WS2: Create a 'Life On Mars' style DVD Menu

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 9:22 pm

My wife recently bought me Series one of 'Life On Mars.'
For those who haven't seen this series, without giving anything away, briefly a Detective Chief Inspector is involved in a Road Accident, when he 'awakes' he has travelled back in time to 1973 and is now a Detective Inspector.

The world then was a very different place to what it is now - No CCTV, No DNA, No Armed Response Units etc.

I was impressed by the DVD Menu employed with this boxed set, briefly you have a sheet of paper pinned to a wall with some boxes down the left and writing alongside those boxes. A red X signifies the chosen menu item.

I decided to try and recreate this menu and in fact found it was very simple and uses a combination of highlight images and hidden buttons.

Step 1: Start a Blank menu

Step 2: On the Menu Tab drag your image onto the menu so that it forms the background

Step 3: Drag a button onto the menu - any button will do because we will be hiding it later. Resize the button so that it is quite small - this is to prevent an overlapping button issue later.

Step 4: Create an image of a letter X using PhotoImpact. The X should be on a transparent background and then saved as a UFO file.
Here is one ready made for anyone who wants to give this a try
http://www.steve-jones.pwp.blueyonder.c ... rial/x.ufo

Step 5: Import the image into the DVD Workshop Highlight Images Library and then drag it onto the button created at step 3 above.

This has now associated the highlight image with that button.

Step 6: Drag the highlight image into position. It is also recommended that you show the button boundaries by clicking the 3rd button along at the bottom right of the preview screen.

Step 7: Use copy and Paste to duplicate the button the required number of times and then align the buttons and highlighted images into the required positions.

Step 8: Set the Color mapping of each button to RED/RED
Values are R - 196: G - 0: B - 0:

Step 9: Attach the required actions or playlists to each button
Such as chapter 1, chapter 2, Next, previous, Playall etc.

Step 10: Make each button invisible. Doing this will not hide the highlight images associated with the buttons.

Task completed now test your new DVD Menu.

milan_np · Post by **milan_np** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 3:51 pm

Great tutorial.

I am using DVD Workshop 2 SE and I don't see 'Highlight Images' in my library. However, there is a folder 'Highlight Image' inside 'C:\Program Files\Ulead Systems\Ulead DVD Workshop 2 SE\Contents' folder. I tried to add all the files in Library Manager but when I drag image to the menu, I only get black image.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 9:42 pm

When you are on the [Menu] page you have to select the [Button] tab.
You should then see highlight images in the library.
There must be a filtering process regarding what appears in the library, dependant upon which tab has been selected.

milan_np · Post by **milan_np** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 6:19 am

What is the difference between DWS 2 and DWS 2 SE?

Seems like there is no highligh images bundled with SE version of DWS. I uninstalled the product and re-installed it. I don't see 'Highlight Image' folder inside installation folder anymore. However, I came to know that this folder was adde by extra components downloaded separetly from the Ulead website.

I don't find any information on SE version from Ulead website either.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 4:34 pm

SE stands for "Special Edition" though some users prefer to call it "Simple Edition" or "Stripped down Edition."

SE versions are normally given away free with either the cover of a computer magazine CD or when you purchase a piece of hardware such as a camcorder. SE versions do not contain the full range of facilities afforded by a Full Version which costs USD 295.00 or GBP 160.71 or EUR 236.55.