Jeff Bellune
Forum Replies Created
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I just had an interesting thought.
Even though you’ve tried different ways to create the highlight layer, were all of your base menu and text layers created in Photoshop?
If so, do any/all of the layers have layer or vector masks?
-Jeff
The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0
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1. Mac or PC?
2. Is this a brand-new menu in a brand-new CS4 project?
3. If the answer to #2 is no, try it and let us know what happens.
4. Is the problem *exactly* the same on every text button? IOW, is the last letter of text always “un-highlighted” and by exactly the same amount?
5. Do you get *exactly* the same results no matter which of the 4 methods you listed above were used?
6. Can you post screenshots? The menu viewer and the fully-expanded layers panel would be helpful.
-Jeff
The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0
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Okay, I see what you are trying to do.
Try this:
Put each menu’s intro animation into its own timeline. Link the end action of each timeline to its proper menu partner.
Each menu only has the animation from what would have been the loop point of the original, complete menu.
For this navigation, you need duplicate Main Menus (not timelines); one will link to the intro animation for the Chapter Menu (for the first time the menu is displayed) and the other will link to the Chaper Menu directly (for subsequent access to the menu).
You will need the Auto-Activate property for the button on the Main Menu that will link to the timeline. The Auto-Activate link will connect to the duplicate Main Menu.
Then use the Return to Last Menu command for the Menu Remote propertyof the timeline.
So:
MainMenu1 has a button that links to ChapterMenuIntro, which links to ChapterMenu.
MainMenu1 also has an auto-activate button that links to the timeline button on MainMenu2.
MainMenu2 has buttons that link directly to ChapterMenu and directly to the timeline.
ChapterMenu has buttons that link back to MainMenu2 and to the various chapters of the timeline.
MainMenu1 is linked to by the MainMenu1Intro timeline; the only time it is displayed is when the the disc is first inserted (because MainMenuIntro is set as First Play, and nothing ever links back to MainMenuIntro).
The button for the timeline on MainMenu1 is an auto-activate button, and it links to the timeline button on MainMenu2.
That means that the only time ChapterMenuIntro plays is when the link to it on MainMenu1 is selected. IOW, the first time the audience gets to see ChapterMenu.
This is an advanced navigation setup – I hope it’s clear enough from my description.
-Jeff
The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0
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I don’t understand why you need a duplicate timeline.
Just set each timeline’s Menu Remote link to explicitly point to the menu that launched it, and make sure to check the box for linking to the loop point. Use the dropdown list in the Properties panel, and choose the Specify Link option.
-Jeff
The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0
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Yes. Delete the Media Cache key and not just its contents.
If it still doesn’t work, then I have to ask what operating system and what version of Encore?
If it’s Vista and CS4, then things may be different. One thing you could try in any case is to create a new user account (temporarily) and then try and build your Encore project from the new user account.
Or, clean and then move the actual media cache database from inside of Premiere.
Or, if the source media was edited in Pr or AE, then find and manually delete all of the cache files themselves. Your Pr/AE preferences determine where those are kept.
If none of that works, then I’m stumped. Please note that everything after the registry edit is only a guess on my part. The registry edit, until recently, always fixed this problem. You are only the second or third person to report that it didn’t work.
-Jeff
The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0
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Hi Reggie,
Set the end action of the timeline to “Link Back to Here”.
-Jeff
The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0
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If you have CS4, then importing a Premiere sequence via Dynamic Link is the best option.
If you have CS3, then using “Export to Encore” encodes the Premiere sequence into MPEG2 DVD video and audio, and automatically imports it into Encore for authoring.
The only thing you lose by not exporting an intermediate .avi file from Premiere is Encore’s automatic transcoding, where Encore will encode the intermediate file at the highest possible bit rate (to preserve the most quality), based on the content of the disc. No more trips to the bit rate calculator.
There is a free frameserver plug-in for Premiere CS3 and earlier called the Debugmode Frameserver (Google it). I created a tutorial on how to use that to avoid the time and quality hit of an intermediate render when going from Premiere to Encore, and yet still be able to take advantage of automatic transcoding. Unfortunately, the plug-in doesn’t work in CS4.
Here’s the link:
Debugmode Frameserver Tutorial
The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0
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The film-to-DVD process in Hollywood is done by teams of highly trained and experienced artists using thousands of dollars (and maybe hundreds of thousands) in high-end equipment.
They start with a progressive source and keep it that way throughout the whole process.
Is your source video 1080i or 1080p? What frame rate? All of these details affect the final outcome.
How does your original footage look on Blu-ray Disc?
For us mere mortals, there are better tools than AE for pulling off high-quality downscaling of the HD footage, and most of them are free. But you need a tutor or an engineering degree to make them do what you need.
-Jeff
The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0
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Check for any overrides set anywhere in the project. Sometimes you needed overrides in version 1, but almost never in version CS4. Improper use of overrides will kill your navigation.
Does the Chapter Playlist handle the “Play All” duties? It wasn’t clear from your post because you said that Play All played the timeline.
If you remove all overrides and the navigation still doesn’t work, try removing all of the end actions for the chapters and just link the Play All button to the timeline. Then put each chapter in its own Chapter Playlist and link each of the chapter buttons to the respective playlist.
-Jeff
The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0