Underlining

bbcdrum wrote on 2/28/2005, 11:06 AM
I am working on a DVDA 2 project and I have a question about button highlighting.

My button style is text and image. The text object is narrower than and centered under the image object. On preview, the underline is as wide as the image object. Is there any way to get the underline highlight to be the width of the narrower text object?

Thanks.

Kevin

Comments

bStro wrote on 2/28/2005, 12:46 PM
Is there any way to get the underline highlight to be the width of the narrower text object?

Huh. Never noticed that before.

My guess is no, not without some finaggling. For example:

1: Change the button style to Text Only, and then insert your thumbnail as a plain old image above it. This would mean taking a screencap of your video (assuming that's what you're using for your thumbnail) and dragging it into DVDA.

Or...

2: Use a custom highlight mask instead of underline highlighting.

I thought maybe you could Edit/Cut and Edit/Paste the thumbnail image so it wouldn't "rule" the underline highlighting. But that adds a second instace of the media (both of which are underlined). If you want to make the effort, you could do this and then change the navigation so that the thumbnail can't be selected (ie, make sure that up / down / left / right only moves among the text objects). Your secret would be revealed on a computer, though, where someone could use a mouse to select the "hidden" button(s).

Rob
bbcdrum wrote on 2/28/2005, 1:56 PM
Rob:

Thanks for the tips. I'll give #1a try. As for #2, I think that might have a steeper (and longer) learning curve that I have time for right now.

Ideally what I want is a curved or "swooped" line under the text only. If I were to make such a mask, wouldn't the mask still be an overlay relative to the image as well as the text? Also, wouldn't the length of the underline be fixed in the mask so that the text "Play" and Chapters" would have the same underline? For that matter, wouldn't the underline be the same regardless of the length (width) of the text?

Thanks again.

Kevin
bStro wrote on 2/28/2005, 5:37 PM
Considering your response, you may not want to hear this, but:

It sounds like a custom highlight mask is exactly what you want. With this feature, you can make all highlighting whatever size, shape, and position you want for every item on your menu. (This is different from a custom mask button, which is as you say...the same for every button you apply it to.)

A custom highlight mask involves creating a single picture that's the full size of your menu. The background should be white, and the shapes you want to use as highlights (ie, your "swooped" line) should be black. Or is that the other way around... Then in DVDA, you draw empty buttons around the areas where these buttons (your "swoops") would be. Sony's New Features document explains it better than I am, though it's not really difficult to do.

Rob
bbcdrum wrote on 3/2/2005, 10:19 AM
Thanks Rob. I hope to find some time to delve into custom masks some time soon.

Kevin