Hello all, I am an amateur video enthusiast and have only home movie productions under my belt. I am currently using Studio 9 and feel very comfortable with that program, and am very satisfied with its level of features. I recently accepted a project from a coworker who is producing a "film" of sorts and plans to market it locally. I have been nomitated to edit the footage and author it to dvd. Now here is my question. I have done quite alot of searching for a program that meets my needs, but to no avail so please if you can't be more precise than "google it" don't reply. I am looking for a program that allows somewhat advanced dvd menu creation. I would like to produce a professional looking menu and I am very fluent in Flash/Photoshop. I plan to design the menu background myself, however I cannot find a program that will allow me to make an "animated" background. And no, I don't mean scrolling text, or fading pictures. I am looking for advanced capabilities. Ideally I would be able to produce a 30 second clip or so in Flash, or similiar animation program, and import that into the authoring program for rendering as a menu background. I would also like to design "small intros" into each menu, like what you see in professionally produced dvds. If you don't know what im talking about, watch the opening to "The Recruit", or I Robot. I can make the animation in a .gif or .swf etc but cant find a program that will import this file type and allow me to use it in a timeline, etc. Also if I could customize "button highlights" with more than "underline, outer border, etc" that would be nice too. Basically I just want the finished dvd to have a professional presentation instead of just a still image background. So does anyone know of any consumer grade products (I don't have a $2500 budget here ) that allows the depth of editing im seeking here? Preferrably one that has a trial period so I can atleast make sure it will fit my needs prior to purchase? Thanks in Advance.
If you can create an avi from any of your apps, for the background, you only need to re-encode it as dvd compliant mpeg-2. I make a sequence of pictures in PaintShop Pro, but the free "Gimp" paint program will do the same. I then import the sequence into PSP's Animation shop. Set my framerate, frame delay, and everything else. Output as avi. Encode to mpeg-2 in Mainconcept, tmpgenc, or whatever encoder you have, import into the authoring app. DVDLab Pro will do everything else for you. http://www.mediachance.com
Thanks! One question though. I cant seem to get a super clean render. I keep getting "noise" in the animation by the time it gets into the dvd authoring program. Is this avoidable at all? And do you know about the button highlighting? Is there anyway I can customize how the buttons are highlighted? Like for example create a "highlight" in photoshop and import that into an authoring program as a custom highlighter?
When rendering as avi (depending on the program), there are usually options for size, bitrate, etc. If you mean "rendering" as encoding the avi to mpeg, then it would help to know what program(s) you're using and what settings. Button hilighting can be totally customized in Dvdlab. Look on the MAP tab, and you can change the colour, transparency, etc., or turn it off completely, and used switched menus for selected/activated items. If you create two menus in photoshop. One with the normal buttons, and one with a selected button different colour, then you'll have to use switched menus.
