Animating thumbnails in DVDA

Defiant wrote on 7/29/2003, 9:39 PM
Are there any downsides to animating the thumbnails (so it shows a few seconds of the video it's linked to) in DVDA? I have about three pages, six thumnails each. In a test project, I animated the last two on page three and really like the effect. I'm wondering though, if I should do all 18 of them....

Thanks for your input...

Comments

BillyBoy wrote on 7/29/2003, 10:22 PM
That many animations on a single page is probably going to be overwheliming in the sense anyone looking at the page is going to be distracted seeing so many thumbnails in motion at once. Shame you can't animate as you hover over each thumbnail, that would be a neater feature.

When I use the animation I limit it to a few thumbnails on one page. Even that is a bit busy. One of those things where just because you can doesn't mean you should.

My view its the same mistake a lot of new web authors made some years back when they had a half dozen or more animated GIFS on their home page. Not only a distraction, it tends to keep the visitor on the home page rather than drilling down deeper into the web site. Same effect if you go crazy with animation on a DVD Menu page. The idea is to give a clue what the video is about, not to say oh ain't that cute with all the thumbnails playing at once.
Defiant wrote on 7/29/2003, 11:16 PM
Agreed. Good Point.

I was actually playing around with it while waiting for a response to my question. I too noticed how busy it looked. So, I limited it to two per page.

Thanks.
johnmeyer wrote on 7/29/2003, 11:54 PM
DVD menus are about the dumbest thing ever created. They are a total waste of creative energy as far as your audience is concerned. People just want to watch the movie, for crying out loud!

Having said that, fancy menu creation features sells a lot of DVD authoring software. But I suspect that the only people that will ever be impressed (or care at all) about all the effort you put into designing fancy menus, are other DVD designers. For your audience, they are just an annoying speed bump that keeps them from the movie/video they want to watch.
RogB wrote on 7/30/2003, 12:33 AM
John,
I think I will have to disagree with you...

Maybe if you would look at it from a useful stand point in that all things including the menu can be very artistic. If you want your DVDs to go straight to the movie than so be it, but you could show off even more of your creative skills on your menu. You should not look at the menu as a speed bump but rather as another canvas that needs painting.

my two cents
BillyBoy wrote on 7/30/2003, 8:27 AM
I have to go with John on this one. A DVD menu while it can and be artistic, isn't meant to show off your skills by cluttering it up with all kinds of eye candy. It is after all suppose to be a navigation system to the DVD itself. It should get you to the meat of the DVD, qucikly, easily and simply. No airplanes zooming around, no silly talking heads, no overblown fancy effects. All those things may get a geez-whiz from the viewer the first time, probably a yawn the second time and plant the seeds of discontent and become increaslingly annoying every time there after.

Like fancy bathroom fixtures that may employ a sensor to turn the water on leaving some poor guy standing their mumbling with dirty hands you risk annoying the crap out of the user. DVD Menu systems like doorknobs should let you get inside. Like let me see the DVD, sorry, I don't give a crap about some DVD author's ego trip making an "artistic" menu. That's my as always blunt observation. <wink>

Of course if you're only trying to impress youself or your one dimentional friends making some personal DVD... knock yourself out.
Mandk wrote on 7/30/2003, 11:16 AM
A slight disagreement animations and artwork do have a place in menus if done right and not for the sake of doing animations. I do agree that too much is too much though.

We are preparing a marching band video for the local high school. The video shows results of 8 competitions with a video of each. The main menu is basically a list of competitions, the sub menus show the individual results and have a thumbnail with about a minute of each competition. Looks good, is informative and shows off the ability to do animations.
richard-courtney wrote on 7/30/2003, 1:57 PM
John:

It depends on your audience. My son just wants to watch his favorite show
"Bob the Builder" if I have to select a language or do anything special to get it
started then it spoils it for the young viewer.

I like to see "behind the scenes" for SCI-FI movies sp this option in menus are
important.

Wedding videos I offer a very simple menu with an automatic timeout to view the
actual ceremony. When the couple want to see the outakes or those special scenes
before the wedding or the reception, they can grab their remote and select it.
Defiant wrote on 7/30/2003, 9:33 PM
Interesting guys, thanks. Here is how I set up my menu structure.
The main page has two simple buttons. One is "Play movie". It plays the whole movie from beginning to end. The second is the "Scene Selection" link to three scene selection menus containing 18 links.

I think this setup, (my first time BTW), is the best of both worlds. It allows the user to quickly jump in an play the movie with one press of the enter key, while also allowing the viewer to jump to a specific scene at a later point in time.

Remember guys, my original question was speaking more toward technical issues or incompatibilities when using the "animate" feature on the thumbnails. ...although, I do appreciate all of your input on personal style preference.

In the end, though, this is just a DVD of my 9 month old son's first vacation at the beach. Something tells me that the DVD scene selection menu will be a welcome feature, allowing other family members to skip ahead to the final credits..... :)
kameronj wrote on 7/31/2003, 1:02 PM
I'm going to have to agree and disagree with everyone who replied. (okay...I"m just being silly now!!)

I think a busy menu pretty much sucks. But, on the other hand - a plain old boring "here is the movie now play the damn thing" sucks too!!

I remember purchasing my first DVD...which was Blade (the first one not the second). I totally dug that DVD. The structure was good...a lot of information...good animations - yadda yadda yadda.

Other of my favs include:

The Matrix
Lost in Space
Minority Report
Both Harry Potters

Ones that suck include:

Mulholland Drive (it doesn't even have a chapter select....BASTARDS!!!!)
Wizard of Oz

Don't get me wrong - I think a bunch of animation on the page just won't work from an artistic point of view....but from a technical POV....I would like to put one together with something crazy like 20 animated thumbnails just to see if it is gonna work.

I'm working on a DVD right now that has:

Main Page with three separate presentations on it

3 separate presenttion pages - each has it's own:

Play
Scence Select
Additional Information (regarding specific presentation)
Generic additional infor (this page points to the same page in all presentations
Other Stuff (just in case I want to add something)

So from a audience stand point - they can get to the meat of the matter quickly....and / or they can drill down as far as they want to go for a bunch of other stuff.

This is what I really like about DVDs. Love the sharp digital image on professionally pressed discs....but I LOOOOOVVVVEEE discs that have tons and tons and tons of extra stuff. If all I wanted to do was watch the movie - I'd rent a VHS, or watch it on PPV.

It's all the other stuff. I really like DVDs that play the trailers. I loved trailers!!! And sometimes (especially with older movies) I never saw their trailers. So I'm glad they put them on the disc. Like the trailer for Pulp Fiction. I never saw that trailer. Hell...I didn't know anything about the movie until I was sitting in the movie house watching the movie. So watching the trailer was a hoot!!

Okay....enuf of my shit - I gotta get back to work!!