Darby Edelen
Forum Replies Created
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[bogiesan] “I’d use a single movie but figure out how to design the background so it sloops seamlessly.”
Unfortunately, if he wants to have some text animated on the first ‘loop’ through a menu and then he wants it static on subsequent ‘loops’ there is no way to do this with a single movie, provided that he wants the buttons to be operable on the first ‘loop’ (if he doesn’t, then it’s more of a menu intro).
You can still make an almost seamless loop with two movie files, it’s not too complicated, but the DVD player will always hiccup slightly at any loop or jump point (computers handle these better), but consumers have come to expect this (or at least I have) =)
I believe most of the Simpsons DVDs (season 8 is the one I’m thinking of specifically) use at least two different files for the main menu. One plays through entirely and then transfers ‘seamlessly’ to a second menu, if you leave the disc on the main menu for a while the audio turns off leading me to believe that that is in fact a third menu. As long as they all look like the main menu, the user experience isn’t affected at all it’s actually enhanced.
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
[Rob Wolf] “There are some nice, earthy, muted greens, oranges, and browns here. On a TV monitor, they all look really garish and blown out.”
Well, it sounds like you’re lucky enough to have a monitor to check your output. In that case you should make sure your monitor is properly color calibrated (keeping in mind that most consumer monitors out there are not).
After that it’s just a matter of making it look good on the monitor by any means necessary. As I understand it CS3 will have much improved color management for output to TV (AE7 has some options for this, check the built in help). However, this may not get you entirely to where you want to be, in that case an Adjustment Layer with Levels and possibly Hue/Saturation on it will be your best friend =) Tweak to your heart’s content.
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
Do you want to have any buttons selectable during the first loop or intro?
I’m not sure about Encore, but in DVD Studio Pro you can set a loop point in the menu so that the first 10 seconds (which is a little long for an intro, as the user will not be able to select any buttons during this period) runs through once and the remaining time loops.
Otherwise, you will need 2 separate menus, one with the first animation you want which will jump to the second after it runs through once.
Also, I recommend much more than 10 seconds for a loop, it’s jarring for the user to see/hear a loop every 10 seconds. In addition there is a slight pause at the loop point where the user cannot make any button selections (this varies from player to player, but it’s usually a little under a second long). We use 30 second loops as a standard at my work.
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
That depends, is your old video camera Hi-8? VHS? SVHS?
What is the advertised resolution/frame rate of your still camera for video?
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
[cyprusx] “What has better quality an old video tape camera or a still Digital camera with 5 min recording time.”
It sounds like you’re talking about a still digital camera being used for video? In that case I have to ask you:
Which hurts less, a fall off a 300 foot cliff or a fall off a 30 story building?
(;
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
Also, you need to have an active Camera in the composition, the Camera Tools don’t work with the default 3D view.
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
If you cycle through the camera tools with the ‘c’ key you get separate dolly, orbit and track tools. You just need to remember to set keyframes where you want them, and depending on your goal you’ll want to use different spatial/temporal interpolation with a smattering of roving keyframes =)
If any of this seems foreign to you I’d recommend looking at the AE help file (F1).
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
This would best be accomplished by a particle effect like Trapcode Particular, Particle Playground or Particle Illusion.
Particle Illusion is a stand-alone 2D particle system program that is very adaptable and generates great results if you’re familiar with it, short render times too!
Particular is a more robust plug-in than AE’s default Particle Playground, it renders a lot faster and in ‘true’ AE 3D space (beneficial if there are camera moves), where as Particle Illusion will render a 2D layer. The downside is longer render times than Particle Illusion.
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
[jwessler] ”
x = thisComp.layer(“Null”).position[0];
y = thisComp.layer(“Null”).position[1];
[x+30, y-60]”This works as well if you want to guess at the numbers. A simpler one line version would be:
thisComp.layer("Null").position + [30, -60]Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
I would recommend redoing your motion tracker. If you’re not totally familiar with it, the tracked feature can be chosen independently of the attach point. The feature is what is actually used to track the motion, and the attach point is where that motion will be applied to the target layer, so set your feature to whatever is most easily tracked and your attach point to the location of the light.
Note that if the feature and doesn’t reside on the same plane in your footage as the light then the feature may move faster or slower than the light due to parallax, so choose your feature wisely.
The other option is tracking the light while it’s visible, and adding the keyframes where it’s not by hand.
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA