Watching DVDs that others create is fun, but because you use a Mac, you aren't limited to taking what others give. With a Mac equipped with a DVD-R drive, such as an Apple SuperDrive, and Mac OS X, you can use the iDVD application to put your own content on DVD. You can view these DVDs on your Mac using the DVD Player application. But even better, you can play the DVDs you create on most standard DVD players, such as the DVD player connected to your TV. You can place the following two general types of content on DVD:
In addition to being able to place this content on DVDs, with iDVD you can create motion menus and buttons that enable you to showcase your content from the DVD's main menu; these menus work just like the menus on commercially produced DVDs. NOTE iDVD won't even open on your Mac unless you have a compatible DVD-R drive, such as an Apple SuperDrive. When you use iDVD to create a DVD, you will use the following four steps:
Preparing Content for Your DVDAs you learned earlier, there are two basic types of projects you can put on DVD: QuickTime movies and slide shows. In both cases, you should prepare your content before jumping into iDVD. If you prepare the content before you get into iDVD, the process of creating your DVD will go more smoothly and more quickly. When you place content on a DVD, it is encoded in the MPEG-2 format, which is the standard for DVD. MPEG-2 provides very high quality with relatively small file sizes (thus making digital movies on DVD possible). Fortunately, iDVD manages the encoding process for you in the background as you work. Your DVDs can contain up to 90 minutes of content. However, iDVD uses a higher-quality encoding scheme when the content in a DVD project is 60 minutes or less you should try to keep your DVDs within this limit, if possible. iDVD chooses the 90-min or 60-min format for you automatically based on the amount of content you add to the DVD. Preparing Movies for DVDBoth QuickTime Player Pro and iMovie enable you to save your movies in both the QuickTime and the DV (Digital Video) formats. You should use the DV format whenever possible because your results will be the best possible (however, the results you get with movies in the QuickTime format will also be quite good, depending on the specific project you might not even notice the difference). To prepare your iMovie projects for iDVD, you can export the iMovie project for iDVD by choosing For iDVD on the Format pop-up menu in the Export dialog box. To learn how to use iMovie to create projects for your DVD, see Chapter 18, "Making Digital Movie Magic with iMovie," p. 535. You can use QuickTime Player Pro to export your own QuickTime movies in various formats, including QuickTime and DV Stream. Either of these formats will work fine, but for best results use the DV Stream format. To learn how to export QuickTime movies using QuickTime Player Pro, see Chapter 17, "Viewing, Editing, and Creating QuickTime Movies," p. 499. Preparing Images for a Slide Show on DVDThere are two ways in which you can place slide shows on a DVD. One is to create a QuickTime or DV movie version of the slide show. The other is to use iDVD's slide show tools to create the slide show within iDVD. There are many ways to create slide shows as QuickTime movies. You can use QuickTime Pro, iPhoto, and iMovie to do so; each tool has its own advantages and disadvantages. If you use iPhoto to store all the images you want to include in a slide show, you can export those images as a QuickTime movie. You can also export the images as individual files and use iDVD's slide show tool to construct the slide show. You can also build a slide show within iMovie and export it as a QuickTime movie. You place such QuickTime movies on a DVD just like other QuickTime movies. Yet another option is to use QuickTime Player Pro to build the slide show and then add that slide show to a DVD just as you do any other QuickTime movie. To learn how to create slide shows from iPhoto, see "Using iPhoto to Master Digital Images," p. 425. To learn how to use iMovie to create projects for your DVD, see Chapter 18, "Making Digital Movie Magic with iMovie," p. 535. To learn how to export QuickTime movies using QuickTime Player Pro, see Chapter 17, "Viewing, Editing, and Creating QuickTime Movies," p. 499. Last, but certainly not least, you can also use iDVD's own tools to create a slide show. Your slide shows can include images that you have captured using a digital camera and have exported from iPhoto or from many other sources. You can use images in the common image file formats in an iDVD slide show, including JPG, TIFF, and so on. Although you don't have to be too concerned about the file format of the images you include in an iDVD slide show, you do need to be aware of the resolution of the images you include. iDVD will scale your images to the 640x480 resolution when it creates a slide show. If an image does not have this proportion, black bars might appear at the top and bottom or left and right sides of the image when it appears on the screen. If this bothers you, you should resize your images to the 640x480 size before you place those images in iDVD. You can use an image editing application to do this, or you can choose to limit your images to this size when you export them from iPhoto. Designing a DVDAfter you have prepared content for your DVD, you are ready to design the DVD. First, plan the contents of your DVD. Then, create your iDVD project. After you start working with your project, you organize its contents by designing the DVD's menus. Then, you add the content to the DVD. Finally, you design and build your DVD's menus and buttons. The first step is to organize your content by menu. Think about a menu as being a folder for specific content, and you'll get the idea. Each menu appears in its own window on the DVD. For example, you might choose to group projects related to specific time periods on different menus, or you might want to put all of a DVD's movies on one menu while its slide shows appear on another. You can have up to six buttons on a single menu, so this is the maximum number of projects that can appear on a single DVD screen. A button can represent a project (such as a movie) or a submenu (analogous to a subfolder on your desktop) that contains additional projects or submenus. Create a list of each menu and its contents so that you have a guide to design your DVD. Each menu can have a name; use this name to help the viewer identify the type of content that is included under that menu. For each menu, list the specific files (as in QuickTime movie files), slide shows (that you will create with iDVD), or submenus that will appear on that menu. Create a folder in which to place the contents of the DVD you will create. Within that folder, create a folder for each submenu that you have planned for the DVD, and place the QuickTime movies and images that you will store on each submenu in their respective folders. This makes adding the right content to the right menu simple. For best DVD writing performance, make sure that all the media you will put on the DVD is located in the same folder on your Mac, preferably on your Mac's fastest internal hard drive. After you have added content to a DVD, don't move it until you have burned the DVD. Doing so can cause iDVD to lose track of the content (and thus it won't appear on the DVD). Later in this chapter, you'll learn how to check for missing content before you burn a DVD. After you have prepared your content and planned the DVD, you should open iDVD and get started building it. The iDVD WindowWhen you launch iDVD, you see the iDVD window (see Figure 19.6). Like iMovie, iDVD automatically opens the last project you worked on. If you haven't used it before, you can create a new project. Figure 19.6. iDVD's window looks simple, but that simplicity provides tremendous power and capability.The top pane of the iDVD window is called the menu. This is the area that appears onscreen when the DVD is played. Buttons represent each project or submenu that has been placed on the DVD; you select a button to view the content with which it is associated. Each menu can include up to six buttons; a disc can contain multiple submenus so that you can store as many projects on a disc as you have room for on the DVD. Each menu has a theme that determines how the menu looks and sounds. At the most basic, a theme is simply a static image that is the menu's background. However, menus can contain motion, which means that a movie can play as the menu's background while the menu appears on the screen (if you have watched DVD movies, you have no doubt seen examples of motion menus). Motion menus can include a movie with sound, a movie without sound, or a static image with sound. You can apply one of iDVD's default themes to your menus, and you can create and save your own themes. Buttons can also have motion, which means that the content which is accessed by that button plays within the button itself while the button is being viewed. This type of motion provides a preview of the content without the viewer having to actually open it. (Again, if you have viewed commercially produced DVD movies, you'll know that sometimes the chapter buttons contain motion and show you part of the chapter associated with the button.) iDVD ControlsAlong the bottom of the iDVD window, you will see the six iDVD control buttons:
The iDVD DrawerThe iDVD Drawer contains controls and information you use while you design a DVD. When you click the Theme button, the iDVD drawer appears (see Figure 19.7). Figure 19.7. You use the iDVD Drawer to design and apply themes to a DVD, to customize your DVD's appearance, and to monitor the status of your DVD project.The iDVD Drawer has the following three tabs:
iDVD ModesWhen you work with iDVD, you will use the following three modes of operation:
iDVD PreferencesYou can use the iDVD Preferences command to set the following preferences:
Creating and Organizing an iDVD ProjectWhen you create a DVD, you first create an iDVD project. The project contains all the content you will put on the DVD, along with its "look and feel." Creating an iDVD project involves three steps:
You can name your project anything you'd like because the name you choose won't appear when the DVD is played (names of individual menus on the DVD do appear). Where you save your project is an important consideration. The files that iDVD creates (and that you will put on DVD) can be quite large for a DVD with a significant amount of content on it. Make sure that the disk on which you store your project has plenty of room. Typically, you will need several GBs of disk space for the project folder that iDVD creates. Although the specific amount of disk space you will need depends on your content, you shouldn't try to store an iDVD project on a disk with less than 3 4GB available. This does not include the space required to store your content files; this amount is required for the rendered versions of your content that iDVD creates when it prepares a DVD. After you have created a new project, an empty menu window will appear this menu will have one of iDVD's default themes applied to it, but it won't contain any content (see Figure 19.11). If the theme for that menu includes motion, it will begin to play. Because this can be distracting, click the Motion button (located at the bottom of the iDVD window) to turn off the motion effects (the Preview button will turn gray to indicate that motion effects are turned off). Click the Theme button to open the iDVD Drawer. Figure 19.11. This is a new iDVD project, ready for content to be added.The title you see at the top of the menu window (in Figure 19.11, it is Global) is the name of the theme that was applied to that menu when you created the new project. How this default menu looks doesn't matter because you will redesign the menu later. The menu that iDVD creates when you create a new project is the main menu. This is the menu from which all content on the DVD will originate. Creating SubmenusYour first task is to create and name all the submenus for the DVD. Refer to your DVD design document to determine what you will call the main menu, how many submenus you will need, and what the name of each submenu is. After you have this information, you can "flesh out" the DVD's contents by following these steps:
TIP To delete a submenu, select it and press the Delete key. The submenu and any submenus it contains will be deleted from the project. Continue adding submenus to the DVD until you have added all the content your project plan calls for. Again, don't worry about how the buttons or menus appear; you will customize the appearance of the DVD later. Your purpose now should be to create the organization for the contents you will put on the DVD (see Figure 19.12). Figure 19.12. This DVD's main menu has three submenus.After you have created the DVD's organization, you can start to add content to it. Adding QuickTime Movies to the DVDMuch of the content you place on a DVD will probably be in the form of QuickTime or DV movies. Adding QuickTime movies to a DVD is just a matter of dragging the files you want to add from the Finder onto the iDVD project window.
As you place QuickTime movies on the DVD, iDVD begins to encode them automatically in the background (all content must be encoded before you can burn a DVD). Fortunately, iDVD handles this task for you, so you don't really need to think about it much. The encoding process goes on whenever iDVD is open until all the content has been encoded. You can assess the progress of the encoding process by following these steps:
Each menu and submenu can contain up to six buttons (a button can represent a movie, slide show, or submenu). But you can add as many submenus as you need in order to place all of your content on the DVD. You can also add QuickTime content to the DVD by choosing File, Import, Video. In the resulting dialog box, move to the movie you want to add, select it, and click Open. The movie will be added to the DVD just like when you drag it there. The total length of content (movies and slide shows) must be 90 minutes or less. For maximum quality, keep the total content to 60 minutes or less. Use the information on the Status tab of the iDVD drawer to monitor the length of the DVD as you create it. Adding Slide Shows to the DVDYou can use iDVD's tools to transform a set of images into a slide show that contains a soundtrack. NOTE You can also add a slide show to a DVD by creating the slide show as a QuickTime movie. You can do this by exporting images as a QuickTime movie from iPhoto, by using iMovie to create a slide show, or by using QuickTime Player Pro to create the QuickTime movie. You add a slide show QuickTime movie to a DVD just like any other QuickTime movie. To get started, collect the group of images from which you want to create a slide show. If you keep your images in iPhoto, export the images as files. If you have images from other sources, gather those images as well. It will be easier to create the slide show if you place all of its images in the same folder.
You can also import images into a slide show by choosing File, Import, Image. Use the resulting dialog box to select images you want to import and click Open. The selected images will be placed at the end of the slide show. You can import a soundtrack into a slide show by choosing File, Import, Audio. Use the resulting dialog box to select the MP3 file you want to import, and click Open. The selected audio will be placed in the Audio well, and you will see an MP3 icon located there. To remove a soundtrack, drag its icon out of the Audio well. It will disappear in a puff of smoke. You can create title slides for your slide show by adding text to images using an image editing application, such as Photoshop. Just drag the title images onto the slide show where you want the titles to appear. Solid black (or other color) screens with white text make nice title slides. If you want to also provide the images in the slide show as separate files on the DVD so that someone can copy and use those images individually, you can take advantage of the Add to DVD-ROM option so that these files are available on the DVD. If you choose this option, you can access the DVD-ROM portion of the disc by using the Status tab of the Drawer.
Creating Themes for DVD MenusYou can customize the appearance of a menu by applying a theme to it. A theme can include two elements: a background and an audio track. The background can be a static image or a video clip. The audio track can be an MP3, AIFF, or other audio file. The audio track is optional. You can apply a different theme to each menu on the DVD or you can use the same theme for all menus on the disc. There are two sources for the themes you use on a disc. You can use the default themes that are part of iDVD. You can also create your own custom themes; you can save the themes you create as your favorites so that you can apply them to other menus on the same disc or to menus that are part of other iDVD projects. As you design your menus, it is a good idea to keep the viewing platform in mind. If you intend to view the DVD on a television, you should work in the iDVD TV Safe Area. By keeping all of your content in this area, you can be sure that the content will appear on the screen when the disc is viewed on a TV. (If you intend to view the DVD only on a Mac, you don't have to worry about this area because your Mac will display the entire contents of the iDVD window.) If objects are outside of this area, they might or might not be shown completely on a TV screen. To see the TV Safe Area, choose Advanced, Show TV Safe Area (or press +T). A red box will appear in the iDVD window; inside this box is the TV Safe area. (The area outside this box is shaded to better indicate the TV Safe Area.) Keep the buttons on the DVD in this area to ensure that they won't be cut off when the disc is viewed on a TV. Start the process of applying themes with the main menu. After you have completed its theme, apply a theme to each submenu on the DVD. These menus can be the same, similar, or completely different. It all depends on the look and feel you want for the DVD. Applying a default theme to a menu is quite simple.
TIP If you want to apply the same theme to every menu on the DVD, apply the theme to the current menu and choose Advanced, Apply Theme to Project. You can also create your own themes and apply them to your menus. For those themes you want to be able to reuse, you can save them as favorites so that they will be accessible on the Themes tab just like the default themes that are included in iDVD. TIP You can modify iDVD's default themes and then save those modified themes as favorites. If one of the default themes is close to what you want, use it as a starting point.
If you want to apply a custom theme to every menu on the DVD, choose Advanced, Apply Theme to Project. If you want to be able to reuse the theme, you can save it as a favorite (design its buttons first, though, so that your button design is part of the theme you save). You can use the commands on the File, Import menu (your choices are Audio, Image, and Background Video) to apply the background and soundtrack to a menu. TIP If a menu's buttons will contain motion, it is often better to use a relatively plain image as the background. Otherwise, the motion of each button and the background can be chaotic. Customizing the General Appearance of ButtonsYou can also design the appearance of each button on each menu on the DVD. Remember that three types of buttons are available in iDVD. A button can represent a folder (a submenu), a movie, or a slide show. Designing buttons is quite similar to designing menus, but how you design a button also depends on what kind of button you are working with. First, design the general style for all the buttons on a menu; then configure each button individually.
Saving and Using Favorite DesignsTo save a custom theme as a favorite so that you can use it again, perform the following steps:
To see the custom themes you have saved, click the Themes tab and choose Favorites on the pop-up menu. You can apply your favorite themes to other menus just like you apply iDVD's default themes. There is no way to delete a favorite theme from within iDVD. To remove a theme you have created, open the following folder: Home/Library/iDVD/Favorites Drag the theme you want to delete to the Trash. Customizing the Appearance of Individual ButtonsAfter you have done the general button design for a menu, you can design the contents of each button individually. How you do this depends on the kind of button you are working with. To design the button that represents a movie, carry out the following steps:
To design the button for a slide show, perform the following steps:
TIP You can also drag an image file onto a slide show's button. That image will appear in the button. You can design the buttons that represent a submenu by carrying out the following steps:
TIP When you select a button that represents a menu, you can drag the slider that appears to select an image from one of the projects that are contained on that menu. You can apply the design of the buttons on a menu to all the folders on the DVD by choosing Advanced, Apply Theme to Folders. Continue designing the buttons for each menu until you have designed them all (see Figure 19.20). Figure 19.20. On this menu, I have selected the images I want to be displayed in the slide show buttons and the starting frame for the movie buttons.TIP To delete a button, which also deletes its contents from the DVD, select it and press the Delete key. Preparing a DVD for BurningBefore you burn the DVD you have created, you should preview it. Then, you can fix any mistakes or make changes to the appearance of the DVD, such as changing the location of buttons or improving the font used for buttons.
When you preview a disc, make sure that the TV Safe Area is shown. This will often reveal problems with the content on the DVD, such as people's heads being cut off in images in a slide show. If you find such problems, you have to go back to the content source files and fix them. Then re-add the content to the DVD (you will also have to reset the content's button design). As a final check, make sure that all the media for your DVD is included in the project.
Burning a DVDRemember that you can write to a DVD-R disc only once. After you burn a disc, you can't change it if something is wrong, the disc you burned becomes a somewhat expensive coaster. Before clicking the Burn button, leave your project for a while and go do something else. After some time has passed, come back to the project and preview it again. Make any changes that are needed. Now you are ready to make it real. Burning a DVD is very Mac-intensive. Because the process also tends to be a bit finicky, you should make sure that iDVD has all of your Mac's resources available to it during the burning process. For the best chance at creating a good DVD, quit any other applications that are open (save your changes first), including the Classic environment. To burn the DVD, follow these steps:
When the burning process is complete, your DVD will be ready to play. You can play it on your Mac using the DVD Player application, or you can play it in most standard DVD players. After you burn a DVD, check it out using your Mac's DVD Player. If it plays fine, you have created a good DVD. If it doesn't play properly, something went astray, probably in the burning process (for example, another application might have taken too many resources away from iDVD). Check out the project carefully to make sure that all the media are available. Preview it again to make sure that it plays okay within iDVD. Then try burning the disc again, being sure to use the list you read earlier to maximize your chances of creating a good disc. If you have limited disk space available, after you are sure that your DVD is right and that you have made all the copies you want, you can delete the iDVD project file. These files are large, so if you don't have the space to store them permanently, getting rid of them will free up disk space. You can also delete the individual content files if you no longer want to store them. Ideally, you will have a tape backup system to which you can archive this data, but if not, you will have to decide which is more important having more hard disk space or keeping all the files. Try to at least save the content files (such as your movies) if you can because you can more easily re-create the DVD project than you can re-create the individual content files.
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