Adobe 22030000 User Guide - Page 104

ENCORE CS3 100 User Guide Note: When you import a menu into Encore, it creates a copy of the menu. The Edit Menu In Photoshop command opens this copy, not the original file. Photoshop saves any changes to the copy. If you want to update the original as well, be sure to first save the copy so that your project contains the revised menu. Once the copy is saved, you can also save changes to the original file by choosing File > Save As in Photoshop or Menu > Save Menu As File in Encore. Using After Effects to enhance menus About creating menus in After Effects Encore and After Effects contain several integrated features to help you create dynamic motion menus. Using After Effects, you can animate elements of a menu so that, for example, the button images fly into position or fade in over an image or video. The composition you create can then act as a video background to the actual menu in the project. This advanced technique requires an understanding of After Effects, video backgrounds, and the use of the loop point to initially disable buttons. In After Effects you can also create a menu from a composition and then import it as a menu into Encore. The After Effects Create Button command lets you assign button subpicture layers and a video thumbnail layer for each button set. It adds the appropriate layer-name prefixes to them. The Save Frame As command lets you save a frame as a layered Photoshop file. For information on creating buttons or layered Photoshop files in After Effects, see "Work with Adobe Encore" in After Effects Help. For a tutorial on using After Effects to create a motion menu, see www.adobe.com/go/vid0258. Overview of animating a menu If you have After Effects 7.0 or later, you can use the Create After Effects Composition command in Encore to quickly start a menu animation. This command converts a menu into an After Effects composition and opens it in After Effects. The basic steps to animate a menu using this command are as follows: 1. Create a complete version of the menu. Using either Encore or Photoshop, design the menu that contains the elements you want to animate, as well as the final resting position of the text and button images. You use this menu as the basis for both the animation and the final menu. Place each element on its own layer so that you can animate the elements separately. Creating the composition from a complete version of the menu ensures that the button subpictures correctly overlay the buttons. 2. Create an After Effects composition from the menu. If you created the menu in Photoshop, import it as a menu. Choose Menu > Create After Effects Composition in Encore to start After Effects and automatically convert the menu into a layered composition. Each button set becomes a nested composition within the master menu composition. Because it is based on the actual menu, the composition contains the elements you want to animate and their correct ending position on the screen. If you animate the button images or delay their display initially, it is important to keep them visible for the remainder of the composition, because the image of the menu in the movie file acts as the visual menu in the project. In other words, the background video you create, not the menu, contains the button images. When the animation is complete, you create a rendered file from the composition.