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Got my project into DVD Architect and now am going in circles
Thanks to the kind help of Mike Kujbida et al I finally rendered my project successfully in DVD Arch. I chose to use the menu based format for my project and now comes the tough part. The menu. I thought what I wanted to do should be pretty straight forward but am now badly lost.
Like Mike says a picture is worth a thousand words so I am going to show what I would like things to look like in DVD arch. By the way this is not something I did in DVD Arch. Its a basic Mock-up I did in Microsoft word using their desktop editing tools.
So specifically how do I add these images and titles as shown into DVD Arch so this is what people will see as the menu on the DVD.
How do I create this so that when the viewer points the remote control to the cockatoo in the illustration and clicks play the DVD begins to play.
What about having another icon on there that says special features and the viewer can click on that and find out how the film was made?
Sorry if these are multiple questions. Yes I can burn a DVD and play it but its the menu that I cant get to work. Thanks for your help and the screen prints Mike used were so helpful to me I decided to use them here to illustrate.
Cheers!
Don Kimball
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8 Replies
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There are several ways to accomplish this. You could make everything in a program like Photoshop where you have more control and just set the image as your background and then just add the button for your video.
You could do the whole thing in DVD Architect. Right-click on the main menu and choose Set background Media and choose the picture of the mountain and trees. Right-click again and choose Insert Text (Ctrl+T) and add all of the text and select the proper fonts and color. Finally, drag and drop your movie onto the menu to make a button that plays it. In the button properties, click on Media and then Thumbnail Media and select Replace. Then substitute the picture of the peacock and you’re done.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Hi John:
Many thanks for the tips. Just trying to find my way around DVD Arch and at this point it doesnt seem super intuitive. However familiarity with repetion I guess. The great news is that I did indeed accomplish what I was trying to do thanks to your kind instructions. The only issue remaining is that the button image turns nicotaine yellow instead of the true colors when I play it in the preview. Here are some screenies to show you what the story is.
Here it looks great and the button functions great when you click on the image of the Cockatoo (aka Peacock..)
Now when you click Preview the movie plays great etc but before the movie begins the Cockatoo image turns nicotene yellow. Is there any way for it to remain its true color?
Thanks again for all the great help I receive here!
Don
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What you are seeing is the default highlight for a button. If you had several buttons, this would tell you which one is highlighted. You might want to start with one of the built-in themes that use a border around the button instead. You can still customize the background but you would retain the button style. (you can also right-click a template button and select Replace to replace the mask on your button from one of the templates)
You can also change the highlight in the button properties. You can even make your own masks so that the highlight looks however you want. If you don’t want any highlight then set the highlight property to Custom and don’t do anything else. There will be no highlighting.
You might want to read the Creating Custom Menus and Masks chapter in the help file or user’s guide to become more familiar with how DVD Architect works with button masks.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Don, I thought we’d get a few days rest before this question came up 🙂
In addition to John’s excellent suggestions, I suggest you take a look at my rather lengthy response in the DVD scene selection markers as in comm. DVDs thread as I suspect it will come in handy for you at some point in time. -
Hi Mike and John:
To quote Mike: “Don, I thought we’d get a few days rest before this question came up :-)”. Pretty focused here and keen to learn (as if you couldnt tell) grin…
John your suggestion worked perfectly and I went from a little over 24 hours ago not even knowing how to do practically anything in DVD Arch to being happy with my new DVD Menu complete with activated play button set just the way I wanted with the graphics I want. Fantastic!
Okay I promise to give everybody at least 8 hours before my next flurry of questions ( A guys gotta sleep sometime… even me..)
Cheers and many thanks!
Don
PS: I have no clue how I would be able to accomplish the tasks I need to without Creative Cow. One helpful place!
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Hey Don, glad that worked out for you. DVD Architect is a powerful authoring system once you learn your way around. I’m a big believer in training. I buy a lot of it for myself and I also create it. If you really want to come up to speed quickly, we offer training on DVD Architect at VASST. You might want to check out our Absolute Training for Vegas+DVD Beginner Bundle. It’s a 3 volume set that’s currently on sale and one volume is dedicated DVD Architect. The 6th volume in that series is Going Deeper in DVD Architect covers advanced masking with Photoshop (i.e., DVD Architect can use Photoshop layered files as menus and masks). Lots to learn. 😉
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Hi John
Slightly off topic but I’m getting an error on the links for your training DVDs and main vasst page.
“Database Error: Unable to connect to the database:Could not connect to MySQL”
KRs
Dave -
> “Database Error: Unable to connect to the database:Could not connect to MySQL”
Ouch! I can’t even get the to home page now. Thanks for the heads-up.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com
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