[Jeff Bellune]

The 2 questions are actually related.

1. To disable this feature, select one or more buttons in the Menu viewer, the Layers panel or the Menus panel. If I need to select multiple buttons, I prefer the Menus panel. Once the buttons are selected, bring the Properties panel forward and uncheck “Sync Button Text and Name” on the Basic tab.

2. When you create a link with Sync Button Text and Name active, the name of asset that is being linked to is added to a text layer in the button layer set. The heavy green outline that you see is a bounding box that shows you the area that is taken up by all of the elements of that button – text layers, subpicture layers, graphics layers, etc. Once SBTAN is unchecked, you shouldn’t get strange sizes for button bounding boxes anymore.

-Jeff

[Jeff Bellune]

Hi Kevin,

Let’s try this:

1. Create your static menu in Encore.
2. Go to File>Create After Effects Compostion. Save the menu as a .psd file in a location that is convenient for you.
3. AE will open and load the menu from Encore as a comp.
4. Open the comp and animate as desired.
5. Save the AE project in a location that is easy to get to.
6. Return to Encore (it should still be open) and do File>Adobe Dynamic Link>Import After Effects Composition.
7. In the dialog box that opens, navigate in the left pane to where you saved the AE project and select it.
8. In the right pane, choose the comp that contains your animated menu. Click OK.
9. The AE comp is now an asset in the Encore Project panel.
10. Make sure the Encore version of the AE animated menu is loaded in the Encore Menu viewer.
11. Alt+Drag the AE comp to the Menu viewer to make it the new background of the menu.
12. Make sure the Properties panel is forward in one of Encore’s frames. Click with the Selection tool in the Menu viewer to load the whole menu into the Properties panel.
13. Select the Motion tab in the Properties panel. Verify that the Duration is the same length as your AE comp.
14. Set the Loop point to a time where all of the menu elements are static, but also close to the time that they stop animating. For example, if the buttons animate for 5 seconds, choose a loop point of 6 or 7 seconds.
15. Set the Loop # to Forever.
16. Bring the Layers panel forward in its frame.
17. Poke out the eyeball for each and every layer that you can in the Layers panel. That ensures that only the subpicture highlights for the menu will be visible when the various buttons are selected.
18. Right-click in the Menu viewer and select “Preview from here”.
19. During the preview, the buttons should animate, then become static. When the menu duration reaches the loop point time that you set, the subpicture highlight for the default button should become visible (and active!).
20. When the menu duration expires, it should loop seamlessly back to the loop point timecode that you set.

Let me know if you still are unsuccessful creating this motion menu.

-Jeff

[Jeff Bellune]

I forgot to add that you need to turn off the visibility for all layers of the menu once you are back in Encore. The static menu elements that used to be animating in your AE comp will function as the button graphics. Don’t delete the button layers in Encore, just hide them. Otherwise your button won’t work.

-Jeff

[Jeff Bellune]

Are you trying to create a menu with an animated background from which the audience can make a selection, or are you trying to make an animated menu that transitions to a static menu? Viewers would then make their selection from the static menu.

If it’s the latter, you don’t need separate menus. Create your animation in AE, using whatever menu elements you want. When it’s time for the menu to become “static”, make sure all animating elements in your AE comp stop moving and are at rest in their final positions. Give yourself at least a minute with everything static before ending the comp.

When you add your animated/static AE clip to the Encore menu as a background, set the loop point for the menu a few seconds after the elements stop animating. What will happen is that when the menu first appears on-screen, the animated bit will play, then at the loop point the subpicture highlights will become active and the audience can make their selection. When the menu duration expires, it will loop back to the loop point as seamlessly as the audience’s DVD player will let it, giving the illusion of a static menu that stays on-screen forever.

If you want to go back to this menu later in the program or from other parts of the menu system, you can make a static copy of the menu so the viewer won’t have to watch the intro again. If you want to force them to see the animation each time the menu is selected, then you don’t have to make a copy.

[Jeff Bellune]

I would start with the DivX codecs and ffdshow. I primarily use Adobe Video Production software, and these codecs have caused no end of grief to Adobe users. Maybe pI doesn’t like them, either.

-Jeff

[Jeff Bellune]

Thanks, Alan.