- Storyboarding Your DVD
- Creating the Swiss Storyboard Using the Graphical Tab
- Previewing the Finished Project with Apples DVD Player
- Identifying Source Video Settings
- Setting DVD Studio Pro Preferences
- Setting Up Disc Properties
- Importing Video and Audio Files
- Setting Chapter Markers
- Simulating Your Project
- Lesson Review
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Importing Video and Audio Files
DVD Studio Pro offers you two methods for importing and managing assets:
- The Palette window
- The Import function of the Assets tab
The Palette window, which is similar to the iDVD Palette window, is basically a file browser. You can use it to select the folders that contain the assets you want to make available to all of your projects. The Palette method is helpful if you need to use the same assets in several projects, such as logos and other identity elements.
The second method for importing assets—the Import function in the Assets tab—is highly recommended if you intend to use your media for only one project. Using the Assets tab, you can organize your media in a way that is very similar to using bins in Final Cut Pro’s Browser window.
The difference between the Assets tab and the Palette window is that the Assets tab lists media that have actually been added to your project, whereas the Palette window lists media that are available to be added to your project.
In the following steps, you will import an audio file and a video file, and organize them in the Assets tab.
- Find the Assets tab in the top-left corner of the DVD Studio Pro interface.
- At the top of the Assets tab, click the Import button.
- Navigate to Media > Swiss using your file browser.
- Open the Swiss_Assets folder and navigate to the Tracks folder.
- Select SwissMovie.m2v and SwissMovie.AC3 from the Tracks folder.
You can select more than one file sequentially by holding down the Command key and clicking each file, one at a time.
- Click Import to bring the files into DVD Studio Pro.
The video and audio files will show up in the Assets tab. As you do this, DVD Studio Pro creates a parsing file that contains all the information about the MPEG2 video assets. This process takes a little while, depending on the size of the assets. You will see a “P:” and a progress bar in the Status column of the asset. As soon as the progress bar reaches 100%, a green ready symbol will indicate that the parsing file has been created and the asset is now ready to be used.
- In the Assets tab, create a folder by clicking the New Folder button.
- Type SwissMovie for the name of your folder and press Return.
- Drag both SwissMovie.m2v and SwissMovie.AC3 into the SwissMovie folder.
- Drag SwissMovie.m2v from the Assets tab onto the Outline tab, and continue to hold the mouse button down.
This will activate the Outline tab, which is now accessible to you.
- Continue dragging SwissMovie.m2v down onto the SwissMovie icon in the Outline tab, and release the mouse button.
This step causes a few things to happen automatically. The audio is automatically assigned to the track (as long as the audio file’s name before its extension is the same as our video file name before its extension). In addition, the movie becomes available in the Track Editor timeline along with any markers that may have been set in Final Cut Pro. However, for this video you will set markers manually, as explained next.
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