Building an auto-play disc as you did in the previous exercise is the quickest way to go from a Premiere Elements project to an optical disc you can watch in your living room. However, auto-play discs lack the ability to jump directly to different scenes, as well as other navigational features that most users expect when watching a DVD or Blu-ray Disc. You can quickly create such navigation menus in Premiere Elements using a variety of templates designed for this purpose.
1. | If you’re not currently in the Disc Menus workspace, select Disc Menus in the Tasks panel to switch to it now.
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2. | Premiere Elements ships with many distinctive menu templates—predesigned and customizable menus that come in a variety of themes and styles. Select General from the category menu, and then select the template called Aquarium from the menu next to it. If you don’t have this category or template, choose another. |
3. | To apply the Aquarium template to your project, click to select the template in Templates view, and then click the Apply button (  ) in the lower-right corner of Templates view. Or, drop the template from Templates view onto the Disc Layout panel.
Each template contains a Main menu and a Scenes menu. The Main menu is the first screen that the viewer sees when the disc is played. The Scenes menu is a secondary panel accessed when the viewer clicks the Scene Selection button in the Main menu.
Note
To replace the selected template, click another to select it, and then click Apply to apply it to the project, or drop it onto the Disc Layout panel. To delete all menus, choose Disc > Change to Auto-Play in the Premiere Elements menu.
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4. | Under Disc Menus at the bottom of the Disc Layout panel, click to select Main Menu 1.
Two text links are currently visible in this menu: Play Movie and Scene Selection. Additionally, there is a generic text box called Movie Title Here. You’ll now change the text of this generic button to something more appropriate for your project.
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5. | In the preview area of the Disc Layout panel, click the Movie Title Here text once. A thin, white rectangle appears around the button indicating that it is selected.
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6. | Double-click the Movie Title Here text to open the Change Text dialog. If the text under Change Text is not already highlighted, select it now, and then type The Georgia Aquarium. Click the OK button to close the Change Text dialog and to commit the change.
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7. | Let’s make the text The Georgia Aquarium stand out a bit more. Click the text to make it active, and then on the right in the Properties view, click the Font drop-down list box and choose 48 pt. Note that you could also change the font and font size, and unbold, italicize, or underline the text.
Note
Rollover effects like the wavy lines in this example vary from template to template.
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8. | Click the Preview button to preview the main menu. Place your pointer over the Play Movie and Scene Selection buttons, but don’t click them yet. Notice the wavy lines that appear in the text box when the pointer passes over the text. This rollover effect is part of the menu template and shows viewers which button they’re selecting. Click the Play Movie button and the movie begins to play.
The preview feature shows how your DVD will look after recording the project to disc. Note, however, that the quality of the previewed video may not be indicative of the final video. Because of the differences between computer monitors and TV sets, you may see noticeable horizontal lines as the video is playing on the computer monitor. These lines are referred to as interlacing and will not be visible in the final movie when played on a TV. |
9. | As the movie is playing, click the Main Menu button (  ) at the bottom of the Preview Disc window. Clicking this button at any point during playback returns you to the main menu, so you don’t have to watch the entire movie if you’re just testing your menus. |
10. | Click the Exit button (  ) on the bottom right of the Preview Disc window to close it. |
11. | Choose File > Save to save your project file.
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