If you expand a button layer set in the Layers panel, you can see the individual layers that make up the button. Within a button layer set is a special layer called the subpicture layer. The prefixes ( =1), (=2) and ( =3) are used to indicate a subpicture layer. For our project menus, we will only be concerned with the ( =1) prefix. Adobe Encore DVD 2.0 uses the subpicture layer in a button layer set, together with the Menu Color Set, to generate the subpicture highlight for the button. On the finished DVD, subpicture highlights give visual feedback to the audience when they use the navigation keys on the DVD player s remote control to move from button to button on a menu. This visual feedback involves a color and/or a transparency change that distinguishes the selected button from the other menu buttons.

Let me emphasize a distinction here that is very important to understanding the concept of subpicture highlights in Encore. The subpicture layer in an Encore button layer set is the basis for the subpicture highlight that the audience sees when they navigate to that button. Encore takes the subpicture layer, and following the instructions in the Menu Color Set, generates the subpicture highlight. We ll talk about the Menu Color Set in a moment.