Hi, A client came to me recently wanting to develop a DVD that has multiple screens which show a classroom session. This includes video of the professor, PowerPoint slides, and a running text dialogue. I've been asked to see what applications out there might be able to build this. I've attached a image of a competetors DVD, and wondering how they did it. Any ideas on how to go about authoring something like this?? thanks
I have to assume a few things by looking at the screenshot, an inventory of it reveals... 1. A blue background, with an effect applied to make it darker toward the upper right. 2. A rather poorly done "effect" on the background, below the picture, you can see the square outline. 3. White text on the background with applied shadow effect. Text directs viewer to operate a remote control to access different parts of DVD. 4. "picture in a picture" video of those two fellas talkin, with shadow effect. 5. A black scrolling text box with a shadow effect. 6. A white text box with blue text bullets and layered over the picture. My assumptions: 1. That picture is a moving video. 2. The white text on the left remains stationary on the background. 3. The big white text box appears at some point after the beginning, and that either the entire text box or just the text will change as the video plays. Basically this can be created using a program like Adobe Premiere Pro for the scrolling text and the embedded or "composited" video and white text box(es). The background with effects as well as the white text boxes can be created in Mediachance Real Draw Pro or some other graphics program. Even though no on-screen buttons are referenced, I would imagine that using DVD-Lab to assign remote functions would be possible, so that is where the final assembly of your project would take place. I think you could probably do better than this particular screen shot indicates... I find it rather cluttered and annoying. I don't care to have a scrolling text box, another text box below that, with more text on the left, then those two guys talking, as I'm assuming there is an audio track. All you need now is some lightning bolts and stuff. (Premiere can make lightning too.)Just kidding. I also see a bit of bleeding from the video onto the white text box. It should have been positioned a few pixels lower. That would also move it away from the scrolling text box shadow a bit. The programs I would recommend are: Mediachance Real Draw Pro 3 for graphics and backgrounds with effects. Adobe Premiere Pro for capture, editing and compositing, creating scrolling text. DVD Lab to assemble the various sections of the video so they can be accessed by a remote control or on-screen buttons. There are lots of programs you can use, these happen to be the ones I'm using at the moment. All of this does take a bit of practice and familiarity with the programs. I do this for fun so I have no deadlines to meet with my projects. Practice makes perfect when it comes to editing so don't expect your first attempt to be perfect. Mastering one of these programs is difficult enough. I usually break things down into simple steps... Create and gather assets, i.e. your graphics, still pictures, audio and video need to be in a format acceptable to your editing program. Edit and assemble your project assets. Trim your video clips, set the location and duration of still pictures on your project timeline, apply transition effects, text effects, audio, etc. Author your project. This is where you create a menu or menus, add, assemble all the parts of your project and then convert the thing into DVD-Video compliant files, ready for burning. Good Luck, Frank
Wow thanks for taking the time to answer my post in such detail. You were right on the money with your assumptions. The white text box is actually PowerPoint slides with animations. The black box is of course the dialogue that syncs with the motion video. This has been very helpful information and really helps give my client a scope of what can be accomplished. Also on the up side I have a timeline that isn't too rushed. Thanks again--
I went ahead and tried to create a similar test presentation using Premiere Pro. It works very well! Some of the neat things I could do: Have a text box appear as a small, almost invisible rectangle. It grows larger and more visible as it moves across the background. The text then appears and scrolls in the box. When the text finishes, the text box moves again, growing smaller and becoming transparent. As this text box is disappearing, another is moving in to take it's place. While this was going on video clips were appearing in different corners of the background, growing larger and smaller, becoming visible and invisible. One video started out as a tiny invisible point that moved and grew to the size of the full screen. With Premiere Pro all this stuff is pretty easy. I have about 8 hours experience with this program so I don't think you will have a problem with it. I actually just followed the "Dummies" book and just use it as a reference as needed. Premiere Pro demands a lot from your computer. I'm using a Sony Vaio 2.53 Ghz with 1 Gb of RAM and dual HDDs, 320 Gb. My processor speed is a bit slow for this program. I can make it crash by trying to make the program do to much to quickly. If you are running a PC with similar specs make sure you disable stuff like your Internet connection, screen saver, and firewall/virus programs, etc. The fella who wrote the Dummies book recommends a 3.0 Ghz cpu as a minimum and now I know why. As I mentioned before, a graphics program is a great way to create nice backgrounds. I used Real Draw Pro 3 to make some simple shaded backgrounds and text boxes. Premiere Pro can import a wide variety of file formats, including .jpg so it's quick and easy to do. Cheers, Frank
