AD30400 Video Art Prof. Fabian Winkler Spring 2014 Creating a Portfolio DVD in Adobe Encore Open Adobe Encore and start a new project, make sure the authoring mode is set to DVD (not BluRay). Give the project a name (filename) and set the save to location to a new and empty folder. Create a new menu (bottom of Project window).

Set the menu to 4:3 or 16:9, depending on what the format of the majority of your footage is (after selecting menu in the project window check the properties window).

Create 4 text objects that we can later turn into buttons for your main menu, use the tools palette in the top left corner:

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Your menu now looks something like this (you can turn on the title/action safe guides to make sure your buttons are all within display safe limits):

Turn the text objects into buttons by selecting each one of them and then going to Object > Convert to Button.

The selection around the text objects will turn green once you converted them into buttons. If you would like to further design your menu and work with background pictures, subpicture highlights, etc. you can do so in Photoshop. Select the menu in the project window and then click the “Edit in Photoshop” button.

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In Photoshop you can move your text layers around, add another background image (don’t forget to merge it with the current “background” layer and you can correct any typos in your text (with the Photoshop text tool). I moved the layers around a bit to align them better with my next background image, which I pasted into the Photoshop document and moved in the layers palette right on top of the “background” layer. I can then use the layers palette command “Merge down” to merge it with the background layer.

Like this:

Now we can create the subpicture highlights. This document has more information on how to work with subpicture highlights: http://helpx.adobe.com/encore/using/button-subpictures-highlighting.html We need to remember that the subpicture highlights need to be on their own layers in Photoshop and they need to have a special prefix (=1) in our case since we’ll only work with one color. Also make sure that the subpicture layer goes in the same layer group as the button that it is related to. So your Photoshop file could look something like this:

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Save the Photoshop file and go back to Encore, you will see an updated version of your menu, something like this:

The red boxes show you a problem with overlapping “trigger” areas for the individual buttons – in this case the areas for assignment 02 and 04 overlap. This is not so nice, but since I don’t even want the text to be included in the highlight I can go back into Photoshop, merge all the text layers with the background which will turn the little dots on the video waveform graph into the trigger zones for individual projects.

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In Photoshop:

This results in the following screen in Encore:

You can click the Preview button in Encore and test out the triggering of the subpictures interactively:

Finally, you can go into the Menu color properties and change the colors of the buttons’ selected and activated states (Menu > Edit Menu color Set…):

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This will result in more color coordinated subpicture highlights:

Creating Submenus For each of your projects you might want to create a submenu. This would give you access to the video itself, possibly a slideshow of production stills and/or also alternative versions of your video (maybe one with a voice over, or as “director’s cut” version, etc.). Here is just a skeleton of what such a submenu can look like. Don’t forget the “back” button that allows you go back to the main menu. You can use the background of this menu slide to include your project description:

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I have made this menu 4:3, just to demonstrate that you can mix menus with different aspect ratios. Now you can link some content to this menu, please refer to the Encore Introductory workshop earlier in the semester (http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fwinkler/AD30400_S14/AD30400_Encore_workshop_01.pdf) for information on how to do that. At this point you should have the Play video link connected to a timeline with the proper video and the “Back to Main Menu” link connected back to the main menu. Creating Slideshows The last link that still needs to be connected is the “See Production Stills” link. This button should be connected to a slideshow. So let’s create one. At the bottom of the project window select “New slideshow”

Now import your still image slides (Photoshop, PNG or JPEG file format): File > Import As… > Asset. Double click the slideshow in the project window and then drag and drop the slides into the slideshow window:

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Depending on what the content of the slides is (texts diagrams, drawing, photos) you may or may not want the user to forward the slides manually. If you do want manual control over the advancing of the slides, select the slideshow and check “manual advance” in the slideshow’s property window:

Set the “End Action” property of the slideshow back to the submenu that called it initially and then advancing the last slide in the slideshow will jump back to the menu. If you would like to create a slideshow with automatic (i.e. timed) slide navigation, then make sure “manual advance” is deselected for the slideshow, click on a slide in the slideshow window and set its duration in the slide’s property window:

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Finishing Up & DVD-ROM Folder There are just a few things left to do in this workshop. First make sure the slideshow we just created is linked to from the submenu. Then, make sure that your “First Play” action is set correctly (probably needs to link to your main menu) and that the remote control “Title” button is set to the main menu as well (as a “panic” button that gets the user out of possible dead-ends on the DVD or infinite loops. Click anywhere in the gray area of the project window and check the property window for these settings:

Finally, in the last step before burning your project onto a DVD (make sure to have submenus for projects 2-4 as well!) you can specify some files that can be burned on the DVD medium that cannot be presented in form of a slideshow, timeline or menu (such as source code for Processing sketches or Powerpoint artist presentations). These can still be accessible in their source format if they are linked to the DVD in a “DVD-ROM” folder. Go to the “Build” tab in the project window and make sure you have “Format: DVD” and “Output: DVD Disc” selected. Then scroll down to the line “DVD-ROM Content” and specify the folder that contains all the files you would like to include in the DVD. These will later be accessible through the DVD icon on your computer’s desktop.

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That’s it – you should now have all the necessary tools to make your portfolio DVD for the end of the AD30400 course this year! Further Resources Lynda.com has an extensive collection of online video tutorials on more advanced techniques and strategies in Encore, try accessing it through the website below - but it might be restricted for faculty and staff use only… Even though you might not have access to Lynda, you can use these section topics as starting points for internet searches on free Encore tutorials on similar topics: http://www.purdue.edu/hr/lod/lyndaTraining/dist/index.html Here is an overview of some further workshops in Encore that could be interesting for what you might want to do with your final portfolio DVD: How to create menus from scratch in Photoshop http://www.lynda.com/Encore-tutorials/Making-menus-Photoshop/59960/65341-4.html Using photos as subpictures: http://www.lynda.com/Encore-tutorials/Using-photos-subpictures/59960/65328-4.html Using menu transitions: http://www.lynda.com/Encore-tutorials/Using-menu-transitions/59960/65332-4.html More about creating slideshows: http://www.lynda.com/Encore-tutorials/Introducing-slideshows/59960/65307-4.html Creating slideshows with manual advance: http://www.lynda.com/Encore-tutorials/Creating-slideshows-manual-advance/59960/65337-4.html

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Adding data to DVDs: http://www.lynda.com/Encore-tutorials/Adding-data-content-discs/59960/65339-4.html