Menu Fade-In

[David Garrett]

one way is to import your menu into your video editor and then apply a dissolve or fade to the front end of it (make the video around 5-6 seconds duration). and then export as .AVI and then import into Encore with its own timeline, now set the end action of this timeline to go to your actual menu.

[David Garrett]

also I think this can all be done using Adobe after effects as well… You have to tell Encore where the loop point is to be. this way you have everything in one file…. tho i dont have nad am not familiar with AE

[Chris Dolan]

Thanks for your response David.

So is there any delay between the end of the ‘simulated menu’ timeline and the menu itself? Even if it’s very brief, it would defeat the purpose. I assume you’ve done this and know that the transition would be seamless. My initial concern however, is that there will a pause between them as the laser moves to find the menu.

-Chris

[David Garrett]

never had any issues when i created a “button” fly in effect using Prem pro, there was no delay at all…tho you may discern a slight “Jump” when the menu kicks in, but you get that even with Hollywood DVD’s

If you check out tutorials #2,3,4 in the advanced section of my site, they should give ya some idea…

http://www.sitesled.com/members/doogs/downloads.htm

[David Garrett]

forgot to mention… you can place the “fade in” video on a blank menu and make it a motion menu.. so technically you will be going from MENU to MENU.. this should make things a little smoother…

hope this helps…

[Chris Dolan]

Thanks again David… I’ll give it a shot.

Chris

[Keither5280]

Also, take a look at something I posted last week on a related subject:

https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=145&postid=855428

Hope it helps.

Keith

[Chris Dolan]

Thanks Keith… Good information.

I find the fact that this isn’t supported natively in EncoreDVD rather disappointing. It seems like it should be a normal function. Thankfully, people like you have discovered ‘workarounds’ to band-aid the software’s shortcomings.

Chris

[Joe Bowden]

If every DVD authoring tool offered this feature, then I’d tend to agree with you somewhat.

Can you name one that does?

[Dave Graton]

Chris…here’s what I do. (it took awhile to figure out a process. I’ve been there and I feel your pain)

I’m using Ecore 1.5.1.
You’ll want to create TWO motion-menu video files in Premiere that are almost the same…here’s what I mean.

1) Video 1 Set as “First-play”: Begin with at least 1 second of black…then fade up A/V to show your menus…and then fade in your buttons/etc using Premiere, not Encore. After your first button appears or at the moment you’re ready to show the button highlight, set your “Loop Point” to that timecode (00;00;14;08 for example)… BUT THEN set the End Action to go to Menu2..the one that will loop forever.

2) Video 2 = Same video as used in #1 except that the buttons should show on the screen for the entire duration of the motion-menu. Set the end action as “Not Set”. Set the loop point to a low value like (00;00;00;13) to minimize delay between loops…this will cause a half second of button highlight dissapear Loop # = forever.

Export these menu files out straight as .m2v and .wav (no loss) from Premiere.
So you’ll have 2 sequences in Premiere and 2 menus in Encore to pull this off.

I just use an object for the button higlights…like an arrow, leaf, etc. Basically I don’t use the Text options in Encore at all.
And for the button highlights, in the “Layers” window for each button you’ll need to click the little white box to hide the top layer.

And you won’t have to Render Motion Menus anymore either. 🙂

Works great.
-Dave