Cannot add keyframes in crop and adjust window

AlanMintaka wrote on 11/7/2019, 7:21 PM

Hello,

I'm doing something basically wrong with setting keyframes in the crop and adjust window but I can't figure out what it is.

I have an image button in a menu. I want to fade in this button so it gradually appears in the menu video.

I can right-click on the button to select the Crop and Adjust option. When I do this, the crop and adjust window appears and the correct button image is displayed in the preview pane. From here I can adjust the alpha to change the transparency of the image.

However I cannot apply the change to the timeline because I can't set keyframes. The "+" button is grayed out. In help it says the "Play before loop point" menu property must be set to Yes and the loop point must be greater than 00.00.00. I did all this but the Add Keyframe Button is still grayed out.

Given this situation, how can I add keyframes to the timeline so I can apply the alpha changes?

DVD Architect 7

WIndows 10 "Home"

Do you need additional info?

Thanks for your time,

Alan Mintaka

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

Former user wrote on 11/7/2019, 9:15 PM

Did you set a length for the menu and a loop point that is shorter than the length? It works in Version 5, I don't have 7. If you can upload some screenshots that might help.

AlanMintaka wrote on 11/8/2019, 6:50 AM

Did you set a length for the menu and a loop point that is shorter than the length? It works in Version 5, I don't have 7. If you can upload some screenshots that might help.

Hi Dot,

The loop point and menu length settings were OK. I think my problem is because I was selecting the button highlight, not the button text. This is probably why the keyframe settings in the Crop and Adjust window were grayed out.

However now I have another problem. The button style is "text and image" but there is no thumbnail or frame media. Thus when select the button instead of the highlight, only the button text is selected.

When I do this, the entire menu image appears selected in the Crop and Adjust window. Meanwhile, in the menu preview window, only the button text is selected. I don't get how the selections can be different at the same time, but in any case what happens is that any keyframe settings or alpha adjustments are applied the the menu image as a whole, not just the button text.

FWIW I've attached a screenshot showing the different selections in the Crop and Adjust and menu preview windows. If this because Crop and Adjust doesn't work with text buttons?

Meanwhile here is the screenshot of the button highlight selected, showing the keyframe settings grayed out:

I have to go back to the drawing board on all of this, specifically fading a button with the style "text and image" with no thumbnail or frame. When it comes to getting the highlight image to fade in, I guess that's just not possible.

Thanks for your help,

Alan Mintaka

 

 

 

Former user wrote on 11/8/2019, 8:03 AM

No, highlights cannot fade in. When the button becomes active (at the loop point) the highlight will normally pop on. This is a limitation of the DVD standard, not DVDA. If there is no IMAGE on your button, delete the image frame and use TEXT only.

On your pan/crop window BACKGROUND is selected. That is why it is being affected. (next to the drop down arrow it says background)

AlanMintaka wrote on 11/8/2019, 8:25 AM

Hi Dot,

Unfortunately "Background" is the only setting in that drop-down list, even when the button is the only thing selected in the menu preview. There still doesn't seem to be a way to select just the button text in the Crop and Adjust window. Looks like a PNG image of the text with a transparent background is the way to do it as far as button fade goes, but then I'd still have the problem of trying to fade the highlight.

RE the DVD standard for highlights, is that the same for Blu-Ray? I have the disc format in DVDA set to Blu-Ray, if that makes a difference.

Former user wrote on 11/8/2019, 8:43 AM

On DVDA the standard is pretty much the same. It does not support many of the Bluray advanced features. You need to get a lot more expensive software for that. I will play with fading in text only. That might be a limitation as well. I will get back to you on that.

edit: Crop and adjust does not affect text, since text is not an image. You could create the text in a program like PHOTOSHOP.
The higlights will never fade in. If you watch any commercial DVD you will see them pop on the loop. Like I said, many of the advanced bluray features are not supported in DVDA.

AlanMintaka wrote on 11/8/2019, 3:32 PM

...
The higlights will never fade in. If you watch any commercial DVD you will see them pop on the loop. Like I said, many of the advanced bluray features are not supported in DVDA.

Hi Dot,

Thanks for all your input. Once I got the message about Crop and Adjust working for images but not text, I concentrated on using button images and getting them to fade in and out. I set a loop point where I wanted the highlight to appear - as soon as the button image has completely faded in - and that works too.

At first it wasn't pretty when the selected button image faded in and then the highlight suddenly popped into view, but I found that if the transparency of the highlight is adjusted so that most of the button image shows through, it doesn't look bad at all.

I wasn't crazy about the menu returning to the loop point (too much discontinuity in video and sound). I really would have wanted the menu to restart from the beginning somehow, even though the loop point wasn't at 0:00:00.00.

So for the "End Action" of the menu I just selected the "Activate Button" option, with the button specified as the first chapter ("Play all", essentially).

That works great for me! Thank you again for all those pointers about images and highlights!

Alan Mintaka

 

 

 

 

Former user wrote on 11/8/2019, 3:41 PM

If you want the menu to start from the beginning, you can create a duplicate menu and end action to that. That means the fade in would happen again. Then at the end of that menu end action back to the first.