importing AE project as menu for Encore

[Joe Bowden]

If you intend to build the entire menu in AE, you’ll need to export a Photoshop file for use in Encore – all Encore menus are PSD files.

As for your second question, extend the duration of your comp in AE so there’s at least 10 to 15 sec (or more) of footage after your buttons appear. The looping is done in Encore, using the Loop and Loop Point properties of the menu.

[Matthew Goldfinch]

so do i have to make a still image in photoshop for the menu?

[Joe Bowden]

Yes, but there need not be anything there except button layers and highlight layers. Everything else could be video from AE.

[Matthew Goldfinch]

ok cool thnaks, i have added the buttons into encore now, and when i open them with AE through the dynamic link, becoz its not read as a text file but as a .psd file, how do i go about adding the text animation in blurs folder called Jigly and Transporter?

[Charles Muller]

I’m having the same issue, but I’ve read this thread and still can’t figure out exactly what to do. My issue is I have a 10sec AFX movie that I want to be my main menu. The animation ends at about the 5 second mark, and then two text layers dissolve in that I want to be buttons. I have created this animation going through Menu -> Create After Effects Composition. Back in Encore, I can only see the first frame of the animation, so I can’t see the buttons at this point because they are invisible. So, should I add the text buttons in AFX, or in Encore? Can you help me out? Thanks.

[Matthew Goldfinch]

Hey, well basically what I did, was I made a background video for the menu in After Effects, then went into Photoshop, and selected new, and what ever dimensions, bit if its for a dvd, select video & film, then the presets for the dimensions you want, then in the layers box I made new folders one called “(+) Play set” and another called “(+) Scene Set”. now in the “(+)play” set folder is 3 text images, one called “Play” another called “(=1)Play” and another called “(=2)Play” these are just duplicated images of “Play” re-named and different colour for the selection layers when playing the menu. same thing for the “(+) Scene Set” folder. I saved as “Menu.psd” and went into Encore and imported as Menu, btw I already postioned these in Photoshop, and added the video I i made in After Effects as a Baxkground Video, I then from Encore editied the buttons in After Effects through the Dynamic Link, and faded the opacity in as needed when the buttons are suppose to be visible, now what Im stuck with is I want to add 2 certain Text Effects called “Jiggly” and “Transporter” to these button layer files, but I cant because After Effects reads these texts as .psd files.

Hope that helps.

[Charles Muller]

Hi Matthew, thanks for responding. I’m trying what you suggested, but obviously I’m just not understanding something here. Let me outline what I did, and hopefully you can pinpoint my error:

I rendered out my animation in AFX as a DVD MPEG file.
I created a Photoshop PSD with 2 text layers as buttons and saved it.
In Encore, I imported the PSD as a Menu item.
In Encore, I imported the AFX render as an Asset.
I selected my Menu PSD, and ALT-dragged the AFX render into it, as my motion background.
In my Menu, I linked the buttons to their corresponding timelines.
With my Menu selected, I went under Dynamic Link -> New AFX Composition.
Now, in AFX, the composition is there, but there is no BG video, no buttons, absolutely nothing! Shouldn’t my Menu PSD with buttons, and the background video layer be in the sequence????

I hope this makes sense, and any help would be greatly appreciated! I’ve been working on this for the past several hours and just can’t make any sense of it. Thanks.