Using animated gifs for menu buttons

bradf55 wrote on 4/1/2012, 9:39 PM
Hi all,

Question is there a limit on size of a animated gif when using it as a button.

My animated buttons are around 2.5 - 3 megs in size. I have been trying to get them smaller but haven't really succeeded much. When they are that big they are very slow in the preview window. Haven't tried to burn a test yet to see if that slow on a actual dvd.

Thanks

Brad

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 4/2/2012, 7:24 AM
Why would you want to?

A DVD's entire video frame is only 720x480 pixels? Why drop a massive button onto it if it's only going to be rendered as, say, 250x250 pixels?

It's not going to make a more detailed-looking graphic. It's just going to bog down your preview (as you've seen) and add extra minutes to the time it takes the program to render your menu pages.
bradf55 wrote on 4/5/2012, 1:45 PM
Hi Steve

Thanks, I think I get it now. SO I knock the resolution back down to 250 pixels or less instead of the 1920.

By the way looks like I forgot to mention this is 4.5 not 5.0 of DVDA. I tried 5.0 as a trial but not any different other that the Blu-Ray option and I don't have a Blu-Ray burner or player, so I didn't upgrade since 4.5 works as well at least for me anyway. Still working on saving up to get a used copy of Vegas pro 10 so I can get to use DVDA pro but till then.

I'm not sure though about the limits of a animated graphic in DVDA. Is there a good size for a ani. graphic in DVDA? I've been making animated text buttons but of had mixed results even in the lower resolutions. I get them down to about 200-500kb in size but some seem to work as planned and others don't. I've actually got some down to about 75kb at 200px but I still get mixed results especially. with the ani. speed I usually use the sliding effect.

I use Easy GIF Animator 5 and Paint Shop Pro X4.

At this point I'm thinking on giving up on animated buttons, been spending time on messing with them and not getting the results I'm looking for. Should they be smaller in size then stated above? Or am I stuck with the built in buttons. I have had no problem creating static custom buttons.

I apologize if I'm not seeing what you maybe seeing. I'm still playing around with the video arena.

As a side note, is there a basic how to somewhere on how to create scripts for DVDA? Just curious not planning on messing with them anytime to awfully soon. Don't even know if worth the hassle I here it's not exactly easy or worth the hassle.

Thanks again

Brad
Chienworks wrote on 4/5/2012, 4:24 PM
There's no reason to have the button's frame size be any larger than they'll be displayed in the menu. If you're making a button that will be 100x200 in the finished DVD then create it at 100x200.

Another option is to convert them into MPEG2 (probably in Vegas) and use the MPG version instead of the GIF version in DVDA.
bradf55 wrote on 4/5/2012, 5:51 PM
Hi Chienworks

Ya I got that from steve's input. I really didn't have a clue on what I was trying to do, now I think I got it. To be honest the button size I was using actually was 60 x 40 give or take (pixels). So here I was pumping these graphics up to 1920 x 1080 and well! Anyway ya I will be keeping the size at about the 60x40 or so size.

I would try what you mentioned but I don't have Vegas. I think I may look around for a cheap competitor's video editing software. I don't have 400 bucks to blow for vegas since this is only a hobby not a paying job. Any suggestions?

Brad
Steve Grisetti wrote on 4/5/2012, 8:18 PM
Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11, naturally. Available for between $75 and $100.
TOG62 wrote on 4/6/2012, 12:55 AM
As a side note, is there a basic how to somewhere on how to create scripts for DVDA?

The Studio version of DVDA does not support scripting.

I would try what you mentioned but I don't have Vegas. I think I may look around for a cheap competitor's video editing software. I don't have 400 bucks to blow for vegas since this is only a hobby not a paying job.

As Steve has indicated Vegas Movie Studio is an option that costs much less than $400. You would also get the latest version of DVDA Studio for you money.