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Menu – Background animation – buttons showing up / loop point not enabled
This is my first Encore (CS3) DVD.. Of course I had to do it a little over the top.. Here’s what I have:
There’s a short video clip that plays as first start. Then I want it to go to the main menu which animates the buttons and a couple of graphics on. I do have a transition set which animates the stuff off and … opens the curtains revealing the clip selected.
My problems:
1) When doing a preview, there seems like a HUGE delay between the first play item and the main menu.
I’m not too worried about this – I think I may have rendered the whole thing and didn’t trim the AE comp to my work area.. I’ll check that.. Nope.. that wasn’t it.. The video stops right where I wanted it to stop. But I still get that long (3 – 6 second) delay. (And I have rendered all of the motion menus)
2) My big problem is that when the main menu’s background animation is playing, after about a half of a second, button number 1 shows up in what looks to be the Active state colors. Also, if you mouse over it, the other buttons show up – so they aren’t disabled for the first play through.
I tried to set the loop point but it doesn’t let me (the numbers reset to 0). I have Loop # set to none (but have tried setting it to 2 also) because I want the background video to play once and then stop.
I’ve been playing with this for about two hours now and am getting really frustrated!
Oh, all of the animations were done in AE (CS3) rendered to AVI (using the Encore Menu -> Create AE Comp) button..
The menu’s were edited in Photoshop, and that’s what I used to start from in AE.
Thanks for any help you may provide – I’m going crazy!
–KTFA
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15 Replies
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Encore’s preview mode is inexact, and certainly doesn’t display the performance of a DVD player.
Burn a RW disc, and then test the menu in a DVD player.
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Thanks Joe,
I’ll burn one tonight – of course I’ve already made the opening sequence include the Main Menu’s background video. Of course each time my flow goes back to the main menu I’ll have to add the clip that I was using as the background video…Anyway, do you think the whole button thing (showing up before it’s supposed to and being active during the video) is due to Encore’s preview … problems?
–KTFA
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Setting the loop point property for a menu will determine when the buttons first become active and visible.
Create a menu that is a duplicate of the main menu except for the intro loop (the part before the buttons become active). Use that duplicate as the link target when returning to the main menu.
-Jeff
The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0
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Thanks Jeff,
I’m not able to set the loop point though.. Every time I try it resets to 0.–KTFA
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I currently have it set to none but I’ve tried 2 also. Basically I don’t really want it to loop – just play once and go to my static menu..
–KTFA
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What’s your menu duration? And what are you trying to set the Loop Point timecode to?
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Duration is set to 2;14 (the length of the video clip)
I found that I was able to set the loop point to 2;00
If that works I’ll probably have to add a second to the video clip.
Is there some reason I can’t set the loop point to 2;14 or even 2;13 ?
–KTFA
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Yes, there is a reason – the loop point must be at least a half second earlier than the duration of a motion menu, due to the need to correctly set a GOP for the MPEG-2 file that displays the “motion”.
But what are you using the Loop Point for? Its proper use is two-fold:
1. Delay the appearance of button highlights in the menu
2. Loop back to this timecode after the motion menu has completely playedMost commonly, one would design a motion menu video background in After Effects in which there is an opening animation, followed by the graphically-represented buttons being in a static position or opacity. The Loop Point in Encore would be set to the first frame where the buttons are in this fixed state. The end result is the motion menu plays the intro with no button highlights appearing, and then when the buttons are static, the highlight appears. Then the menu concludes playing, and loops back to this “static” state.
If you’re not looping or designing your menu in this way, then you probably shouldn’t be using the Loop Point feature.
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That makes sense…
Yes, that’s what I’m attempting to do: Animated the menu’s appearance and trying to use the loop point to delay the functionality of the buttons until the background video finishes playing…
So it seems like I’ve done most things correctly, with the exception of not leaving enough static menu time so that I can have the loop point set to where the buttons / graphics are static.
Thanks for your time and patience. I think I’m good now – will lengthen my animations by a second for good measure.
–KTFA
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