Would you pls give some instructions on how to do that? Maybe on how to set a movie as the final credits for the dvd as you hit stop while playing any of the menus.
:)

End actions only determine what happens after a menu or clip finishes naturally. Sorry, I've no idea how to intercept the Stop command in the way you want. AFAIK, if the viewer presses the Stop button, the DVD is going to stop right then and there. (Except for if you preven the Stop button from being used, which you can do in DVDA2, but that stil wouldln't play a clip. And it's generally quite rude. <g>

Rob

So I guess it's time for SONY considerate this possibility in the next upgrade. What about introduction movies (as the fist one that DVDA lets us choose) for each of the menus and after the stop is hit, the possibility to choose a final movie (maybe for the final credits)? What a nice idea. In fact, we should be able to open the tree on the left and insert anything we wanted under the Menu folder. I'm sure Maestro and Scenarist can do that, but no way. I wouldn't dare to spend hours, weeks and years to author a single DVD with them.
Thanks for taking time to respond!

I don't think this is possible (i.e. playing a video after the user presses the stop button). Have you seen a commericial DVD that does this?

So I guess it's time for SONY considerate this possibility in the next upgrade.

Perhaps I wasn't clear. I wasn't saying it can't be done in DVD Architect; I was saying I doubt it can be done in any DVD. I've sure never seen it before.

Rob

Thanks for taking time to respond. Not really. But what about playing movies as "intros" for each new submenu as the commercial DVDs? Isn't it a great idea?
;)

Are you sure? I've seen the new Peter Pan movie (DVD) from Universal Pictures. It seems to have an intro, if I am not mistaken, before playing each of those submenus. If I'm mistaken, I do apologize. If that's the case, what about playing movies as backgrounds for submenus with all buttons appearing at the end of the action (got it?)...I mean, you hit submenu (or main menu), a new movie as a backgound plays (try to rent the excellent Stuart Little 2) and then, at the end of the action, the buttons appear and only then you can choose what you want. Can this be done with DVDA 2.0?
Thanks in advance!
;)

Are you sure? I've seen the new Peter Pan movie (DVD) from Universal Pictures. It seems to have an intro, if I am not mistake

I think you're getting confused. I said nothing about intros. You said that Sony should add the ability to have a "final credit" type clip that plays when the user hits Stop, and I said this cannot be done. You brought up the subject of intro videos in a later post.

Intro videos are a completely different thing, and can already be done.

Rob

Thanks Rob, so can you please tell me how? I know there's an easy way to set an intro to play before the first main menu, but what about the other submenus? Thanks in advance.
:)

You do this by actually placing the intro video clips on the main menu and then linking to the submenus as the end action. You have to approach it as a linear process -- you don't go from A to C and put B as a "beginning action" to C. You have to go from A to B and make C the end action of B.

Your Main menu is A. Your Sub menus are all Cs. Your intro video clips for each submenu are all Bs. Create your sub menus (C), then go back to your main menu (A) and drop the intro videos (B) for each sub, then set the end action for each of those to the corresponding sub menu. A - B - C ... like connecting the dots...

HTH

Let's see if I've got that right and if I can do it. I've already tried something like this but.....One ore thing: will this let me have a motion menu and at the end of it, just at the end (like some commercial DVDs), the buttons will be shown so as you choose what you want?
Thank you very much for your help.

Thanks Jessariah. I did it. As a matter of fact, I was thinking wrongly (going from a to b then to c), but thanks to you, everything is cleared. It's true I still have some little problems to figure out how to insert some buttons among all that stuff (as on menu A, having a button to start plaing the intro for the Menu B without returning to the Main Menu - the beginning is always difficult, ya know....), but it works! Thank you very much, really! DVDA 2.0 really rocks!
;)

Here's a trick I just figured out how to do myself:

Make your motion "intro" (B) and freeze the last frame of it with the velocity envelope. The point at which you freeze it becomes your menu (C) (you render each separately). Add text or graphics to the C part to use as your buttons. When you're constructing the actual menu in DVDA2, drag the videos asssociated with the "buttons" you added as part of the frozen menu. Choose "text only" in the properties window, then click on "edit text" and hit BACKSPACE. You now have a text box with no letters in it. You can now drag that box over the text/graphic you have as you "button" for that video on the menu background and size it however you want (or you could make it a square bullet in front of or behind it, etc.).

If you do this, your intro will play, then freeze. Then the highlight will appear over (or under or beside) the first link on the page and any music you rendered as part of the frozen (C) part will begin playing.

The end result looks like this.

HTH

Very cool, Jessariah.

See, this is what I like about DVDA -- it gives you the features and the flexibility needed to be really creative. Hopefully, this will encourage people to develop their own intros, transitions, and menus...instead of just relying on the generic content that comes with most DVD author packages.

Choose "text only" in the properties window, then click on "edit text" and hit BACKSPACE. You now have a text box with no letters in it. You can now drag that box over the text/graphic you have as you "button" for that video on the menu background and size it however you want

Not that it makes much of a difference, but another way would be to drag your videos into the Project Overview window (as standalone media), insert Empty buttons onto your menu, and link them to your videos. Achieves pretty much the same thing, I guess.

Rob

Thank you very much for your help, Jessariah. Actually I've just figured out how to author a DVD the way you suggested (much better this way). Let's see If I can do this too...Hey, what a terrific menu! Thanks for the link! Congratulations on this excellent job! This is what I call a real "PRO". One more thing: Can u please tell me how did you animate that text? THKS!
;)
Thanks also to all who took time to respond. That's one more topic I'm sure will help many users! By the way, where's Silverglove???? lol

I used Wild FX Pro from WildForm.com. Sony sent out an email about them a week or so ago. The app is more geared toward flash, but it does handle video output just fine.

Do ya think I can do the same with Boris RED? :) I guess that title effect was part of the background, wasn't it???
Thanks again for you help!

I HOPE you can do the same with Red, seeing as Wild FX Pro is only $100...

Yes, the menu titles were part of the frozen video. Only the highlights were "created" in DVDA2.

Although the difference between both Boris and Wild is enormous ($$$) the results you've achieved are absolutely very impressive! By the way, you've said all the menu titles were part of the frozen video:
What do you mean for all titles? Is that all the text?
What about the highlights? Were they just the background video and the main title? Could you please give some more details?
Finally, let me thank you again for so much help. Many people have never realized before what DVDA 2.0 could really do. Now, I'm sure this distorted impression must have definitely changed. Now, thanks to you, users know how to go out of what could be called "menu limitations". Thanks so much for sharing this precious knowledge. ;)

To be honest, I think that everyting he did with the text can be achieved in Vegas with the text generator, keyframing, and transitions. I'd have to look at his video again and have Vegas in front of me (I'm at work right now), but I can put together a veg to demonstrate if you want.

I know I once did something similar to his title effect (I think it said "Industrial"?) just by setting to keyframes and changing the text's kerneling at each one.

Rob

Yeah Rob, that's it. The word was industrial. If you wanna demonstrate that with a Veggie file, that would be terrific. Thanks in advance. Anyway, if you really decide to do that, you can upload your Veggie file at Chienworks' so it 'd also may help other users. Don't remember the address now, but if you want me to search it for ya, please let me know ;)
Thanks a lot!

The video demo was completely mocked-up in Vegas (including the highlight boxes) for an example. In the DVDA2 environment, the boxes are created by making text-less links -- you then can size the highlight however you want.

As for Wild FX Pro...If you buy the Power Pack (extra FX), it will run you back about $130. That gives you 600+ effects and about 50 are custimzeable (speed, etc.) Many of the effects you could recreate in Vegas, but it would be quite an undertaking, since a lot of it animates each letter individually. I thought it was worth the $$$. There's a good amount of Flash-ish effects that would look hokey in straight video, but there was enough there that was usable to make me break out the plastic.

Again, I would gladly pay extra for a set of text effects that could be dragged & dropped within Vegas, just like the Transitions & Video FX. In my opinion, that is the only factor that is sorely missing in Vegas (and I think Sony would agree, since they included Boris Ltd. with V5 and sent out the notice on Wild FX a few months later...)