Comments

jetdv wrote on 10/8/2009, 10:09 AM
Yes. You'll need two video clips - one that fades in and one that fades out. Then use a still for the menu. You can use "empty buttons" over the button areas.
Arthur.S wrote on 10/8/2009, 2:08 PM
So, if I use a video with the text fading in, I then put an empty button over the text? What about the button highlight? That won't fade in will it? Or am I missing something? (Not unusual :-) )
Former user wrote on 10/8/2009, 4:34 PM
HELP has information about fading in buttons, which can be text.

Dave T2
Arthur.S wrote on 10/9/2009, 1:15 AM
As far as I can see Dave, the HELP file relates to Graphic buttons. As soon as you assign a button as 'text only' there's no option to keyframe. Even if you could, that still leaves the button 'highlight' standing out like a sore thumb before the button fades in. Can't see any option to keyframe that either. I'd love to be proved wrong though!
Former user wrote on 10/9/2009, 5:49 AM
Arthur,

sorry, you are correct. You would need to create your text in a graphic program and import it as a button/mask.

Dave T2
bStro wrote on 10/10/2009, 7:05 AM
I'd amend the previous suggestion to just use a single video that you'll use as the menu background. Have the text fade in, change the menu's End Action to "Loop," and move the menu's Loop Point (green flag at the top of the timeline) to coincide with the point at which your text has finished fading in. All on screen elements (other than the background) will then be hidden until the loop point. To change this for any elements (for example, the title if you have one), select them, go to the Transformation tab of the Properties window, and change Show Before Loop Point to "Yes."

Rob
Arthur.S wrote on 10/10/2009, 11:35 AM
Thanks for the info, I'll give it a shot. :-)
Arthur.S wrote on 10/31/2009, 1:23 PM
Tried your suggestion Rob. There are 2 problems with it. 1. If you move the loop point along, then after the first play of the menu, it restarts from the loop point which is now after the start of the menu audio. 2. the highlights don't fade in like the text. BANG...they're suddenly there. Which looks odd when everything else is fading in nicely. If you could keyframe the highlights from transparent, this'd be an easy call. You wonder if the creators of DVDA ever actually do any real DVD authoring themselves.
MPM wrote on 11/1/2009, 8:00 AM
Remember that Everything you *see* on a playing DVD is mpg2 video... with lots of the menu stuff done in DVDA it's easy to lose track of that. When you pop a DVD into the player, ignoring any possible scripts for the moment, video plays (if it exists), leading to a menu that's also video. Buttons are invisible rectangles. Highlights are sub-pictures the same as subtitles -- think of them as shapes on a transparent overlay -- and either on or off.

If you watch most any commercial/retail DVD closely [I'd say take some apart but that's not legal ;-) ] , the intro video blends or transforms into the menu background. It's normally one continuous video, with a cell point set at the point where the actual menu starts -- that's what you create with your loop point in DVDA. Catch22 -- when you use a cell [loop point] it delays the restart when the menu loops, but it does make the transition from intro to menu more seamless. Solution -- it's common to have a 2nd menu with just the background video (no intro), as the end action of the 1st or main menu... gives the best of both methods.

Since subpictures [button highlights] are either on/off, the most common way to make their sudden appearance less jolting is to play magician, & distract the audience from what you're doing... that's 1 reason why the transition from intro to menu is often fairly dramatic. If you insist it's pretty easy to add one of your highlights to the intro video, having it move or fade into place, then disappear as the highlight turns on -- adding movement can make it look better at the transition, & if you use the 2 menu setup, you can get a bit fancy not having to worry about looping. Do be very careful about the color for your highlights though, as these are generated by the player, & your intro video is not.

Note: Animating subpictures is possible, but AFAIK there's no way to animate them on menus -- there may be tools available that can, though I've only seen what appeared to be animated highlights once years ago. Also, with button over video (BOV), there's nothing that says you have to use a menu -- over the years I've heard about several authors who were working on that sort of design, but have never seen the results to say how well it works, or doesn't.

>"If you could keyframe the highlights from transparent, this'd be an easy call."

FWIW, sub-pics are shapes you can think of as stencils -- everything inside is painted one color by the player. In addition to the individual *frames* there are control settings -- you can get an idea playing with DVDSubEdit &/or looking for/reading some of Jeanl's posts. Menus are a special case, where portions of the sub-pic are controlled by invisible button rectangles -- because of that don't believe you have the same controls as something like subtitles [you'd have to talk to someone with access to the actual official DVD Spec].