DVD authoring
At the most basic level, creating a DVD from a Pinnacle studio project is very easy. Just click the Make Movie tab at the top of the screen and choose DVD disk as your output format. Studio will do the rest. Once the disk pops out, you can put it into any DVD player and watch your production.
Simple.
However, there's a lot more to DVD authoring than that. If you want to give your disks that extra air of professionalism, you can add menus, and chapter points. You can design your own backgrounds and buttons and you can even put a choice of several movies on a single disk.
A simple menu
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DVD menus are always created after you've finished the final edit of your production. They're the last step in your filmmaking work.
To add a DVD menu, click the menu button (the sixth button down on the left hand side of the screen) and you'll be given a selection of preset DVD menus to choose from. You can customise any to your heart's content, so pick whichever is closest to the style you're looking for and drag it to the start of the timeline.
A box will appear allowing you to automatically create chapter points at the beginning of each clip in the timeline. However, it's usually best to select "manual chapter points" unless you want a new menu button for each shot.
When you drag a menu to the timeline, a toolbox appears (you can get the toolbox up at any time just by double clicking the menu on the timeline). This allows you to set the text for each button or title. Simply select a button and type in the box to the right of the preview.
Chapter points
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Chapter points are scenes within your edited production which the viewer can jump to instantly from the opening menu. Typically, a movie will have chapters set at important moments in the story, or the beginning of new topics in a factual film.
To create chapter points, just select a button, drag the playback head to the point in your production where you want the viewer to begin watching and click the set chapter button.
If you've got more chapters than there are spaces on your menu template, just click the "show next page" arrow button at the bottom of the tool box and you'll be given a new menu page. Next and Previous buttons will automatically be added to allow the viewer to flick through your menus.
To test your menu, click the DVD button at the bottom of the monitor window and you'll get a replica of your DVD remote control with which to check out how your menus work.
When you're happy, just go to the Make Movie tab and write your disk. It's as simple as that.
Note: if you want to have several films on one DVD, just drag them all to the timeline, and check the "return after every chapter" button so that the DVD returns to the menu to await the viewer's choice after each movie is played instead of running on into the next production.
Customising the menu
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But you can do a lot more than simply using the templates provided. Click the "edit menu" button and your menu will be opened in the title editor. The controls here are exactly the same as if you were creating a title screen (see our two previous tutorials for more information) and you can change the font, size and colour of any text item, add your own graphics, or change the background in just the same way as you would with a title screen.
In addition, you can change the look of any buttons. Just select a button, click the buttons icon at the top right of the screen, and select from the list of button graphics provided.
You can even change the highlight colour and style (how the button changes when you select or click it).
If you're feeling really ambitious, try creating a short looping movie and then loading it in as your DVD menu's background...
*Offer valid until 31th December 2008