Retro newsletter layout

I haven't submitted this for a review yet but this was really good to make.

I seem to oddly enjoy going back to graphics, or just any break from video recently.
Anyway, more graphics to come, I'm working on something big now  

Food photography at Foyer Aberdeen - something yummy!

Last month I had a pleasure of capturing some yummy snaps at Foyer Restaurant & Gallery.
Aberdeen Foyer is a charitable organisation providing supported accommodation and education & training for young disadvantaged people and their community. One of the branches is dedicated to providing fine dining services.

Have a look and make sure to visit - I don't think the pictures do enough justice to the flavour! Enjoy and make sure to visit

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DVD Authoring workflow - all you need to make it work

DVD authoring Workflow

      Converting the footage

Despite how most of the footage to be used in the DVD was captured in HD or full HD resolutions, DVD is in SD format. In order for the footage to be playable on TV screens the video has to be scaled down to PAL or NTSC format.  The standard dimensions are 720x576 (PAL) or 720x480 (NTSC). It is best to use built-in presets as depending on the TV system and whether the footage is destined for widescreen or regular TV the pixel aspect ratio differs.

More: http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/347484-Menu-size-in-DVD-authoring-software

http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/avtechbeta/aspectratios.html

Readjust the picture quality accordingly (keeping in mind the maximum capacity of 4.7GB). Note: the maximum safe bitrate for an authored DVD is around 9mbps. The maximum bitrate value should not exceed this, whereas the safe maximum for average bitrate is 8.8mpbs

Export as MPEG2-DVD  (also acceptable is MPEG-2 preset however most of the time it will require manual setting input).

    Designing the DVD menu

A default menu is a fixed dimension still image using parts of an image as buttons. The buttons navigate the menu to movie sequences, further options, slideshows or extras. In most cases however it is worthwhile adding at least basic animation or ‘reveals’ to the project - after all it’s the menu which will play first.  In this fashion, the menu is designed in After Effects or similar and then exported as a movie sequence to match the attributes of the desired video system.

To preserve the most image information on DVD, the menu should be designed in widescreen square pixels ratio. The format differs from the default NTSC/PAL however it will be stretched later.

When designing your menu in After Effects, consider the button placement; include the necessary lettering but remember that buttons themselves (as areas) will be added later in Encore/Photoshop. After Effects is not an interactive application and menus require user’s input.

NB:  consider splitting the sequence into two parts – 1)the intro  to the DVD. This is where the action and animation/reveals will take place 2)menu/loop content : this is where the menu becomes interactive – the user can select the buttons, animated elements are kept to a minimum. This part by default will loop to infinity. To make things easier one should take a note where the loop-point is on the timeline to input later in Encore.

Think about the menu audio – does it fit with the loop you decided on? Sometimes it is best to readjust one or the other so the loop appears clean.

   Rendering the menu

Having completed the initial menu design in your Widescreen Square pixel ratio composition, open a new composition. This time choose DV Videscreen and drag the first composition into it.

Export the sequence using the same  DV Videscreen settings (progressive, 16:9 aspect, be sure to check for exporting the audio if necessary). This will produce two files: m2v file which contains the video and a wav file with the sound content.

    Importing your menu into Encore

Open a new project in Adobe Encore, match the TV system. Create a new blank menu (again PAL or NTSC) in menu -> new menu... Since the video created in After Effects was 16:9, make sure that 16:9 is selected in the menu options on the right-hand side.

Import the menu files (m2v and wav) into Encore.

In the motion tab of the menu you just created, drag the pick-whip button (which will turn into a string) onto the m2v file for video and the wav file for audio. Below this information is the loop point dialogue box – enter the frame number from which the menu should loop. You can either select how many times the menu will loop, or keep it looping forever (recommended).

    Adding buttons

Buttons help navigate the menu much like on a website. A default feature menu would include a play button and several others to access additional content, dvd chapters, audio/subtitle settings etc. The buttons present in the library are rather simple and cover a shallow subject range, thus most of the time user might desire to create a button ‘from the scratch’.

To ‘manually’ create a button, right click on the menu and choose Edit menu in Photoshop. Encore will open Photoshop and load your menu.

The process of creating the buttons is pretty specific: make a new Layer group. Rename the group, make sure that the name begins with ‘’(+)’’ as Encore will interpret this sequence as indicator for a button. The rest of the group name is not relevant.

In this layer group, create a new layer (or a shape layer), rename and begin with ‘’ (=1) ‘’. Again, whatever follows is up to you. This layer is the Button Highliht - equivalent to a ‘roll over’ commands used for designing interactive buttons for websites.

In order to make a default highlight area for a button, simply create a shape on low opacity and drag it on top of the lettering. So for example, create a 20%opacity rectangle over the PLAY VIDEO area.

Once this is done, hide the ‘’(=1)’’ layer and save.

Go back to Encore. In the Layers tab (default lower-right), the button information will appear. You will not be able to notice any change to your design thouh. To preview the button, go below the preview window, select the Show selected state. Click to see if the highlight is working well. If not, you can go back to Photoshop and tweak the opacity/add other effects.

To avoid having to design every button respectively in Photoshop, one can drag the button to the Library tab which will save the information and keep it for future use. Simply drag the button back on the preview to duplicate it.

Note: the buttons may not overlap as given menu area may only include one action.

   Creating main timeline

To build a movie sequence import and select the movie clip and its corresponding audio. Go to timeline - > new timeline. Rename accordingly.

    Basic structure

Now that the project has a menu with at least one button and a timeline user can link some structure in the DVD project.

Each DVD has to have a First play – this is a starting point telling the dvd player where to begin and what will happen next. Unless working on a specific project, most of the time the main menu (along with the intro) is the First play. To set it, simply right click on the menu and select ‘Set as First Play’ from the drop-box.

The next step is to address the buttons and establish End actions. To assign a command, select the button and once the button menu appears on the side, drag the string from ‘Link’ box to the corresponding item on the list.

For every film sequence (timeline) or Slideshow, one must also set an End action. By default this would be navigating to the main menu, however in some circumstances (e.g. ‘Extras’ especially when it features short clips like trailers or promos) it is a good alternative to link back to the menu which triggered the action (e.g. linking a trailer back to ‘Extras’ instead of main menu).

To set an End Action, select a timeline and on the right-hand side chose from the first drop box where the clip should take the user to when it ends.

Once everything is ‘structured’ in this method and you are happy with the outcome, double-check the project in File - > Check Project. This option will let you know whether there are elements which are inaccessible or lead to nowhere.

  Chapters (optional)

Chapters are useful for navigating longer features.

To add chapters to your timeline you can either:

a)      Mark the chapters back in Premiere Pro (or similar editing program)

b)      Manually place the chapter points in your timeline

NB: when stacking multiple clips in one timeline, Encore will automatically assign chapters to them.

As all chapters are marked, you will be able to assign the button actions to specific chapters rather than a timeline. For instance, if you have designed a chapter selection menu which has several buttons, just assign chapter 01 for button 01 etc.

A default End action for a Chapter is to play the next Chapter.

c)      Automated chapter list.

If using a feature with multiple chapters, the quickest way to design a menu is to use a template and customize it. To do so, select any SUBMENU from the menu library, customize in Photoshop (e.g. by replacing background). The submenus are designed for chapter selection and normally feature several buttons. In order to automate a chapter list, assign the first button to chapter 01, then go to menu -> create chapter index

Encore will automatically assign the buttons to menu chapters and create submenus to fit all chapters. For instance, you are using a timeline with 17 chapters and given chapter menu has 6 buttons, Encore will create 3 submenus to fit them all.

NB: Make sure to check if Encore has renamed the buttons accordingly. Depending on a menu, button names may remain unchanged resulting in Chapter 07 (The first of the second submenu) will remain as Chapter 01. Select the button, go to button menu and rename accordingly.