Tutorial: DVD Motion Menus

Brian Brodeur
May 2008

The goal of this tutorial is to demonstrate some basic tools in developing a DVD motion menu from scratch. In our example, the motion menu will play back for 30 seconds, and the specifications will be NTSC format, using a 4:3 aspect ratio. For this tutorial, we will be creating a typical "main menu" from a feature-length movie project. The menu itself will display a 30-second clip from our movie, as well as three buttons for navigation. The three buttons will be Play Program, Scene Selection and Bonus Features.

To view the tutorial video for DVD Motion Menus, click here

The first step in this tutorial is to create a Photoshop document in which we will design our basic menu layout, including navigation buttons, background and movie clip. Using Adobe Photoshop, select New under the File pull-down menu, or you can also use the software shortcut Command-N (Mac) or Ctrl-N (PC). Depending on the version of Photoshop you are running, you will be able to choose the Preset titled "NTSC D1 Square Pix, 720x540 (with guides)" from the Preset pull-down on the new dialog box that has opened. If you do not have this preset, use the following settings to create a custom new document setup:

• Set the document width to 720 pixels
• Set the document height to 540 pixels
• Set the resolution to 72 pixels/inch
• Color mode: RGB color, 8-bit depth

Caption: New Document dialog box (click to enlarge)

Advanced settings:

• Color profile: SMPTE-C (optional)
• Pixel aspect ratio: Square

Recent versions of Photoshop will allow you to create this initial PSD document "with guides," as mentioned above. These guides display the Title and Action Safety areas within the menu. The Title Safety area is roughly everything displayed within a 10% outer margin of the menu area. This outer 10% may display close to the edge of some television monitor screens, but displays completely on computer monitors and most flatscreen TVs (Plasma, LCD, etc). When you are creating DVD menus, all interactive buttons should display within this 10% Title safety area to display properly during playback.

The Action Safe area encompasses the 5% outer border of the menu. Images within the outer 5% of the menu display may not display properly on all monitors, so you should design any critical images or titling within the outer 5% Action Safe margin.

Once the new document is created, set the Foreground and Background colors in Photoshop to two complementary colors. For this tutorial, we set the foreground to dark green #336666 and the background color to black #000000. To set a basic background design, select the Background Layer and choose the dropdown Filter > Render > Fibers filter, which will create a simple striated green/black background. As an alternate choice, use a similar rendered effect (such as clouds) or perhaps a muted still photo for a background.

Caption: Fibers Filter dialog box (click to enlarge)

To create a layer for the navigation buttons, add a new layer to the Photoshop document. Name this layer Buttons. Using the Text tool, add three lines of text to the new Buttons layer as follows:

• Play Program
• Scene Selection
• Bonus Features

For readability during DVD playback, use a font size at least 18 points. For this tutorial, we will use a font size of 30 points. Also for readability, set the text leading at 36 points and center align the three lines of text (see menu still for reference).

With these two layers complete, save the Photoshop document to your hard drive using the name Menu.psd. The Photoshop elements are now prepared for importing into After Effects, where the 30-second movie clip will be added, resized and composited with the two layers of the Photoshop document.

We will use Adobe AfterEffects version 5.5 for this tutorial. When you launch AfterEffects, you will create a new project. Select New Composition from the Composition pull-down menu. Set the following parameters:

Note: Using the NTSC D1 Square Pixels preset will likely auto-fill most of these parameters.

• Composition Name = Motion_Menu
• Preset = NTSC D1 Square Pix, 720x540
• Width = 720
• Height = 540
• Lock Aspect Ratio to 4:3 = checked
• Pixel Aspect Ratio = Square Pixels
• Frame Rate = 29.97fps
• Resolution = Full
• Start Timecode = 0;00;00;00
• End Timecode = 0;00;30;00

Caption: New Compositions dialog box (click to enlarge)

This 720x540 Square Pixel composition will match the size and aspect of the Photoshop file that you previously created. Once you have created the new composition, you will see the Composition display and the Composition Timeline.

Choose Import > File under the File pull-down (Command I on MAC or Ctrl-I on PC). Locate and select the Menu Photoshop document that you created previously. When importing a Photoshop document (PSD), After Effects provides the choice of importing all Photoshop layers as one layer (Merged) or importing each layer individually. Importing individual layers is useful when you are creating more complex menu animation builds, but for this tutorial choose Merged Layers for the import. The Project window will list the composition Motion_Menu, as well as the file Menu.psd.

Caption: Import dialog box (click to enlarge)

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