3 Replies Latest reply: Jul 14, 2009 10:55 PM by Jon Geddes RSS

    Menus and transitions with AE linked Comps

    DawnTreader777 Community Member

      I guess I should have posted this as a new question, so here it is.

       

      If I have a motion menu built from an AE comp, can I use another AE comp as the transition from the choice to the next menu or will that cause me a problem. I have just finished a test burn on a 8.5 gb DVD and I am getting a nice motion menu, but my transitions between menus are not working the way I had intended.

       

      I had made it so that on my main menu there would be a transition that fades the buttons so that on the next menu new buttons would appear, the transition was basically an AE comp that showed the main menu buttons fading and the second Chapter menu buttons fading in. I was intending that no gap would be noticeable. However, the main menu goes to the transition, then at the end of the transition it fades to black, then my chapter menu comes up. I am double checking my work, but I get the feeling that this is some kind of DVD limitation or that Encore isn't reading my AE comps file correctly.

       

      And this is another question relating to this problem, should i have one composition file per comp or can i bundle them all together?

       

      Any and all help appreciated.

        • 1. Re: Menus and transitions with AE linked Comps
          Bill Hunt CommunityMVP

          Sorry, I caught the tag-on post first and gave a comment there. Please let me know if those comments helped you.

           

          Good luck,

           

          Hunt

          • 2. Re: Menus and transitions with AE linked Comps
            DawnTreader777 Community Member

            "I would Export those Comps as DV-AVI (provided an SD Project and not BD), and as elemental streams. Import as Asset, not Timeline. Your Audio, should you use it, should be the same format as your Motion Menus' Audio. Obviously, these Assets will be Linked to the Button, as Button Transitions."

             

             

            What do you mean by elemental stream, just plain AVI?

             

             

            Can I put the audio into my comps and then export the video and audio together or will the transition thing ignore the audio portion when I choose it for the video?

             

             

            So the gist that I get from your answer is that Dynamic Linking with Encore is broken, doesn't work, makes life harder and generally screws up? cause that is about the way I feel about it right now, this is the second time I have made this project because the first blew up in a fit of Dynamic linking rage...

             

             

            I went through a lot of trouble to get the comps set up and then linked so that I can push one button and get a DVD made. I hate having to do one step here then another step there. plus it doesn't allow for a change to be made and updated in the end result immediately.

             

             

            Grrr.

            • 3. Re: Menus and transitions with AE linked Comps
              Jon Geddes Community Member

              Dynamic Linking with an After Effects composition is not broken. In fact, we always use it as part of our workflow to avoid a different bug with the software (motion menu rendering prematurely finishes without any error message).

               

              For more details on the bug, and how to avoid it, read our blog post here:

               

              http://www.precomposed.com/blog/2009/05/encore-tutorial/

               

              The blog post also directs you to our free video walkthrough of authoring a Blu-ray/dvd project in Encore using custom motion menus, menu transitions, the chapter index feature, blu-ray pop-up menu, and more, all with an efficient workflow that avoids many of the bugs with the program, allowing you to successfully build your project without any problems.