If I understand correctly, you have an AVI file, that you want to be your Motion
Menu. It is of X length (how long?), and then at a point approx. 10 sec. into
it, the Buttons on the Menu will fade into the Menu, while the AVI is still
playing. Last, the AVI will continue to play as a Motion background for your
Menu. Is this correct?
What I see happening will depend on several things and require several
additional programs to get it done.
Will the AVI loop on the Menu?
Will the point, to which it loops, be after the actual beginning of the AVI?
How repetitious is the action in the AVI file?
You can take your AVI into your NLE (Premiere, or similar) and create three
sections of it:
No. 1 will be the intro (first portion of the AVI) and will be used as a Play
First. The next section will be the part, where the Buttons fade in. Here, use
the Button graphics (Export from Photoshop as a PSD and Import these still
images into your NLE. There, place them on Video Tracks above the section of
your AVI, where this action is to take place. Set Effects>Opacity and
Keyframe the Opacity. You could also add Motion (Effects>Motion) to make them
fly in, while they fade up. This will be a separate Timeline in Encore and will
be linked from your Play First section. The third section of your AVI would then
become your actual Motion Menu Background. The Buttons are now in place on the
real Menu, which is linked from your Section #2 Timeline. The one drawback is
that any looping of the Motion Menu would only be this third section from your
original AVI, so it would exclude the sections #1 & #2. To workaround this,
you could create section #3, as follows in your NLE: Clip 1 - last part of the
edited AVI, Clip 2 - first part of your AVI (a duplicate of your Play First
AVI), Clip 3 - the “background” section where the Buttons come in, but without
the buttons (a duplicate of only the background Clip from section #2, then a
duplicate of your section #3 (the same Clip that started this AVI, to complete a
loop of the full AVI). If you want a continuous loop, skip adding section #3
back into the AVI that will be used as the "real" Motion Menu
background. Depending on the Duration, the "user" will likely have
pressed a button by then. Also, if you link BACK to this Menu, it will start
with the section #3 of the background AVI. To get around this, create an
identical Menu with the full AVI Motion Menu background and link to it instead,
never going back to the first Menu, except when the DVD is initially inserted.
A couple of warnings: you will not be able to get a full Preview, as you will
get a black frame when you watch it - you must test this with a DVD-RW to make
sure that it really works, when burned. You should have a seamless (or very
nearly so) transition from Play First to Button animation, to real Menu with
Motion. Also, remember that the Buttons in the Button animation will not
function, until they come to rest/fade in, and you are actually ON your real
Menu.
Next, make sure that you have the sizes of the Buttons and their exact Picture
Aspect Ratio from your real Menu set correctly, when you Import these into your
NLE and animate them. This is a good reason to use Encore with Photoshop and
Premiere, as you can work back and forth with little effort. Remember, any
changes that you might make to the real Buttons on your Menu MUST be
corrected/changed in your animated AVI. Plan ahead, design your Menu exactly as
you want it, then, and only then, use the Buttons for the animated AVI.
Last note: you could also use After Effects to animate the Button transition,
but Premiere can also do this nicely and eliminate the need for one additional
program.
Hunt
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