Resizing chapter thumbnails accurately?

twocool · Post by **twocool** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:13 pm

I'm trying out the trial version of MF4 as I'm looking for a more automated way of making slideshows. In the past I've used photoshop for stills, import to premiere pro where I add transitions music, export video to Tmpgenc to encode and author in Tmpgenc Author adding sound in at this time which converts to AC-3. For all my other editing work this is my prefered method as I have much more control over encoding, but for slideshows premiere has trouble as it changes the colour information which is a nightmare to correct even though the image is perfect in adobe photoshop.

So I thought I'd give something else a go. The problem I have with MF4 is that I want to have a menu screen with four thumbnail chapters in a verticall line on screen, to do this i've picked a template with four thumbnails, but its impossible to resize them accurately by pixels even using the grid its usless without having a snap feature. I normaly use Tmpgenc Author which I have no problem with as there is an info window, when you click on an item such as a thumbnail its size is visable as is it's X-Y co-ordinates. If you click on one then you can make the others the same by entering the same in their fields. Does anyone know how to do this or is there a template already made this way in the full version? This is a very basic thing I want to do and if this program can't do something simple as this then I won't bother paying the money for it.

ploggy · Post by **ploggy** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 2:39 am

Moviefactory cannot do what you want. If you want more control in menu authoring, I suggest you try DVD WorkShop 2. It allows you to copy the attributes of a particular menu object and paste it on the other so you can get the exact look for each. There is also a grid view but no grid snap.

twocool · Post by **twocool** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 11:49 am

Thanks for your reply Ploggy. I don't really need another author program, I wanted something for slideshow purposes on DVD that looks professional for our photographic customers. If I could do the slideshow in Ulead and encode author with Tmpgenc I would be sorted. I can see a longwinded way of doing that by creating the DVD in Ulead then importing VOB's to Tmpgenc Author to re-do the menu's. Time is money though and I don't think I want to pay the money for a program that is so close but not capable of my needs. What's the point of putting a grid system and saying you can resize objects if you can't make them uniform. Speaking as a graphic designer and web developer this is really important, ulead are nearly there but I don't think much thought went into this, a case of that'll do it's just novelty for folk at home. You've lost a sale, Sorry!

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 12:05 pm

In case you haven't noticed twocool, ploggy was talking about a ULEAD product, DVD Workshop to be precise, It still doesn't cost you as much as photoshop, Adobe premiere and TEMPGenc combined.
You seem to want your cake and eat it, I'm afraid, that is rarely possible.

In a nut shell, Movie Factory is not going to give you what you want. You will have to dig deeper to get that. I suggest a download of the trial version of DVD workshop to evaluate for yourself if it can do what you want.

twocool · Post by **twocool** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 12:45 pm

Yeah somehow thought it might be a Ulead product so I looked it up. Cake is for eating, personally I don't think I'm asking much more out of the product, they've gone this far.

As I said before one of its features as it is advertised is to resize, you seem to be saying what should I expect for the money. I expect the issue to be at least thought about. When I'm working on a project I want it to look professional, if the company is saying it can do this then to have a good name in the industry it should do it well.

If that means making an alternative version and having to put up the price then so be it, but why should I have to turn to a different product when this one is just missing the mark. If DVD workshop has the same ability to create slideshows of course I'd consider it.

jcc · Post by **jcc** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 2:00 pm

It is not unreasonable to expect software that provides the facility to resize buttons to provide a facility for producing quality results by way of a snap-to-grid, copy format facility or some other.

Hopefully Ulead will address this in updates.

ploggy · Post by **ploggy** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 2:25 pm

twocool wrote: If I could do the slideshow in Ulead and encode author with Tmpgenc I would be sorted.

In this case, use the Export Movie tool of DMF4 after creating the slideshow. This will make an MPG from your slideshow and use whatever program you want to author.

twocool · Post by **twocool** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 11:25 am

Thanks for your input guy's and especially to Ploggy, much appreciated thats sounds like a good alternative! perhaps I will be buying after all.

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 8:43 pm

I need help here from the other experienced ulead users but using
the ulead photo program you can create custom menu's to use
with VideoStudio or MovieFactory 3/4.

That is exactly what you want to do.

Jerry Jones had tutorials how to do this by making layers or similiar.

A good choice for what your doing is the special that ulead was running,
purchase the retail version (full version) of VideoStudio9 and get
MovieFactory3 for free.
Check it out.

MD