Motion Menu (the simple way)

DVDlab allows you to create Motion menus. This is a menu where the still background image is replaced by a video stream. You can also add sound to the menu which may or may not match the video. (It could be a background music)
Simple as that this allows you to create very sophisticated motion menus with the right video editor.

Note: The version 1.3 adds "Pre-render Motion menu" which will help you to create a very complex motion menu without any video editor. For more see the Motion Thumbnails page.

A Very Simple Motion Menu

You can create a very simple "motion menu" without other video application directly in DVDlab, where you simply replace the background still with a short video clip. You will use the "Normal" subpicture properties to show an subpicture in normal state, then different color for highlighted state.

1. Open menu in DVDlab and create some simple menu as below. We added two text objects and then create links from each (Just drop a Movie or Menu from the Project tree to the object).

2. Add a short video to the assets.

3. Drag the video from assets and drop it to the menu. The background graphic will be created from the first frame of the video. (If you want to see other frame, drag and drop frame from preview while holding Shift)

4. Click Simulation

5. The white text will disappear and you will see just the first one highlighted. Go to properties pane (on the right) and select Map. Switch the State slider from Selected to Normal. Since you are using Group 3 for both texts, move the third slider all the way to right and if you want also pick some other color.

Switch to Selected and pick some color for selected

6. That's it. Setting the Normal state will make sure the text is always visible even if not selected and the selected state has different color.

This is very simplistic motion menu, but it is done without much effort.

Work more on it.

When you have just two buttons it is confusing to see what is selected (is it blue or yellow?). I actually hate when some authors do that on their DVD's. The better choice is to add underline. You can do this by another trick called Group HotSpot.

Start by adding a thin rectangle below each text. Now set the both rectangles to be a Button Hi-lite Group 2 (The text is Group 3 which is default)

That means you will be able to set different color map for the rectangle than for the text.

Now draw a 2 x Group Hotspot over both rectangle with text. Group Hotspot will group two or more objects into one button so both text and the rectangle will behave as one button, yet they will each keep their own properties such as the different Hi-Lite group.

Color map

To make it less colorfull I actually put both Normal and Selected state of Text to blue (See slider 3). The rectangle which is Group 2 (see slider 2) has a Normal set to full transparency (so it is not visible in normal) and the Selected set to yellow full opaque. The Group 1 is not used in this example.

The result looks more natural than the previous example and I would maybe even consider it for some amateur release. (The jagged lines of subpicture text makes this looks amateurish)

2. Motion Menu With Overlay

With the previous example you could make visible only active objects and only as a subpicture (that is without effects such as drop shadow). If you would like to do it more attractive you need a video editor to mix the static overlay and video as background.

1. Similarly as in first example we create a simple menu, however this time we add non active element (the title "My Movie")

3. Don't worry about the background, it won't be used. Now from menu "Menu" select Export and As Overlay.

4. It will create a transparent PNG which we use in a video editor. My choice is VideoFactory 2.0 ($49) but anything else which works for you will do.

5. In the VideoFactory I simply drag the created overlay to "Video Overlay" and then the background short movie to "Video" track.

6. Now I can export this as NTSC mpeg-2 directly from VideoFactory - it would take about 2 minutes. The result is short clip with the text overlaid on top of it.

7. Add the new motion background to assets and drag it to the menu. At this stage I feel like to do something different so I deleted all the text objects and simply add a rectangle object as an underline. Then I add links to these underline rectangle objects and set color map to full red.

The result is a bit more reasonable motion menu with shadowed text.

By using this technique you can create any motion menu imaginable. Note it is not necessary to create the overlay in DVDlab. I use it because it is convenient but you can add text directly in the video editor and then create the active object in DVDlab by adding a bullet, underline rectangle (as above) etc....

3. Thumbnail Motion menus or more complicated motions using video editor

Note: Version 1.3 of DVD-lab has a tool called Render Motion Menu which can create a complex motion menu without any video editor. To learn more see the Motion Thumbnails page.
The following text refers to version 1.2 or earlier without this ability or as a refference.

This is an incarnation of the previous example but for this you need a video application which can have more layers at the same time than VideoFactory. (Of course you can do it in VideoFactory as well by adding one thumbnail at a time, render the video to new file, load it and then add another thumbnail, render etc....)

You don't exactly need Premiere or After Effect (however it would be plus). I used an early incarnation of Magix Video Maker which was sitting on my desk for a long time.

1. You need the clips for the thumbnails, I decided to have about 10 sec. motion loop with 4 thumbnails.

2. The result is an AVI which you need to encode by using your favorite encoder. I usually use about 7000kbs for these shorts since you want your menu crisp and shiny (especially if you add text). Again TMPGEnc does it very well but I can import it to VideoFactory and use their engine to do the mpeg-2.

3. Now add the new mpeg file to DVDlab assets (if you create program stream then it will demux it) and then drag it to empty menu.

4. It is up to you what you do next, but for this type I recommend to add frames by dragging them from Buttons & Frames bin. (Please note, as previously, the frames itself will be not a part of the motion menu, only their subpicture.) Then Link these frames to the movies or chapter points. (Right click on the frame , select Link and your Movie start frame or chapter point.

5. I set Map to full yellow since it goes nicely with the background:

6. Now you have a Thumbnail motion menu