PSD menu / button groups / layer sets

rachelsdad wrote on 8/18/2005, 5:43 PM
A couple of DVDA3 menu questions (I'm posting this using my friend's forum account...i'm in eval mode fwith DVDA3)...

1. What's with the error...
Duplicate layer name encontered. Layer '</Layer group>' is used more than once in the same file.
There was an error in retrieving layer information from this file.
...when I try to import a PSD that most definitely does not have any duplicate layer names, but follows the help file's layer naming conventions with regard to button-0n-group, button-0n-thumbnail, and button-0n-highlight? This PSD has two layer sets (buttons) and a background-01 layer which is all the other stuff merged into one layer. In this case, the thumbnail layer in each layer set is non-rasterized text, and the highlight layer in each layer set is a non-rasterized photoshop custom shape.

screenshot at http://semel.tzo.com/public/dvda3_tests/resized_images/dvda3_imported_psd_menu_(import_error_when_using_button_group_layer_sets_in_psd_file).jpg

2. I can avoid the error described above if I ungroup the button thumbnail and highlight layers, and when i import the PSD as a new menu, the text and some space to the right of the text (where the highlight layer object would be) are shown as one whole button...cool. However, when I preview the menu, the highlight object is shifted over to the left and appears on top of the text part of the button...not cool. It's odd that the two buttons' highlights appear to have shifted over the same distance to the left during the preview, because their position on top of their text objects is the same relative to their position to the right of the text (the text is "play" and "scenes", left justified, and "scenes" is wider than "play.")

screenshots at
http://semel.tzo.com/public/dvda3_tests/resized_images/dvda3_imported_psd_menu_(button_1_area).jpg

http://semel.tzo.com/public/dvda3_tests/resized_images/dvda3_imported_psd_menu_(preview)_(button_1).jpg

zip file with the psd and the screenshots: http://semel.tzo.com/public/dvda3_tests/dvda3_tests.zip

Thanks for any help with this.
Gary

Comments

Jonathan Neal wrote on 8/18/2005, 11:43 PM
This sounds strikingly familiar to the error I was having.

My post: http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=405881
rachelsdad wrote on 8/19/2005, 8:02 PM
Yes, I saw your post after I had posted mine. Any resolution on your end yet? Nice to see that the Sony folks monitoring this board are so responsive to questions regarding legitimate potential bugs.

Take a look at my screenshot links and/or the zip file with the psd file, and let me know if it's similar to what you're trying to do in photoshop.

:-)
Jonathan Neal wrote on 8/19/2005, 10:18 PM
Indeed my friend, that is the same problem. Over at vegaseditors.com we are starting a similar discussion, so, this looks to me like a critical bug that Sony will likely address in the next update *crosses fingers*. Of course, it would give me a happy feeling if they could tell us that. =)
Steve Mann wrote on 8/19/2005, 11:21 PM
I am also seeing the exact same shift in the mask layer, which makes this feature useless for me. I would expect the layers to stay exactly where I put them in Photoshop.

By the way, I am not a Photoshop expert, so bear with me...

How did you put the safe area lines on your photoshop window?

Thanks

Steve Mann
Jonathan Neal wrote on 8/20/2005, 2:47 AM
Here is how to get those safe area lines like in rachelsdad's example...

When you are in Photoshop, goto "File" -> "New", and select the preset "NTSC DV 720 x 480 (with guides)". This will generate a 720x840 workspace using the correct 0.9 DV NTSC pixel aspect ratio.

Also, for your general knowledge, those safe area lines are known as guides, you can add your own guides by going to "View" -> "New Guide". From there you can choose a horizontal (left & right) or vertical guide (up & down).

Also, for anyone interested in some general knowledge on pixel aspect ratio (for anyone who stumbles across this thread and is curious). Pixels are typically squares, equally tall as they are wide. The most natural pixel aspect ratio would be 1x1 (equal, each pixel is square). However, DV NTSC footage uses a 0.9 aspect ratio (unequal, each pixel is rectangle). You may have noticed that an object 720 pixels wide by 480 pixels tall is nothing close to the near-square shape of a standard television. A pixel aspect ratio of 0.9 makes the 720 pixels wide appear more like the image were 655 pixels wide. It's important to remember these things when working in any non square aspect ratio.
Tom Pauncz wrote on 8/23/2005, 8:50 PM
To Rachelsdad ...
Please see my earlier post. If you were using PS CS2, that is your problem.
Tom
Steve Mann wrote on 8/23/2005, 11:18 PM
I am using Photoshop 7. I bought the upgrade to CS, but I haven't installed it yet. There is no "with guides" that I can find.

It does only take a couple of minutes to add my own guides, but it would be nice to be able to start a new file with them.
rachelsdad wrote on 8/24/2005, 6:47 PM
Tom,
Thanks for the suggestion, but creating a similar simple psd in PS CS did not work for me either. I tried it a couple of ways...

1. Installed (and created the new PSD menu using) PS CS (not the whole CS suite) on my pc which already has the full CS2 suite installed. Inserted the CS PSD into DVDA on that same pc...no joy.

2. Installed PS CS (only) on a separate pc, which had no other CS or CS2 products. Created a new PSD on this CS and inserted into DVDA on the pc from test 1 above...no joy.

I wonder if the DVDA software uses some components of the installed version of Photoshop to process the psd upon insert (parse the layers, read the file/layer info, etc.)? This would imply that in order to insert a psd as a menu, you MUST have Photoshop installed on the same pc as DVDA, which seems to be a bit absurd. However, since the pc running DVDA has both CS and CS on it, perhaps DVDA is using the CS2 components by default? My next test will be to install DVDA on the pc from test 2 above, alongside CS only, to see if this is the case.

One piece of good news from this testing is that the layer groups (sets) in CS do not generate the import error, and the file imports successfully. However, the left/right shift of the highlight layers is still happening with my CS psd files.

Thanks!
Gary
Tom Pauncz wrote on 8/24/2005, 8:19 PM
Gary,
I went back and took a look at the .psd files in your .zip. Not sure if this is good news or not, but I think your problem in one respect may be the mixing of the shape with a text layer.

I did some tests using a text character from a symbol font and can almost get to line up the 'button 1' text and the symbol (which is the highlight layer). It has a huge amount to do with the white space in front of the symbol to get it past the end of the 'button 1' text and the paragraph alignment of both text pieces.

HTH,
Tom
rachelsdad wrote on 9/20/2005, 7:54 PM
FYI...a quick check with the brand spankin' new 3.0c, and my test psd menus are previewing correctly.

Yay!!!

Gary