Ulead 1.0 - Manual (Page 130)

7—4 SpruceUp User’s Guide
Creating Photoshop Buttons
SpruceUp imports custom buttons created with an Adobe Photoshop (.PSD) format. These
can be simple or highly complex. The following provides information so that an experienced
Photoshop user can quickly get started creating buttons. You can also open the supplied
sample buttons to see how they were created.
See the SpruceUp Support web site for updated information and Photoshop Action files to
use while creating buttons.
http://www.spruceuserforums.com/SpruceUp
Introduction
There are two types of buttons: Solid and Thumbnail Frames.
Solid buttons look the same no matter what their target is. They rely on their shape (an
arrow for example) or text typed next to them to indicate what happens when they are
pushed.
Thumbnail Frame buttons have a window that displays the video thumbnail frame of the
clip or menu assigned to them. This provides a visual indication of what pushing the button
does.
Creating a SpruceUp button can be as simple as a single layer background image, or can
involve up to four layers:
• Background - This is what the button looks like. Use this to define its content. All
buttons must at least have this layer.
• Mask - This is the “hole cutter” for the button. This is used to cut a hole around the
Button Background and in the menu background, ensuring they fit together. This is
required for buttons that don't use or show the entire area of the Background layer.
• Subpicture - This defines the areas of the button to be highlighted and darkened
when selected by the viewer. It can be the whole button or just a portion of it. The
Subpicture can only exist within the Mask area.
• Thumbnail - This defines the area where the thumbnail video frame from a movie’s
Chapter Point or a linked menu displays. Thumbnails are scaled to fit the black area or
this layer.
While SpruceUp does not require the button to be rectangular, the DVD specification does
require its “active” area to be. This has the implication that the click-able area of the button
does not always match the visible button (an issue only when viewing on a PC with a
mouse).
When the viewer uses a mouse to click on a button, they can click anywhere within the
rectangular area of the button and it is the same as clicking on the button’s background.
The problem is that two buttons may overlap even though their visible parts don’t. This is
typically only a problem when using a mouse to select the buttons – a DVD player's
navigation arrows generally work fine with this. See the Overlapping Buttons topic for more
information.
The Button File
Note: This section is written based on Adobe Photoshop, however
other applications providing suitable layered PSD format files will also
work.