Introduction
Peter Wells and Bob Crabtree show you how to create DVD motion-menus in Pinnacle's big-selling budget video-editing and DVD-authoring program Studio
Menus with moving footage set the tone for a DVD’s content. They make a positive first impression and create a more professional-looking DVD than using static graphics. They also provide a lot more information than menus with still images can possibly do.
But, not all DVD authoring programs can create animated menus. And, with those that can, the power on offer tends to increase with the price point – though the process itself tends to be more awkward and time consuming, too.
Pinnacle's big-selling Studio editing/authoring package, currently at version 9, is one of the programs that bucks this trend. It's affordable – sub-£60 - yet offers powerful animated menu options that are easy to understand and use.
Version 8 of Studio scored a major coup - as the first program that allowed users to author DVD titles while they edit the movie itself. This introduced a new approach to movie creation, encouraging editors to think of video in the context of a presentation rather than a self-contained movie.
Studio’s clip bin contains a good selection of ready-made menus and these are great for quick-and-dirty authoring to a deadline (in the same way that you’d use standard style templates in, say, PowerPoint), but the most creative and adventurous users will want to create menus from scratch
but rolling your own produces the best results
On the downside, Studio has a deserved reputation for instability, so we strongly recommend saving projects regularly as work progresses. Hopefully, though, the expected move in V10 to new code, based on Pinnacle's professional software Edition will mean that Studio finally overcomes a hurdle that has for too long undermined its power and convenience.