Chapter 7: Menus: Beyond The Basics; Motion Menus - Adobe ENCORE 2 Manual

Chapter 7: Menus: Beyond the basics

Motion menus

About motion menus
A menu can include sound and motion. You can replace the entire background of a menu with a video file, as well
as link it to an audio file. A video can serve as a moving backdrop to a menu or provide all the visual elements of the
menu except for the button highlighting. The video can include, for example, a moving background, scrolling credits,
and even the button images. The menu itself needs only to include a placeholder background and the button subpic-
tures (in button layer sets) that align with the button images in the video.
How long the video background or audio plays and whether it loops depends on the duration and loop settings of
the menu. (See "Controlling menu display time and looping" on page 107.)
If you want a smaller image, consider resizing or masking the video in a video-editing application, such as Adobe
Premiere Pro, or masking a portion of the video with a layer in the menu.
The Library panel contains menu template (EM) files that include video backgrounds.
See also
"Creating video thumbnail buttons" on page 104
"About menu templates" on page 109
To add a video background to a menu
❖
Do one of the following:
•
Select the menu in the Project panel. Then in the Properties panel, click the Motion tab and drag the Video pick
whip to the video file in the Project panel.
•
Alt-drag the video file from the Project panel to the menu in the Menu Viewer.
Note: You select a video asset, not a timeline, in the Project panel to replace the menu background with video.
The first bright (non-black) frame of the video replaces the menu background. This frame serves as a placeholder in
the menu PSD file and is displayed during previewing as well (unless you choose to render the motion menus in the
Preview panel). See "About previews" on page 186. When you build the project, Adobe Encore DVD renders the
video starting from the first frame.
You can also set the menu background to the frame at the specified Loop Point timecode. This is especially useful
when you want to align button subpicture layers with button images in the video background. (See "About Loop
Point" on page 108.)
See also
"To animate video thumbnail buttons" on page 107
103