Intro video + menu background

navydoc wrote on 10/8/2005, 1:00 PM

Using DVDA3, I was able to have both an intro video & menu background video play seemlessly by using a single video and setting a delayed subpicture. I used portions of two audio files to 'key' when the subpicture ('Play Movie'/'Scene Selection') begins by setting the loop point between the audio break. As mentioned in this topic, I had to set the video a couple of frames longer than the audio to avoid a brief black section before the loop replays.

The dvd menu I've made in question is for "Amadeus", The Director's Cut. Here's a look at it if you'd care to...comments are always welcome (to keep the text readable, filesize is a bit over 5mb). I captured the movie from a Directv broadcast in Hidef using Pinnacle's MovieBox USB.

Amadeus Menu

Also, if anyone is interested in adding an icon to their dvd's to personalize them a bit more, I'd like to share how I do that. Here's a shot of an example I did recently - ICON_TEST (E):

dvd icon

Doc

Comments

rsp wrote on 10/8/2005, 2:11 PM

Wow ! most interested to read your message and watch your 'amadeus movie' - looks good though for my taste the 'zooming part' could be a faster/different.
Will be interested to read how you involved that 'delayed subpicture'.

Is a couple of frames extra '2' or will it depend on the length of the movie?

Also interested to hear about that dvd-icon: a very cool idea!

Rudi

navydoc wrote on 10/8/2005, 4:12 PM

The first thing I did was create a video clip to use as the main menu background. Using Photoshop, I broke down a poster image into layers and saved each layer seperately. On the Vegas timeline, I added each layer back staggered to create the text appearing seperately. I used a trimmed audio clip of a Mozart song to set the time of this part of the video. I then added a second trimmed song and timed the zoom effect on a full version of the poster image. You can see the Vegas timeline here. I then rendered it out for my dvd menu.

On opening DVD Architect, I added this video as the main menu background. Then I dragged the captured movie "Amadeus" to the background, right clicked on it and selected 'button style': 'text only' (be sure to set the highlight properties to 'text mask overlay'). I edited the text to read 'Play Movie' and resized/relocated where I wanted.

Next I moved the 'scrubber' in the Architect timeline to the point where the music changes in the menu background video (where I already planned on the subpic to start). Then clicked the 'set loop point' and set the after action properties to 'loop' at that point. Now, you won't see the 'Play Move' text button until the video reaches this point.

On reviewing the main menu background video at this point, I too noticed the background video blacking out briefly before looping back to the loop point set. I went back into Vegas, streched the background video a bit (don't know how many frames), saved it under the same name so Architect would automatically update and it worked fine then. Here's a look at the Architect workspace

Now you can use the introduction video feature for something else...such as a still frame saying something like 'This home video was created exclusivly for...'.

Oh, you can also create and add a transition video between the main movie and the movie itself or other menus such as 'Scene Selections'. Here's a topic for that too.

Hope this helps and I'll post another topic regarding adding a custom icon to your dvd a bit later.

Doc

biggles wrote on 10/8/2005, 6:42 PM

hey that's really great.

I too would be interested in how you added the custom icon.