Quote: I would like to sometimes have menus that have still pictures for the chapter thumbnails instead of animations/portions of the video. We choose a frame we want to have displayed while making chapters, but that's actually only the first frame that will be displayed. In the final menu, a loop of video will play, maybe going into another scene unrelated to the picture we chose. It would be very nice to have that chosen frame just be a normal still thumbnail that stays put.

But I don't see templates with a still picture option, and I don't see how to turn animation off.

Is it possible?

Randy B.

Not possible in Powerdirector Menu System.

For years Cyberlink Powerdirector has only motion thumbnails in the main and scenes/chapter menus.

This is as close as you can come to not having motion Thumbnails. it still has them, they are just hidden.

http://directorzone.cyberlink.com/detail/5485

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Hello, Carl - It's great to see you're still here, helping people out at the Forum.

Thanks for that Director Zone menu. I'll probably use that sometime. I'd rather have snapshot thumbnail displays for each chapter, but this simplified menu will still probably come in handy.

I know the the primary concept of PowerDirector is to make things as simple as possible for the user. That's why it's consistently rated at the top of the video software heap year after year. But when a user wants more flexibility, that desire can be thwarted -as in the case of menu thumbnails. Animated ones can be cool, but the effect just isn't appropriate for some projects. Think of the professional discs for serious films or dramatic TV shows. They'll usually have one image, then simply some text for linking to chapters. Dancing, animated thumbnails would look silly on discs like that.

It would be so appreciated if the user could simply click an "animated" or "still" option when putting menus together. There IS a "motion" check box in the menu dialogue, but I haven't been able to tell what it's controlling, if anything.

Thanks again, Carl. Much appreciated.

Randy B.

Quote:
Not possible in Powerdirector Menu System.

For years Cyberlink Powerdirector has only motion thumbnails in the main and scenes/chapter menus.

This is as close as you can come to not having motion Thumbnails. it still has them, they are just hidden.

http://directorzone.cyberlink.com/detail/5485

I am new to PowerDirector9 and pulling my hair out over DVD menues.
Have just download the above menu and still have moving pics.
But my greater concern is that I seem to have no control over anything, even though using the modify option.
Eg the root page is entitled MY VIDEOS, easy to change the format of this text but cannot edit the actual text, I must be missing something.
In my very old Ulead program (it will not run on anything above Win XP) I could create a simple root menu with all the chapters listed as active text buttons, as many as you wanted. The DVD I am trying to create, will have many chapters so I do not want to page thro loads of pages, would like to list about 10 on the root menu.
Either I am missing something or this program is incredibly limited when it comes to DVD menus. If this is the case is there any freeware I could use for menus that would work with PD.

Quote: I am new to PowerDirector9 and pulling my hair out over DVD menues.

Believe me, you'll never stop pulling your hair out over them. Even the biggest PD fans are critical of the DVD menus, and some will even suggest you just forget them and get yet Another program to build them in--. Well - I can help you pull a few less hairs out at least, but I'm with everyone else in saying that it's a mystery why Cyberlink programmed their DVD making tools so clumsily.

Quote:
Have just download the above menu and still have moving pics.

Yes, whoever made that menu at least did something different with it, and it can look nice, but to have some animation in the menu is impossible to avoid - that's all there is to it.

Quote:
...the root page is entitled MY VIDEOS, easy to change the format of this text but cannot edit the actual text, I must be missing something.

You are missing something, but don't feel bad - I missed it at first too, everyone does. Asking how in the heck to do a menu was my first question here.

Making a menu in PD is a two part process. First you click the Menu Preferences tab and select a template to start with. As you know, you can change everything, images, layout, and text formatting. BUT - you can't change the text because this is just a template, theoretically meant to be flexible enough to use in multiple projects. That's silly though, because usually a menu is very tailor made for a specific project. So what you end up doing is having as many templates in that folder as you do projects. I open one up, swap images for appropriate ones, select appropriate font - AND you have to make special care that you give the buttons a highlighting style, otherwise you could end up with buttons that don't change when they're clicked on the final DVD menu.

I've skimmed over that - you have to explore the possibilities in that maddening pop-up window where you can change a template to your needs. Save it under the name of the project. Click OK, and now it's at the bottom of the list.

Part Two - select that menu template you just altered. Once you've done that, you click Menu Structure - and you're off and running. The text is all editable now - You have to name each page, you need to add music if you want, don't leave the dreadful default.

And - you may find yourself making several versions of the template before you're actually happy. Take note that if you try to save a newly edited template under the same name, it Won't over write the previous version - it forces you to save yet another version with a new name, like adding a number to the newly edited template.

There's a lot more I could say -But wanted to at least explain the main thing you've missed so far - the two part process.

I've managed to come to a peaceful agreement with this badly made menu programming in PD - I can live with the results. There are many more things you can try - those are the basics.

Randy B.

Quote: Yes, whoever made that menu at least did something different with it, and it can look nice, but to have some animation in the menu is impossible to avoid - that's all there is to it.

Randy B.

http://directorzone.cyberlink.com/detail/153239

Try this KISSII instead, it uses a different approach and I think you should not have any animation. If this does not work you can yell at me, at least you didn't pay for it!

Jeff

Quote:
http://directorzone.cyberlink.com/detail/153239

Try this KISSII instead, it uses a different approach and I think you should not have any animation. If this does not work you can yell at me, at least you didn't pay for it!

Jeff

Jeff! Good find! I just tried out KISSII, and you're right, there are no animations involved. It looks like the first KISS, except that one also had some large, tilted animation frames. That effect is actually pretty cool, but if you want absolutely no animated thumbnails, this fills the bill.

The user could import photos and park them next to each live link to chapters, if images are wanted.

Thanks much - and, PaulJoanss, you need to try this out. Open up PD, and use the navigation button there that takes you to the DirectorZone site to avoid needing to log on. Took me moments to test this, and it does what you want. Drag elements around, re-design as wanted, but the basics are there.

One slight flaw - the designer of that template dragged the unavoidable elements as far off screen as possible, but slivers of those otherwise hidden buttons can be seen on the right. There's probably a way around that, choosing different buttons, different colors.

Randy B.

Quote: One slight flaw - the designer of that template dragged the unavoidable elements as far off screen as possible, but slivers of those otherwise hidden buttons can be seen on the right. There's probably a way around that, choosing different buttons, different colors.

Randy B.

Please post me a picture of these slivers of hidden buttons, I don't see anything on my setup. Your are talking something other than the navigation buttons that are supposed to be there, correct?

Jeff

Quote: Please post me a picture of these slivers of hidden buttons, I don't see anything on my setup. Your are talking something other than the navigation buttons that are supposed to be there, correct?

Jeff

Hello again, Jeff - I was rushing to the kitchen, in the middle of dinner when I posted earlier - moving too fast! I see now, those slivers I saw Are the navigation buttons. They're just, for some reason, mostly off the screen in their default. You have to move them on to the screen to build your menu, but you'd need to be doing that anyway.

Here's a picture of the way the template first comes up in the Menu Designer, before being chosen for a project - but the buttons remain mostly off screen even once the template is chosen for a project, at least that's the way it behaves here for me. No big deal though - you're correct, those are the navigation buttons, just mostly hidden - simply move them on screen, and re-save.

EDIT--back with a smaller version of the screen shot - hopefully it won't be cropped once I post.



Randy B.

Just curious, are you sure you have a 16:9 project for which the menu was designed, looks like you are 4:3 for which it was not designed. It is posted as a 16:9 menu.


Jeff

Quote: Just curious, are you sure you have a 16:9 project for which the menu was designed, looks like you are 4:3 for which it was not designed. It is posted as a 16:9 menu.
Jeff

Hello again, Jeff - You're right, I had that test project set at 4:3 because that's the format I still mostly work in. The templates are virtually all 16:9 and I make adjustments when needed. BUT - I just now went back to PD, changed the project to 16:9, and the same thing happened with the buttons being mostly off screen.

I tried setting things up again, having the project set at 16:9 from the start, but when I chose this template again - same thing --buttons almost completely off the screen on the right. But it doesn't matter, you just drag them on to the screen to where you want.

It's too late to do another screen shot, set it up at Tripod, link to it etc - but it looks exactly the same for me whether a project is 4:3 or 16:19. Small matter. This template looks like it'll be great for those times when I want a simpler, more dignified menu. Thanks again for finding it!

Randy B.

Thanks for such a quick response, I wil explore all your tips over the next few days and report back.
just a couple of questions, what are those "item1. Item2 etc" shown on the pages, I just cannot understand how they work.
Also will it be possible for me to have all links to all chapters on the first root page, instead of the Play or Scenes options.
Thanks again.
PS I have just seen some notes under the original Kiss menus saying turn Thumbnails off and have black board at start of each chapter, assume this would fix animation problem but do not understand how to do these things but will investigate.

Quote: ...what are those "item1. Item2 etc" shown on the pages, I just cannot understand how they work.

Those are the navigation buttons. Once you've chosen a template and inserted it into the project, you'll see that the number of buttons per screen will appear in accordance with how many chapters you have, and that they're no longer called "Item 1" etc.

I honestly don't know why the templates show 3 items on the front splash page of the menus, because only two buttons are used. Item 1 becomes "Play" and Item 2 becomes "Scenes," or "Chapters"--however you decide to label it, but "Scenes" is the default.

On the subsequent Chapters screens, the first screen will have a Home button and a Forward button. On your next Chapters screen, if you have multiple chapter screens, there will be more buttons, for going back, forward or to home. And, to be clear, all of these buttons will initially just be labeled "Item 1 - 2, etc" when you're looking at the templates.

Quote: ...will it be possible for me to have all links to all chapters on the first root page, instead of the Play or Scenes options.

I'm sure Jeff, or someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that we're stuck with having to have that first page with just Play and Scenes. Chapters can't be listed on that front splash screen. I asked specifically about that a long time ago, and was told there was no way to have a one screen menu.

Quote: ...I have just seen some notes under the original Kiss menus saying turn Thumbnails off and have black board at start of each chapter, assume this would fix animation problem but do not understand how to do these things but will investigate.

The original KISS menu has large, tilted animated images to one side of the screen. That effect can be rather nice. But if you want absolutely no animation, just use KISSII, because no extra editing will be needed to get rid of animations. I have it open right now again for testing. There are no images, no animations. The only issue I'm having, as the last few posts talk about, is that the navigation buttons are almost completely off screen. But that's easily fixed, you just drag them on and put them wherever you want.

KISSII is a very stark, Spartan looking menu. Remember that when you're still choosing a template, when you click to Modify it, you can spruce things up to your liking. Bring in an image, at least a background color, as long as you have image files parked on your drive somewhere that you'd like to use. You could go through your video and use the Snapshot function to generate screen shots, then import them in the Menu Designer, to have still pictures next to each chapter link. But once you've selected KISSII, or any template, you can no longer add images to the menu - all of that has to be done by Modifying a template.

With other video editing programs, you choose a menu template and can immediately start customizing it, and that includes replacing the text. The edited menu instantly becomes the one your project will have, and the original template remains the same as it was. But with PD, the process is different, as I explained earlier. You have to choose a template, bring in your custom images, change the layout, then save it under the name of your current project - It's really no longer a generic template, it's a specific template for a specific project. Next you choose that edited template you've created, and finish the editing inside the project - changing the text and whatever else you want to do, adding custom music for instance.

I'm in the habit of opening up old menu templates set up for previous projects, then modifying them for the new project, starting with deleting the old pictures and importing new ones.

Randy

OK, thanks to your help and some Menu Tutorials on the Director Zone, I know think I understand the system, mad as it is. Finding out how to edit text in the "Menu Structure" layout was a real breakthro. Also finding Director Zone is going to be useful.
KISSII is great for getting rid of animation, but note the original KISS also does the job well if you follow the instruction to have black board as he selected frame for each chapter.
Its all very illogical but I know understand the logic, if that makes sense.

Thanks again.

Quote: ...
KISSII is great for getting rid of animation, but note the original KISS also does the job well if you follow the instruction to have black board as he selected frame for each chapter...

Very glad to help, Paul. It looks like KISSII was designed so that users wouldn't have to do the extra editing on the first KISS if they didn't want thumbnails, so it's easier just to use that newer version.-- I actually never saw the instructions you're talking about, they must be at the DirectorZone site. I just downloaded and added the plug-in.

Note that with a bit of work, you could add still images to a menu if you want. All the templates are wide open to customization.

And also note that you really need to use the Preview function after you've set up your menu - It's the only way you'll see if you're really getting what you want. Early on I wasn't previewing often enough, and wasted some discs since the menus ended up not having any Highlighting, making it impossible to select chapters when playing the discs on a DVD player. Don't neglect choosing a Highlighting option for both the first page, and subsequent Chapter pages.

Randy