Re: REEL DVD motion menu questions

Reading John's answer, I think I understand your question better. John's right, motion menus like the one you are trying to create are made primarily in your non-linear editor, and the photoshop file is only for defining your buttons/highlights. You would bring your photoshop background(or any graphic image background for that matter) into video track one of your NLE, and overlay the short 1 minute clip of video in track 2 on top of the background. You would have to resize and position the video, and depending on your NLE/system, can be done in a number of ways. You would output your 1 minute clip as an m2v file and import it into ReelDVD on the storyboard. Once there, scroll through the video (by left clicking on the icon on the storyboard to select the asset, and then down below in the timeline window scroll through the video while watching the monitor). You can export as a bitmap a representative image from your video stream, and use that bitmap in Photoshop as a 'target' to create your button highlights. By doing it this way, you won't have to worry about the fact that dv uses rectangular pixels, and graphic images like those created in PS, generally use square ones. Create a new transparent layer above the background bitmap 'target', and using pure black, blue, or red; create a button or highlight that is associated with the small video. When you are done creating the button, just delete the background layer, and you will then be left with just the transparent layer with your 'button'. Save it as a PS file. When you go back to ReelDVD, just drag and drop that PS file on top of your motion menu. You now have a sub-picture on top of your motion menu and you need to define the button. On the lower right hand side below the monitor is a selection tool that will allow you to draw a rectangular box around the subpicture to define the button. You need to tell ReelDVD what to do with your subpicture/button with the three states a button can have: display, active, and selection. You will notice on the lower right hand side below the monitor several diamond shaped icons that will allow you to do this. The manual is helpful in directing you on how to adjust each of these if you need to, otherwise ReelDVD will just use it's preset defaults.