Animated menu problem

[Jeff Bellune]

Try setting the Loop Point to the time that you first want the buttons to appear.

-Jeff

The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0

[Eternity]

Hi Jeff,

Thank you for your reply, i’ve tried this but it still doesn’t work. Any other suggestions?

[Joe Bowden]

If I read your post correctly, you’re not really creating the motion menu in After Effects. It sounds like you are creating only part of the menu video background in After Effects, and compositing video thumbnail buttons in Encore.

If you don’t want your thumbnails to appear immediately, you must create ALL of it in AE (not use button thumbnails in Encore). Then use Loop Point as Jeff described.

[Eternity]

Thanks for your reply, but I don ‘t quite follow.

What i’ve done is animate the psd in AE, then exported it as an avi.
Then i import the psd file into encore but with only the button sets visible in photoshop (not the layers) Then i link the avi to the psd menu.

Is this correct?

[Joe Bowden]

This is the correct way to set a background video. But didn’t you say there were animated buttons? Where are you doing that- in Encore, or in After Effects?

[Eternity]

I’m animating the buttons in AE. I guess what i don’t understand is how the animated buttons, which are a part of the AVI become video thumnails once inside Encore when they are linked to the menu.

Also when i import the psd file into Encore, eventhough only the button set is visible in photoshop, the thumbnail layer (%) is visible in Encore. So when i preview the menu after rendering, these layers are already on screen… the buttons from the avi then move into place behind the these layers.

Hope this makes sense.

[Jeff Bellune]

In the Layers panel in Encore, poke out the eyeballs of the video thumbnail (%) buttons to turn off their visibility. The subpicture highlight will still work even though the rest of the button set is not visible.

Does that give you what you want?

-Jeff

The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0

[Eternity]

Now the there is no video in the button thumbnail. The subpicture still works, but the animated buttons don’t.

Any more ideas?

[Jeff Bellune]

Yes.

You will have to make the animated buttons (and the video clips within them) part of the background video that you create in AE.

The advantage is that you can show any video segment you want in the buttons, and they can even be of different lengths and can loop at different times for as long as your background video plays.

The disadvantage is that it’s more work for you and less work for Encore. 🙂

-Jeff

The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0

[Eternity]

Thank you so much for explaining that…

So now i have to import the video into AE and resize to the button and give it the same motion path… is that correct?

Thanks again for your help.