky Moderator Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: UK Posts: 1,479	I'm just wondering, has anyone actually tried the following software instead (this was posted quite some time ago, but seems to have fallen by the wayside on the forum , which I find strange)? I intend to buy it soon because I really liked the demo I used for 30days. You can get some really great soft drop-shadow effects etc., with minimal effort. Another really powerful option is the vector editing toolset, which allows maximum creativity and even allows limited extrusion into 3-D shapes ( hints at Boris RED/Effects in this particular respect) Great stuff: http://www.mediachance.com/dvdmenu/index.html Arky ;o)

29th April 2003, 13:44	#11 \| Link
Arky Moderator Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: UK Posts: 1,479	No, I know what you mean regarding the similarities, but to the best of my knowledge, Steve Jobs (Mr.Apple!)will be using the Spruce engine underneath future MAC products. The MediaChance stuff is all written by one man, "Oscar", from the ground up. I don't think he's used an SDK. Most of his stuff is C++ with no formal training - quite remarkable when you see how good his software is. I'm really excited by DVDlab's potential. Arky ;o)

13th May 2003, 08:25	#12 \| Link
BQuicksilver Registered User Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 34	Just curious, guys...could you point me to a good tutorial on BASIC sublayer creation via photoshop 7 and maestro? I feel like I'm on the cusp of getting this all straight, but I could still use some help...too much to be asking specific questions yet.

13th May 2003, 18:44	#14 \| Link
BQuicksilver Registered User Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 34	Therein lies my problem. I bought my machne off a pseudo-friend who had it on there and didn't give me the manual. Anyone know of how I can get a copy? Edit: My version doesn't even have the proper help file, what gives?

29th June 2003, 05:10	#15 \| Link
sunnysixkiller Registered User Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 21	My problem is when change the image mode to indexed it doesn't offer me any options, it just changes it, so I can't select 4 color.

30th June 2003, 20:03	#16 \| Link
sunnysixkiller Registered User Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 21	Update: You must convert the image to RGB first, then index to bring up the index properties box.

29th July 2003, 02:05	#17 \| Link
AudioVideoMaster Creative Being Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: USA Posts: 128	@ Fankey Could you please fix your images. I get 404 not found errors on all the links. I'm interested in your anti-alised tutorial here. Thanks

29th July 2003, 02:55	#18 \| Link
mpucoder Moderator Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 3,530	I think Fankey has left the building. Fortunately, I saved the images a long ago, you can find them here

29th July 2003, 13:24	#19 \| Link
AudioVideoMaster Creative Being Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: USA Posts: 128	Thank you.

19th November 2003, 05:12	#20 \| Link
bode Registered User Join Date: May 2003 Location: Belfast, UK Posts: 13	Just what I've been searching for. Thanks for keeping those images available.