Architect 3 how to make menu structure

joncor wrote on 3/23/2007, 3:17 PM

Hi All,
I have been struggling for weeks to understand how to do a simple(?) strcuture of menus for my video, and am now more confused than ever.
Maybe if I describe my goals, someone could help out or tell me its not going to work. I have read the manual and I cant seem to grasp what is needed to be done.
This is a video of vaction in vegas......
1. Main screen should be a still pic from my camera with title "Vegas 2006". I can achieve this, however there is a yellow box that is always there in preview that must be a button. that mars the opening screeen pic. Is there a way to make this not noticable?

2. When you hit "enter " on remote from the main screen above it starts the movie from the beginning. This part seems ok.

3. (and most perplexing). I want to be able to activate the "menu" button on the preview remote and go to a chapter menu (which I assume will put all the chapter markers (8) on the timeline in). THis seems impossible to do. THings get crazy here. I have tried many ways to do this but to no avail.
I appreciate all the help you can give me.
regards,
joncor

Comments

Per1 wrote on 3/23/2007, 3:53 PM

joncor,
I recommend getting the DVD-set from Gary Kleiner,

http://www.vegastrainingandtools.com/video_dvda3_learn_dvd_authoring_with_dvd_architect_on_instructional_video_dvd.html

Saved me lots of hours. There might be other similar from other corps.

As usual the Help or Manuals will do no-one any good... I've stop reading them.

Nope, I don't have any shares in Gary's corp. - just recommending the product.

joncor wrote on 3/23/2007, 4:33 PM

Thanks Per1 for your advice, however me paying 80.00 for something that should be explained clearly in the manual dosn't fit well with me. Heck thats more than I paid for Movie Studio and Architect. I will say those "how to "dvds look great!!!!!!!!
In fairness maybe what I want to acheive isnt possible, thus the confusion on my part (or denseness).
Regards,
joncor

Per1 wrote on 3/23/2007, 4:58 PM

Never seen a Help or a Manual that explained anything well. Someday I will be happily surprised.
The Vegas documentation is not the best.
Oh yes, what you want to do is common stuff for DVDA, it's just that it req. some writing to put it all down. There is quite a few steps to make, but not difficult. I only have Vegas+DVDA and not MS so I don't know if "your" Help is worse (if even possible...).

Per1 wrote on 3/23/2007, 5:10 PM

>1. Main screen should be a still pic from my camera with title "Vegas 2006". I can achieve this

Good.

>however there is a yellow box that is always there in preview that must be a button that mars the opening screeen pic. Is there a way to make this not noticable?

It is prob. the highlight feature since you only have one button made. Remove the highlight on the button.

>2. When you hit "enter " on remote from the main screen above it starts the movie from the beginning. This part seems ok.

OK

>3. (and most perplexing). I want to be able to activate the "menu" button on the preview remote and go to a chapter menu (which I assume will put all the chapter markers (8) on the timeline in). THis seems impossible to do. THings get crazy here. I have tried many ways to do this but to no avail.

Check out Scene Selection in the Help. That it does not explain very well is that you should right-click the title (movie), there you will find the "Insert Scene Selection Menu", from there on it is interactive help. You will end up with a page of buttons to the markers in your movie. Then you have to create a link from you main menu to the scene selection page.

Someday I'll write a good manual on this... when time permits...

Let us know of your progress.

joncor wrote on 3/24/2007, 1:42 PM

Per1,
once again thanx for your help. I was able to set this up, and have my scene selection pages. (main page, screen1, screen2). All the forward and back butons as well as the sccren buttons work.
Doing the above put a button on my main screen to go to the screen pages(screeen1). If I hit enteron the main page it starts the movie (everything ok so far!).THis all worked fine in "preview"mode.
However.......When I burn the dvd the name and button of "screen selection "diapppeared from the main page. No way to access the screeen pages at all.
How in the heck does it show up and work in preview and not on a burned dvd??
Regards and many thanx,
joncor.

Per1 wrote on 3/24/2007, 2:00 PM

Joncor,

Very strange - Make some ugly big button with some dreaful colour and try again. Don't forget to read any warnings etc. when generating the project - it might be a missing "media" that is replaced with "nothing". If the "ugly" also disappears we have an interesting case...
You're not using some advanced mask?
Please note that you can reverse the highlights so it actually closes out the button (a trick for having fancy selection markers on solid background). This could be the "error".
Try to make the meny as simple as possible to start with and then increase the degree of complexity.
But, if it looks alright in preview is should work on DVD too.
Keep us (at least me...) posted.

MPM wrote on 3/25/2007, 2:14 PM

Probably a stupid question -- if so please forgive...

Did you try the DVD layout on your hard drive or the burned DVD on your PC? There is a title safe area, & if the button's outside of that, & if you checked the DVD on a TV, it wouldn't show up.

If it doesn't show up during PC viewing, what happens if you move the mouse to the area where the button should be? This would give an idea if the button's created but the graphics are missing, or if everything's gone.

abcdwxyz wrote on 4/4/2007, 9:13 AM

I have found this thread very helpful.

I have a video which is a bit over an hour long and I wanted to make a DVD with Scene Selection. By following the advice, I can either start at the beginning or start at any of the chapters in the video. However, so far all I can manage is "start at a chapter" - but it does not play "just one chapter".

Is this possible?

MPM wrote on 4/4/2007, 9:59 AM

A menu button can start at any chapter of a title video, but unless you play with your layout on hdd play will continue past the end of that chapter - normal DVD behavior. George has found that if you import your title more than once to menu pages, you can set the in & out points for these *copies* -- they act a like separate titles where you can set the end action to, in your example, return to the menu page. Another option would be to use separate titles originally, tying them together with a playlist, though if you're just returning to menu after a single chapter I'd think I'd use the other method.