This book consists of nine chapters that walk you through the process of getting started with Encore, progressing thorough the DVD authoring workflow, and then taking advantage of its advanced capabilities to expand the possibilities of designing your DVD productions:
Chapter 1, Introducing Adobe Encore, takes you through the entire process of using Encore to create a DVD. You can get started quickly and easily with drag-and-drop authoring using Encore’s library of prebuilt elements: Encore automatically creates links and even builds video thumbnails. And you’ll whet your appetite to move on to more advanced capabilities.
Chapter 2, Deconstructing DVDs, takes a step back from authoring to explore commercial DVDs to help you understand the possibilities—and limitations—of the format. You can use a variety of DVD player software tools to dig under the covers to explore how DVDs were constructed and see how other authors have designed their discs.
Chapter 3, Assets and Projects, talks about the first step in DVD authoring: importing and organizing the assets you are going to use in your project, including images, audio, and video files. We’ll discuss file and media formats, and also begin to show how Encore helps to manage your projects.
Chapter 4, Timelines, discusses preparing the playable elements of your DVD production: video clips with multiple audio and subtitle tracks. You also can create slide shows with associated audio, and add chapter point markers in the timelines.
Chapter 5, Encore Menu Design, introduces the other element of DVD design: menus and buttons that link to the video timelines. This chapter explores Encore’s built-in Menu Editor that you can use to design and create complete menus directly in Encore.
Chapter 6, Working with Photoshop and Other Applications, explores the other option for menu editing: exchanging menus directly with Photoshop to create sophisticated layered designs. You, or your design team, then can create complete menu templates, as well as design elements, that can be imported and used directly in Encore.
Chapter 7, Links and DVD Navigation, brings together your menus and timelines by adding navigational links between them. And beyond direct links, you will see how to use overrides and play-lists to reuse your assets in different ways and provide alternate paths through your material. Then, use Encore’s powerful tools to preview and check your DVD’s design and links.
Chapter 8, Transcoding and Building Discs, demonstrates how to burn your DVD productions to disc, or use Encore to create and burn from DVD folders on hard disk and disc image files. You can let Encore automatically take care of compressing your video and audio assets, or you can set your own transcoding options. For manufactured discs, you can set content protection options and write to DLT tape to send to a DVD replicator.
Chapter 9, Designing Great DVDs, gets to the fun part: understanding, and then breaking through, the requirements and limitations of the DVD specification to design great-looking and engaging productions. We’ll explore tips and tricks for designing menus, timelines, and navigation, including stashing “secret” hidden materials on your discs.
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