Designing Menus with Encore DVD
Learn to create great looking, functional menus using Encore DVD 1.5 with this insider's guide. To help you design better menus, this book explains all the facets of DVD menu design.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Designing Menus with Encore DVD
Animation
Overview
Animation approximates motion through sequential imagery. Good animation, however, has spirit, cleverly exaggerates reality, and enhances a menu's aesthetic, communication, and entertainment value.
This chapter presents the following topics
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The animation process
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Animation principles
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Common properties to animate
Where possible, I have related the topics discussed to designing motion menus for DVDs.
The Animation Process
The animation process begins with an idea that is turned into a script or a story-board. After the concepts presented in the storyboard are approved, animation and production begins. Test renders and animatics turn into fully rendered animations that are then imported into Encore DVD and integrated with other assets to create menus.
Coming up with an Idea
Ideas for animating motion menus differ from project to project and have to be appropriate to the material being shown. For example, it would not make sense to show something depressing with material that is meant to be inspirational. Often, the client will have some ideas, but do familiarize yourself with the content before beginning to animate because it might provide you with a host of ideas.
The process of animating a motion menu is a superset of the design process. Before anything is animated, something needs to be designed, photographed, shot on video, recorded on audio tape, or illustrated. But before any of this happens, the animation has to be scripted. I like to start by jotting down a few ideas:
A postcard of Alamo Square rotates onto screen. When it is in place, the...
Copyright John Skidgel 2004 under license agreement with Books24x7
