DVDA3 is Da' Bomb...few questions about PSD files

mwkurt wrote on 4/25/2005, 11:29 AM

Hello,

Well...I am happily creating a switched menu DVD with the new "auto-activate" feature. Thanks Sony! I would like to create some menus with Photoshop and import the PSD files in DVDA3. I have a question regarding naming some layers in the PSD file. Two questions: I want to have text only buttons. Would these layers be named as follows: button-01, button-02...etc? I am not going to have a thumbnail for each text button per se, but I am going to have one big frame to put a graphic in and use a still from a video file for each of my text buttons. Hope this is clear! Anyway's....The manual says: "Frame - A layer containing a button frame". My frame is not going to be a button frame. It is there to hide the edges of each graphic still for each of my text buttons. So what what would the naming of this layer be since it is not a button frame but a graphic frame? Can this be done. Does anyone know? Sony???
Thanks,
Mark
Is there a more extensive white paper written anywhere regarding DVDA3 PSD files naming conventions???

Comments

mwkurt wrote on 4/26/2005, 11:57 AM

Really would like to find out more about making PSD files for import so I am bumping this.

Sony....are you there??
Mark

Michael L wrote on 4/26/2005, 12:38 PM

Hi Mark, Just a guess (I also want to get started on this new feature) but I believe that sony talks about buttons including either text or graphics. A button frame therefore should apply in your use.

Try giving it a shot and seeing if it works.

Mike

johnmeyer wrote on 4/26/2005, 1:41 PM

I answered a similar question here:

How to insert Adobe PSD files

by quoting the help file. Is this the information you are looking for?

mwkurt wrote on 4/26/2005, 5:24 PM

Michael and Johnmeyer,

Thanks for the tips. I will give them a try. However, on the stuff you printed John, It doesn't say anything about a type for Graphics. Since you can use graphics in DVDA 3 as well as buttons and backgrounds, wouldn't there be a type for these as well?
Mark

bStro wrote on 4/27/2005, 10:30 AM

Just include them on your background (or drag them into DVDA individually). DVDA doesn't have to do anything special with them, so there's no need to give them their own layer.

Is there?

Rob

mwkurt wrote on 4/27/2005, 12:21 PM

Well yes there is, at least to me. This DVD project I am working on used up most of the 99 title limits of the VTS. It would be alot quicker for me, maybe others, if I could import a completed menu rather than having to add stuff to every menu. Having to add stuff to a PSD import kind of defeats the purpose of having this ability? When doing a Switched menu theme with 4 movies and each movie has between 10 & 15 chapters, well you can see how time consuming it can be. The redeeming thing in this is the copy and paste command which makes it a little faster, but still opening up some 80 menus and pasting to each one is a bit tedious.
If I included the graphic on the background, I couldn't put a thumbnail image underneath of it, could I?
Mark

bStro wrote on 4/27/2005, 1:23 PM

Not quite sure where you're coming from with this.

What "graphics" are you talking about adding, that you'd add several to a single menu? For DVDA's purposes, a "graphic" is just an extra image / video that you add to garnish your menu (say, a logo, for example). It doesn't really serve a functional purpose, and I don't really understand why you'd need several of them per menu.

If you're talking about button frames, there's already a type for those.

Rob

mwkurt wrote on 4/27/2005, 4:13 PM

Hi bStro...again :o)

I don't believe that I said that I add several on each menu. Take a look at the menu at the top of this page:

http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/tutorial/switchmenu.html

I am talking about a frame, one per menu, that is used to cover the thumbnail like the one that is shown. What I do is as follows:
I have a main menu that has links to 4 different movies (transferred film). Using switched menus that is a total of 5 different menus. Each movie has a round 12 chapters, that is 12 different menus for each movie used for navigating. This frame can not have any button type attributes as it does not link to anything. It is there for show only. It would be alot easier to those of who like to do our menus like this if there was a layer for graphics that could be imported to DVDA. The same thing goes for text that is used for titles and such. All of the DVD's I make have different titles, so I can't use a static title that is a permanant part of the background. The text needs to be a layer so that it can be changed when needed. I hope this clears it up for you. All I need to know is if there is there are other layers that DVDA recognizes like a graphic layer and a text layer and what the naming conventions of them are. SONY...are you there!
Mark

bStro wrote on 4/27/2005, 6:18 PM

The answer to your question is "no."

Rob

mwkurt wrote on 4/27/2005, 6:31 PM

Short and sweet...thanks for your help. Do you work for Sony? Are you so sure that the answer is "no"? I think I'll keep asking until someone from Sony tells me the answer is "no".
Mark