Menu Transitions

wafalcon wrote on 2/13/2007, 8:33 AM
Hello:

I have been trying to do some of those DVD Menues that have buttons fade in, and/or have a transition when choosing a button. But for some reason I didn't have much luck with it. Video either stops for to long between clips, or video has a very noticable brake between video and menu.

1) Can any of you give me some tips on how to make my playback smoother between the video and menu? Is there another way of acheaving the same thing.

2) Is there a way to link menu end-action to the video that is outside of that menu, I tried but couldn't seem to make that happen?
- I was able to do an Video end-action to menu, but not other way around.

3) Many times I finish my DVD menu and then deside to do a that fade in (video before it) Is there a way to render/export the menu screen as video or atleast a still shot?
- because I was doing a screen capture and then trying to match it as best as I can, but that makes me loose quality.

I appreciate your help, Thanks for your time.

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 2/13/2007, 8:56 AM
Doing a seamless opening menu transition is very simple with DVD 3 or 4. Just make the transition video in Vegas. Include a few seconds at the end of the menu after the opening transition. Then, drop that video onto the menu, thus making it the background. Finally -- and this is the key thing -- move the intro loop marker to the point just after the motion stops. The entire video will play when you link to the menu, but the loop and hold behavior will go back to the loop point, not the beginning of the video.
MPM wrote on 2/13/2007, 11:03 AM
As john posted... otherwise...

"Video either stops for to long between clips, or video has a very noticable brake between video and menu. "

An intro or transitional vid shouldn't pause -- render the layout to hdd and check it there in Power DVD or similar. If it does pause there might be a problem with your media, which ideally is rendered to mpg2 before import.

It is common for an intro, menu, or transitional mpg2 vid to be imported with a black frame & possibly an uneven ending in DVDA. Set the duration to trim this off. Rendering progressive in Vegas, trimming the last frame or two, shouldn't have any problems at all.

"Is there a way to link menu end-action to the video that is outside of that menu"

In DVDA 4 set end action to auto-activate button, choosing which button you want to trigger. If you can't do it in your version, should be able to set auto-activate & delay for the button in PGCEdit working with your rendered layout.

"Many times I finish my DVD menu and then deside to do a that fade in (video before it) Is there a way to render/export the menu screen as video or atleast a still shot?"

The menu is already video in the rendered layout -- just extract it. Use DGIndex to locate the correct vob, then create a DGIndex project file from the vob. Run the project file thru VFAPI, open the result in Vegas. If you want a screen shot take it using Power DVD.

"I was doing a screen capture and then trying to match it as best as I can, but that makes me loose quality."

Latest VirtualDub has decent screen cap -- if that helps for whatever reason.