DVD Menu Creation

For the showreel DVD, I wanted to create an interactive menu, that was personalised to include my own design.  The ideal piece of software that I would have liked to use was DVD Studio Pro, because it is great for creating menus with motion graphics and other stuff, but unfortunately it was out of my price range and I couldn't find a crack for it.

Instead, I settled for iDVD, the DVD making software that came with my MacBook.  At first, I disliked it because it didn't seem as flexible as DVD Studio Pro but after a bit of playing around, I figured out how to customise a pre-made theme so that it has my design.  This was important, as I wanted the DVD to present my strong visual image or "brand" if you like, even though I hate that word.

This is a screenshot of the Main Menu of my showreel DVD as it looks now, with the Kash Kong Monkey background that I also use on my website.  Click to enlarge.

This menu consists of three options; Play Showreel, Artwork and Website.  The default highlighted button is Play Showreel as the showreel is the first thing that anyone who is observing this DVD will want to see, particularly employees.  I was hoping to make the monkey image into a button which would take the user to my showreel, but iDVD was only capable of creating buttons out of text or basic shapes.  On either side of the Play Showreel, I have put up two other buttons; one just leads to an address for my web site and looks like this.

The other button, labelled Artwork leads to two sub menus called Animation and 'Gallery respectively.

In the Animation sub menu, the user can look at a selection of complete animated work that I have done over the past few years.  The Gallery sub menu gives the viewer a choice between two slide shows; one of a selection of my life drawing work and another of my Sketches; which includes Concept Art and personal work.

This means that although the Showreel will be the centrepiece of this DVD and the only part that most potential employers will have the chance to look at, I have provided the user with a website and some work in greater detail, in case they are interested in my work.