Designing DVD Menus 1
The process of creating static DVD menus is fairly simple and uncomplicated if you stick within a few design limitations. A menu designer will usually work in Photoshop on a 72dpi canvas, and will design within NTSC safe areas, even when designing for PAL.
Once navigation elements such as buttons are in place, a subpicture layer of simple bitmapped elements is added on top to provide the highlights on the final menu. All in all, a layered Photoshop TIFF file for a still menu will come to about 1MB.
But if you introduce motion, you take on a whole pile of extra design challenges and restrictions. First, consider the workload and rendering times – this is especially relevant if the whole disc is to contain motion menus. It is far more time consuming and difficult to correct a mistake with such menus than it is with menus that use a single, still image, because you have to re-render an entire animation.
The type of material is also a factor – the DVD specification doesn’t support small vector-based animations like Flash, so you have to use high-quality, full-motion video, often composited in applications like After Effects or Discreet Combustion.
Another factor is size – just one simple menu page with five or six video buttons and audio can take up around 100MB. Multiply this for your submenus and extra feature screens and you will really begin to cut into the 4.37GB (realistic) capacity of the general DVD-R disc.
Design decisions
A key consideration in your design is whether you can use footage from the content of the disc or whether you have to create original material. You can, of course, use a mixture of the two. If you are using content from the programme, select a clip, or edit together a new sequence from a series of clips, that best highlight or capture the theme of the content.
The designer of Morissey’s collection of eight promotional music videos, The Malady Lingers On, began by taking a suitable grab from each of the tracks. A 30-second sequence was edited together from these clips, with the options laid out on top of the video.
When laying options over video in this way, a key factor to consider is legibility. Just as subtitles can be obscured by the background image (for example, white text on white), the same can happen on a DVD menu.
To combat this on the Morrissey project, the background video was darkened, then the designer added a subtle Halftone filter effect in After Effects to create the look of footage as though filmed from a TV screen. The white text, with a drop shadow added, stands out because there is no equivalent white in the background image to obscure it.
Complex animation and motion
How the menu will loop, what animated elements you add, and whether or not you add audio, are all the factors that determine the length and complexity of the menu, as well as how much of the DVD’s capacity it eats up. Make sure that the moving elements don’t overwhelm the functionality or usability of the disc.
U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle.
This project had relatively little bonus content – just a documentary and some DVD-ROM material – but it required elaborate animated menus to engage the viewer and make the content attractive, while remaining easily accessible. The design team at Abbey Road Interactive (ARI) used fully animated looping menus with audio throughout.
Main menu: The concert had a specially developed stage in the shape of a heart, which was the emblem for the tour. Grabs were taken from the footage to form a basis for a main menu design. Infini-D was used to construct a 3D stage roof and a heart-shaped stage for the foreground. These were rendered in B&W and then colour was applied in After Effects.
The menu options were laid out across the top of the stage and a video clip was positioned in the centre of the heart. Having a video of the concert playing in the main menu gives the viewer an idea of what to expect from the DVD.
The footage had an orange hue applied to blend in with the colour scheme in a subtle way. Circular shapes emitting from either side of the stage were created to suggest sound waves in a graphic sense. These were turned into a looping animation, showing them growing in size then fading out. The 2D loop was tilted at an angle using the 3D space in After Effects to give the menu more depth.
Everything was designed to fit within the NTSC title safe area, although the DVD was intended
for PAL viewing. It is better to design for the smaller of the two formats (NTSC) than create two versions, which can be very time consuming. The 16:9 aspect ratio allows much more information to fit onto a screen and, in this case, as much space as possible was used for a mere five options, which is an unusual luxury.
A stage plan blueprint was supplied and this was turned into a rotating animation. The level of detail in the plan gave added texture to the menu without becoming too intricate. The 2D plan was duplicated and two planes were crossed in 3D to create a symbol rotating in the background.
Following a decision to use the actual stage plan and ditch the 3D heart shape, the video space was replaced by four video projection screens at the top of the stage. Four video grabs of the band members were placed in the screens, so the options became four green text boxes and were moved under the four screens to give balance to the design and make them more visible.
The fifth option was repositioned to the top-left of the stage roof. To make the options stand out even more, moving diagonal strips were added to the boxes to attract the eye during the menu loop. The subpicture was then set as a flat colour sitting on top of the diagonal lines of the selected option.
It’s a good idea to design for any eventuality, leaving space that could accommodate further options, but would not look suspiciously empty if none are added. In this case, the title of the disc was lengthened and another two options were added at a late stage.
The final menu consists of multiple looped elements that can continue for as long as necessary. The perspective of the stage and the 3D animations originating from the options mean the eye is always led into the centre, where the important information is placed.
Even though the menu looks complex and contains many moving elements, it is quite clear where the options are. Ultimately, it’s a dynamic, visually interesting, yet relevant menu.
Tutorial by George Cairns and Michael Burns, DIGIT magazine © IDG 2006
- star1
- Please log in to rate
This article was extracted from Designing DVD Menus by George Cairns and Michael Burns – a Digit highly recommended read – available now at a retail price of £24.95 from ILEX, the digital creative’s publisher of choice.
DVD has become the format of choice for professional and amateur video. But while DVD authoring is easy, burning is only half the battle. For a disc to stand out, it needs a menu that does the content justice. Designing DVD Menus is the complete guide to designing menus that do just that.
Filled with useful advice, creative tips, and clear instructions. It gives amateur and professional video-makers alike the power to burn brilliant DVDs that showcase their work at its best.
To order your copy of Designing DVD Menus at a special price of just £19.95 plus FREE postage and packing, visit www.ilex-press.com/digit