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Adobe Encore is a powerful application you can use to build projects for DVDs, Blu-ray disks, and interactive Flash (.swf) videos. Encore is included with Premiere Pro.
Starting up
In this lesson you will work with the project files from the pr11lessons folder. Make sure that you have loaded the prlessons folder onto your hard drive from www.digitalclassroombooks.com/epub/premierecs6. The Starting up section at the beginning of this book provides detailed information about loading lesson files, resetting your workspace, locating missing media, and opening the files in CS6. If you have not already done so, please review these instructions before starting this lesson.
Downloading the Adobe Encore Library Content
In this section of the book you will be working mostly with Adobe Encore. The application has a Library feature that allows you to access menu templates, buttons and other functional content. If you have not already done so you can download this additional functional content by reviewing the Adobe help page on this topic at the following link: http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/multi/library-functional-content-missing.html
Understanding the DVD/Blu-ray/Flash authoring process
The process for authoring projects for use as DVD, Blu-ray disk, or Flash files (.swf) is similar in all cases:
1 Export a Premiere Pro sequence to a format compatible with DVD or Blu-ray disk.
2 Create a DVD or Blu-ray disk Encore project.
3 Import your video and audio files into the Encore project and add them to Timelines.
4 Create menus with buttons, and then link the buttons to Timelines and other menus to generate navigation.
5 Output the completed project to a variety of formats, such as disk image, disk folder, and Flash file (.swf); or burn a DVD or Blu-ray disk directly from the application.
You can author DVD or Blu-ray disk content in the Creative Suite using Adobe Encore, which is included as part of the Creative Suite Production Premium, and the Master Collection when you subscribe to the Creative Cloud and is included with Adobe Premiere Pro when you purchase it individually. However, it is important to keep in mind that Encore is not the only application that can be used to create DVD and Blu-ray disks. Premiere Pro can be used as a stand-alone application and you can always export video files from Premiere Pro and use a third-party application for your disk authoring.
Understanding DVD formatting
DVD is an acronym for Digital Video Disk (also known as Digital Versatile Disk); the technology was created in the mid-1990s by a group of companies that included Phillips and Sony. DVDs are a digital optical storage medium that uses laser to read and write data onto a disk. These disks can store a wide variety of content, including video, audio, and data files. DVDs intended for playback on a console or DVD player follow a specific convention: the video is encoded into the MPEG-2 format; menus and sub-menus can be included to navigate the content; and additional content can be added. The DVD is then written into a standardized file and folder structure and burned to a disk.
The Adobe Suite of products provides you with the end-to-end tools you need to create a DVD project.
Understanding Blu-ray formatting
Officially released in 2006, the Blu-ray disk format was developed by the Blu-ray Disk Association, a group composed of consumer electronics makers, computer hardware makers, and elements of the film industry. Blu-ray disks were created to supersede DVDs and become a distribution medium for high-definition digital content. As with DVDs, Adobe Encore offers a wide range of tools for authoring content to display on Blue-ray disks. High-definition video content is usually encoded using the H.264 codec, but Blu-ray technology supports MPEG-2 to maintain backwards-compatibility with DVDs.
About the project
In this lesson, you will learn to export sequences from Premiere Pro and use them to construct a DVD project in Adobe Encore. You will build a DVD-based demo reel composed of the projects you have worked on in this book. In the two following exercises, you will learn the two most common ways of transferring your sequences from Premiere Pro to Encore. The first is a direct export that converts your sequence into DVD-compatible audio and video files. The second option is called Adobe Dynamic Link and it is a more direct alternative, but requires Adobe Premiere Pro purchased as part of the Production Premium suite or Master Collection. Dynamic Link lets you use an unrendered, Premiere Pro sequence directly inside an Encore project, thus eliminating the need to pre-render your sequence into MPEG-2 format.
Exporting an MPEG-2 DVD file
Any MPEG-2 file works when creating a DVD, but for flexibility, especially to add more than one audio track to your projects, we recommend using the MPEG-2 DVD export preset. This preset produces two separate files: the video portion of the exported sequence is written to an M2V file, and the audio portion of the sequence is written to a separate WAV file. To use a third-party application to author your DVD content, use the MPEG-2 DVD export preset to export your sequences.
In this portion of the lesson, you will open an existing Premiere Pro project and export an MPEG-2 file for use in your Encore project. You can find the media for this section of the lesson in the Media Library folder. Locate the video used for this lesson, Central Park-NYC-Lake Scene.AVI and Central Park-NYC-Fountain Scene.AVI, in the video sub-folder of the Travelogue-New York folder. You can find the audio used for this project, Classical Background Music.mp3, in the Audio folder.
1 From the Premiere Pro Welcome screen, click the Open Project button, or with Premiere Pro already open, chose File > Open Project. Navigate to the pr11lessons folder that you copied to your hard drive, and locate the pr1101.prproj file. Double-click the file to open it.
This project contains a single sequence called Lake Scene. There are some transitions used in this sequence that you should render before exporting the file, as explained in the next step.
2 Click the Timeline panel to make it active, and then press the Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) key on your keyboard to render all areas of the Timeline that need rendering.
Premiere Pro automatically previews the Timeline when the rendering is done. Press the spacebar on your keyboard or click any area of the Timeline panel to stop the playback.
3 With the Lake Scene sequence still active, choose File > Export > Media to open the Export Settings dialog box.
4 In the Export Settings dialog box, choose MPEG2-DVD from the Format pull-down menu, and from the Preset pull-down menu, choose NTSC High Quality.
The NTSC high-quality setting lets a DVD store approximately two hours of high-quality content.
Some third-party authoring programs do not import audio and video as separate files. In such cases, use the setting named MPEG2 in the format menu to produce a single file.
5 Click the Output Name field to open the Save As dialog box, and then navigate to the pr11lessons folder. Click the Save button on the dialog box to set this folder as the export destination, and then return to the Export Settings dialog.
Only the name of the exported file appears in the Output Name field; nothing else changes.
6 Select the Use Previews check box at the bottom of the dialog box. This option applies only when exporting sequences from Premiere Pro. When selected, you can use any preview files already generated for transitions and effects on the Timeline, thus making the rendering process faster.
If you have already rendered the effects and transitions used on your Timeline, you can save time by selecting the Use Previews check box when exporting.
Click the Export button to export the sequence from Premiere Pro.
7 Choose File > Save As. In the Save Project dialog box that appears, confirm that you are still in the pr11lessons folder, rename your file to pr1101-working, and then click the Save button.
Close the project. You have completed this section of the lesson.
You will use the file you exported after you create a new DVD project in Adobe Encore.
Creating a new Encore project
Encore is available as part of a suite of products and is also included with the individual purchase of Premiere Pro, so you can use Encore to author dynamic DVDs, Blu-ray disks, and Flash files (.swf). After importing media files into an Encore project, you can create menus step by step, or use pre-built templates that are PSD files familiar to Photoshop users. Encore lets you open a menu in Photoshop so you can use it to create new menus or enhance your existing menu content.
In this part of the lesson, you will create a new project and import the files you exported from Premiere Pro in the previous exercise. To continue this part of the lesson, please open Adobe Encore now.
1 From the Adobe Encore Welcome screen, click the New Project button, or with Encore already open, chose File > New > Project to open the New Project dialog box.
Encore’s welcome screen lets you open projects, create new ones, and read information about new features in the version of the software you are using.
2 In the New project dialog box, change the default project name to Digital Classroom Demo Reel, click the Browse button to navigate to the pr11lessons folder that you copied to your hard drive, and choose it as the location to store your project files.
3 In the Project Settings section of the dialog box, click on the radio button next to DVD and from the Television Standard drop-down list choose NTSC.
Click OK to create the project.
Choosing the Authoring Mode and Television Standard automatically configures the transcode settings used in the project.
The transcode settings control the way in which video brought into the project is converted into a format compatible with DVD or Blu-ray.
When working in Encore, you can choose how to import different types of footage: you can indicate that a specific file be treated as a menu, pop-up menu, Timeline, or Slideshow. Menus are used when creating a DVD or Blu-ray disk project to allow you to navigate to different areas; they are what create the non-linear nature of the disk-based experience. Pop-up menus are a special type of menu used only in Blu-ray disk projects. Timeline is where you place the audio and video resources that you wish a viewer to see, and finally slideshows are used to show a series of still images allowing you to author an image gallery on your disk.
Asset is the default option that you will use when importing audio and video content that you do not want to convert into a Timeline.
4 Choose File > Import As > Asset. Navigate to the pr11lessons folder and select the Lake Scene.M2V and Lake Scene.wav files that you created earlier in this lesson.
Highlight more than one file on a computer running the Windows OS by pressing and holding the Control key while clicking each file. On a computer running the Mac OS, press and hold the Command key to select multiple files.
5 Click the Open button to complete the Import and return to Encore.
6 Right-click (Windows) or Ctrl+click (Mac OS) any empty area of the Project panel and choose Import As > Asset from the menu that appears.
Many of the shortcuts from Premiere Pro work in Encore.
7 Navigate to the Media Library, locate the DVD creation folder, highlight the four files listed in the table below, and then click the Open button to import them.
Jeff Jacobs-I Will.m2v
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Jeff Jacobs-I Will.wav
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NYC-Central Park.m2v
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NYC-Central Park.wav
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The Project panel displays files in alphabetical order, thus letting you see how your audio and video files relate to each other.
8 Choose File > Save or press Ctrl+S (Windows) or Command+S (Mac OS) to save these changes to your project. Do not close this file; you will need it in the next part of the lesson.
Next, you will use Adobe Dynamic Link to import the final piece of footage you will need for this project.
Using Adobe Dynamic Link in Encore
There are two ways in which you can import content created in Adobe Premiere Pro into Encore. The first method is to export your projects as video and audio files and then import those elements into Encore and the second way is to use Adobe Dynamic Link. Dynamic Link lets you use unrendered Premiere Pro sequences in Encore projects, thus saving you the time it takes to export video and audio files. You can find all the files used in the imported sequence in the Media Library, within the Werewolves in Central Park folder.
Before you can complete the next section of the lesson you must open the pr1102.prproj file in Premiere Pro, reconnect the missing media and resave this file. The file is located in the pr11lessons folder. This missing media should be reconnected before you attempt to use Adobe Dynamic Link to import the sequence.
1 With the Demo Reel.ncor project still open, choose File > Adobe Dynamic Link > Import Premiere Pro Sequence to open the Import Premiere Pro Sequence dialog box.
The left side of the dialog lets you browse for a Premiere Pro file; the right side shows the sequences in the file you select.
2 In the Import Premiere Pro Sequence dialog box, navigate to the pr11lessons folder and click the pr1102.prproj file to select it.
The Sequence field to the right of the dialog box lists all the sequences in the highlighted Premiere Pro file.
Click the Reporter at Crime Scene sequence to highlight it, and click the OK button to import it.
Adobe Dynamic Link lets you import unrendered Premiere Pro sequences or After Effects compositions into Encore.
3 Notice that once imported into Encore, the Premiere Pro sequence displays differently from the other media you imported previously.
Premiere Pro sequences are imported as a single media item, unlike the MPEG-2 files that were split into two files for export.
4 Choose File > Save, press Ctrl+S (Windows), or press Command+S (Mac OS) to save changes to your project. Do not close this file; you will need it in the next part of the lesson.
A. Selection Tool. B. Direct Selection Tool. C. Move Tool. D. Rotate Tool. E. Text Tool. F.Vertical Text Tool. G. Zoom Tool. H. Edit Menu in Photoshop. I. Preview.
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Creating a Timeline
Encore has Timelines that work somewhat differently from the Timelines in Premiere Pro. In Encore, Timelines hold video and audio files, but unlike Premiere Pro, you can only have a single video track per Timeline. However, Encore Timelines can have multiple audio tracks, so you can have several language tracks to dub the DVD or Blu-ray disk. Encore Timelines can also contain tracks for sub-titles.
In this portion of the lesson, you will create a Timeline for the four sets of video and audio clips you imported. For this DVD, you will have a single Timeline, and then use chapter markers to create the ability to navigate to different points along the Timeline.
1 With the Demo Reel.ncor project still open, choose File > New > Timeline to create a new Timeline for your media files.
A new item called Untitled Timeline appears in the Project panel and a Timeline appears at the bottom of the application interface.
2 Click the Untitled Timeline in the Project panel to highlight it; its properties appear in the Properties panel at the right of the interface.
In the Properties panel, change the Timeline name to Demo Reel, and then add the following description: This is a demo reel of the projects created using the Premiere Pro Digital Classroom. You may need to expand the panel to read the entire description.
Names and Descriptions help you keep a project organized.
3 In the Project panel, select the video (Jeff Jacobs-I WIll.m2v) and audio (Jeff Jacobs-I WIll.wav) files for the Jeff Jacobs-I Will music video and drag them to the Demo Reel Timeline at the bottom of the interface.
The beginning of the Video and Audio 1 tracks automatically become highlighted; place your files at the highlighted points.
The Audio 1 track is automatically set as the English track. Add more tracks by right-clicking (Windows) or Ctrl+click (Mac OS) the track head and selecting Add Audio Track from the menu that appears. Make sure you assign the proper language to each track using the drop-down menu to the right of the track name.
The beginning of the music video clip appears in the monitor.
4 Click the Reporter at Crime Scene Premiere Pro Sequence you imported using Adobe Dynamic link and drag it onto the Timeline; it automatically snaps into place next to the first few clips.
In Encore, clips you add to the Timeline automatically snap to the end of the clips already on the Timeline.
5 Select the audio and video file for the NYC-Central Park clips and add them to the Timeline after the Reporter at Crime Scene clips.
Repeat this procedure for the Lake Scene clips and add them to the end of the Timeline.
Be careful when adding clips to the Timeline: if you drag your clips below the Audio 1 track, you will create another audio track.
6 Choose File > Save, press Ctrl+S (Windows), or press Command+S (Mac OS) to save changes to your project. Do not close this file; you will need it in the next part of the lesson.
In the next part of the lesson, you will work with the chapter markers that were automatically added at the beginning of each pair of clips.
Renaming chapter markers
In the previous exercise, a chapter marker was automatically added to the Timeline as you added a pair of clips. Chapter markers help you create menu navigation because each marker creates a unique point along the Timeline that can be navigated to independently.
1 With the Demo Reel.ncor project still open, click the first chapter marker to see its properties in the Properties panel.
2 In the Properties panel, change the name of this first marker to Jeff Jacobs.
Click on the other chapter markers one at a time and assign the following names to each of them respectively.
MARKER NUMBER
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NEW NAME
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Reporter
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Central Park
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Lake Scene
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You will use these names when you build the navigational menus for this DVD.
3 Choose File > Save, press Ctrl+S (Windows), or press Command+S (Mac OS) to save changes to your project. Do not close this file; you will need it in the next part of the lesson.
In the next portion of the lesson, you will organize the project panel so it is not cluttered.
Organizing the Project panel
Media management is an important aspect of working with Encore, as it is with Premiere Pro. A disorganized Project panel can complicate a project, because media becomes more difficult to locate.
1 With the Demo Reel.ncor project still open, click on the project panel to highlight it, then choose File > New > Folder to open the New Folder Name dialog box. Change the default folder name to Assets and click the OK button to create the folder in the Project panel.
Similar to Premiere Pro, Encore uses folders to organize the Project panel content.
2 Select all the video and audio files in the Project panel, then drag and drop them into the new Assets folder you just created.
The folder becomes highlighted to indicate you will add the selected content.
3 Choose File > Save, press Ctrl+S (Windows), or press Command+S (Mac OS) to save changes to your project. Do not close this file; you will need it in the next part of the lesson.
In the next portion of the lesson, you will build the menus that will link the content of this project.
Creating Menus
Menus are the basis for all navigation in a DVD or Blu-ray project:
- • They contain navigational buttons so viewers can access the project’s content.
- • They can be used to play a timeline, navigate to individual chapter points, navigate to other menus, or set the active audio and sub-title tracks.
With Adobe Encore, you can create custom menus using assets from the Encore Library, or edit those assets in Adobe Photoshop to create new and unique content. You can also use pre-built menus downloaded from Adobe Resource Central, modify those pre-built menus in Photoshop, or create original menus directly from Photoshop PSD files.
All the menus installed with Encore or downloaded as templates from the Internet are native Photoshop documents (.psd), thus letting you customize existing content or create unique, new content from the beginning. Because the files are native Photoshop files, you can also use animation programs like Adobe After Effects to create motion graphics using the same assets available for your menus.
In this portion of the lesson, you will import and customize two Photoshop files already prepared for use as the main menu and sub-menu of this project.
1 With the Demo Reel.ncor project still open, choose File > New > Folder, and in the New Folder Name dialog box, change the default folder name to Menus. Click the OK button to create the new folder.
2 In the Project panel, click the Menus folder to highlight it, and then choose File > Import As > Menu to open the Import as Menu dialog box. Navigate to the DVD Creation folder in the Media Library and highlight the Digital Classroom Menu SD NTSC.psd and Digital Classroom Submenu SD NTSC.psd files. Click the Open button to import them directly into the Menus folder. Click the reveal triangle to the left of the folder name to show its content.
In Encore, the folder reveal triangle is always available, even if the folder is empty.
3 If necessary, click the dividing line between the name and type in the Project panel and drag it to the right to reveal the full file name of both menus.
Double-click the Digital Classroom Menu SD NTSC to select it and make it active.
Double-clicking the menu opens it in the Menu panel and brings that panel in front of the monitor.
4 Click the Layers panel in the lower-right side of the interface to make it active and bring it to the front of the display. Notice that the menu is divided into several layers and layer folders; this is the content created in Photoshop that you can add to, delete, or customize in Encore.
Notice also that each button is contained within its own layer folder. Click the reveal triangle to the left of the layer folder called (+) Special Features and notice that it is composed of a text layer and another layer called (=1) highlight. All the other button layer folders are created in the same way.
The (=1) highlight layer is only available when the button is activated during the DVD playback.
The special symbols at the beginning of the layer folders let Encore recognize these layers as buttons.
5 Double-click the Zoom tool in the Tools bar to set the menu panel zoom level to 100%, and then click the Selection tool to activate it.
Click the Special features button in the menu panel to select it.
With the button selected, press the Backspace (Windows) or Delete (Mac OS) key on your keyboard to delete it. This menu only needs two buttons: one to play the Demo Reel Timeline, and the other to take you to the sub-menu to navigate to each individual clip.
You need to modify most pre-built menus to suit your specific project.
6 Click the Show Safe Area button ( 
) at the bottom of the Menu panel to show the Action and Title Safe Margins.
) at the bottom of the Menu panel to show the Action and Title Safe Margins.
Click the Chapter Selection button with the Selection tool and drag it toward the bottom of the menu; make sure to keep it within the safe margins.
The safe margins used in Encore are similar to the ones in Premiere Pro.
7 Click the Text Tool in the Tools panel to activate it, and then click the text for the Chapter Selection button three times. This selects all the text for this button so you can edit it without affecting the rest of the button.
With the text selected, change it to View Individual Clips.
Clicking three times with the text tool selects all the text in the button; double-clicking selects a single word.
When text is selected, editing it is similar to using the Titler in Premiere Pro. You can edit text properties using the Character panel located at the upper-right of the application interface. From the Character panel, you can edit the font, font style, size, tracking, leading color, and other properties of the selected text.
8 With the Text tool still active, click the Title of Your Movie text three times to select it.
Change this text to DEMO REEL 2012.
You can also select text by clicking and dragging with the Text tool, just as you would in a word processing application.
9 With the DEMO REEL 2012 text still selected, click on the Character panel to activate it and make it visible.
Click on the color swatch and in the Color Picker that appears, set the R, G, and B values to zero by clicking the current values and changing them.
Click OK to close the Color Picker and change the text color to black.
You can enter colors into the color picker using HSB, RGB, or Hexadecimal values. You can also click the color field to the left to visually set the active color.
RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) are the primary colors of the RGB color mode used for all on-screen design for computer monitors, projectors, and television sets.
10 Click in any empty part of the Menu panel to deselect the text.
You can also select text by clicking and dragging with the Text tool, just as you would in a word processing application.
In the next part of this lesson, you will edit the sub-menu to link its buttons to the chapter markers in the Timeline.
To deselect items in your menu, you can also use the Edit > Deselect All command or the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+A (Windows) or Command+Shift+A (Mac OS).
11 Choose File > Save, press Ctrl+S (Windows), or press Command+S (Mac OS) to save changes to your project. Do not close this file; you will need it in the next part of the lesson.
Linking buttons to chapter markers
In this part of the lesson, you will use the menu items you created in the last section to build your project’s navigation.
1 With the Demo Reel.ncor project still open, double-click the Digital Classroom Submenu SD NTSC in the Project panel to open it in the Menu panel.
This submenu contains buttons that can display a video preview of the chapters they link to.
2 Activate the Selection tool and click the button labeled Chapter 1. Note the button includes the gray rectangle along with the text “Chapter 1.”
The button properties appear in the Properties panel on the right. The property used for navigation is called Link.
Use the Properties panel to add navigation and set item properties in Encore.
3 In the Properties panel, enable the Set Name from Link check box, and then from the Link pull-down menu, choose Demo Reel > Jeff Jacobs.
The name of the button and the on-screen text of the button change to match the name of the chapter marker.
4 The Timeline panel remained fixed on the Demo Reel Timeline when you edited the menus in this and the preceding exercise. You will now use the Timeline to set a link for the remaining buttons on the menu.
Again with the Selection tool active, click the Chapter 2 button to highlight it. In the Properties panel, enable the button’s Set Name from Link check box switch.
Click the Pick Whip ( 
) to the left of the Link property in the Properties Panel and drag it to the second chapter marker on the Timeline.
) to the left of the Link property in the Properties Panel and drag it to the second chapter marker on the Timeline.
As do most Adobe applications, Encore lets you perform the same task in several ways.
5 Set the links for the final two chapter buttons using the method outlined in the previous two steps.
Link the Chapter 3 button to the third chapter marker called Central Park.
Link the Chapter 4 button to the fourth chapter marker called Lake Scene.
Make sure you click each button’s Set Name from Link check box. You can do this before or after setting the Link property.
The image displayed in video buttons such as these is set by the chapter marker’s poster frame property; you can select a marker to change it.
6 With the Menu panel active, deselect all the items on your menu by choosing Edit > Deselect All, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+A (Windows) or Command+Shift+A (Mac OS). When none of the items on the menu are selected, the menu properties appear in the Properties panel.
Click the Motion property tab to view the menu’s Motion options. These options let you set the background audio and video to display when the menu is on the screen; you can also use the options to set other properties to create animated, engaging menus.
Enable the check box next to the Animate Buttons property to convert the still video frames into looping video buttons. You will see the effects of enabling motion once you preview the menu.
7 Click the Selection tool to activate it, click the previous button on the menu, and press the Backspace (Windows) or Delete (Mac OS) key on your keyboard to delete it.
Next, select the next button on the menu and delete it as well.
For this project, the Next and Previous buttons are redundant when combined with the Main Menu button because there are only two menus.
8 Choose File > Save, press Ctrl+S (Windows), or press Command+S (Mac OS) to save changes to your project. Do not close this file; you will need it in the next part of the lesson when you add the links to allow the menus to connect to each other.
When editing menus in Adobe Photoshop, do NOT remove the special symbols at the beginning of the button names. You can easily add and copy button layer groups, but the special symbols in the button names help Adobe Encore recognize the button type. Your buttons will not work without the symbols.
Linking menus to each other
To build navigation, you must link the two menus created for this lesson to each other.
1 With the Demo Reel.ncor project still open, confirm that the Digital Classroom Submenu is active in the Menu panel. If necessary, double-click the Digital Classroom Submenu in the Project panel to make it active.
2 With the Selection tool, click the Return to Menu button to activate it.
In the Properties panel, change the button name to Main Menu to match screen shot below; the button text in the menu panel itself changes after clicking another text field in the panel or after pressing Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS).
Click the Link property Pick Whip and drag it to the Digital Classroom Menu SD NTSC located in the Project panel.
Use the Pick Whip to link to any item visible in the Project panel and to chapter markers on the Timeline.
3 Double-click the Digital Classroom Menu in the Project panel to make it active, and then click the Play button with the Selection tool to highlight it.
In the Properties panel, change the Play button name property to PLAY DEMO; the button text in the menu changes after clicking another text field in the panel or after pressing Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS).
The Sync Button Text and Name check box links the button name property with the button text that appears in the menu.
4 Click the button’s Link property drop-down menu and choose Demo Reel > Jeff Jacobs as the target for this button. This links the button to the beginning of the Demo Reel Timeline.
5 With the Selection tool, click the View Individual Clips button to make it active; set its Link property drop-down menu to Digital Classroom Submenu SD NTSC > Default to set the submenu as the button’s target.
6 Choose File > Save, press Ctrl+S (Windows), or press Command+S (Mac OS) to save changes to your project. Do not close this file; you will need it in the next part of the lesson to complete the DVD project.
Setting a first play item
The first play item is the menu or Timeline that automatically appears when a DVD first starts. You need to set your main menu as the first play item so it appears on the screen and your DVD navigation works.
1 With the Demo Reel.ncor project still open, right-click (Windows) or Ctrl+click (Mac OS) the Digital Classroom Menu SD NTSC menu in the Project panel to open a contextual menu.
2 From the contextual menu, choose Set as First Play; a small play icon appears on the menu icon in the panel.
A small play icon above the menu’s icon in the Project panel marks the menu as the first play item.
3 Choose File > Save, press Ctrl+S (Windows), or press Command+S (Mac OS) to save changes to your project. Do not close this file; you need to test it to ensure everything works properly.
Previewing a DVD
You can test your project at any point in the authoring process after setting your first play item. A good best practice to follow is to test throughout the authoring process to avoid costly, time-consuming mistakes, and then again before releasing the project.
1 With the Demo Reel.ncor project still open, click the Preview button in the Tools panel to open the Project Preview window.
2 The main menu appears; you can now test your project’s navigation.
The speed at which the first preview starts depends on your system configuration.
Click the PLAY DEMO button to play the Demo Reel Timeline.
3 After ensuring the button works, return to the menu by clicking the Remote Control Title Button at the base of the Preview window.
Use the controls at the bottom of the Preview window to simulate the buttons on a remote control
4 From the main menu, click the View Individual Clips button to navigate to the sub-menu.
From the project sub-menu, click the Reporter clip to navigate to the second chapter marker on the Timeline.
There might be a lag when the project is previewing. This is normal and depends on your system configuration.
Let the entire clip play to the end; notice that the next clip begins immediately. This is not the correct behavior for this type of button; the clip should return to the sub-menu after it finishes playing to allow the user to select a different clip, not automatically start a new clip. You can correct this behavior by setting End and Override actions.
5 Close the Preview window by clicking the Exit Here button on the lower-right side of the window.
Choose File > Save, press Ctrl+S (Windows), or press Command+S (Mac OS) to save changes to your project. Do not close this file; you will need it open in the next part of the lesson.
Setting End and Override actions
You can use the End and Override actions to control the way in which the user navigates from one section of a Timeline to another. You can apply End actions to Menus, Timelines, and Chapter Markers to set the event that should follow when a specified item finishes playing. You can add Override actions to buttons to override the default end actions of items such as Chapter Markers.
For the exercise in this lesson, the PLAY DEMO button from the main menu should play the entire Demo Reel Timeline; the buttons on the sub-menu should navigate back to the originating menu after the individual clips finish playing.
1 With the Demo Reel.ncor project still open, click the first Chapter Marker in the Demo Reel Timeline to select it.
2 In the Properties panel, set the first marker’s End Action to go to the next clip on the Timeline by choosing Demo Reel > Reporter from the End Action drop-down menu.
3 Click the second Chapter Marker and set its End Action to Demo Reel > Central Park.
4 Click the third Chapter Marker and set its End Action to Demo Reel > Lake Scene.
5 Click the fourth and final Chapter Marker and set its End Action to Return to Last Menu.
This pattern sets the end action of each Chapter Marker to advance to the next clip on the Timeline. The final Chapter Marker’s End Action is set to return to the menu the user was previously on.
The next step of this process is to assign actions to the buttons on the sub-menu to override these end actions and return to the sub-menu when the specified clip has finished playing.
6 Double-click the Digital Classroom Submenu SD NTSC 2 in the Project panel to open it in the Menu panel.
Setting Override Actions is optional; if you choose to use the Override actions, you must set each button.
7 With the Selection tool, click the Jeff Jacobs button to activate it, and in Basic tab of the Properties panel, set its Override property to Link Back to Here.
The actual menu name appears in the drop-down menu when you select Link Back to Here as the Override.
8 Select each of the remaining three buttons and set each Override action to Link Back to Here.
9 Click the Preview button in the Tools panel to open the Project Preview window.
Click the View Individual Clips button to navigate immediately to the sub-menu. Click any of the buttons to view the corresponding clip.
10 Close the Preview window by clicking the Exit Here button on the lower-right side of the window.
Choose File > Save, press Ctrl+S (Windows), or press Command+S (Mac OS) to save changes to your project. Do not close this file; you will need it open in the next part of the lesson to output your project.
Outputting the project
Encore can create projects for distribution to DVD, Blu-ray, or the web. There are several options for distributing to optical disks; for example, you can burn a DVD or Blu-ray disk directly from Encore; or create a disk image, master, or folder for use in a third-party authoring program. Regardless of the output format, you can use the Build panel to output your project.
1 With the Demo Reel.ncor project still open, click the Build panel to make it active and visible.
2 From the Build Panel Format drop-down menu, choose DVD; from the Output drop-down menu, choose DVD Folder.
Confirm that the Source area drop-down menu is set to Create Using the Current Project.
Your specific output format varies depending on your needs.
To burn a DVD directly from Encore, choose DVD Disk from the Output drop-down menu. The DVD output method you choose depends on the specific uses for the DVD disk: if you have a burner and want to make a test copy, choose DVD Disk. If you want your DVDs created at a replication facility, the facility should tell you the output they prefer.
3 If necessary, use the scroll bar on the right side of the Build panel to reveal the disk’s Destination options.
In the Destination area of the panel, click the Browse button and choose a location to which to write your DVD folder. For this project, use the pr11lessons folder as the destination.
Name the Project in the Disk Info section and set the size of the disk you are going to to burn. For example, the figure below shows the Disk name set to Demo Reel and standard single layer DVD as the output media.
A single layer DVD can hold 4.7 GB of data; a dual layer DVD can hold 8.5.
4 Again if necessary, use the scroll bar on the right side of the Build panel to reveal the disk’s Region Coding options.
In the Region Codes section of the panel, set the Region Coding you want to use. For example, to create a DVD without any regional restrictions, choose the All Regions option button. Any other choice will prevent the disk from playing back in DVD players that are set for any unchecked region.
Specify the type of Copy protection to use when creating your disk: you can set the option to make zero, one, or an unlimited number of copies of a disk. For this exercise, disable copy protection to allow an unlimited number of copies to be made.
Region coding is a tool to prevent illegal pirating of DVD disks.
5 Click the Check Project button in the top-right corner of the Build panel to open the Check Project panel. Using this panel to check the project before building it is an optional step, but it is very helpful to double-check errors or omissions.
In the Check Project panel, click the Start button to begin checking.
Checking your project is an optional step you can perform at any point in the authoring process.
6 For this exercise, the Project Check indicates that the Demo Reel Timeline does not have an End Action set.
Click the error in the Check Project panel to see the Demo Reel Timeline properties in the Properties panel.
Set the Timeline’s End Action to Return to Last Menu, and then close the Check Project panel.
7 Click the Build button on the Build panel to complete the DVD authoring process. A status bar appears on the screen to indicate the progress made. The time it takes to build the DVD depends on the media used and the configuration of your computer.
You can stop the Build process anytime by clicking the Cancel button on the status bar.
8 Choose File > Save, press Ctrl+S (Windows), or press Command+S (Mac OS) to save changes to your project. Close the file; you have completed this lesson.
Self study
Use your own content to create your disks. If you are not familiar with Photoshop, use the pre-built menus from the Library or download menus from Adobe Resource Central.
Review
Questions
1 What is the result of using the MPEG-2 DVD export format in Premiere Pro?
2 The templates, buttons and other elements used in Adobe Encore are all __________ files, so if you are already a _________ user, you can easily modify or create new menu items.
3 What is the advantage of using Adobe Dynamic Link when creating Adobe Encore projects?
Answers
1 The MPEG-2 DVD export format creates two separate files: the video portion of the exported sequence is written to an M2V file, and the audio portion of the sequence is written to a separate WAV file.
2 PSD, Photoshop
3 Adobe Dynamic Link lets you use unrendered Premiere Pro sequences in Encore projects, thus saving you the time it takes to export your video and audio files.
