Motion background with highlight mask

JakeDaSnake wrote on 6/11/2007, 12:45 PM

Hello,

I have gone through Photoshop CS - Essentials for Digital Video by
Richard Harrington. I am trying to make the motion menu that he does on this DVD. I used after effects and photoshop to create this motion background. Everything looks great, so I go into photoshop- and make my highlight mask which should highlight my small video file and the text right under the video.
Ho do I make the video and text a button?
I can not for the life of me figure out how to make this work in DVDA. I have the motion background as my main menu attached my audio and then attached the highlight mask made in photoshop.
My question is how do I make this work?
Right now it seems I have no buttons to highlight there is just video files I added in after effects.

Comments

richard-courtney wrote on 6/12/2007, 7:49 AM

I don't have Photoshop CS or the DVD you mentioned.
You may need to post a link to your background and mask files for further
help. But in general here is what I do with DVDA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
On menu page properties:
Click on Background Media

Click on Highlight mask fill in your mask file. Change mask mapping as needed.

This uses the full screen image as the mask. Now you will add the selection
areas.

At the very top of screen click on Insert then Empty button.

Click on the word Text inside the two boxes. Press delete key as your
background graphic has the text in it. You should now have a dotted box.
Click on it. Another box will surround it but has anchor points. Use these to
move the box around the screen and to resize it. Make sure you surround the
entire area of the mask region for that button with the dotted box.

Under Button properties click on Action. Click on Destination. Set this to your
main video.

Add more empty buttons (selection areas) as needed.

JakeDaSnake wrote on 6/12/2007, 10:39 AM

Thanks for your help but I'm still not getting this.
When I added the empty button and sized it to surround my image, I then went to action then destination but could not link it to my video.
The options I got under the destination drop down was:
1) most recent menu
2) parent menu
3) next page
4) previous page
5) menu
Which one of these will add my main video?

Thanks

richard-courtney wrote on 6/12/2007, 1:06 PM

You need to add it to the DVD's assets. Find your main movie file using the explorer
and drag it up to the project (upper left section). You should then see a move strip icon.

It then should appear in the destination drop down list.

JakeDaSnake wrote on 6/12/2007, 8:58 PM

I really appreciate your help.
I know how to add media to a page by dragging from the explorer window.
Here is what I have:
I made this motion background avi file which has a small video in the upper right corner. I want to make this the link to the main video.

As you described above I drag an empty button onto this small video that I had placed into the motion background, I then added the empty button and sized it over my small video.
My problem is what to do next:
You said locate my main video and drag into the upper left corner .
What this does is makes a button link to the media that I just added. It does not link to the empty button which I placed over the small video.

Please help

Thanks in advance

JakeDaSnake wrote on 6/12/2007, 9:09 PM

I was playing around and I got the link to the empty button.
Thanks for your help.

Now all I need to do is get this overlay to work on my new link

richard-courtney wrote on 6/12/2007, 9:27 PM

I am sorry I confused you. The upper left section on the DVDA program is called
the Project Overview Window. I meant drag from explorer to that area your main
video that you want played. It should create a small green filmstrip icon.

Your empty button over the video is fine and what you want to do is click on
the empty button and change the destination to your main video asset you added.

richard-courtney wrote on 6/12/2007, 9:31 PM

In the DVDA 4.0 http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/step2.asp?DID=702manual[/link]
pages 123-127 describe using the PSD files for the mask.

If you need more help post a link to your graphics files and anyone here will be glad to help.

JakeDaSnake wrote on 6/13/2007, 8:17 AM

Ahh this might be a problem. I did not mention what version I'm using, it is DVD architect 2.0. Do the masks work with this version?

richard-courtney wrote on 6/13/2007, 6:02 PM

Sorry, I don't have version 2, so everything is by memory.

I think 2 supported masks but I don't remember if you could use it as a full menu
mask, just buttons. In the version 2.0 http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/step2.asp?DID=507manual[/link].
page 42 describes what you should try.

Version 2 does not read multilayer PSD files so you will need to "flatten" the background file.
The masks need to be separate files.