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Create an animated DVD menu transition using Encore and After Effects

This tutorial will show you how easy it is to create an animated DVD menu transitions using Adobe® Encore® CS3 and Adobe After Effects® CS3. One of the things that makes Encore unique is its tight integration with After Effects, so the process is rather simple.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create an animated transition that fades to black and then begins the movie when a user clicks the Play button on a DVD menu.

Requirements

To complete this tutorial you will need to install the following software:

Adobe After Effects CS3

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• Buy

Adobe Encore CS3

• About
• Buy (with Premiere Pro)
• Buy (with Production Premium)

Prerequisite knowledge:

Basic knowledge of and experience using After Effects.

Create an animated DVD menu transition

To create an animated menu transition, follow these steps:

1. Create and save a new project, and then open the Library panel in Encore. Click the leftmost button (called Toggle display of menus) on the row of buttons in the middle of the panel to display the menu templates.

   By default, Encore displays the menus in the General category (see Figure 1), but you can search within any of the categories by using the Set pop-up menu at the top of the Library panel.

   Note: The Library has lots of royalty-free content (such as menus, buttons, and design elements), which can be easily modified. You can do something quick like what you did in step 1, or use the elements in the Library to save time when doing custom menu design.

    

   

   Figure 1: The Library panel in Encore.

2. With the General category selected in the Set menu (see Figure 2), scroll down and locate the Entertainment Menu (see Figure 3). Double-click the Entertainment Menu to open it in the Project panel. Then, double-click the menu in the Project panel to open it in the menu viewer.

    

   

   Figure 2: Choose General from the Set menu to display the General menu items.

    

   

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   Figure 3: Choose the Entertainment Menu option.

3. (Optional) Customize the menu by changing the text using the Text tool and Character and Paragraph panels in Encore, or by opening the menu in Adobe Photoshop® (in the menu viewer, right-click/Command-click > Edit Menu In Photoshop).
4. Choose Menu > Create After Effects Composition (see Figure 4). When prompted, save the menu as a PSD file in the same folder as your Encore project. Encore automatically saves a new PSD and AEP file.

    

   

   Figure 4: Create an After Effects composition.

   After Effects opens and creates a new project for you, with a single composition that contains all the layers of your menu.

   Double-click the comp in After Effects to open it in the Composition Viewer (see Figure 5).

    

   

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   Figure 5: Open the comp in the Composition Viewer (notice how the After Effects and Encore interfaces are nearly identical).

   You have unlimited creative options for the transition in After Effects, but we’ll do a simple transition to black using the Burn Film effect, which simulates what happens when motion picture film gets stuck in the gate and burns away. In order to apply the effect to the all the layers in our menu, we’re going to pre-compose them.

5. Select all the layers on the timeline, and then choose Layer > Pre-compose (see Figure 6).

    

   

   Figure 6: Pre-compose all of the layers by selecting them and choosing Layer > Pre-compose.

6. In the Pre-compose dialog box, make sure Move All Attributes Into The New Composition is selected, and then click OK.
7. Apply the CC Burn Film effect by choosing Effect > Stylize > CC Burn Film.
8. The main parameter in this effect is Burn. Click-and-drag on the value for Burn in the Effect Controls panel to see how changing the value affects the menu (see Figure 7).

    

   

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   Figure 7: Click-and-drag the Burn value to change the CC Burn Film effect.

9. Create a new, solid layer by choosing Layer > New > Solid.

   When this effect “burns away” the image, it reveals whatever is beneath, which is nothing in this example. In order to make this look like an actual frame of film burning away, we want white to be revealed.

10. In the Solid Settings dialog box, click the Make Comp Size button, choose white for the color, and then click OK. Then, on the timeline, drag the new White Solid 1 layer below the Pre-comp 1 layer (see Figure 8).

     

    

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    Figure 8: Drag the White Solid 1 layer below the Pre-comp 1 layer on the timeline.

    Now for the finishing touches - let’s have the image start to burn away from the area of the Play button by moving the center of the effect.

11. Select the Pre-comp 1 layer, and then go back to the Effect Controls panel. Click on the CC Burn Film effect, and a crosshatch appears in the center of your comp. Drag it to the middle of the Play button (see Figure 9).

     

    

    Figure 9: Drag CC Burn Effect crosshatch to the middle of the Play button.

12. Now it’s time to animate the transition. Three seconds should be about right, so choose Composition > Composition Settings and enter 300 in the Duration text box (see Figure 10), and click OK.

     

    

    Figure 10: Set the duration of the transition to 3 seconds.

13. Set an initial keyframe for the Burn parameter by clicking on its stopwatch in the Effect Controls panel, and then set its value back to 0.0 (see Figure 11).

     

    

    Figure 11: Set the initial keyframe for the Burn parameter to 0.0.

14. Move the Current Time Indicator (CTI) on the timeline to 2 seconds (0;00;02;00) and change the Burn setting in the Effect Controls panel to 100.
15. Choose Composition > Preview > RAM Preview and see what you’ve got.
16. To make the transition fade to black at the end, make sure the CTI is back at 2 seconds and select the White Solid 1 layer. Press the T key on your keyboard to reveal the layer’s Opacity settings, and then click on the stopwatch for Opacity to set a keyframe (see Figure 12).

     

    

    Figure 12: Set a keyframe for Opacity.

17. Move the CTI to the end of the timeline and change the Opacity setting to 0. Do another RAM Preview and here’s what you should have (click the video below to play back):

     

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18. Now, let’s get the transition back into Encore. Click-and-drag the comp from the After Effects Project panel into the Encore Project panel. You can either arrange the programs side-by-side (see Figure 13), or use the Command+tab or Alt+tab keyboard shortcuts to toggle between them. (Alternatively, you can choose Adobe Dynamic Link > Import After Effects Composition in Encore.)

     

    

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    Figure 13: Arrange Encore and After Effects side-by-side on the desktop, and click-and-drag the comp from After Effects into Encore.

19. Finally, let’s weave the transition into the DVD navigation. For this next step, import a piece of video that you want to use as the Main Movie and put it on the timeline (select the video and choose Timeline > New Timeline).
20. From the Flowchart panel, click-and-drag from the Play button in the menu to the Main Movie timeline (see Figure 14).

     

    

    Figure 14: From the Flowchart panel, click-and-drag the Play button in the Menu to the Main Movie timeline.

21. Set the transition for the Play button by clicking the Transition tab on the Properties panel. Click the pickwhip (the little swirl) and drag it to the After Effects comp in your Encore Project panel (see Figure 15).

     

    

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    Figure 15: Drag the transition from the Transition panel to the After Effects comp in the Project panel in Encore.

    You’ll see a Transition icon appear in the Flowchart, in the link from the Play button to the Main Movie timeline. To preview your navigation, right-click the menu in the Flowchart and choose Preview From Here from the pop-up menu. Click the Play button and watch the magic happen.

Where to go from here

Another way of incorporating animated transitions into your menus is to do them from one menu to the next (for example, to transition from the Main menu to the Scene Selection menu). With some imagination, this can be one of the most creative and fun parts of DVD creation.

For more information on working with After Effects, see the following resources:

• After Effects Design Center
• Encore Design Center
• Adobe Video Workshop
• Create After Effects comps with Encore DVD, by Chad Perkins
• Add motion menus to your DVD with After Effects and Encore DVD (PDF, ), by the experts at Adobe