GUI for dvdauthor/MuxMan (Guide Version 1.05)

Index

Example (with template):

In this example some of the new (starting from version 0.86) possibilities are used. There are three example templates: DVDTemplate1P.gfd (PAL German), DVDTemplate2P.gfd (PAL English) and DVDTemplate1N.gfd (NTSC English). All these templates assume dvdauthor as authoring engine. For the NTSC Template a 720x480 film without back borders is assumed (Crop Settings: 16 pixels left/right; 8 pixels top/down), the Pal templates assumes a 720x576 'letterboxed' film (thus with black borders top/down; Crop Settings: 8 pixels left/right; 80 pixels top/down). The sizes of the given buttons are set in accordance with the resulting aspect ratio. An animated menu is used (30 sec. clip for the main menu and 10 sec. clips for 8 chapters). The main menu contains two (text-)buttons: Film start and chapter selection. The chapter selection is distributed on two menus with appropriate buttons to return to the main menu as well as to the previous (and/or next) chapter selection menu. The chapter selection is made by graph. buttons (with masks). The templates can be found in the GFD installation folder, but should be copied into the selected output directory.
First adapt the permanent settings and the output directory to your needs.

Load the template (simply with 'File - Open' from the menu bar)

The message box that the video could not be found is normal in this case, as the video is only a 'dummy' file

In the project explorer open the node 'Film1' and right click on the icon with three dots to open the Video+Audio files dialog:

Replace the 'dummy' with your own movie:

You may use either multiplexed or elementary streams (for elementary streams add audio and/or subtitle streams as well).

Load the extended chapter editor ChapEditGFD:

Take care that clips are selected (default: 10 seconds length, but you may select another duration as well)

and save 8 chapter marks and the associated clips:

You may also set the positions for the chapters by hand and save them with 'Save Chapter + Clips', but it should be 8 chapters.
Close ChapEditGFD again.

Close the Video+Audio files dialog with 'OK'.
If desired, you may have a first look to the result with Preview (and/or AVS Preview):

Open the Titleset 1 Menu:

Drag&drop the first 4 chapter marks to the given buttons:

The result in Preview (and AVS Preview):

Open the Submenu1 (for the chapters 5-8):

Drag&drop the chapter marks 5 to 8 to the given buttons like before.

If desired, you may now add background music (take care for the correct duration - must be the same as the animation!), change the background image, add an intro...

Create the DVD structure, burn... as already described.

If you want to create an own templates, just set up your project 'as usual', and delete the clips (or images) from the buttons afterwards (either with 'Alt' + right click and 'Remove' or via the 'Delete' - 'All free Animations'/'All images' function from the menu). This works only with graphical buttons, keep text buttons as they are and change them when you use the template if necessary.Then save the project with a new name.
For 'complex' templates (with own GifMasks, backgrounds...) you should create an own directory and put all used 'resources' (GifMasks, images, animations...) into this folder together with the saved project file. During project load, GfD trys to find all resources in the folders where they have been at the time the project was saved. But if resources cannot be found there, the directory from where you have loaded the gfd file is used.