Draw the Interface
“DVD Studio Pro is very friendly; it handled 90% of the workflow for the ‘PSM’ DVD. To create a menu, you just click on a button, drag it into the menu, draw where you want the interactivity to be and you’re done,” he adds.
“Some scripting is involved — for example, to make certain button clicks trigger certain actions — but we see that as an advantage because it gives us extra control, more stuff to play with. It’s those extra options that make DVD Studio Pro different from iDVD, which is a great program for the average computer user because it works off templates. But we appreciate that we’re not limited by templates in DVD Studio Pro.”
In addition, DVD Studio Pro works with all the file formats that 3rd Light uses to put together a DVD: stills, movies, audio, plus the various content creation software. For the “PSM” disc alone, they used NewTek’s LightWave 3D to create an animated background; Adobe Illustrator to create shapes of the menus; Adobe Photoshop for stills; Adobe AfterEffects to animate the menu; and Apple’s Final Cut Pro for the editing. Then, of course, it all came together in DVD Studio Pro.
Reaching Readers
From the outset, the goal of the “PSM” project was to fill the freebie DVD with clips and trailers from PlayStation 2 games, as well as fun interviews and other goodies from the magazine’s editors — and to make it so compelling that people would buy more games and future issues of the magazine. The magazine’s editors also wanted to increase awareness of their magazine within the gaming community.
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Tokuda praises “PSM” magazine for recognizing the potential of DVD as a medium to reach its readers. “Too many companies aren’t aware of the benefits of video or DVD. They think it’s too expensive, and in today’s economy, they’re reluctant to make the investment. But nowadays, these things don’t have to be expensive, and in many instances using video or DVD is the best way to convey information, whether it’s for a promotion, testimonial, training or an interactive DVD for media kits.”
Learning by Doing
The first “PSM” disc took three months to complete. “We had to design everything from scratch,” recalls Tokuda. Each of the three additional discs that 3rd Light has done for “PSM” went faster than the one before; the most recent one was completed in DVD Studio Pro in two days, on a rush basis.
“Once you understand the concepts and where to click in DVD Studio Pro, it’s just that easy,” says Tokuda. “That’s why we were able to do that last DVD on short notice and do it really nicely.
“Because of the visual nature of DVD, we could use the ‘PSM’ project to experiment with different menu styles, compositing, titles, 3D animation and editing of the interviews,” he continues. “We found all kinds of cool new things to do. The more tools you have to work with, as with DVD Studio Pro, the higher you can raise your standards for quality and creativity.”
A Bunch of Tapes
Slate and his colleagues at “PSM” appreciated both the results and the process. “We handed Droo a bunch of tapes and mini-DV footage — trailers from video game coverage, footage of us playing games — and 3rd Light filmed some interviews with people behind the scenes here, like having an Easter egg hunt in the office,” says Slate. “Droo and his team fleshed it all out, did the whole menu set-up, and came back with the finished DVD.
“Even with the tight deadlines we imposed — and the fact that we sent him footage that wasn’t exactly the best quality — Droo used his editing expertise, special effects, light and colour to end up with something a million times better than we ever thought it would be. We looked at the finished DVD and said, ‘Is this the same stuff we sent over?’ He blew us away.”
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“Droo” Tokuda
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Three People, Multiple Computers
3rd Light began life as “three Macs and a bed in Droo’s bedroom,” says Janecke (pronounced “YAH-nick-uh”) Hausken, Executive Producer and Resident Handy-Person at 3rd Light. Tokuda, a little embarrassed by the potential implications of that description, is quick to point out that the bed served only as “an obstacle between the computers and the bathroom.” With more space in its San Francisco studio, 3rd Light has seen its equipment growing proportionally, but, says Hausken, “We still work in a small space with a lot of stuff.”
That “stuff” includes the studio’s three production computers: a Power Mac G4 800 minitower that serves as the primary editing station, and two 700 MHz eMac systems, which Tokuda says are plenty powerful enough to handle Final Cut Pro. An assortment of other Macintosh systems rounds out the roster, including Tokuda’s and Hausken’s two iBook computers, which are the “centre of our personal and business everything,” says Tokuda. All the production Macintosh systems run Mac OS X.
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