#1  
07-28-2009, 07:01 PM
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This is something I put together a couple of years ago, to teach a few friends how to use Ulead DVD Workshop 2.

This video-based tutorial will demonstrate how to do several things:
  • How to use images (icons) as selectors. I'm not real fond of how most authoring software handles selectable text, as it does not anti-alias very nicely when highlighted. Icons work better, leaving the text legible at all times.
  • How to add audio to a still-image background. You are limited to several minutes of looping audio, and then the menu repeats. Watch your overscan area at all times, and remember the concepts of bleeding and tucking, as described at: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/dvd-...explained.html
  • How to add multiple assets, be it multiple videos and/or multiple audios. This includes importing demuxed audio and video (elementary streams; i.e. M2V + AC3 files), as well as muxed audio+video files (program streams, i.e. .MPG files).

Watch Ulead DVDWS2 Video Guide

Note:
This isn't Youtube, with instant playback, so it takes a couple of minutes to pre-load before it starts to play. The little circle will go around and around and around after you hit play -- and eventually it will start playing. Yes, it's also silent. It's just for watching, not listening. The video is a standard H.264 format video, the same as Youtube or Hulu.


Yes, the video does move a bit fast, but we try to keep videos under 16MB, so that our visitors can watch them without any problems -- even those who still have a dial-up connections. Making it small means making it short, and making it short meant making it fast. Simply re-watch it a few times, or drag the play bar and rewind it.




Guide Notes


If you can only remember one thing about DVD authoring, remember this: You are NOT "making a video" (the DVD), as much as you are "organizing assets for presentation". This is what authoring is, the creation of your presentation. Authoring is NOT "making menus" or "making a DVD". Yes, that's the outcome, but it's hard as heck to understand the process from that narrow simplification of authoring.

Assets include:
  • the videos -- both what you watch and what is used for menus/firstplays
  • the audio -- again, both what you hear, and for menus/firstplays
  • still images used for menu backgrounds, menu selectors
  • subtitles
So to that end, re-review the video one more time.

Notice how I have imported my videos and my still images first. Once the importing is finished, I being to lay out the contents of the disc, adding my episodes to the timeline at the base of the Ulead DVDWS2 program. And as a final step, I assemble the menu by putting up my background image and button selector images, and then connect my menu buttons to the episodes on my timeline.


__________________

About the project: This was one of my hobby projects, the Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries that I had recorded from Cartoon Network, captured from older S-VHS recordings in the late 1990s and early 2000s. After the official DVD release was announced, I scrapped my project, and purchased that set. I was missing a lot of episodes anyway, I just had some random ones recorded, and was planning on making an incomplete set.

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  #2  
08-01-2009, 02:53 AM
Superstar Superstar is offline
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I'll be getting Ulead Workshop in a few days..I request a guide of the steps that I'd need to take to do my particular project..
comp dvd...all seperate recordings, needed imported seperately as well as importing seperate, restored audio, and background music for the menus...kind of a Workshop workflow, so to speak.
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  #3  
08-04-2009, 10:58 PM
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Instead of writing more at this time (I'm wanting to save guides for the guides portion of the site), let's do this...
  • When you have purchased and installed DVDWS2, try to see how far you can get on your own, based off the above guide. It might also help to read the authoring basics guide on this site (which might help, might not).
  • Then if you get stuck, ask some questions, and we'll try to answer you.
That should speed things up a bit.

Just remember to keep questions SHORT and try to not ask too many at once. That will help in speeding up this process, too.

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  #4  
08-05-2009, 12:40 AM
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I got it yesterday and it's installed...
I can't really keep up with that guide very well because of the speed and I can't see what the words really say...

To sum up my project...comp dvd...5 sep. recordings ( on avg) sep audio for each recording, want to add background music to the menus, and make motion menus...
I'd like to start tomorrow, so if you can give me a quick crash course I'd greatly appreciate it...I've only used DVDLab for 5 yrs now..i've never used anything else..so just kinda point me in the right direction, you know what I'm trying to do and what my goals for this project is, and I hope I can get it from there
Thanks

-- merged --

I haven't had a chance to use the full program yet, but I do have a few quick q's from when I used the trial briefly...

I didn't try to do a lot with it, but I did notice that when I imported a picture for the menu, the picture didn't take up the full background, and I couldn't figure out how to expand it, as you can do in DVD-Lab..so how would I do that?

Also, how do I add motion menus, and background music to the menu? When I do add the background music, how long should it be, and what file format should it be?

Also, I notice when I try to open one of my videos in Workshop, it doesnt show my encoded videos...they're not listed anywhere in ulead...only the videos that I haven't encoded yet are in there..why is that?
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  #5  
09-08-2009, 11:13 AM
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I've added some notes to the guide post at the top of the page. Now let me address some of your questions one by one.

Quote:
I can't really keep up with that guide very well because of the speed and I can't see what the words really say...
Open up Ulead DVD Workshop 2. You don't really need to see any words, just watch what is clicked. On a 19" screen with a 1280x1024 resolution, I can read it just fine, although it's not really necessary.

Quote:
comp dvd...5 sep. recordings ( on avg) sep audio for each recording, want to add background music to the menus, and make motion menus...
The guide was made on a personal hobby project, a collection of episodes. This is the same as a compilation DVD you're wanting.

Background music is simply adding music to the audio sub-tab. Be on the EDIT tab page (top of page), and then on the bottom left, change the sub-tab to the AUDIO tab. Import audio there.

Motion menus are complicated. Let's get you a still image menu setup first. In all honesty, unless you've created a really cool menu in an editor like Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro or Vegas, then it's probably not worth it. I see a lot of homemade videos using show credits or footage off the disc as menu backgrounds, and it's tacky and unnecessary. It's your choice, of course, but professional menus are made specifically for the disc menu, it's not a quick video segment snagged off the DVD before authoring it out. Even I rarely do motion menus. For one thing, it's hard to come up with a really good concept, which still lets menu text remain easy to read and see.

Quote:
when I imported a picture for the menu, the picture didn't take up the full background, and I couldn't figure out how to expand it, as you can do in DVD-Lab..so how would I do that?
I don't know what DVD-Lab does, so I won't try to compare. With Ulead DVDWS2, you need an image that is properly prepared as a compliant DVD asset. This means you image must be 720x540 resolution, and I suggest saving it as a BMP file (not a JPEG). Do this in an image editor. I use Photoshop 6 or Photoshop CS3 for this.

Quote:
When I do add the background music, how long should it be, and what file format should it be?
The system I'm typing this on, at this very moment, doesn't have enough RAM to run DVDWS2 in addition to everything else I have on at the moment. So I can't look at the precise time. It's somewhere around 3.5 to 4 minutes, give or take. I highly suggest using a WAV for the menu, not an MP2 or AC3.

Quote:
Also, I notice when I try to open one of my videos in Workshop, it doesnt show my encoded videos...they're not listed anywhere in ulead...only the videos that I haven't encoded yet are in there..why is that?
Hmmm.... how are you trying to "open" these videos? On the EDIT tab (top of page), import videos in the VIDEO sub-tab. I haven't authored a disc in DVDWS2 in about a month, so I've forgotten what to click on (right-click?). I need to open DVDWS2 and quickly make a disc.

I think this system is overheating -- it's not just the RAM. I'll shut it off for a while, and then post back some detailed (click by click) information for you either later tonight or in the morning.

Wanted to try and answer you tonight as best I could.

In the meantime, see how much headway you can make on this project. Try to import everything another time. If we can't figure it out in a few more posts, I may see about VNC'ing into your system, doing part of a project for you while you sit back and watch my mouse.

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  #6  
09-09-2009, 06:54 AM
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I still can't find my video when I try to open it, so I'm going to need that click by click guide that you mentioned in your last post...
Thanks
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  #7  
09-13-2009, 08:34 PM
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As per VNC session, you don't "open" the M2V video files, you import them into the video assets window, as shown in the video guide in the first post. The only files that can be "opened" are project files.

That should solve that issue.

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  #8  
11-01-2009, 04:48 PM
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How do I create chapters in Workshop? We went over my comp dvds, but this isn't for that, it's for a full video that I want to split up, and add chapters for (you know what I'm working with)
How do I do that?
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  #9  
11-01-2009, 06:17 PM
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I covered this in the last VNC session.

On the edit tab, double click your video clip from the "timeline" (assets in use) bar at the bottom of the screen.

Find the "Add chapters" option in one of the tabs on the left.

Move the dragger underneath the video preview, and then click the + button to add a chapter. The chapter will appear on the film strip on the right side fo the screen.

When you lay out the menu, you can drag those chapters from the right onto an image/icon button, video thumbnail or a text button. It will then link that chapter to that menu item.

I think you can create a video thumbnail by dragging the chapter pic onto the menu. Remember that auto-generated thumbnails will appear 1:1 to the video resolution, so 352x480 will be tall and narrow, while 720x480 will be too long. Resize it to about 4:3 using your eyeballs, make it look "TV shaped" again. (Assuming it's not 16:9 content, and then you'd want to make it "HDTV widescreen" shape).

And that's really all there is.

This has been demonstrated live on your computer, partially in the above video, and in written out text. I just don't know how else to explain or show it.

I hope this time did it.

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  #10  
11-01-2009, 06:41 PM
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Yes, that did it. I'm still not crazy about this program yet, but I'm doing the best I can to learn it, and it's getting a little easier for me each time, hopefully soon I'll have it mastered for what I need it to do Thanks

-- merged --

Having a weird problem. I'm trying to make a new DVD, and I opened the video as I should, gone to the menu tab, and tried to drag it over from the left side to the bottom toolbar...but it's not letting me do it...I tried it both from the edit tab, and the menu tab...why isn't it working?

NEVERMIND. About 30 secs after I posted this, and I tried again from the edit tab, and it worked this time, I'm not sure why it didn't before, so nevermind now
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  #11  
11-04-2009, 11:57 AM
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The bottom "timeline" is a double bar -- one for images, one for video. You can't import a video into it when it's in "image mode". Notice the bar is tabbed on the left side.

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  #12  
11-10-2009, 02:45 PM
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Instead of dragging the chapters from the right side film strip to the menu to make a thumbnail, thus making that a chapter.....how do I link the chapter to the menu without dragging it over from the right side and making a thumnail, and using just text instead?
For example..I just have the number " 1 " on the menu..how do I make that the chapter without having a thumbnail there?
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  #13  
11-10-2009, 02:52 PM
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When you drag the chapter to the menu, it auto-creates the thumbnail AND it links the video chapter mark to that new thumbnail. What you want to do is simply link the video to a box of text. Drag the chapter onto your text, and wait for it to "highlight" with dotted lines. Drop it, and it's now linked to the text.

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  #14  
11-10-2009, 02:54 PM
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Someone made me a menu (you know where at) and they made the chapter points on the menu text...so I want to link those as the chapters since I won't be able to drag them from the right side to the menu and make it a thumbnail

The text in the menu is already there, and I won't be writing anything in Workshop......when I drag the chapter over from the right side, it doesn't highlight the text thats already there, it just drops the thumbnail on top of it..the thumnail is highlighted with the dotted lines, but that's it...then when I delete the thumbnail the chapter is deleted also, because it disappears from the left side box...
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  #15  
11-10-2009, 03:06 PM
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There has to be something in Workshop for it to link to.

A few times, I wanted to do 100% of my menu graphics in Photoshop. My solution was to create a very large period in DVDWS and place it beside the graphics text. Turn it invisible in the text options, so it only shows up when selected as the highlight, when playing the menu.

Be mindful of how the arrow keys move from selection to selection, when it's played in a DVD player. It's easy to make a menu that works crappy, if you don't line up the entries perfectly AND use a large enough font. You don't want a menu with 5 items, where the remote down key skips from 1 to 4, and to get to 2,3, and 5, you have to press left and right, and just guess at how to navigate.

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  #16  
08-10-2011, 04:18 PM
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That worked... the way the menu was made for me was he put 1. then wrote what the chapter was
2. wrote what the chapter was..etc, to 5, so I put a period by each number, linked the chapter to it, and then I stretched the period overtop the number and that worked perfect, when I checked it, if you scroll overtop the numbers, it highlights it to select it.

Thanks a lot

-- merged --

Sorry I'm bringing an old post back to life, but I have a question. I haven't made a DVD in quite awhile, and I can't remember exactly what I'm supposed to click on the finish tab.

I know the video says to click the "Create DVD Folders" box, but I keep thinking that I'm supposed to click the "Create disc image" box.....

Just to clarify, do I click the "Create DVD Folder" box, or the "Create disc image" box?

Then, in IMGBURN, do I go to Mode -> Build, OR Mode-> Write?

Thanks
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  #17  
08-11-2011, 02:17 AM
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Trying to go from memory....
I think this forum recommends create DVD folder, that is what I used and got good results.
For IMGburn, click the mode button on tool bar, then ez-mode picker, then "write files/folders to disc".
Admin can either verify or correct me on this but I think that should do it for you.
After you click that write files...then you can click on the right top (device) and set how many discs you want to burn
and set your write speed.
IMG should prompt with dialog boxes, just make sure it doesn't give you the too large file for disc or however it is worded.
If it gives you that warning, cancel as it will be a coaster.
This shouldn't be a problem if you have already have your files ready for whatever disc size you are using.
If this isn't enough, we'll try to walk you through it.
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  #18  
09-18-2011, 05:44 AM
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Quote:
I know the video says to click the "Create DVD Folders" box, but I keep thinking that I'm supposed to click the "Create disc image" box.....
No.

Quote:
Just to clarify, do I click the "Create DVD Folder" box, or the "Create disc image" box?
Folder.
DVDWS2 is notoriously bad about preparation of DVD-Video assets, including bad gapping and bad layer breaks.
Great authoring software, lousy built-in burning (including image creation).

Quote:
Then, in IMGBURN, do I go to Mode -> Build, OR Mode-> Write?
Build.

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