DVD menu. (Video inside) w/Blend File now

Artwork Works in Progress
#1

At the last minute of authoring a DVD of a birthday party for a friend, I decided to do an animated menu. Animated menus can have an “intro”, “middle” and exit. 3 sections of a single video clip do all three. You can also have an animated menu without the intro and “exit”.

What you will see in this video is the “into”, which leads into the “middle” (the middle loops forever), which is the last frame of this video works-in-progress.

http://home.comcast.net/~kierchar/dvdmenu.wmv (1.45 MB 720x480)

Now, this WMV, is a reduced quality of the original MPEG-2 video that I am working with. Also, this is not the highest quality video that can be done in Blender, but much better than the original DVD menu that planned on (a still photo). I still have to finish this, add music, and some more touch-ups.

Here’s the Blend File…
http://home.comcast.net/~kierchar/cake.rar (1.72 MB)

#2

Wow, you’re cake looks very edible! The frosting looks great!
the scene looks a little empty though… maybe some candles on the cake or party hats on the table?

#3

Thanks!
I’m trying to keep it simple, being that my PC is a 2.6gHz P4. I left the rendering on overnight, so it probably took most of the night, if not, at least a few hours to make.

#4

I pity you, I used to have a P4 3Ghz, and I upgraded to a q6600 2.4Ghz (quad-core).

The stargate model I used to render in 1min15sec per frame, I now do in 23sec. And I set the record for the benchmark file on this page :
http://mpan3.homeip.net/?blenderfiles

Anyway, nice video :slight_smile: Xcept like Phrangkk said, the scene needs a bit more substance.

#5

I sympathize with your hardware restrictions.
maybe now that you have that scene rendered you could composite some other elements in, if you have the time. (I know Birthday deadlines are pretty inflexible.)
Rerender with some elements over it on a shadow-only plane.
Even if you never add anything else, I still want a bite of that cake.

#6

I am working on getting a new PC, but with $600.00 heating bills and fixing up my 100 year old house, it may be a while. Another “overnight rendering” with ome extra props won’t kill me. I think at least a wood grain surface may make it better,

As far as liking the frosting on the cake. It is concrete, used as a NOR map. I got the texture from a cool website. It is packed in the Blend File, above.