Menu that can be scrolled across the screen.

tazio wrote on 2/4/2014, 11:56 PM
Hi all, I'm trying to recreate a DVD that a client has given me.

On the main menu page there are 3 menu buttons (with images) and an arrow button to the right. When you click on the arrow the next 3 menu buttons appear with arrows to the left and right. How can I do this in DVDA?

I'm not sure how to get images up on the forum to show you but hopefully my description will be clear.

Thanks for the help in advance

Comments

videoITguy wrote on 2/5/2014, 12:23 AM
BEWARE of several things during this process - if you are seeing a replicated disc (NOT a burned disc) then it is likely that it was authored by tools that you will never see and it certainly wasn't done in SCS DVDAPro.

Now, if you want to attempt this in DVDAPro - what you must do is a progression of menu pages that are auto linked as you press to the scroll button. It will be like trying to create layers in Photoshop but without the needed mask/transparency to see what you are really creating. THIS will NOT be easy to do.

Even if you manage to do some simulation - beware that authoring and burning to disc will produce unreliable set-top player activity and thus artifacts of the player mechanism and firmware will interfere with how smoothly it works on play. A pressed or replicated disc that is correctly authored does not show these kind of issues - hence you are attempting to play out some efx in a totally different league.

Not to discourage you, just experiment and be prepared for what you find out.
cbrillow wrote on 2/5/2014, 7:36 AM
The way I'm interpreting the original post makes it sound like a rather typical DVD menu, and it's very easy to do with DVDA. The only question I'd have is about the phrase 'scrolled across the screen'.

If the poster is suggesting that the buttons move smoothly off-screen and are replaced by another set that smoothly scroll onscreen, like swiping on a smart-phone or tablet, then, yeah -- I'd agree that this is a challenge. But it could be simulated with menu transition videos, even though it might not be as smooth as the poster would like to see.

However, it sounds to me like the first screen has 3 content buttons on it, along with a right-pointing arrow representing 'Next'. Selecting the arrow leads to the next menu page, with 3 content buttons, a left-pointing arrow for 'Previous' and a right-pointing arrow for 'Next'. This is a pretty typical DVDA menu.

No, it's not exactly 'scrolling', in that the images are not moving from side-to-side across the screen, but it's not clear that it's what the poster wanted, as the description says 'When you click on the arrow the next 3 menu buttons appear with arrows to the left and right.' To me, 'appear' sounds like 'poof -- there the are.'

In either case, I think there's a decent chance that it could be done without too much problem if the poster will ring back in and clarify.
videoITguy wrote on 2/5/2014, 10:31 AM
My original post still stands as written on the suggestion. The commercial replicated disc usually has the appearance of buttons that scroll completely seamlessly from side to side or up to down.

Introducing the idea of video transistions between menus is an option to work with DVDAPro - but on a burned disc this is going to be actually distracting rather than smooth movement because of the unpredictable lag on set-top players.

That is why, I suggest menu pages automated - because DVDAPro is going to create of itself a video (everything on a DVD except audio becomes video). Usually the transistion between video menu pages is a whole lot more seamless than video introduced as transistions.
The effect will be more instantaneous and less distracting.

All of this matters on a burned disc - how much content you write to disc, where the efx are placed on the disc, what kinds of tools you use to create efx. DVDAPro gives you some ability to order the burn of large files to optimize disc play, but it is very crude and limiting.
tazio wrote on 2/5/2014, 3:28 PM
Hello vITg, and thanks for all the great info. It is not a replicated disc, it is a master that I have taken over from a previous author.

I don't think that he he would have gone to a great deal of trouble to have this effect having taken less than a day to author this particular disc. I think that it may be some sort of preset available in the particular authoring software that he uses.
tazio wrote on 2/5/2014, 3:34 PM
"If the poster is suggesting that the buttons move smoothly off-screen and are replaced by another set that smoothly scroll onscreen, like swiping on a smart-phone or tablet, then, yeah -- I'd agree that this is a challenge. But it could be simulated with menu transition videos, even though it might not be as smooth as the poster would like to see."

I'll have another look when I get into work today but I'm sure this is what I am after and if it's not exactly a "smooth scroll" like a tablet wipe, I will be able to sell it to the client.

'poof --there they are'. I love it!

I will also look up "menu transition videos", but if you have any quick tips they would be most appreciated.

Thanks very much 90% of my work is audio using Sony Vegas, 9% video and 1% DVD authoring which I'm pretty basic at. So I appreciate the help.
tazio wrote on 2/5/2014, 5:50 PM
Hey cbrillow,

just got in to work and checked and"poof - there they are" is correct.

So what I have is 3 menu buttons with a right arrow that when pressed takes you to the next 3 menu buttons. These have a left and a right arrow to take you back and forward.

I've started looking through the help files for how to achieve this but if there's a simple way...
videoITguy wrote on 2/5/2014, 6:21 PM
SO , your last post does not indicate that you see scrolling or a smooth left to right movement?
THEN what you see is a jump from 3 button to another 3 button menu to yet another.

THIS can be done with menu pages - start with a menu and add a page - each page can hold 3 buttons - the default left /right which are known as previous / next menu page movements are going to pop right up in your build in DVDAPro. The hardest part will be assigning what media asset goes to each button, but not a big deal.
tazio wrote on 2/5/2014, 7:59 PM
Thanks very much for that - that sounds exactly what I need. You're a champion!

Phil
Richard Jones wrote on 2/6/2014, 5:02 AM
Isn't this more or less standard when you open a new DVDA project and opt for Scene Selection (by a RCl on the image that you've already drawn up to the blue screen)? You are then given a choice of how many scenes you want on each page and these pages will then include buttons (arrows) for the next or previous page and one for taking you back to the very first page.

Or am I misunderstanding what you are looking for?

Richard
videoITguy wrote on 2/6/2014, 7:27 AM
In recent commercial releases of DVD/Blu-ray it has become a popular interface to offer a smooth scrolling preview of upcoming scenes. By smooth I mean to suggest the swipe type of effect you would get on an IPhone.
It is very appealing and I believe it is done with Blu-ray with Java programming but I could be amiss about that.
The topic heading for this OP's post began to suggest that is what he wanted to emulate. However, it appears now to be more evident that he was more akin to an interface of the menu jump effect that would be accomplished with menu selections.

Now to take this effect to the next level, but technically it is still just a jump is to create menu pages, where the background remains absolutely stable and you are designing button positions to be replace in say a left to right sweep.

So menu page 1 has three buttons left to right button 1, 2, and 3.
Menu page 2 has button 1 replaced by button 2, button 2 replaced by button 3, and finally button 3 replaced by button upcoming number 4.
tazio wrote on 2/6/2014, 5:19 PM
Thanks, that's correct, the menu pages have solved my problems. I only need something basic like that.

Thanks for the help, it's saved me a lot of time searching around on how to achieve this.
Steve Mann wrote on 2/7/2014, 4:44 PM
I've never seen this in a DVD, but yes, it's easily (LOL) done with BD-J scripting.
You could simulate it in DVD as others have stated with a transition video between static menus, but there would be a short delay from pressing the next/previous button while the transition video loads.