PSD menus... I'm stumped!

StormMarc wrote on 2/7/2007, 8:02 PM
Sorry... perhaps I'm a little retarded but I have gone over the online help and some of these posts over and over and I'm having real problems understanding this. If I could just play with the sample files I know I could figure it out. But I cannot find any on the web. Is anyone will to post some? I'm especially interested in created text highlights over a motion menu I built in Vegas which includes the text in the motion menu. I'd like to highlight the text with color shaped just like the text. In Reed DVD this is no problem but I try to read the DVD Architect help and I feel like I'm reading Greek.

Thanks,

Marc

Comments

bStro wrote on 2/7/2007, 8:49 PM
There's no point fussing around with PSD menus for what you want. Just use a custom highlight mask. Go into Vegas, save a frame of your motion menu to a PNG file, and use that to create a mask -- white for the shape of your text highlights, black for the rest. Back in DVD Architect, insert empty buttons where your text appears in the motion menu and use the image you just created for the custom hightlight mask.

For more specific details, check DVDA's online help / manual or read the this old PDF file from back when this feature was first added.

If you really want to learn how to do PSD-based menus, there was a very good thread on them just in the last week or two. (Maybe you participated -- if so, nevermind. ;) Frankly, I think those are really only necessary if you want to have the standard frame / thumbnail buttons, and probably not even then.

Rob
johnmeyer wrote on 2/7/2007, 10:13 PM
Here's an example of how to use a PSD in a DVDA 4 project. It also uses scripts to remember which button was pushed, and to highlight the next button in the menu when control returns to that menu.

PSD and Script Example

This link is good for seven days.

The video media it points to is not included. You can either substitute your own media, or just tell DVDA to ignore the missing files. The PSD and navigation will still work.

Note that I didn't bother to name the layers. That is only necessary if you want "automatic" import and creation of buttons. If you don't name layers, you can insert your buttons and then use the masks in the PSD objects to create highlighting. I posted another example a few weeks back where I also had an arrow that appeared to the left of the selection and moved up and down as you moved through the selections.
StormMarc wrote on 2/7/2007, 11:42 PM
Thank you very much. I take back every bad thought I had about DVD Architect :) That old PDF did the trick. I will also study the PSD file.

Marc
MPM wrote on 2/8/2007, 7:57 AM
FWIW...

One nice thing about creating the motion background in Vegas is that with text or whatever overlaid objects on a separate track(s) you can create the intro if you want, have whatever you'll use for buttons fade in (rather than just jump on the screen), & by rendering loop selections, create a transition clip with the button's fading back out for when a buttons pressed/activated.

DVDA is also pretty cool... You set the loop point for your menu media in the above example to not repeat the button fade in, or you can create the same fading-in effect in DVDA. Either will allow more than fades -- with Vegas you can use however many button tracks, and by applying filters &/or track motion etc., have the buttons enter the menu frame in a huge number of creative ways.
cbrillow wrote on 2/8/2007, 8:39 AM
Thanks for posting the link -- I've been trying to find that very PDF for the past couple of weeks!
bStro wrote on 2/8/2007, 8:51 AM
Everytime I want to post a link to that PDF, I have to a search of the forum for the last time I posted it. I should really bookmark it or something.

Rob
cbrillow wrote on 2/8/2007, 9:08 AM
bStro, since I'm handing out attaboys, let me say that the post you made a couple of months ago on custom menu masks -- with the airplanes -- was one of the most helpful and informative posts I've run across in the DVDA forum.

Would be nice to have a 'Best of' or sticky thread for some of these things...
bStro wrote on 2/8/2007, 4:33 PM
Hey, thanks. To be honest, the method hadn't even ocurred to me until I read RCourtney's post in the same thread. I just took the idea and ran with it.

Rob
richard-courtney wrote on 2/8/2007, 8:36 PM
Golly, now I am embarrassed. bStro, you were able to describe it more eloquently
than I ever could.

bStro wrote on 2/8/2007, 10:43 PM
Attaboy's all around!

Rob
cbrillow wrote on 2/9/2007, 10:05 AM
Yeah, I'm buying. bStro, RCourtney, belly up to the virtual bar -- what'll you have?
RayVin wrote on 2/22/2007, 12:09 PM
Hey bstro, I'm going to bug you again--could you please repost that link again?
Thanks in advance.
bStro wrote on 2/22/2007, 12:47 PM
What, the one with the airplanes?

Rob