Introduction:
Motionmenus are probably one of the more difficult aspects to grasp for many new to authoring backups with DVD Maestro. There are several ways to acheive the results you see on commercial titles. However, if you don't know the methods used, it can seem a little difficult to get a professional look.

DVD-R backup is complicated further by wishing to retain only certain parts of existing menus. If there are no language or subtitle options, why keep these items ? Even in the retained content, there may be items referenced which are no longer present. All of these issues can be addressed with similar skills to those used in backup generally, just slightly differently employed.

IFOEdit and IFOUpdate require a mention here. These are both excellent utils and can adjust some content and IFO's effectively removing certain types of menu content, but not as well as a custom created menu from source can. In addition because they both use retained content in an unaltered form you often miss the opportunity to win back valuable space. In the case of a DVD9 to DVD5 full dupe using IFOUpdate approach, the quality of the movie content can suffer dependant upon the amount of extras in the title.

Another very important point to bear in mind is that creating DVD content, in the same manner its created commercially, can teach you just as much, if not more, about DVD structure as the process of stripping out unwanted PGC's. The best way to understand this is to try it out. To do this I recommend that you identify a title where you think the menus are good. A few favourites have been

"The matrix".. Good transitional sequences
"The mummy returns".. Good chapter and feature transitions
"Resident Evil" R1.. The menus are clean and well made (technically good)

"The Time Machine 2002" R1 had the best looking and operating menus I've seen in a while. Very intricate. There are 137 separate Cell ID's for starters. I was so impressed I wrote an article about the menumaking process.. this article.

Getting Started
Required Software:

DVD2AVI
DVD Maestro 2.5 or 2.9 (2.9 preferred)
Smartripper / DVDDecryptor
SUBRip
VOBEdit / VOBrator / VOBSnoopy / VOBUtils
MPEGEncoder CCE or TMPEG
MPEGPlayer
MPEGRepair

To get the best out of this article you should have a good working knowledge of the DVD Maestro Static menu creation method. You need to know what a sub-picture is. You should also be able to establish function connections using the "connection" window. You should be familiar with creation of chapter-marks in a video stream for "expert mode".

In addition you will need to know how to strip a VOB of content using say VOBEdit, VOBrator, VOBSnoopy, VOBUtils or the like. You need to be able to rip sub-pictures using SUBrip or equivalent. If that all sounds unfamiliar, then just do a little reading and research and take up where you left off.

Identify the menu source material
Image01.jpg

Anyone with experience of DVD -> DVD-R backup will know that the movie is contained within a title set named as Vts_0x_x.VOB. Any and all aspects of the movie are bundled within this program stream. The same is true of menu systems. Each title set on a DVD will normally have relavent menu content in a file called Vts_0x_0.VOB, usually one for each title set.

Image02.jpg

I say normally and usually as I have experience of titles where these "rules" are not followed. In some modern titles Intro, title and main-menu sequences have been located in Video_ts.VOB. The clue is in the size of Video_ts.VOB. If its a large file, over a few megabytes, then there is definitely some content within it and it should be checked in the same way as the Vts_0x_0.VOB files will be. Do not be afraid to look amongst the other titlesets if you still can't find a specific menu. Some of these may simply be menu content.

The rules are "there are no rules" but if you see it on screen then it's on the disc, and if it's on the disc you CAN get it.

Getting at the menu source
Run the title and familiarise yourself with all aspects of the menu to be duplicated / retained.

If you haven't taken a full backup of the disc, then use Smartripper or DVDDecryptor in files mode to grab and decrypt the Vts_0x_0 file for any content requiring a menu.

I.E. If you kept Vts_02_1.VOB to Vts_02_5.VOB then make sure you get Vts_02_0.VOB. If the file seems small for the amount of motionmenu in the title, see the remarks concerning Video_ts.VOB in the previous section.

Image03a.jpg + Image03b.jpg

Having decrypted the files you can now play them back off HD and see what the Vts_0x_0.VOB bundle contains. Don't worry if you don't seem to see everything you saw in the menu. All your looking for are the Firstplay, Intro, main and chapter sequences, any or all of them will suffice.

Disassembly of menu source
Image04a.jpg + Image04b.jpg

When you find all or some of the content you're looking for open the VOB containing it in your preferred VOB splitter. VOBEdit is excellent for this. Select Demux and opt for the VobID option to start with.

Examine the VOBEdit output. For most titles the menu VOB will now be split into discrete parts, by vobID, for Firstplay, Intro, Main, Chapter and Feature menus, also any transition clips. There will be replication if the menus are duped in foreign langages etc. In the example I've labelled the demuxed menu components in the 2nd image for clarity.

Don't be too quick to discard what might seem at first to be replicated. What springs to mind here is that there are often two occurances of the mainmenu sequence. One with an intro tagged on the front.. and one thats just the menu on it's own. If this is the case you may need them both. This depends on the menu-creation method you intend to use in Maestro, which is about to be considered.

Image05a.jpg + Image05b.jpg

Initially, there are a couple of things to note about the example. Firstly, the firstplay item wasn't located in Vts_02_0.vob. The size of Video_ts.Vob indicates that it's in there. If it's required there will be some attention needed to get it from Video_ts.vob. Perform a repeat of the steps so far and it will be there after Demux by VOB ID.

The transitions and menus are bundled. The way in which this content has been bundled indicates original authoring used the "expert" method. The biggest give away regarding this is the single occurance of the mainmenu clip. Another thing is the "To Movie" transition tagged at the end. Maestro can loop and navigate a clip in an "expert" created menu in ways not possible using "built-in" features.

Normally I'd use the same method the original used, in this case the "expert" method. Using built-in features to create this type of menu will mean a little extra work. The reasons are pointed out below.(NOTE: Those interested in the "expert" method only can skip ahead to "Preserve Formats and Aspects" at this stage.)

An Intro -> menu -> looped menu operation, created using "built-in" menu features, will always have 2 menu clips, 1 with the intro on the front end, and 1 on its own. A built-in menu which loops can only have active buttons AFTER one full play-through. With a long menu sequence this means you can't select ANYTHING for that length of time.

In the example this is only a problem with respect to the main menu. Which is of the variety:- Intro -> menu -> looped menu and is 2 mins 38 secs long. Before demo'ing the workaround I'd like to point out that it takes a lot longer to explain this, than it does to actually make it happen. Also this is usually NOT the case. In the vast majority of titles, the required sequences will be there after a swift Demux.

Also I'm being a glutton for punishment here. I looked out this title to show how to use the "built-in" approach to get the "expert" look and operation. The "expert" mode requires a great deal of proficiency in Maestro. It's easy to make a mistake and not spot it in a complex title, there's no opportunity to preview navigation, and that's also why I've demo'ed this method.

To create the example mainmenu using Maestros built in features, a separate menu only clip is needed. It's not difficult to create this, the intro and transition simply need splitting from the start and end of the existing menu sequence. The sequences required as M2V and AC3 will be:-

1. Intro and menu - (existing sequence minus transition)
2. Menu - (existing sequence minus Intro and transition)
3. Transition - (existing sequence minus Intro and menu)
Splitting the intro and transition from the mainmenu sequence is a job for VOBEdit. This time process only the Intro+Menu+Transition VOB. Demux by CellID. In the example this breaks the intro sequence into 8 parts.. Again they've been labelled for clarity.

Image06a.jpg + Image06b.jpg

CellID's 002 - 005 make up the mainmenu segment. Cell ID 006 is the transition segment. They need putting back together as suitable M2V and AC3 streams. You can use VOBEdit to do this, but I prefer a slightly different method, as it provides some extra options. If space is tight, the method below can be used to create more, by re-encode of the menu segments. I've examined many titles and found inflated menu content more times than I can remember. It's one of the many ways title sizes are kept above 4.3GB.

DVD2AVI and any MPEG-2 encoder that loads .d2v files or accepts them frame-served are the tools required. DON'T alter the filenames as they have been altered in the example. DVD2AVI needs the files named as VOBEdit names them for the next step to work.

Remove VOBs for Cell ID's 001, 006, 007 and 008 from the dir.. DON'T discard them. Then load Cell 002 - 005 VOBs in DVD2AVI. In the audio settings opt to demux the DDS audio, track 1. Set the colourspace to YUV and save the project as menu.d2v.

Open a new project in DVD2AVI. Put the CellID 001 VOB back in the dir and load 001 to 005 in DVD2AVI. Demux the audio track 1 again and save a project as Int+menu.d2v. Use your encoder of choice to make the M2V files. IMPORTANT NOTE - Make sure you DO NOT alter the aspect ratio of the segments as you encode. Took 4 Mins to re-encode with CCE.

Image07.jpg

At the end of the above, the menu source is in the following forms:-

Intro+menu as M2V and AC3.
Menu as M2V and AC3.
Movie transition - Cell006 VOB.
Other menu content as VOBs (from the Demux by VobID pass)
Maestro afficienados will see that I've tested the integrity of the encoded segments and respective AC3's by pulling them in to Maestro. The .PRA and .PRV preview audio and video files made by Maestro are clearly visible.

This is the end of the extra work.. and now the normal splitting of source can proceed. Before splitting to M2V and AC3 look at the components and decide what can be discarded. In the example audio, subtitle and feature options won't be used. KISS being my motto with regard to guides like this. These menu items will be discarded. This means, there are only the chapter menus and the sub-pics to get. The discards also mean that some space will be saved, but not as much as an "expert" method author could save.

Preserve Formats and Aspect
To author in Maestro source is best preserved in M2V and AC3 format. The Sub-picture button highlights work equally well in any of the stills formats which will import. BMP is the default output of SUBrip, so I tend to use BMP. BMP will also allow reduced palettes and thereby smaller file sizes.

Using a combination of VOBEdit and SUBrip, gather the source material of the menu VOBs as M2V, AC3 and BMP respectively. Don't worry if the 16-9 aspect menus appear to demux at 4-3, there's a good reason for this, which will be addressed. To get the subpics required for the example extra work clips, just grab them from the VOB where the clips were previously bundled.

In the example a demux of the Transition+ChapterMenus.VOB by Cell ID in VOBEdit produced the following files, again labelled, after inspection, for clarity.

Image08.jpg

The existing menu system is a little wasteful.The chapter menus are not animated, just stills with some audio. It's costing 16MB per page or just on 120MB in total, just for stills and audio. Must be nice to have 9GB to play with. If space were tight, or you want to maximise space, considerable savings could be made here by resolving the static video to a still image, this is applicable to "expert" method too. I'll demo the method shortly.

Before this Sub-pics will be grabbed from all the VOBS in one hit with SUBRip.

Image09a.jpg

The most important SUBRip setting relates to the cropping options (Image09c.jpg). The settings used force the Sub-pics to come out at a size which matches the M2V content, 640 x 480, as the title is an NTSC R1 import and the inspected VOBs show the chapter images as 4-3 aspect. If it were an R2 PAL title these settings would be 720 x 576. Even though it won't be used, save out the text part of the SUBRip window. By doing this SUBRip creates an .spf palette file, which will be used to set correct menu colours in Maestro. If you were keeping every single aspect of the menu intact, the SUBRip output could be used to build the menu in "expert" mode. However, IFOUpdate would do the same job in 30 secs, so there's no point really.

Image09b.jpg + Image09c.jpg

MPEGRepair will be used to create the chapter stills from the M2V. This is optional, mostly to demo the app in case there's ever a real need to do it. The useful thing about this app is that it will resolve MPEG frames (I,B and P) to bitmap images, even on a single frame basis. It will retain them in YUV colourspace if required, or save them out as BMP or TGA, as well as a variety of MPEG flavours.

Another excellent feature is the ability to read a saved bitmap sequence and re-encode a DVD compliant MPEG 2 stream, to user specification. This means in practice you can split an M2V stream to stills, perform a required edit and then re-encode to M2V with your edit in place. Very useful utility and IMHO an absolute "Must Have".

The process is easy. Point it at your VOB file, specify your requirements, sit back and watch it go. At times I've used this to pull a full chapter to stills, over 10,000 of them. It's a rock-solid piece of kit. If you look at the image sequence below, all should become immediately clear.

Image11a.jpg, Image11b.jpg, Image11c.jpg, Image11d.jpg

In some titles there may be a number of smaller VOBs around 160k to 300k in size, which on playback appear to be a black screen. These are MPEG stills, which many players do not play properly in isolation. MPEGRepair can decode a single-frame M2V still with no problem. If you discover that some of the stills content IS actually a black frame, again do not worry, there's a reason for this. VOBSnoopy is another Util that will extract MPEG stills but I don't think you can view them as this happens, as you can with MPEGRepair.

Image10.jpg

Having grabbed the chapter stills and demuxed the AC3 from the cells there is a more than considerable saving. All chapter pages have resolved to stills of just on 1MB. They all have the same audio file at 821k so only one instance need be kept. Pages have the same format, 4 pics for the chapters and a fwd, back and main-menu button. This means only 1 chapter sub-pic need be kept.

IMPORTANT POINT ABOUT BITMAP STILLS AND SUB-PIC. As the chapter pages are now stills an extra check is needed to assist in keeping things operating smoothly. Make sure the captured stills are the same res as the original M2V and that the Sub-pic also matches. If the res is different the menus will jump. If left as M2V the aspect adjustment in Maestro would ensure sub-pic alignment. This doesn't operate the same for stills, so you MUST check if you perform this step.

The easiest way to do this is to use a util like PaintShopPro to overlay the sub-pic on the Chapter-still. Adjust any res or misalignment probs by resizing the STILL, not the sub-pic. Misalignment is cured once res issues have been checked. Copy and paste the sub-pic over the still as a new layer. Make the sub-pic semi-opaque in the layers panel and perform any adjustments. Set back to full opacity, flatten the image and you've got a matching sub-pic, which you then of course save, having reduced the palette colours if you feel so inclined.

The entire content required to re-create the selected mainmenu and chapters menu has now been obtained. The space required to keep the content has been reduced from 301MB in the original form to 160MB in adjusted form WITHOUT impact on on-screen quality, thats 140MB more for your movie, features etc, the "expert" method could add at least another 60MB to this saving.

Image10.jpg

Decide on your method in Maestro
This is where you start the menu creation process in Maestro. I often indulge in a test using a fake movie. When using the "expert" menu features there is no way to perform a preview navigation in Maestro. The only way to test is compile, so a fake movie can be a real timesaver. Just use a uniquely identifiable bit of the source you've got.

A decision is required at this point regarding how the menus will be created. I.E. will the built in menu creation features be up to the task, or will the title require use of "expert" menu mode. Don't dismiss the built in functions immediately. They are more than adequate to reproduce most motionmenus, even delayed button highlights and such. You just have to know how to do it, as has been partially discussed.

The "expert" mode really comes into use when the title menus are exclusively motionmenus, or with many transitions etc. It makes sense to detail the built in features first. They serve as a good basis to discuss the expert method later.

Image12a.jpg

"Built-in" method
The playback mode of a Maestro motionmenu is it's most important feature . This governs entirely how the menu will perform, how button highlights will appear, and when. In addition the playback mode is further influenced by the menu content.

The modes operate differently with static content. For a Static menu there are officially only 2 playback modes Still and Timeout. However, if you add audio to a Static menu, then as far as Maestro is concerned, it becomes a Dynamic menu. At which point all the features of Dynamic "built-in" menus apply.

There are three playback modes for dynamic content, Still, Loop and Timeout. The most important thing to remember regarding dynamic content, even just audio, is that options relate to what happens AFTER completion of one playback cycle. It might at first appear obvious what these playback modes mean, what is less obvious is the effect they have on the sub-picture highlights and buttons.

Image12b.jpg

Stills mode
In stills mode, the video-clip plays through once and then holds the menu, indefinitely, on the last frame of the clip. Buttons and sub-picture highlights are available immediately or can be delayed using the Loop/highlight slider. This is just like a Maestro Static menu except it has a bit of motion as the menu starts, and as stated a delay is available for buttons etc.

Loop mode
Loop mode can be a bit confusing. Mainly because of it's effect on button highlights. If you elect for loop mode then the highlight/loop slider becomes active for you to establish a loop point. Whats not very clear is that it introduces a delay before any buttons or highlights appear and become active.

Loop mode means the menu clip plays through once in entirety and then returns to your loop point, AFTER which highlights and buttons become active. If you have a 1 min 30 sec Intro and Mainmenu clip selecting loop introduces a delay of 1 min 30 secs before any selections are possible. Not a good idea.

Timeout mode
Probably the most useful mode of all in reality and the technique behind all those constant motion, Intro + Main + Looped Main titles that you see.

The difference timeout mode makes to button and highlights is it also allows them to be delayed. Ideal for your Intro + Main menu sequence. Buttons can be delayed until the menu appears. Any timout value setting applies after the clip has played through once entirely. To get an immediate action after this the Timeout value should be 0.

Further the timeout action means a navigation to a much shorter looping menu can be added.. giving the appearance of a continuous Intro, menu and menu loop. Easy when you know how. Transitional sequences to chapter menus, the main movie or feature menus can easily be added in similar fashion. Don't worry about any compile warnings about transitional menus with no sub-pic or button. They're not meant to have any. The warnings are just a Maestro precaution, there's nothing improper in using menus like this.

Menu Aspect and Sub-pictures
As previously mentioned some of the 16-9 menu content will have demuxed at 4-3 aspect. The reason for this relates to sub-picture alignment in menus. When Creating motionmenus the NTSC / PAL screen res of 640 x 480 / 720 x 576 is used for both 4-3 and 16-9 display.

The only way to make sure button highlights and clip buttons are exactly aligned is to work at 4-3, with all assets sharing same resolution. When the 16-9 aspect is applied to both clip and sub-pic, both are distorted equally and button alignment is retained. This doesn't apply in "expert" mode as higlights are movable on screen. Aspect is set in Maestro menu options. Also as indicated previously this doesn't apply to stills content. This is why, if the menu navigates from Dynamic to Static menus, some checks must be made on the assets.

Black is Black
Black content is used when there is a switch in aspect ratio. Black at 4-3 and black at 16-9 is still black.. and hard to see aspect ratio switch. This kind of thing happens when there's a 4-3 Firstplay Item, but the Intro and menus are at 16-9. The method is strictly navigational.

Firstplay -> Black at 4-3 -> Black at 16-9 -> Intro etc at 16-9

Advantages / Disadvantages of built-in method
One of the main advantages of using the built-in features is the ability to preview the navigation prior to complile. The motion will not preview without realtime encoder hardware.. but the navigation will.

Reliability is another benefit. I've had experience of "expert" menus not appearing on screen correctly.. but built-in varieties haven't failed me yet.

The only real disadvantage of the built-in method is it can seem a little "clunky".

"Expert" method
This method of motionmenu creation uses none of the Maestro menu functions, unless a choice is made to do so. In a case like this the menu part of the project tree would be deleted. Otherwise Maestro gives a "No Menus" warning on complilation. The expert method will work with Dynamic and Static content but, and it's a big but, from the backup point of view, Static content can become inflated to the sizes of Dynamic content.

In essence the "expert" method is more akin to creating your own subtitle stream than anything else. In fact the only difference between a sub-titles stream and an "expert" Dynamic menu is a slightly enhanced chaptermark. Enough with the tease, and on to the main event.

It's easiest to think in terms of the example we know so well. The Intro+Menu+Transition.VOB and Tranistion+ChapterMenus.VOB would have been demuxed by CellID and then those segment VOBS demuxed to M2V only. In addition the M2V and AC3 for the intact and unsplit VOBs should also be demuxed. It will replace the segments once their purpose has been served. If completed correctly the source dir now looks as in the image below.

Image13.jpg

The reason the VOBs are segmented, which is an extra step, relates to most Maestro DVD-R authors NOT having encoder hardware. If so the motionmenu can't be played or checked precisely in the Maestro authoring environment. In a case like this the chaptermarks required are best defined using exact length assets to establish location. The encoder hardware issue then becomes irrelavent.

It is possible to make use of the "realview" window without encoder hardware. However, scrubbing through video looking for exact chapters can be a little tedious. Shortcomings in regard to chapter placement mean glitchy menus, audio faults and other errors. Definitely not the result required. So even though "Realview" is a good monitor for stills, and can be used to place and review chaptermarks, precision work requires a more exact method , which will then be fine-tuned using RealView.

Once the assests have imported the process is similar to setting up a movie with chapters. Make a Firstplay movie, a stand-in Movie and another called "Navigate" and place the segments on the timeline in the order they will be used. The example order goes like this.

Intro - Menu - MovieTrans - ChapterTrans - Chaps1-4 - Chaps5-8......

The order matches the combined order of the two intact sequences, now labelled as

X_Intro+Menu+Tansition.m2v
X_Transition+ChapterMenus.m2v

See the image below. Note that the menu section of the project tree is empty. Also note that the "RealView" window is employed as a "scrub" monitor. By moving the play cursor along the timeline you can monitor frames in RealView.

Image14.jpg

Insert the required chapters in the "Navigate" movie. As its segmented this is now an easy task. Essentially it's a mark at the start of every segment. There are a couple of things to note here. Any segment that will have buttons needs an additional mark setting as the chapters are made. It's an option in the chaptermark panel called "Button Highlight" and will show on the timeline as a square box instead of the usual diamond. Note that both "chaptermark" and "button highlight" should be selected in the panel for any active segments.

Image15.jpg

Marks can be exactly aligned with start of each segment using the arrow buttons in the panel. Place the mark slighty past the start of the segment then lock it back to the exact start using the button. After a few clicks the location counter stops updating and the mark is precisely aligned with the segment.

The next step is to remove the segments and replace them with the intact M2V streams, after which right click in the audio-track and use "Create Sync Audio track" to get the audio into the timeline.

Open the RealView window and using the play cursor check and adjust the location of the chaptermarks using the arrows in the chaptermark panel. Alignment may have slipped by a couple of GOPs. In the example there were black segments which were not used setting the marks up, but which are still present in the intact M2V streams. This meant the marks had to be nudged forward a couple of GOPs. This is much easier to do when all marks are in place, rather than hunting for exact startpoints in the intact stream. The image below shows end results of this step.

Image16.jpg

The next step is to add the sub-pics and highlights. Locate an active section on the timeline. I.E. one where both chaptermark and button highlight have been placed, say the mainmenu clip. Look below the audio-track to the Sub-titles track. Right-click and select "Add Individual Subtitle". Lo and behold a new window will appear, showing the screen as it will appear AFTER this mark. The panel to the right is where the menu creation options are located. See the image below.

Image17.jpg

The options used are "bitmap file" for the sub-pic. Just a point here. Maestro will read and display the M2V at true size and aspect in the sub-title window regardless of the settings in the movie aspect box. If by chance your sub-pics don't line up then don't be afraid to resize appropriately and then reload. How it looks on screen here is how it will appear on playback is the thing to bear in mind.

It's possible to use sub-pics which are smaller than screen size and locate the highlights on screen using the offset options. Basically you have to use what you find to work best. Thats why a dummy movie is a good idea, a quick compile and test can save a lot of grief and wasted media.

Image18.jpg

Use the "Colors" tab to adjust highlight colouration or load the .spf files from SUBRip using the "Edit Palette" button. Use the buttons tab to add buttons and auto-assign navigation, as you would in standard menu. Button linkages are defined in the same way too, right click and select an appropriate target. When all this is completed click on OK and the panel will close. Repeat for all menus required.

You also have to make sure that the navigate movie is set to the correct aspect, in the case of the example 16-9 Letterbox. Do this AFTER the sub-pics have been setup. Essentially thats it, apart from a few very important settings in the Connection Window.

Unlike a standard "built-in" menu and "expert" menu has no playback modes. As the "expert" author you are expected to be able to define these. You have to establish some looping functions.

E.G. Playback for the example needs to run as indicated below:

FirstPlay
Firstplay -> Intro -> Mainmenu(Looping)

Mainmenu
Play button -> MovieTransition -> Movie-Chapter1

Scenes button -> ChapterTransition -> Navigate-Chap 1 - 4 (Looping)

This means there are loops required on the Mainmenu and all Chapter menus. To set these up just use the end action settings in the connection window. See the image below and all should be clear.

Image19.jpg

All that remains to be done now is a test compile and drive using say PowerDVD. If all looks right and navigates correctly between menus, then bring the real movie files in. Replace the fake movie and use the Edit subtitle option in the "Navigate" movie to set up chapter menu button links.

Looking at the result in Maestro shows that even using the original clips, this menu has still saved 70MB. This could however be more like 200MB. How so ? Simple really, by now you'll realise that "expert" Dynamic menus can be linked to Static "built-in" menus if required. This means this title could use an "expert" menu for the mainmenu and "built-in" menus for the chapters. The difference will be undetectable in performance, if attention is given to aspect ratios and sub-pics as previously discussed.

The MovieTransition and ChapterTransition clips would remain on the timeline in the "Navigate" movie. A little judicious splitting, to get the chaptertransition source as separate M2V and AC3, would be required.

This approach would avoid the need for the second "menu-only" clip manufactured in the "built-in" method and would still save the same space by using stills in place of Static M2V.

There is a lot more to discover in relation to authoring with Maestro, and I reccomend a thorough reading of the docs and help. That's how I picked up on most of the stuff relating to Maestro in this article. Hopefully this will be of assistance in your authoring endeavours, and help along the way to becoming a motionmenu Maestro !!

I would say a big thanks to the many fine programmers and coders who produced the tools mentioned in this article. Without their continued interest and input none of the above would be possible

Copyright Yohudi M. Enewone August 20th 2002.