From the book

iMovie 09 and iDVD for Mac OS X: Visual QuickStart Guide

Learn More Buy

From the book

From the book 

iMovie 09 and iDVD for Mac OS X: Visual QuickStart Guide

Learn More Buy

2. iDVD Themes

My wife is moderately addicted to several home decorating shows on TV, the ones where a designer takes over a room and the homeowners marvel at the transformation (okay, so maybe I've watched a few, too). It's amazing what a new window treatment and a fresh coat of paint can do to a room.

You might think that iDVD themes are nothing more than curtains to dress up your movies, but that would diminish the possibilities that a DVD theme offers. A theme gives your movie character, but more importantly, it provides a framework for the movie and other related media. Your DVD can contain several movies, slideshows of digital still photos, music, and animation.

In this chapter, I'll cover the basics of choosing one of iDVD's pre-made themes and working with its integrated elements, such as drop zones, motion menus, and editing text. In the next chapter, I'll get into the specifics of customizing a theme and tailoring it to your own tastes. Like decorating an otherwise functional room, working with iDVD themes can add some flair to the presentation of your movie.

Applying a Theme

When you start iDVD, a theme is already selected for you—either the first one in iDVD's list, or the one that was active the last time you used the program. Applying a different theme is simply a matter of clicking on a new one in the Themes pane. Your buttons and submenus are retained with the look of the new theme applied.

Themes are organized in families, so your project can share a consistent look while also providing variation among the menus ( Figure 2.1 ).

Figure 2.1 Click a theme in the Themes pane to apply it to your menu.

To apply a theme family:

1. Click the Themes button to display the Themes pane, if it's not already visible.
2. Click a theme family icon to apply the theme to the current menu and any submenus based on it.
   • If you're working in the Standard (4:3) aspect ratio, iDVD offers to switch to Widescreen (16:9) mode ( Figure 2.2 ). Click Keep to leave the mode unchanged (unless you want to switch, of course).
     

     Figure 2.2 This dialog appears whenever you switch standard aspect ratio themes. Click the Do not ask me again checkbox to avoid it in the future.

   • You may also see an Apply Theme Family dialog confirming that you want the theme to apply to all of the submenus attached to the current menu. Click OK.
   After a few seconds, the theme changes in the main window.

To apply an individual theme:

1. Click the Themes button to display the Themes pane, if it's not already visible.
2. Choose a theme from the list by clicking its thumbnail image. After a few seconds, the new theme is applied.

To apply a theme in the Map view:

1. With the Themes pane visible, click the Map button.
2. Click the icon of the menu whose theme you want to change.
3. Click a theme from the Themes pane to apply the change ( Figure 2.3 ).
   

   Figure 2.3 Select an icon in the Map view and then click a theme to apply it to that menu.

4. Click the Return button to exit Map view.

To apply a theme to every menu in your project:

• In any menu screen, choose Apply Theme to Project from the Advanced menu. Every menu in your project now has the same theme.

To apply a theme to submenus:

1. Navigate to a submenu that you wish to change (the Map is a good place to do this; click the Map button, then click the menu you wish to view).
2. Choose Apply Theme to Submenus from the Advanced menu. The theme of every submenu in the current hierarchy is changed ( Figure 2.4 ).
   

   Figure 2.4 When you use the Apply Theme to Submenus command, all submenus are given the same theme. Looking at the Map view, you can see how the menus at the top use different themes. Afterwards, they all share the same theme.

Using Motion

Menu items are designed to do more than display a text title or static image. DVDs typically convey video, so why not add some motion to the menus as well?

iDVD uses two types of motion: motion menus, which incorporate animated backgrounds, and motion buttons, which play movies or abbreviated photo slideshows in place of a generic button icon or still image. (Actually, there's also a third type of motion, audio, which is covered in the next chapter.) Most of iDVD's recent themes incorporate motion because it brings life to menus and makes them more than just pretty pictures.

In this section I cover motion buttons; see "Changing the Background" in Chapter 3 for details on using motion menus.

To activate motion:

1. Click the Motion button, choose Motion from the Advanced menu, or press Command-J. The Motion button becomes highlighted in blue ( Figure 2.5 ), and any animated elements within the theme, such as the background, drop zone, or submenu icons, start to play.
   

   Figure 2.5 Click the Motion button to activate the motion elements within the menu.

   Perform any of the above actions to turn motion off.

The Introductory Animation

Many themes include an introductory animation before the menu elements appear, indicated by a shaded section of the Motion Playhead scrubber bar ( Figure 2.6 ). When the total animation finishes playing, it starts over where the vertical bar bisects the scrubber bar. To skip this first animation, deselect the checkbox to the left of the scrubber bar. Some themes also have a concluding animation, too.

Figure 2.6 The first section of the scrubber bar is the introductory animation, and isn't repeated.

Controls for these animations can also be found on the Menu Info window, marked Intro and Outro ( Figure 2.7 ).

Figure 2.7 The Menu Info inspector also contains controls to enable the motion animations.

Motion buttons

Any QuickTime movie you add to your menu is a motion button—when motion is turned on, the movie plays within its button icon (except for themes that use only text as buttons, of course). Normally, the first frame of the movie button is the first frame of the movie itself; if you specified a poster frame for the movie file using QuickTime Pro, that frame is automatically set as the beginning. You can specify a new first frame, or choose not to play the movie at all and just use a frame of it as a still image.

To set the starting frame:

1. Click a motion button to select it, then click again or click and hold to display a Movie slider above it. (Be careful not to double-click the button, which plays the movie.) This works whether motion is activated or not.
2. Drag the Movie slider to locate the frame you wish to use as the starting point ( Figure 2.8 ). Click outside the button to deselect it.
   

   Figure 2.8 The Movie slider lets you choose a starting frame for your movie's button icon.

To turn off movie playback for a button:

1. Click a motion button and bring up the Movie slider.
2. Mark the Still Image checkbox.
3. Drag the slider to the frame you want to use as the thumbnail image.

Motion duration

The Loop Duration slider in the Menu Info window controls how long your motion elements play before they are reset to their starting points.

To set motion duration:

1. Click the Inspector button to view the Menu Info window.
2. Drag the Loop Duration slider to change the duration of the motion menu ( Figure 2.10 ). The number to the right of the slider represents the total time required to play all motion elements on the menu.
   

   Figure 2.10 The Loop Duration slider controls the amount of animation that plays before starting over.

Using Drop Zones

To add a bit of visual interest and a personal touch to your menu, add a movie, photo, or collection of photos to the drop zones included with some themes.

To add a movie or photo to a drop zone:

1. Click the Media button to display the Media pane.
2. Click the Photos or Movies button at the top of the pane.
3. Drag a movie, a photo, or multiple selected photos to a drop zone, indicated by a yellow border ( Figure 2.12 ). iDVD adds the media to that zone.
   

   Figure 2.12 Drag a photo or movie from the Media pane to a menu's drop zone.

Or

• Drag a movie or a photo file(s) from the Finder to the drop zone.

Or

1. Click the Drop Zones Editor button to display the editor in the preview area.
2. Drag a movie, photo, or multiple selected photos to a drop zone placeholder.

Or

1. Control-click the drop zone and choose Import from the contextual menu.
2. In the Open dialog that appears, locate a movie or photo file on your hard disk, then click the Import button.

Drop Zone Movie Start/End

When you place a custom movie into a drop zone, you can control which portion of it plays during the menu's animation, just like editing the clip in iMovie. Click the movie in the drop zone to display the Movie Start/End control, and then drag the markers ( Figure 2.13 ).

Figure 2.13 Choose which section of a drop zone movie plays in a menu's animation.

To remove media from a drop zone:

• Control-click the zone and choose Clear Drop Zone Contents from the contextual menu.
• Drag the photo or movie out of the drop zone and release the mouse button.

Working with dynamic drop zones

Some of the latest themes feature dynamic drop zones: one or more drop zones animated within the theme. Individually, they operate as normal drop zones, but you can also control them as a group.

To add movies or photos to dynamic drop zones:

1. Click the Edit Drop Zones button to view the Drop Zones editor ( Figure 2.14 ).
   

   Figure 2.14 The Drop Zones Editor is an easier way to add movies and photos to multiple drop zones.

2. Drag movies or photos to each drop zone.
3. Click the close button at the upper-left corner to go back to the menu.

Or

1. Turn off Motion, if it's currently active, by clicking the Motion button. (You can leave it on if you want, but that makes it difficult to add each media item.)
2. Drag a movie or photo to a drop zone; each zone is numbered.
3. Advance the Motion Playhead by dragging it to the right ( Figure 2.15 ). (If you don't see it, choose Show Motion Playhead from the View menu.) The animation progresses, revealing more drop zones.
   

   Figure 2.15 Drag the Motion Playhead to the right to advance through the dynamic drop zone animation.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you've populated the drop zones.

To autofill drop zones:

1. Choose Autofill Drop Zones from the Project menu, or press Command-Shift-F.
2. Click the Autofill button. iDVD collects media that you've already used in the project (such as movies added) and fills the drop zones.

To fill a drop zone with content from your project:

• If you want to let iDVD do the choosing for you, Control-click a drop zone and choose Fill with content ( Figure 2.16 ). iDVD fills it with a movie or photo from your project.
  

  Figure 2.16 Let iDVD randomly choose content for your drop zones.

Working with multiple photos in a drop zone

When you drag multiple photos to a drop zone, they act as a slideshow within the zone. You can change the order in which they appear, or add and delete photos using the Drop Zones Editor.

To set which photo displays first:

1. Click the zone to make it editable ( Figure 2.18 ).
   

   Figure 2.18 Choose a different photo to appear in the drop zone by moving the Photos slider.

2. Drag the Photos slider that appears above the drop zone to choose a photo. That picture will appear first when the menu plays with motion.

To change the order of the photos:

1. Click the zone to make it editable.
2. Click the Edit Order button, or double-click the drop zone. The Drop Zone Photos editor appears ( Figure 2.19 ).
   

   Figure 2.19 The Drop Zone Photos editor displays the photos you've added to the zone and their playback order.

3. Drag the photos to change their order. iDVD numbers each icon to indicate the playback order.
4. Click the Return button to go back to the menu.

To add more photos:

1. Double-click the drop zone to display the Drop Zone Photos editor.
2. Drag more images from the Media pane or from the Finder.
3. Click the Return button to go back to the menu.

To delete photos from the drop zone:

1. In the Drop Zone Photos editor, select the photos you wish to remove. Shift-click to select a range of photos, or Command-click to select non-contiguous photos ( Figure 2.20 ).
   

   Figure 2.20 Images 21, 27, and 32 are selected and ready to be deleted (or moved; see ).

2. Press the Delete key or choose Delete from the Edit menu. The pictures are removed.
3. Click the Return button to go back to the menu (or the drop zone list).

To turn off drop zones entirely:

1. Click the Inspector button to display the Menu Info window.
2. Uncheck the option labeled Show drop zones and related graphics ( Figure 2.21 ).
   

   Figure 2.21 If you'd prefer not to include any drop zone content, disable the drop zones in the Menu Info window.

Editing Text

Not all text needs to be in service of buttons or submenus—edit and add your own text boxes. The following steps apply to changing the contents of text blocks; in the next chapter, I'll cover more settings such as changing the font and style.

To edit text:

1. Click once to select a button or title, and then click again to select the text ( Figure 2.22 ). Don't double-click the button, however, because that will either play its movie or take you to a submenu.
   

   Figure 2.22 Click a button twice (but don't double-click) to edit its text.

2. Type your text. Hit Return or Enter to break the line ( Figure 2.23 ).
   

   Figure 2.23 Create multi-line text boxes by pressing Return or Enter.

3. Click outside the text field to deselect it and accept your changes.

To add new text:

1. Choose Add Text from the Project menu, or press Command-K. A new text block appears ( Figure 2.24 ).
   

   Figure 2.24 Add text blocks that aren't buttons or submenus.

2. Edit the text as described above.
3. Position the text by dragging it where you want it; unlike the default behavior of buttons and menu titles, which snap to an invisible grid, a new text block can be placed anywhere on the screen. (See the next chapter for more on positioning buttons.)

To delete text:

1. Click a text block once to select it.
2. Press the Delete key, or choose Delete from the Edit menu. The text vanishes.

To insert special characters:

1. Click a text block once to select it, then click again to edit it.
2. Choose Special Characters from the Edit menu. The Character Palette appears.
3. Select the character you want to use in the palette.
4. Click the Insert button to add the character to your text.