Subscribe Feed (RSS)Custom Highlight Masks
September 24th, 2008 by Rob Strobbe | Filed under Tutorials.Setting up the Menu
When you load DVD Architect, by default it creates a new menu-based project (as opposed to a compilation based project or a single-movie project (which doesn’t contain any menus). But if you want to be sure you’re starting with a clean slate, go to File > New — or hit CTRL+N. The New Project dialog will open, and you can select Menu based project and click OK.
Figure 5: New DVD Architect project
First thing to do then is to apply your newly created background image to this menu. You can do this by right-clicking the menu workspace and choosing Set Background Media, or by changing this setting in the Menu Properties window. There, click the Background Media tab and select Video. Once Video is selected, this setting will become a dropdown box. Click the arrow on the right and choose Replace from the list. DVD Architect will present you with a dialog for choosing the file you want to use as the menu background. Find and select the background image you created.
Figure 6: Menu background
Before leaving the Menu Page Properties window, let’s also tell DVD Architect what we’ll be using for a highlight mask. A couple lines down is the Highlight Mask setting. Select that, and follow the same steps as above, but locate and choose your highlight mask image.
(If you don’t see the Menu Page Properties window, try toggling it by going to View > Properties or hitting Alt+8. This particular window changes content (and title) depending on what you have selected in the workspace. If you have selected one or more buttons on a menu, it is the Button Properties window. If you are viewing a DVD menu but do not have any buttons selected, it is the Menu Page Properties window.)
Tags: DVD Architect, highlight, mask, menu
hey nice tutorial!
I used some fingerprint brushes from deviantart as a highlight mask and it is awesome!
So few good architect tutorials around don’t know why..
keep up the good work
greetings from germany
Thanks, Matt! That’s a great idea to use brushes for creating highlight masks, especially something as unique as fingerprints.
Good question regarding DVD Architect tutorials. There aren’t many around, and most of the ones that I’ve found are pretty basic — “how to use DVD Architect” … period. I know of people who’ve done some pretty special things with it — I guess they just don’t write tutorials.
This blog is a great find! To echo Matt, DVDA tutorials are hard to find.
Your tutorial is good teaching: coherent and easy to follow. The screenshots also really help.
One forum that I visited had so many flashing advertisements that it was hard to focus. I’m not going back there! This is a nice, clean page with pleasant colors. The advertising that does exist is “quiet”. Great job!!
Thanks, Jon — your comments are much appreciated!
I will be changing the design (and organization) of the site soon as well as — fingers crossed — adding some new tutorials finally. But I promise it will still have a clean look and the advertising will be unobtrusive.
Thanks for visiting. I’m glad you find the site useful.
This tutorial made my day! I’m new to Architect, and this was very helpful, thanks!
And thanks for the note, Ely! This is definitely my favorite way to build menus, so I’m happy to help others learn it.
Thanks Rob, that was just what I was looking for! Cool things can be done like that. I only have one question, how do you calculate the frame size for the image?