Ripple Training

Welcome to the world of professional DVD authoring. In this feature length tutorial you will harness the power of Apple's industrial-strength DVD authoring application DVD Studio Pro, to create titles that are on par with the best that Hollywood can offer. From the first few lessons, you will hit the ground running and author a fully functional DVD complete with a submenu and slideshow. From there, you'll build on that knowledge so that by the time you've completed lesson 16 you'll be confidently creating advanced motion menus, building scripts, encoding your video, creating weblinks, subtitles and preparing your DVD for mass distribution. In addtion, you will learn techniques and workflows that will literally save you hours of work. Below is just a sample of the topics covered on this DVD.

Watch an Excerpt from the DVD

But isn't iDVD good enough?

The short answer is yes and no. iDVD is a wonderfully intuitive program that takes the headache out of creating simple DVDs. However at the end of the day, it's still a consumer application and as such does not have the rich tool set required by professionals. Take encoding for example. iDVD basically gives you two options for compressing your video. There are no allowances or advanced settings for movies that have a high degree of motion. Your movies basically get compressed with a "once size fits all approach". Another feature required by professionals is the ability to control the user experience through scripting. In DVD Studio Pro you can create simple scripts that tell the DVD Player what to do based on viewer or player conditions. For example, using a script you can have the DVD player play alternate versions of your menus each time your viewer returns to it. If you've watched any of the Star Wars DVDs, this is exactly how they are scripted to work.

What about alternate endings? Using DVD Studio Pro's "Stories" you can literally create director's cut endings or DVD's that function like the "Choose Your Own Adventure" children's books. DVD Studio Pro also gives you up to 8 audio streams, 9 video streams and 32 subtitle streams per track so you can create DVDs that can be watched and heard anywhere in the world. And these features only scratch the surface. In our DVD we go out of our way to cover these subjects and explain why they are important.

Fun with Gobbledygook

Let's face it, many industries have a lot of jargon, and the DVD industry is no exception. We like to call the jargon "gobbledygook". For the uninitiated, the gobbledygook can either be boring or intimidating or both. Therefore we approach the subject matter in the way we would prefer it explained to us - in plain english with no pretention, and lots of enthusiasm.

"Super Size" Training

With the release of this DVD-ROM we are now offering a mega-wide screen movies. For those of you who have 23 or 30 inch Cinema Displays, you can open our mammoth 1600x1000 QuickTime movies for a truly cinemascopic experience.

About the Instuctor

Working with the Palette

Project Set Up
Working in the Basic Layout
The Palette
Working with Templates
The Styles Tab
Using Button Styles
Using Text Styles
Using Drop Zones
The Shapes Tab
The Audio Tab
The Stills Tab
The Video Tab

DVD Authoring "Quickstart"

Creating and Saving Projects
Setting Playback Standards
Introduction to Menu Creation
Using the Drop Palette
Working in the Graphical View
Using the Simulator
Introduction to the Track Editor
Adding and Modifying a Button Style
Using Alignment Guides
Adding a Menu Masthead
Using the Inspector
Adding Button Highlights
Creating a Menu Template
"Wiring" your DVD
Creating Buttons from Scratch
Burning a "One-Off"

Customizing the Workspace

Opening Saved Projects
Layout Configurations
The Asset View
Importing Assets
Organizing your Assets
The Outline View
The Log View
Customizing the Toolbar
Other Views

Tracks and Markers

Track Editor View Toggles
System vs. Elementary Streams
Basic Editing
Working with Chapter Markers
Rules Governing Markers
Marker Shortcuts
Simulator Shortcuts
Creating Marker Text Files
Importing Marker Text Files

Working with Slideshows

Creating a Slideshow
Slideshow Preferences
Moving and Deleting Slides
Previewing your Changes
Creating a Manual Advance Slideshow
Adding Music to Slideshows
Adding Narration to Slideshows
Adding Transitions to Multiple Slides
Adding Transitions to Single Slides
Converting a Slideshow to a Track
Creating Multiple Audio Stream Slideshows

Menus with Overlays

Replacing the Background Video
Saving a Text Style
Working in the Menu Inspector
Understanding Menu Loop Points
Adjusting the Menu Loop Point
Simulating the Loop Point
The Anatomy of an Overlay
Assigning the Overlay
Creating Buttons
Duplicating and Resizing Buttons
Simple vs. Advanced Overlays
Mapping the Buttons "States"
Simulating the Loop Point with Overlay
Wiring up the Menu

Chapter Index Menus

Creating "General Purpose Buttons"
Creating "Special Purpose Buttons"
Saving the Chapter Index Menu as a Template
Applying the Chapter Index Menu to a Track
Checking Menu Navigation
Modifying the Menus
Changing the Menu Duration
Adding Multiple Audio Assets to the Menu

External Linking with DVD@ccess

Including DVD-ROM Data
Linking to Files on the DVD
Building a Disc Image to Test the Links
Testing DVD@ccess with the Apple DVD Player
Creating a Web Link
Creating a "Down & Dirty Web Menu
Assigning a Web Link to a Menu
Creating a Menu Timeout
Testing the Weblink with the Simulator

Adding Transitions

3 Types of Transitions
Applying Standard Transitions to Menus
Changing Transition Parameters
Assigning Transitions to Buttons
Applying Alpha Transitions
Applying Video Transitions
Using Transition Tracks
Setting the Button Targets
Setting the Target's End Jump

Creating Stories

Understanding Stories
Story Limitations
Using the Story Editor
The Source List
The Entry List
Editing the Story
Wiring the Story
Setting the Stream Options

Scripting 101

Defining the Problem
The Importance of Button Naming
Adding and Naming the Script
Understanding GPRMs
Naming Your GPRMs
Editing the Script
Add a "Last Item" Command
Understanding Conditional Statements
Add a Compare Command to the Script
Understanding Compare Commands
Using the "Start at Loop Point" Command
Adding More Command Lines
Modifyiing Command Lines
Adding an "Escape Clause"
Wiring the Buttons to the Script
Assign the Script to the Title Button
Test the Script

Working with Subtitles

Creating Subtitles
Editing Subtitles
Subtitle Text Preferences
Making Changes in the Subtitle Inspector
Previewing Subtitles
Forcing the Display
Using a Graphic as a Subtitle
Translate FCP Titles to DVD Subtitles
Exporting Titles from Final Cut Pro
TitleExchange Export Settings
STL Files
Importing a Subtitle File into DVD Studio Pro
Understanding Language Settings
How Languages Work
Assigning Languages to a Stream
Close Captioning

Finishing

Setting a First Play Action
The Connections Tab
Testing and Debugging
Controlling User Operation
Controlling Streams
Controlling the Remote Control
Setting the Returns
Authoring Dual Layer DVDs
Region Codes
Protecting Your Content
CSS - Content Scrambling System
Macrovision

Outputting

Setting the Build Destination
Burning
Building and Formatting
The Log Tab
The Video Zone Files
Building as a Separate Operation
Incremental Builds
Testing using Apple's DVD Player
Formatting as a Separate Operation
DVD Write Simulation
Lossless Linking
Outputting to a Hard Drive
Using Disk Utility to Format DVDs
DLT - Digital Linear Tape
Replication vs. Duplication

Making it All Fit - Encoding

Planning Your DVD
DVD Studio Pro's "Storyboard Tool"
Bit Budgeting
How Computers Count Sheep
Understanding Bit Rates
Bit Budget Calculators
Exporting from Final Cut Pro
Adding Chapter Markers
Adding Compression Markers
Exporting to Compressor
Using the Batch Window
Applying a Compression Preset
System vs. Elementary Streams Revisited
AIFF vs. Dolby
File Naming Conventions
Compressor vs. QuickTime Export from Final Cut
Encoding using DVD Studio Pro
Variable Bit Rate Encoding
Background Encoding vs. Encode on Build

Working in HD and 16:9

HD Workflow
DVCPRO HD Workflow
HDV Workflow
Downconverting to HD to SD
Working with 16:9 Assets

DVD Gobbledygook

What is a DVD?
DVD Logical Formats
DVD Physical Formats
DVD-R
DVD-RW
DVD+R and DVD+RW
DVD-R DL
DVD 5 (4.7GB) Features/Benefits
DVD 9 (8.5 GB) Features/Benefits
DVD 10 and DVD 18
HD DVD
The DVD Specification

System Requirements

MAC G4 867 or better
MacOS X
8x or faster DVD ROM drive
256 megabytes or more of RAM
QuickTime 7.0 or above
Monitor Depth - Millions
1024 x 768 screen size or better

We deliberately chose NOT to deliver this training product using DVD video. There are a few reasons for this. The first is quality. DVD-Video is primarily an NTSC medium and as such, requires us to use scan converters and other analog trappings that result in a smaller frame size and a picture quality that looks noticeably soft when played on a computer.

Second, with processor speeds now at super computing levels, software for capturing full motion (30fps) screen activity is now a reality. If you watch our tutorials, you will see crisp 1600 x 1000 movies delivered at full frame rates.

Learn DVD Studio Pro 4

Watch an Excerpt from the DVD

But isn't iDVD good enough?

Fun with Gobbledygook

"Super Size" Training

About the Instuctor

Why DVD-ROM and not DVD-Video?