Menu clarity

Hi all,
My first posting in the forums. Basically I'm using FCP 5.0.4 with DVD Studio Pro etc etc. I generally tend to create my custom menus in Photoshop and then import for menu creation. I have noticed that the fonts and lines are not that clear. Especially when using anything containing an array of colors. I am currently making a small promo DVD where the word Rainbow appears with a gradient overlay of rainbow colors but the edges are very uneven and the colors bleed severley when viewed on the TV screen. Any remedies to this and general DVD menu creations would be a huge help.

In afvance, thanks.
Mark



Underwater cameraman / DVD producer living in Palau, western Pacific.....well someone has to.....right?

I create all my still menus in Photoshop.

What size-format is your document?
RGB and canvas size in D1-Pal (or NTSC) is a perfect starting point.

What is do is exporting 2 Tiffs for use in DvDSP
1 with the BKG and 1 with the overlay file in B/W

In my experience this gives better results than importing Photoshopfiles in DvDSP.

About your color-problem, try importing the PSD file into FCP
and turn on the illegal color filter. This will indicate if your colours are to
"colourfull" for "video use.

My format is as mentioned 768x576 for PAL templates and 720x540 for NTSC. I know the real aspect ratios of 720x576 and 720x480 but in DvDSP it tells us to create menus in these sizes in order for better rez on the screen.

I understand what you are saying but why in B/W?? Is that just for one project of yours?

The color issue, thanks for the tip. For the clarity though I will try as suggested.

Peace,
Mark.



Underwater cameraman / DVD producer living in Palau, western Pacific.....well someone has to.....right?

The difference between 720 and 768 x 576 Pal has to do with pixel aspect ratios.
If you use a D1 pal template in Photoshop, it will show pixelaspect corrected on the canvas. so in that case 720 is ok.
If you create a custom setting new document standard photoshop will use sqaure pixels, so in that case you'll have to use 768.
Both ways will work fine, I tend to prefer the Photoshop Templates D1.

The B/W tiff is used to create the overlay in DvDSP.
This B/W tiff wil create a anti-aliasing in gray values (around text f.e.)
These Gray values can be used in DvDSP to "fake" an anti Aliasing effect in the overlay.
You can use the B/W overlay as a mask and then map a color to it.

Did this help?

Yeah Man,
Peace

Hi Chris,
Thanks for the help. My latest tests almost saw me toasting yours, and others, help on this. I've stuck with the D1 PAL template as this offers a better workflow with regards to prep time etc.

By reducing the opacity of button text etc I now have non bleeding fonts and nice clear imagery for the menu's.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to help out on this.

Regards,
Mark.



Underwater cameraman / DVD producer living in Palau, western Pacific.....well someone has to.....right?