How to make a new menu tempate from scratch?

[jeff41954]

I'm using the MovieFactory 7 free trial version for all of 2 hours now. While it is intuitive and easy to use, the user can only select from a few existing templates that are mostly locked down.

I want to design my own template from scratch. Can I do that with the content that comes with the purchase of the app?

This is what I am trying to make:
A Chapter Menu with:

• A static jpeg background
• An mp3 audio clip that plays all the way through and repeats until a button is clicked
• Six thumbnail-buttons, one for each of the six clips on the DVD (thumbnails are static jpegs)
• No text labels or titles at all

A Top Menu as described below (optional):

• The background is a video clip that would normally be the "first run" clip
• >>>>>(The clip should be audible, not muted)
• There are only two buttons, "Play All", and "Chapters"

I read Help's "How-to" for making my own template, but it tells me to select from a mostly grayed out "Frames, Backgrounds, Navigation Buttons" pulldown menu. The only thing not grayed out is Navigation Buttons, there are only two sets of those to chose from and they are essentially identical.

I very much appreciate any help you can offer. I have now tried no less than 7 different applications and am still looking.

Thanks again,
Jeff

[Ron P.]

the user can only select from a few existing templates that are mostly locked down.

The TBYB (trial) comes with a minimal number of templates, however once you purchase the program you will have:

• 22-SmartScene Menus
  The Layout is limited, you can not add more thumbnails to it.
• 30-Thumbnail Menus
• 16-Text Menus

The Thumbnail & Text Menus are the most flexible, with ability to add up to 8 thumbnails or text links to the Titles or Chapters. Let me clarify something about DVD MF and the creation or customization of menus. DVD MF uses UFO file format for it's menus. This is a proprietary working file format of PhotoImpact. Both were originally created by Ulead. To create or customize DVD menus used in DVD MF or VS, you needed to use PhotoImpact. This is still the case, however Corel as all but dropped PhotoImpact from it's stable of products. Ulead did have one product, DVD Workshop, that was a full professional DVD authoring program, where you could do as you are trying to do, start from scratch, a blank page and build your DVD menu. It also had the ability to create Playlists, something that DVD MF can not do.

Ok, so back to DVD MF7 Pro, it is a template based program, where you start with a template then customize it. You can change the background to whatever image, or video you would like. Certain objects, like the Title-text, and button objects, can only be hidden, not completely deleted or removed. (To hide an object, select it, then right-click to get the menu where this is an option) The problem with this is that if it is a "hot-spot" object, meaning a link to another page, or menu, even though it is hidden from view in the menu, it can still be selected using the DVD remote.

Background audio/music for the menus can be customized to play up to 30 secs, no longer. You may think that this is rather silly, however the general consensus is, for someone wanting to watch your DVD production, will they really linger on the menu for much longer? I would think that most people would want the viewer to get into the videos as fast as possible, not hang around a menu listening to some music.

Don't expect the Looping action of the audio to be that smooth, unless you have made sure that the music your using is customized for the specific duration you set. Video used for Menu backgrounds should also be tailored just for that, to appear to be a smooth looping, rather then just cut off.

Top Menu can use a video background, any Text must be hidden if you do not want them. Now the First Run Video can be the same as what you use for your menu. You need to add it to your Titles (video clips), place it as the first one, and check the box beside Use first clip as introductory video. This is what plays when the DVD is inserted into the tray, before any menus are shown. You can customize the menu to have the two buttons, Play-all, generally is an Arrow-looking, or typical button used on DVD players to play, and then one that would take you to your Chapter Menu. Remember that any additional buttons on the menu must be hidden.

Chapter Menus, can use static images, or video of your choosing. You can choose the style of menu, (SmartScene, Thumbnail, or Text), it can have up to 8 (Thumbnail or Text menus) thumbnails, which is chosen through the Edit tab>Customize> then the drop-down menu at the bottom right, where I think Frame is the default appearing in the drop-down menu. The choices being Frame, Buttons, and Layout. Again any text, labels provided with the templates must be hidden.

Now with all that said, DVD MF7 Pro, was never intended to be released in the US. It was released I know in Australia a couple of years ago, before VS X3 was released. The last version to have been sold in the US was DVD MF6. Corel basically was dropping this program like the many other former Ulead programs it has dropped. When VS X3 was released, it came with DVD Factory 2010 which is part of Corel Digital Studio. The complaints about it were to the degree that Corel then brought out a trimmed down version of DVD MF 7 Pro, DVD MF7SE, providing it to those that purchased & registered VS X3, as a replacement. Shortly thereafter DVD MF7 Pro appeared for sale on Corel's US & other countries, websites. It's unknown if they will continue to develop it, or once again decide to drop it. Hopefully not the latter.

I hope the above dissertation helps you with your decisions..

[BrianCee]

The silly thing is that until quite recently all that you want to do jeff was so easily achievable - in versions of Videostudio upto and including X2 you could do what you want to do inside VideoStudio - and if you wanted to make a brand new menu template we used Photo Impact - but Corel in their wisdom have changed all that.

It will be a long time before I part with my versions of VideoStudio X2 or PhotoImpact 12.

have a look in the Tutorials section here :- http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewforum.php?f=75 for a view of tutorials for previous versions.

[jeff41954]

Ron, Brian,
Thanks for the detailed information. I have already purchased MF7. Its disappointing that it isn't more flexible. I copy/pasted an existing template with a new name. That template is available to me from MF7. Then I tried to modify the ini file to eliminate unwanted text fields, but it didn't have any effect--that would have been too easy.

So, the proprietary UFO format, since you didn't mention it, I gather that there are no tools available to generate the UFO files, right? I guess I'll be looking for other authoring software. This is just a hobby, so I'm not interested in spending hundreds of dollars. If anyone has any advice to point me in the right direction, I'd sure appreciate it. jfore@cfl.rr.com.

Thanks again,

Jeff

[Ken Berry]

If you can lay your hands on a copy of PhotoImpact, you could make your own UFO template files. I imagine that copies of the program are still available, and would be going cheap these days since Corel's decision to terminate it.

BTW, the UFO files AFAIK will only work with X2 or MF 7 and earlier versions; not with X3 as it currently stands. That was originally written to work with the awful DVD Movie Factory "Pro" 2010, and the latter has a new format of templates. Now that Corel has realised the error of its ways by introducing that program, by now making MF 7 SE in its place, who knows what burning module -- and associated types of template -- they will include in future versions of VS.