I'd like to use PI12 to make a custom menu or two for use in VS10+. I have read Steve Jones's tutorial as well as the instructions for the Ulead plug-in. These are both good at explaining the mechanics of defining a menu, but I'm looking for more of an explanation on how some of the features actually work. I know that I can just experiment, but of course the only way to really see how one's menu will work is to open VS, apply it to a project, and then use VS's preview feature to see it in action.
From looking at the standard VS menus as well as the DVD menu items in PI's library, I have a lot of questions, such as:
1) Exactly how do those three color pairs the you globally define work?
2) What is the usage of the "object mask" that I see defined for some of the Ulead objects such as nav buttons?
3) The DVD library items, such as the frames, are comprised of multiple objects. I assume that these should be placed on the menu as separate objects since one of them is obviously a SCREEN and another should be assigned as the FRAME. The others are them decorations?
4) Ditto for the buttons in the library. But if I keep a button as separate objects, then only one of them can be defined as a navigation control. What happens if I combine a button's object and define it as a nav item? Do I also have to merge the objects into a single image or ???
5) What method is used in highlighting a selected object, such as a frame, that has an "opening" in the middle?
6) If I choose to have a specific alternate image for a highlighted button, I assume that I have to position the highlight image on top of the regular image on the menu so it gets displayed in the correct position -- correct?
Anyway, if there is any documentation (which I doubt) on the "artistic" aspects (if I can call it that) of creating a DVD menu, I'd appreciate being pointed to it. Thanks!
DVD Menu Explanation
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sjj1805
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To try and explain a DVD Menu in simple terms.
You begin with a blank screen.
Onto this blank screen there are certain things that MUST exist.
These things include navigation buttons
Play : Next : Previous : Home
You MUST have a page number, Title and a few other mandatory items otherwise the DVD Menu will not work.
You can add other OPTIONAL items such as animated objects, background sounds, background movies and Highlight images.
The simplest way to make sure you have all of the necessary mandatory items is to use the DVD Menu wizard. This will not only ensure that the required items are present but will also help you name them correctly.
Part of the DVD specifications is that you can have 3 sets of colour combinations. The colour combinations are to signify to the person watching the DVD which button is currently selected because it changes to a different colour - or alternatively you can activate a previously hidden 'highlight image.'
That highlight image can be anywhere you like
but obviously it wouldn¡¦t be very much use if you click a button in the bottom right corner of the screen and a highlight image in the top left corner suddenly appears! However we will leave that to your imagination - who knows you might dream up something where in fact that works.
Having defined 3 colour combinations you can apply them to your navigation buttons or 'hyperlinks'. Most users will probably use just the first defined combination but there is nothing to stop you using all 3 - again it is down to your imagination or the design of your menu.
Perhaps your navigation buttons have highlight images on top of the buttons (so that it appears to be a part of the button) and you may wish a selected button to display a black image perhaps a > or a >> symbol.
However your 'hyperlinks' on some pretty background may look better if they turned blue or green or some other colour of your choosing.
You do not merge your objects otherwise they become just one object - you can of course group objects so that they can be moved about or aligned much easier.
When you install the DVD Menu Wizard for PhotoImpact 11 (or an earlier version) you will find a PDF file in the same location as the wizard.
The new PhotoImpact 12 Wizard is only in Beta form at present and so currently there isn't a help file, though you might wish to look at one provided by Georg who is the Administrator of the German Ulead User forum.
http://www.ulead-fanboard.de/Downloads/ ... PLUGIN.pdf
You begin with a blank screen.
Onto this blank screen there are certain things that MUST exist.
These things include navigation buttons
Play : Next : Previous : Home
You MUST have a page number, Title and a few other mandatory items otherwise the DVD Menu will not work.
You can add other OPTIONAL items such as animated objects, background sounds, background movies and Highlight images.
The simplest way to make sure you have all of the necessary mandatory items is to use the DVD Menu wizard. This will not only ensure that the required items are present but will also help you name them correctly.
Part of the DVD specifications is that you can have 3 sets of colour combinations. The colour combinations are to signify to the person watching the DVD which button is currently selected because it changes to a different colour - or alternatively you can activate a previously hidden 'highlight image.'
That highlight image can be anywhere you like
but obviously it wouldn¡¦t be very much use if you click a button in the bottom right corner of the screen and a highlight image in the top left corner suddenly appears! However we will leave that to your imagination - who knows you might dream up something where in fact that works.
Having defined 3 colour combinations you can apply them to your navigation buttons or 'hyperlinks'. Most users will probably use just the first defined combination but there is nothing to stop you using all 3 - again it is down to your imagination or the design of your menu.
Perhaps your navigation buttons have highlight images on top of the buttons (so that it appears to be a part of the button) and you may wish a selected button to display a black image perhaps a > or a >> symbol.
However your 'hyperlinks' on some pretty background may look better if they turned blue or green or some other colour of your choosing.
You do not merge your objects otherwise they become just one object - you can of course group objects so that they can be moved about or aligned much easier.
When you install the DVD Menu Wizard for PhotoImpact 11 (or an earlier version) you will find a PDF file in the same location as the wizard.
The new PhotoImpact 12 Wizard is only in Beta form at present and so currently there isn't a help file, though you might wish to look at one provided by Georg who is the Administrator of the German Ulead User forum.
http://www.ulead-fanboard.de/Downloads/ ... PLUGIN.pdf
Thanks for the reply. I spent some time playing around with it and figured most of it out. What I did was to install the PI11 plug-in on PI12 based on a comment in this forum somewhere that it seemed to work.
What I have found is that the menu plug-in only allows you to choose "DVD Workshop" as the target -- not VideoStudio -- and it appears that VideoStudio is much less capable. For example, even though I assigned different color combos to different items (such as the scene number or scene text), VS10 can apparently only highlight the scene frame, and always with the first color. The plug-in (and VS?) seemed to not honor my objects' layering (and in fact would change it), so that I had to combine some grouped objects into a single object so that they would appear correctly.
VS also had some trouble with PI features such as bordered text. If I put a border on a text item, it would look OK in the plug-in, but in VS that text would jump to some other area of the screen.
You mentioned the PI12-specific plug-in. Is this going to be released soon, or is the beta publicly available? I assume that it has been developed to support VS10 as a target. For the record, I was able to construct a pretty decent-looking menu for my purposes with what I currently have, but as I said I had to use a lot of workarounds to do it.
What I have found is that the menu plug-in only allows you to choose "DVD Workshop" as the target -- not VideoStudio -- and it appears that VideoStudio is much less capable. For example, even though I assigned different color combos to different items (such as the scene number or scene text), VS10 can apparently only highlight the scene frame, and always with the first color. The plug-in (and VS?) seemed to not honor my objects' layering (and in fact would change it), so that I had to combine some grouped objects into a single object so that they would appear correctly.
VS also had some trouble with PI features such as bordered text. If I put a border on a text item, it would look OK in the plug-in, but in VS that text would jump to some other area of the screen.
You mentioned the PI12-specific plug-in. Is this going to be released soon, or is the beta publicly available? I assume that it has been developed to support VS10 as a target. For the record, I was able to construct a pretty decent-looking menu for my purposes with what I currently have, but as I said I had to use a lot of workarounds to do it.
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sjj1805
- Posts: 14383
- Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 7:20 am
- System_Drive: C
- 32bit or 64bit: 32 Bit
- motherboard: Equium P200-178
- processor: Intel Pentium Dual-Core Processor T2080
- ram: 2 GB
- Video Card: Intel 945 Express
- sound_card: Intel GMA 950
- Hard_Drive_Capacity: 1160 GB
- Location: Birmingham UK
I am not sure if the Beta version is public or not so I will not provide a link at this time.
The Standard DVD Menus are identical and can be used with
VideoStudio
DVD Workshop
DVD MovieFactory
CD&DVD Picture show.
The new smartcene menus can only be used with
VideoStudio
MovieFactory
DVD Workshop only supports 4.3 format, I don't know if CD&DVD PS supports 16.9 - only taken a peek at it to see what it is for the benefit of assisting on the forum.
Even though the Wizard only lists workshop - they work with the other 3 programs - as I mentioned they are in fact identical.
The Standard DVD Menus are identical and can be used with
VideoStudio
DVD Workshop
DVD MovieFactory
CD&DVD Picture show.
The new smartcene menus can only be used with
VideoStudio
MovieFactory
DVD Workshop only supports 4.3 format, I don't know if CD&DVD PS supports 16.9 - only taken a peek at it to see what it is for the benefit of assisting on the forum.
Even though the Wizard only lists workshop - they work with the other 3 programs - as I mentioned they are in fact identical.
I guess I'll wait for the plug-in to be released and see what happens from there.
One of my issues was that I was trying to use some of the "DVD Menu" items from PI12's library. For example, if you take a look at the navigation buttons, you will find that most of them are made up of multiple path and/or image objects. Since I assume that you can only have one object named, for example, "BTN_MENU", I grouped the button objects in PI12 and gave the group that name. However, this did not carry over to VS10, which displayed only one of the component objects (or maybe put the wrong one in front). So I had to merge the objects into one and then it worked.
Anyway, it's not a big deal given that I'm not exactly trying to create "commercial" DVDs
, so I'll wait and experiment with the official PI12 plug-in when it is available. Thanks for you consistently expert replies!
One of my issues was that I was trying to use some of the "DVD Menu" items from PI12's library. For example, if you take a look at the navigation buttons, you will find that most of them are made up of multiple path and/or image objects. Since I assume that you can only have one object named, for example, "BTN_MENU", I grouped the button objects in PI12 and gave the group that name. However, this did not carry over to VS10, which displayed only one of the component objects (or maybe put the wrong one in front). So I had to merge the objects into one and then it worked.
Anyway, it's not a big deal given that I'm not exactly trying to create "commercial" DVDs
, so I'll wait and experiment with the official PI12 plug-in when it is available. Thanks for you consistently expert replies!