Archive for November, 2006
Play All with Stories
If you are not so interested in using scripts, or if you have already got your clips aligned in a single track then perhaps this tutorial is right for you - setting up the play all situation wtih stories is very simple indeed, but there are two ways to go about it, and a couple of decisions you’ll need to think through before proceeding with your work.
There are no files to download for this tutorial - it is a simple concept, generally, but if demand is there then I will create a sample project which uses the technique and add it as a downloadable resource.
The tutorial is listed on the tutorial page, or you can click here to access it directly.
GPRM Based Button Jumps
This tutorial has now been added to the site, and is available by clicking on the ‘Tutorials’ link in the navigation bar. There are files to download as well, and these should get you started with creating your own versions of this scripting solution.
GPRM based button jumps are an important thing to be able to do, but they can fail to work if the menu that you are jumping to has got a pre-script attached. If that is the case you either need to remove the pre-script or write out all of the possible button jumps instead of using this rather handy short way of doing things!
New Tutorials, DVD Consultancy, DVD Freelancers
New tutorials are being added to the site as fast as possible, but sometimes it isn’t fast enough! Just this week there was a challenge about creating subtitles - we think we found a way to solve the problem, and we would like to add a tutorial about how to set up a text based subtitle file so that it just works.
If you would like to request a tutorial, or if you would like to engage our services to work on your project, please just leave a message for us!
Tutorials are free, of course, but they may not get to exactly the problem that you have got. Using our consultancy and freelance services we will build custom solutions that we won’t then give away to anyone else.
Scripting the Play All situation
There are two ways to think about setting up a ‘play all’ situation. The first is to simply use a single track and place markers at the boundary of each clip, then use stories to hold one marker each. The play all button can then simply point to the track itself and all of the markers will play through (individual clips can be played by pointing the buttons at the [story] containers and setting the end jump of those to go back to a menu).
However, an alternative solution - especially if you already have your disc set up with clips in different tracks - is to use scripts.
If you do decide to script this there are lots of ways to do it. The first tutorial on the play all scripting takes a simple approach and uses a lot of very short scripts. You can see the logic behind the navigation far more easily this way, but it is not as elegant as it could be. If you are new to this, then I definitely recommend having a look at that article.
If you are somewhat more advanced, perhaps you’d like to try the scripted solution that uses only three scripts - one for the button targets, one for the end jumps and a final one for the menu calls. This solution makes use of SPRM8 to remember the button that you came from and attempts to intelligently use a GPRM to direct playback if you are in a play all situation. Returning to the menu makes use of a GPRM based button jump so that you land back on the button you left the menu from.
Sound complicated? It really isn’t too bad! You can download the files from here and read the tutorial that goes with them here.
DVD@ccess
How often have you wanted to add enhanced content to your DVDs? I tend to do this quite a lot for discs I create for myself as well as for clients. The supplied software for DVD Studio pro is called DVD@ccess and it is very satisfying to see it all work as you want.
Getting it to work is not a straightforward thing to do, and there are several pitfalls to consider.
Find out more by reading the article about DVD@ccess
