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Buttons in Motion Menus
I’m attempting to create a motion menu in After Effects CS3 and import it into Encore, but I’m having some difficulty.
I realized that in order to place a dynamically linked composition into Encore, I need to first create a blank menu and then Alt-Drag the composition into a monitor panel of that blank menu, but I am having trouble with the buttons in the composition. I’ve created them as buttons in After Effects, so their names are [(+)XXXXX] Etc. However these do not show up as buttons in the Encore Flowchart. In addition, The layers tab in the bottom right hand corner does not contain anything.
1. Is there any way to get a motion composition to become an encore menu without creating a ‘dummy’ layer to impose it onto?
2. How do I get the buttons to show up in the flow chart and to become buttons when I preview it?
3. Is it supposed to show the layers in my composition when I select the dynamically linked project file?
4. I can preview the menu without rendering it as a motion menu. Is that supposed to happen?Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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2 Replies
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Don’t try to create functional buttons in AE. Only create the button graphics.
Back in Encore, create highlight-only buttons.
-Jeff
The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0
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True! This much I do know: In AE, create your menu button and videos, but, instead of using the (+) or (+>) names, you just have fun and make the menu buttons fly, dance, and slide into position.
Then, in Encore, you bring int AE-created video file onto your blank menu (alt drag/drop). THEN, you make (or choose from Encore library) a button frame to place over you video menu button to actually make them behave as a button (re-size/re-shape the button frame to fit perfectly over your menu buttons so they can appear to highlight the button…after the buttons stops flying around of course!). In other words, your AE animation appears to have, say, video clips as chapter buttons, but they really are not. What makes them behave button-ish is when the viwer clicks on your button, they are actually clicking on the button frame your placed OVER them since it is THAT (and not your AE video buttons) they are actually clicking on. Make sure the button frame is linked to their approriate chapter in timeline.
The AE animation is just that: an animation with anything you want flying around. Just make sure what you what to be a ‘chapter button’ stops at some point. This way, when the animation plays in Encore, your actually “button frame” that contains the chapter link will match up perfectly with the graphic contained in the AE video.
Now if I can JUST figure out how to get my little video file to loop inside each menu button from only 5 seconds and repeat!!!!!!! Easy to do, but does not work..for me!
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