[highlight]Note:[/highlight] I have posted a creative commons licensed PDF of the tutorial that you can download from:
this link. As an added bonus, I have included additional information in the linked file on how to use the dvd-author buttons script-fu plugin.
:h:
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GNU/Linux does not have a lot in the way of applications for making DVD menu's, especially one's with animated buttons. I have outlined a method here for doing just that.
This tutorial will place moving images on a static background to produce a layered image file that can ultimately be used for a dvd menu. (Although there is no reason this must only be an animated dvd menu project)
I have provided links in the tutorial to allow you to follow along with the same graphics and video file I used in creating this. This tutorial is long, but it primarily involves repeating some basic steps over and over to get your final product. I hope that once you understand the basic steps you will find it rather easy and fun to create your own homemade setups for your dvd menus.
Most of this tutorial can be followed by both GNU/Linux and users of other operating systems except for the sections for encoding to video. Those will only be applicable for GNU/Linux users.
GNU/Linux users will need mjpegtools, ffmpeg, and transcode installed for the MPEG-2 video encoding portion.
Parts of this tutorial are based on information from:
http://www.transcoding.org/cgi-bin/transcode?Tutorials/Authoring_PC_Media_To_DVD
Note the original tutorial is from http://mightylegends.zapto.org/dvd/dvdauthor_howto.php
The site seems to be currently down
[highlight]
Begin by creating a background.[/highlight]
According to the tutorial linked above the required dimensions for the background are:
For NTSC 720x480 using 81 dpi in the x-direction and 72 dpi in the y-direction.
For PAL 720x576 using 75 dpi in the x-direction and 80 dpi in the y-direction.
(This tutorial uses NTSC, please adjust accordingly for PAL video)
You can download the image below if you want to follow the tutorial directly.
I have created a directory named dvdmenu_tut which will serve as my work folder.
It is best to create a working folder for yourself to keep all your work in one place. The background I have created is not artistically aesthetic, but I'm more concerned with showing you the method at this point, I leave it up to you to the creative part. Once created,
save the background as a file as background_000001.xcf in your work folder.
Grab this video if you want to follow the tutorial directly. This clip is an mpeg created by
gvidcap capturing
asciiquarium running in a console window. Yeah, I know, lame video, but it's just for the tutorial. :w: )
[highlight]
EXTRACTING VIDEO TO FRAMES[/highlight]
Next in the main gimp window select:
Xtns | Split Video into Frames | Extract Video Range
This will open a window:
Note: For the purposes of the tutorial, the following paragraph can be ignored, it is added information for those interested
Here I am going to select a video that I wish to play on my static background. I recommend only having about 10 or 15 seconds of the video to extract. The more you wish to use, the larger in size your project will be, the more space you will need for your project files. It is optimal to start out with video that will be the same framerate as your final DVD ( (29.97 fps for NTSC or 25 fps for PAL and if you downloaded video above you will be set). Therefore, it is best to already have the video you will be using in your DVD setup as such. (If you are using this for a project other than creating an animated dvd menu you can use a freeware editor as
avidemux to adjust your video framerate. I'll not get into the details of how to do that.) I will be working with a 10 second clip.
In the open window first click the button to the right of the Videofilename text box (labeled "A" in the figure shown). Select the video file you wish to use. (If you are using a large video file, it may be better to extract a smaller video from it using avidemux or your favorite video editor)
Adjust From Frame and To Frame (Label B) to include the number of frames you wish to have included. I am using NTSC, which is 29.97 fps or approximately 30 fps so a 10 sec video will need 300 frames. (250 frames for PAL) In this window
change the Audiotrack number from 1 to 0. (Labeled "C") This lets us create a silent video to work with. You can add audio to your final menu at a later time. Also in the section labeled "D" click that button to
select the Basename and path for saving your extracted video files. Make sure the basename file ends with an underscore(see image above). Gimp-gap will fill in the remaining part of the name as a sequential filename list. Once you have done this, then
click OK. The frames will be extracted into the work folder you designated in Basename and
you will now get a new window showing the final frame of the video that you extracted.
On that window, click Video | Go To/First Frame.
Now switch back to your background image window (the one containing the blue bordered image shown above in this tutorial) and select:
Video | Duplicate Frames
Another window pops up:
Change the N times to 299 (you already have 1 frame saved, the background, so you need 299 more to make a total of 300 frames) (N times would be 249 for PAL) Then click OK.
From the background picture window select:
Video | Move Path
In the window that pops up there are a number of sections to notice:
At the bottom make sure
Instant Apply (Labeled A) is checked. Back to the top make sure
Source/Image Layer (Labeled B) is your video which we extracted earlier.
Stepmode (Labeled C) choose Frame Once. This will make all the frames of the video run once.
Change Width and Height (Labeled D) according to your preferences. Then
move the X and Y sliders (labeled E) or click/drag the layer in the Move Path window to position your video onto the background.
Once you are satisfied, you may select Anim Preview (Labeled F) and then select "Exact Object on Frames" from the window that pops up. Then click OK. This will create a little "preview" of how your menu will look with just one video added to it. After playing it, you can close it and the small window created and select "Don't save" Now, back to the Move Path window, click OK. This will now add the video as a separate layer to the background. We now have added our first video to the background.
Let's add a second video to the background.
You can use the steps outlined above using Xtns/Split Video into Frames/Extract Videorange for preparing another video. In this case, I will just use the same video for example sake.
From the static background window select:
Video | Move Path
Again, the Move Path window will pop up. Make sure your Source Image/Layer is selecting your chosen video. Again, just follow along as above for the first Move Path portion , but this time you can place the video somewhere else on the background. Make sure all of your parameters are set correctly (Step Mode set to Frame Once, Instant Apply Checked). Do the Anim Preview again if you like. This time you will see the second video has been added. You could go and add additional videos, just repeating the steps outlined previously.
[highlight]
ADDING TEXT[/highlight]
Now let's add chapter names.
Open a new transparent window 360x240. Then click on the Text tool.
I have selected the
URW Bookman L font at size 70 px. Keeping consistent with using NTSC safe colors,
select your foreground color as ebebeb (looks very light grey on a computer monitor). Then click inside the 360x240 transparent window and type:
Chapter 1
Then do:
Layer | Duplicate Layer
Then with the Text Tool still selected double-click the new layer inside the image window(not in the Layers tab) and change the 1 to a 2 in the text box that opens. Close the text box. You will end up with two text layers, one will have Chapter 1 on it and the other will have Chapter 2 on it.
Select the Chapter 2 layer. Now create two new layers above the Chapter 2 layer. You can do this in the Layers tab or by doing:
Layer | New Layer from the image window twice
Now,
click Chapter 1 layer and do
Edit | Cut, then
select the first New Layer and then do:
Edit | Paste
Layer | Anchor Layer (or anchor the layer in the Layers tab)
Then name that layer Chapter 1 by double clicking on the layer name in the Layers tab and entering Chapter 1.
Select the Chapter 2 layer and again do:
Edit | Cut
Then
select the remaining New Layer and do
Edit | Paste
Layer | Anchor Layer
Then
name that layer Chapter 2 again by double clicking on the layer name in the Layers tab and entering Chapter 2.
What this does is center each layer against the background layer. Makes it easier when using the Move Path tool for object placement.
Return to your main Background window (the blue one) which now has the two video layers also on it. Just as we did with adding video, we will also do the same for adding text to the background. So do:
Video | Move Path
In the above image set:
Instant Apply (Labeled ''A''). Make sure that for
Source Image/Layer (''B'') you select the Chapter 1 Layer from the drop down list.
Step Mode (''C'') is None.
Handle (''D'') is set to Center.
For the X and Y sliders (''E'') set to X:445 Y:120. In the circled box just to the right of the X and Y sliders you will see Width and Height. Change the
Width and Height values to 65.00. Once everything is set, click
Anim Preview (''F'') and then in the window that opens,
select Exact Object on Frames then click OK. After viewing the animation close that out and delete the little image file that gets created along with that and select ''Don't Save''. Now
back to the Move Path window, click OK. Now your first Chapter title will be added to the image.
To add Chapter 2 do:
Video | Move Path
Again, I have highlighted the areas to pay attention to.
Select Instant Apply.
In Source Image/Layer select the Chapter 2 Layer from the drop down menu.
Step Mode is None.
Handle is Center. Use the X and Y sliders to select the position to place Chapter 2. In the above example, I am using
X:270 and Y:360 Change the
Width and Height to 65.00. Then click the
Anim Preview button to see a preview of your result. If you are satisfied, close that preview out and the preview image created and select Don't Save. Then click OK in the Move Path window.
Your result will appear similar to the image below:
[highlight]
ENCODE VIDEO[/highlight]
Once you have added all your videos to your background, you can now encode this new animated background to video. Select your background image (which now should show added layers representing the added video). Select:
Video | Frames Convert
The settings that you will need to change are
Extension.
Change it to .ppm (Notice the . at the beginning of the file extension). Make sure you select
Keep Type for Imagetype and
check the Flatten checkbox as above. Also make sure that
Basename is where you want the newly created ppm files to be placed. This should by default be your working directory. Once everything is set, click OK. Another window will open and
select Raw for the Data Formatting and click OK in that window. This will now create a new image window and a new set of frames all in ppm image format.
From this newly created image window do:
Video | Encode | MPEG 2
In this window set your
Framerate to 29.97 (25.00 for PAL). I have selected a
bitrate of 50000000 (5000Kbs) which provides a decent video output and is consistent with the bitrate used in the tutorial at
http://www.transcoding.org/cgi-bin/tran ... ia_To_DVD1.
MPEG-type will be MPEG2.
Videoformat should be NTSC (or PAL). Again the defaults for
Outputfile, Paramfile, Startscript should point to your working folder and will be filled in automatically. Change the location if you want them saved somewhere else. Then click on
Gen + Encode and let it create the video.
Keeping it simple, I will create a silent audio track which we will then combine with the video to complete our menu video portion. Based on the method shown at:
http://www.transcoding.org/cgi-bin/transcode?Tutorials/Authoring_PC_Media_To_DVD
Code:
ffmpeg -ab 224 -ar 48000 -ac 2 -t 10 silence.ac3
Running the above command will create 10 seconds of silence (our video is ten seconds long) that will be added to the background.mpg video created above in the step below. To combine the video and audio (again based on the tutorial linked above):
Code:
mplex -f8 -o background_menu.mpg background.mpg silence.ac3
This produces our menu video. You also still need to define the buttons, but this is easy also using the
dvd-author buttons Script-Fu for gimp. I have a tutorial planned for the near future for using that Script-Fu.
Ofcourse, once your project is complete you may wish to delete all the various xcf files, or any other extraneous files created in your working folder since they can take up a lot of space. There are other things you can do, like adding a mask to the video source using GAP allowing one to place the video into various shapes instead of just boring square patterns against the background. That is another tutorial in itself.
I hope this tutorial will help GNU/Linux users to create animated DVD backgrounds since there are really no GUI applications otherwise for creating animated DVD menu's in GNU/Linux that I know of.
Below is a screenshot of an animated menu created after some hours of work on it. I used the lava fill script by Kward1979uk as part of developing the background. Thanks for posting that script Kward1979uk. :h:
You can see this animated dvd menu in action here or here for dialup users.
Finally let me give credit to
this and
this tutorial by Sean-Michael here on gimptalk on the basics of using GAP. Also I learned a lot from the tutorials at
http://carol.gimp.org/gimp2/animation. They provided me with a great foundation to ultimately figure this all out. Please visit those links for more tutorials for using GAP.
Ofcourse this has been a basic tutorial, there are many possibilities to skew, rotate, and whatever your creativity may come up with, that can lead to you creating a truly unique dvd menu.
As a side note, you can also create an animated background instead of a static one, or add some animated text or other effects to your background.
This was my first attempt at a tutorial here on gimptalk. If I helped someone, great, if I confused everyone, sorry. I'll work to make improvements if I post another tutorial sometime. :h:
Note: I posted this tutorial once I was able to successfully create my own animated DVD menu using GAP. I have been continually refining this tutorial over time. Mainly I want this to help more than confuse. Your suggestions are welcome.
