What do you do after you have built the DVD Studio Pro Tutorial project? Make a DVD of your own, of course... but... how do you get started down the path if you don't have any assets prepared yet? Easy. if you have the DVD Companion Starter-Pack.
DVD Companion Starter Pack can be your guide to unlocking these secrets... contains special DVD Graphics, Audio Streams and MPEG2 Video streams (short ones) that have been created specifically for the DVD Companion collection as building blocks. These unique Photoshop files, AC3 & AIFF Audio Files and MPEG2 streams are built to the proper dimensions and specifications, and are designed to be used as graphic, audio and video placeholders for your own NEW DVD projects.
The Starter Pack graphics will allow you to begin authoring a DVD navigation structure, and test it pretty thoroughly while the Video Encodes, Sound Files and Graphics Menus are still in development - getting a jump start on the encoding process can put you days or weeks ahead in the development cycle, and allows you to build practically the entire DVD without having ONE graphic menu or MPEG Video encode - yet, the project navigation can be built and tested, and the assets literally "dropped in" when they're ready! Even Multi-Angle and Multi-Language DVDs can be mocked-up!
The DVD Companion Starter Pack also includes a few simple DVD projects to get you going. Every project in this package has been authored and tested by Bruce Nazarian, an experienced DVD Author and creator of The DVD Companion, and contain many DVD "tricks of the trade".
We urge you to spend the time to build the DVD Studio Pro Tutorial project FIRST, before jumping into the Pro-Pack projects - The tutorial project will walk you through building a DVD Video disc that uses many of the features of the DVD Video specification, including Multiple Angles, Subtitles, Still Menus with Buttons, and Motion Menus with Buttons. The tutorial projects will also teach you how to convert your uncompressed digital sound files into Dolby Digital (AC3) compressed sound files - a big step in efficiently utilizing the billions of bits available on your 4.7 GB DVD-Recordable disc.
By building the tutorial first, not only will you benefit by learning the basics of DVD Authoring, but you will also get the hang of using DVD Studio Pro, as well.
After you have completed the tutorial projects, and feel confident in using DVD Studio Pro, please look at the index of the graphics and MPEG streams available in DVD Companion Starter-Pack. You will find many useful assets available for your authoring!
