DVD Studio Pro 1.5: Using the Highlighting Method to Specify Button Appearances

You use the highlighting method to specify button appearances in motion menus. (You can also use this method in still menus. You cannot use the Photoshop Layer method in motion menus.)

There are two parts to using the highlighting method: If you want to use an overlay image that determines which parts of the button's active areas will change color, you first need to choose one in the Property Inspector. The overlay image can be in Photoshop or PICT format, and must be added to the Assets container. You then need to specify one or two color and transparency sets for selected and activated buttons and assign a set to each state of each button.

1. Open the menu you want to work with in the menu editor by double-clicking its thumbnail area.
2. If you're going to use an overlay image, choose the asset containing your overlay image from the Overlay Picture pop-up menu (in the Button Hilites area of the Property Inspector). If the overlay image is a Photoshop file, you also need to choose its layer.
3. To specify color and transparency sets, choose colors in the Selected Set and Activated Set pop-up menus and set the percentage of color to use for each state. 0% is completely transparent and 100% is completely opaque.
4. Select a button on the menu. In the Display area of the Property Inspector, choose a highlight set from the Use Hilite pop-up menu.
5. Repeat step 4 for each button on the menu.
6. To check your work, choose Show Selected Hilites and Show Activated Hilites from the Buttons menu.
If you want more control over the way your overlay works, choose No from the Use Simple Overlay pop-up menu (in the Button Hilites area of the Property Inspector). The advanced highlighting controls that appear let you specify the highlight color and transparency for each of four shades in an overlay image.