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The drawback of the standard method is that using overlays limits your creativity when
showing the different states of a button. While the normal state of a button can be a full
24-bit image, you can only use up to four colors (as defined by the DVD-Video specification)
to modify the normal image to show the selected and activated states. Because one of
these colors is typically used as a transparent background color, that leaves only three
colors. This is sufficient to add an outline or highlight to show when the button is selected
or activated, but it is not enough to allow you to radically alter the button.
See Creating Menus Using the Standard Method for details on creating standard menus.
Layered Menu Creation Method
The layered method allows you to create independent 24-bit versions of each button for
each of the three states (normal, selected, and activated). This gives you great flexibility
in changing a button’s appearance when it is selected and activated.
The layered method requires an Adobe Photoshop (PSD) graphics file that contains a
separate layer for each state of each button, in addition to the background graphic. This
means a menu with 12 buttons requires 36 layers to show the normal, selected, and
activated states of each button. You can combine overlays with buttons created using
the layered method.
There are several drawbacks to using the layered method:
• You cannot have motion in the background; backgrounds must be still images.
• You cannot use the text or shape features.
• You cannot use templates and styles.
• You cannot add audio to the menu.
• Viewers may experience a slow reaction time while navigating around the buttons on
DVD players.
Because layered menus use separate layers for each button state, DVD Studio Pro performs
some behind-the-scenes processing, creating separate hidden menus for each possible
state of the menu. In the above example with 12 buttons, 25 versions of the menu would
need to be created (one with all buttons in their normal state, and one for each button
in its selected and activated states). These menus are not visible as separate elements
within your project, but are displayed when you use the arrow buttons on the DVD player’s
remote control to navigate to a button and activate it.
Due to the number of menus that are created using the layered method, some DVD
players may have a slight delay in displaying the menus as viewers navigate around the
buttons, which may confuse impatient viewers.
See Creating Menus Using the Layered Method for details on creating layered menus.
221Chapter 12 Introduction to Creating Menus