iDVD Getting Started Get to know the iDVD window and controls and learn how to create your own DVD
1 2 Contents Chapter 1 3 3 4 5 6 Welcome to iDVD Using This Document What’s New in iDVD 6 Anatomy of a DVD Finding Out More Chapter 2 7 7 7 8 10 12 13 16 20 22 25 26 30 iDVD Tutorial What You’ll Learn Before You Begin Step One: Locate the Movies, Photos, and Audio Files to Use in the Tutorial Step Two: Create a New Project Step Three: Choose a Theme for Your DVD Step Four: Add a Movie and Scene Selection Menu Step Five: Add a Slideshow Step Six: Change the Look of Text on Menus Step Seven: Customize
1 Welcome to iDVD 1 This document teaches you how to use the basic features of iDVD, and tells you about the new features in iDVD 6. You can use iDVD to create DVDs that contain your own movies, slideshows, and music, along with professionally designed and easy-to-navigate DVD menus, just like Hollywood DVDs. Discs burned using iDVD can be played in most DVD players, including computers with DVD drives and most set-top DVD players. Using This Document This document is organized into three chapters.
What’s New in iDVD 6 iDVD 6 adds many new features that make DVD creation faster and easier, with more professional results than ever. Â Magic iDVD: Choose a theme, select your movies and photos, and iDVD creates a complete DVD project for you. Magic iDVD projects include a main menu with buttons for your movies and slideshows and scene selection menus for movies with chapters. Drop zones are filled automatically with your content. You can burn the DVD or continue editing it like any other iDVD project.
Anatomy of a DVD If you’ve ever viewed a professionally produced DVD, then you’re familiar with the basic concept of a DVD. A DVD can contain a variety of content:  Movies and video clips  Photographs and other still images  Documents or other files that can be copied onto another computer The process of creating a DVD consists of gathering all the content you want to show your viewers, and then designing a way for them to get access to it.
Themes The overall look of a DVD menu and its buttons is called a theme. The theme is defined by the colors and graphical elements used in the menu, the font style and size of text, the button shape, and much more. The professional quality themes provided in iDVD are simple to use and easy to customize. If you make changes to a theme that you want to use again, you can save the modified theme as a favorite and use it for other projects. So what are you waiting for? It’s time to create your first DVD.
2 iDVD Tutorial 2 This tutorial takes you step-by-step through the process of creating a simple iDVD project using your own movies, photos, and music. When you’re done with the tutorial, you will have a complete project ready to burn on a DVD. What You’ll Learn If you follow all the steps in this tutorial, you will build an iDVD project that includes a movie, a main menu, a menu to let viewers go directly to a specific scene, and a slideshow.
The first term after Choose is the name of a menu in the iDVD menu bar. The next term (or terms) are the items you choose from that menu. What You Need To complete all the parts of this tutorial, you need the following: Â A movie, preferably one with chapter markers You can use any iMovie HD format, including DV, MPEG-4, iSight, and 16:9 widescreen movies. You can add chapter markers to your movie in iMovie HD, or you can add chapter markers at set intervals in iDVD.
If you’ve added songs and photos to the libraries in iTunes and iPhoto, you can access them in the Media pane of iDVD, shown below. If you have audio and image files in folders outside of iTunes and iPhoto, you can drag those folders into the list of photos or audio files in the Media pane after you open a project in iDVD. Movies that are stored in the Movies folder on your hard disk appear automatically in the Media pane.
Step Two: Create a New Project With your music, movies, and photos ready for use and in locations where you can easily access them, you’re ready to get started. To start a new iDVD project: Â If iDVD isn’t open, double-click the iDVD application icon in the Dock. If this is the first time iDVD has been opened, click the “Create a New Project” button in the dialog. Â If the opening dialog isn’t showing, choose File > New. Select a location where you want to store your new project, and click Create.
Set the Encoding Quality iDVD encodes your project’s information before it burns it to a disc. Encoding takes some time when you burn your DVD, so you may want to consider setting an iDVD preference to let iDVD encode in the background as you work on your movie. To set the encoding quality: m Choose iDVD > Preferences and click Defaults. Then choose one of the encoder settings. If you choose Best Performance, you can also select the “Enable background encoding” checkbox.
Step Three: Choose a Theme for Your DVD A theme is a menu design that defines how your DVD looks to viewers. The theme is made up of the background image or movie that appears on your DVD menu, along with the button style, fonts, sizes, and locations of titles and button labels. A theme family is a collection of menu designs that work together, providing a unified appearance to submenus. You can use one of the themes that come with iDVD, or you can customize and create your own theme.
Step Four: Add a Movie and Scene Selection Menu After you choose your theme, you can add movies and other content to your iDVD project. In this step, you’ll add a movie that contains chapter markers, so that viewers have the option of jumping to a scene when they watch your DVD, just like a Hollywood-style DVD. When you drag a movie with chapter markers to a menu, iDVD recognizes the chapter markers and automatically creates “scene selection menus” with buttons that link to each of the chapters.
Important: If dotted lines appear in the picture frame when you drag your movie, move the mouse pointer until the dotted lines disappear and then drop the movie. Dotted lines indicate a drop zone, a special area of a menu. Movies added to a drop zone become part of the menu background, rather than featured movies on the DVD. When you add a movie with chapter markers, the DVD menu title changes to the name of the movie and iDVD automatically creates two buttons on the menu.
The scene selection menu is a submenu with a button on the main menu that links to it. Double-click the button now to take a look at it. Notice that the menu used the theme Fish Two, which was designed to be used as a chapter menu for the Fish One theme. Each button on the scene selection menu shown below has an image that matches a frame in the scene it links to.
You can edit submenus just as you can the main menu. For example, you may want to change the text on the button labels to make it fit better. You change button label text just like you changed the text in the main menu title. Later in this tutorial you’ll learn how to change the shape of buttons and the images on them. Did You Know?—Manually Adding a New Submenu A menu can only hold up to 12 buttons, so if your DVD requires more than 12 buttons, you can create submenus to hold them.
Your menu should now look like the illustration below. 3 Click My Slideshow to select it, then type More Photos. 4 Click outside the text area to deselect the text, then double-click the My Slideshow button to open the slideshow editor. The slideshow editor, shown below, is a blank screen with the words “Drag images here.” If you don’t see this view, try double-clicking again, either slower or faster than the first time.
Note: If you have not imported photos into iPhoto, you will not see photos in this list. You can open iPhoto now and import some photos (to see the images in the Photos pane, switch to another view of the Media pane view and then switch back to Photos) or you can drag photos directly from other locations on your hard disk to the slideshow editor. 6 Drag photos one at a time or in groups from the images list to the slideshow editor. You can even drag a whole album to the slideshow editor.
11 When you see a song that you want to use, drag it from the song list into the audio well in the slideshow editor, shown below. Audio well After you drag the song to the audio well, notice that the Slide Duration pop-up menu automatically changes to “Fit To Audio.” This way, your slideshow and music begin and end together. You can change this if you want. 12 Click the Preview button, shown below, to see how your slideshow looks.
Step Six: Change the Look of Text on Menus Now that you’ve added more content to your DVD project, the text in the main menu title may need some adjustment. You can change the font, size, and color of text in menus and on buttons. You can also reposition text so it fits better on the menu, or add additional descriptive text. In this step, you’ll add a subtitle, change the appearance of the text, and reposition it on the menu.
As you click colors, the text on the menu changes to the color you selected. When you find a color you want to use, close the Colors window. If you don’t like your changes and want to start over, click Reset Text. 6 Click outside the text area to deselect the subtitle, then drag it into position below the title. If you need to reposition the main title to fit the subtitle below it, drag the title text. The menu below shows the new title and subtitle.
∏ Tip: You can select and drag any text object (non-clickable text) on the menu to reposition it. Did You Know?—Making Sure Text Can Be Seen on a TV Some television screens may not be able to display everything on your menu. You can overlay an outline on the menu to show you what will be visible on these televisions. This is called the TV safe area. To see the TV safe area: m Choose Advanced > Show TV Safe Area.
To add a slideshow to the drop zone: 1 Click the Media button and then click Photos at the top of the Media pane. 2 Drag a photo album or folder of pictures from the photos list to the drop zone in the menu. Place the pointer directly over the drop zone text until you see the dotted lines appear, then release the mouse button. To select multiple pictures in the list, press the Command key (it has the Apple logo on it) and click the pictures you want.
7 Click the Preview button to see the images play. The images will “loop,” or keep playing continuously, so click the Exit button on the DVD remote control when you’ve seen enough. 8 Choose File > Save to save your work. Add Transitions With all this content and good-looking menus, it would be great to have transitions to smooth the movement from the menu to your movie and slideshow when the viewer clicks a button on the menu.
Did You Know?—Filling Drop Zones Quickly Some themes have multiple drop zones and even dynamic drop zones that move in the menu background. You can quickly and easily fill these drop zones in your project using Autofill or the drop zone editor. To fill drop zones automatically with your content: m Click the Menu button, then click Autofill. To open the drop zone editor: m Double-click a drop zone, or click Edit Drop Zones in the Menu pane.
Note: If the button links to a slideshow, you see the Photos pane you learned about in “Step Seven: Customize the Main Menu” on page 22. 2 Move the slider left or right until you see the frame you want to show on the button. If you don’t want the buttons to show moving video, deselect the checkbox in the corner of the Movie pane. Then the button will show only the frame you selected. 3 Choose File > Save to save your work.
Map view, shown below, provides horizontal and vertical views for your project. Both views allow you to hide (collapse) sections of the map to simplify the view. You can also zoom in to see more detail in each icon, or zoom out to see the entire project in one window. Disclosure triangle View buttons Zoom slider You can find more information about the icons and controls in map view in “Map View” on page 46.
3 Click the disclosure triangle. The menu collapses to simplify the map, as shown below. Click the disclosure triangle again to expand the map. 4 Drag the zoom slider at the bottom of the window to the left or right to change the amount of detail you see in the map. You can also use the horizontal and vertical scroll bars to move through the map, or drag the map to see other parts of it. Add an Autoplay Movie You can also use map view to add an autoplay movie, or remove one from themes that include one.
For example, you could create slides with introductory information or credits that play before the DVD menu appears. Project icon To add an autoplay movie: 1 Locate the project icon at the top-left corner of the map. 2 Click the Media button and click Photos or Movies to select the content you want to add. 3 Drag the movie or images to the project icon. 4 Click the Preview button or double-click the project icon to view the autoplay movie you added.
When you remove an autoplay movie, the project icon is not removed, so you can drag a movie or photo album to the project icon to create a new autoplay movie. Did You Know?—Editing in the DVD Map The DVD map gives you an overview of your whole project and lets you quickly apply changes to more than one item at a time. You can look at it as batch editing. Here are some of the things you can do in the DVD map: Â Customize the menu settings for one menu or multiple menus at once.
The Project Info window, shown below, provides all this information and more. To check the size of your project: m Choose Project > Project Info. Four resource meters are displayed at the top of the window. Â The DVD Capacity meter shows the size of your DVD, indicated as running time (the total time for all the media and transitions) or as disc space used. Click the text to the right of it to switch between minutes and gigabytes (GB).
Check Project Files All the items you added to your project are listed in the Media list with the path to their location on your hard disk or another location. In the Type column, you can see whether the item is a picture file, audio file, or something else. A checkmark in the Status column lets you know that the item is present and accounted for. If you move the original file from its location, you can see at a glance that it’s missing because the checkmark will also be missing.
Burn Your DVD When you are finished with your iDVD project, you can burn it to a DVD for viewing on a TV set or in computers equipped with DVD-reading drives. Burn a disc only when you are sure that you are finished with your project. You can use the following media types to burn a disc in iDVD 6: Â DVD-R: Can be used only once. This is the recommended media for iDVD, since it’s compatible with most DVD players and computers on the market today. It can hold about 4.38 gigabytes (GB).
Did You Know?—Saving Your Finished Project If you can’t burn a disc right away, or if you want to move or back up your finished project to another computer, you can archive it or save it as a disc image. Archiving your project creates a copy of your project, keeping all of its elements together and linked within the project file. It can take a while to archive a large project, but you can move the file to another computer or hard disk, and then open it at any time for further editing or burning onto a DVD.
3 iDVD at a Glance 3 This chapter will familiarize you with all the tools available in the iDVD window. You can use it as a reference as you work. When you work on an iDVD project, the menu you are designing is displayed in the main window. You use the controls provided in the different editing panes to design menus and buttons. The pages that follow introduce you to the controls in iDVD.
iDVD Window A B C D 36 E F G H I J A DVD menu: This is where you see the DVD menu you are creating as you build it. Drag movies, pictures, and audio files into this area to create buttons that play your movies and slideshows, or change the look and sound of the background. B Drop zone: Some themes include special areas called drop zones where you can place images or a short movie that plays as part of the DVD menu background.
Themes Pane You use the Themes pane to select a theme for your project. When you select a theme from the themes list, it appears in the iDVD window. To see the Themes pane, click the Themes button in the iDVD window. A B C D A Theme set: Choose a theme family to preview or choose All to view all the themes at once. B Themes list: Scroll through the themes that appear in this list to select one for the menu you are creating. Click the triangle next to a theme family to see all the menus for a theme.
Menu Pane You use the Menu pane to add content to a menu or drop zones, and edit the look of text on a menu. To see the Menu pane, click the Menu button in the iDVD window. C A D B E F G H 38 A Background well: Drag images or movies into this well to make them appear as the background of your DVD menu. B Audio well: Drag sound files here to make them play as the background music for your DVD menu. Click the speaker icon to turn the sound on or off as you work.
Buttons Pane You use the Buttons pane to change the shape, size, position, and color of buttons on a menu. To see the Buttons pane, click the Buttons button in the iDVD window. A B A C D E F G A Button list: Select a button shape in this list. Select the “T” for a text-only button. Different themes provide different button shape options. B Size slider: Drag the slider to change the size of selected buttons.
Media Pane You use the Media pane for easy access to the movies, images, and music stored on your computer. The three illustrations that follow show the controls in the three panes of the Media pane. To see the Media pane, click the Media button in the iDVD window. The buttons at the top of the Media pane switch between the Audio, Photos, and Movies views. Audio You use the Audio pane to add songs and other recordings to your DVD.
Photos You use the Photos pane to find all of the photos in your iPhoto library and quickly add complete albums and slideshows to your project. To see the Photos pane, click the Media button in the iDVD window, then click Photos at the top of the Media pane. A B C A iPhoto albums list: Select the iPhoto album or library that contains the photos you want to use. Drag an entire album to the menu, or scroll through the photos in the selected album shown in the list below.
Movies You use the Movies pane to locate the movies that are stored on your computer and add them to your project. Movies stored in the Movies folder on your hard disk appear automatically, and you can add movies from other folders as well. To see the Movies pane, click the Media button in the iDVD window, then click Movies at the top of the Media pane.
Project Info Window You use the Project Info window to keep an eye on your iDVD project resources and monitor the space available on your hard disk and the disc you’ll burn to. To see the Project Info window, choose Project > Project Info. A B F C G D H E I J A Disc Name: Type a name for the disc. The disc name can be different than the name of your saved project. B Video Mode pop-up menu: Choose a format for your project.
I Media list: See the media included in your project. This list also shows the file type and its location. A checkmark in the Status column indicates the file is available. J Asset list: See the names of the movies in your iDVD project. The Encoding column indicates whether the movie has been encoded. When you click the Burn button, iDVD will finish encoding the movies before burning the disc.
Slideshow Editor The slideshow editor displays all the photos in the selected slideshow and provides controls for you to set up how the slideshow plays. To see the slideshow editor, doubleclick a slideshow button or an image in a drop zone slideshow. A B D C E F G H I J A Slideshow length: See how long the slideshow will last in minutes and seconds. B List or thumbnail view: Click to switch between a list of slides or a thumbnail view.
I Settings button: Click to show slideshow options. You can add Back and Forward visual indicators to the slideshow, set the slideshow to repeat (loop), add files to the DVD-ROM contents, and show or hide titles and comments. J Return button: Click to exit the slideshow editor. Map View You use map view to get a bird’s-eye view of your DVD project. Map view provides a visual representation of how all your submenus, slideshows, and movies are linked together.
G Horizontal or vertical view: Click to change between a layout showing all the icons and a hierarchical layout with disclosure triangles. H Zoom slider: Drag to see more of the project or to see an icon up-close. I Return: Click to exit map view.
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