DVD Architect 2 - animated menus

AnimeNiac wrote on 5/18/2007, 11:59 AM
Is there a way to make a multi-animated, multi sound-track menu through DVD-A 2 without putting in a single looped video & audio file?

I've seen DVD menus that have this whole animation that comes in, then slowly displays all the elements on the screen either with sound effects or music (sometimes both). The loop is with the completely assembled screen and usually a background music track. Sometimes, this looped area is animated. Then, when you select something from the menu, it goes into another animation that changes from the "looped" area, to a "finishing" animation that goes black (or white) with different sound effects or music, and starts playing your selection.

They usually look like a flash animation or 3D imaging application animation. Is there some trick to using DVD Architect 2 in order to do this, or is this kind of menu beyond the functionality of DVD-A 2?

SIDE NOTE: Can DVD-A 2 burn to double-layer DVD-RW+/- drives, or is that too new a technology for Architect 2?

Comments

ScottW wrote on 5/18/2007, 1:08 PM
Sure, and the tool you use to accomplish this is called Vegas. DVD's play MPEG-2 video - that's it. So anything that you think may be done by flash was actually done in a video editing tool like Vegas and then cleverly assembled.

DVDA2 was very limited in what you could do, and so it's really not possible to do what you describe without some pauses between events. Actually, when looping and doing transitions, you cannot absolutely be sure that there won't be some sort of pause, depending on the player, regardless of the authoring software.

With A2 what you would do is set up an intro clip, where the last frame looked like your menu. This clip then links to your menu, which can be static or motion. The transition out of the menu is similar, rather than going directly to another menu or your movie, you link to a transition clip who's first frame looks like your menu and then the clip transitions to whatever you need.

I think it was A4 that improved the situation with 2 cell menus - where you could have an intro cell and then a loop cell. The transition from intro to loop will be seamless, but the transition from loop to loop, or loop out won't be entirely seamless (again, depending on the player). It would be nice if A4 had at least 3 cell menus: intro, loop and exit, but, just getting 2 cell menus was a pretty big deal.

DVDA2 cannot burn DL disks.

--Scott
MPM wrote on 5/18/2007, 6:02 PM
"Is there a way to make a multi-animated, multi sound-track menu through DVD-A 2 without putting in a single looped video & audio file?"

A DVD menu is made up of looped (or paused) video with an optional audio track (also often looped).... So no -- you've got to create a video file, in your DVD authoring program or a NLE like Vegas.

As Scott posted, DVDA 4 will let you create a menu page with 2 cells (think of chapt markers)... The video's one piece, so no pause going from the intro to the menu, but the pause using separate intro video (mpg2 progressive) on current hardware will be barely noticeable, if that. For a menu exit transition, create another video & either have it's end action link to whatever, or create a separate menu page with that video as background, using a hidden auto-activate button. A 3rd option is to simply add the intro to your title(s).

RE: DL discs... Render your DVD to hard drive & use ImgBurn. You'll need a chapter marker at the point you want the video to split (for the other side) -- you can find tips by searching here in the SCS forums, in the videohelp forums, at the ImgBurn forums etc...
AnimeNiac wrote on 6/14/2007, 2:03 PM
Soooo.....

Would an upgrade help me? Especially with the D/L discs - does DVDA-4 burn to those?