Some golden rules
When designing DVD menus in any program, it’s important to remember that legibility and ease of access are paramount. If the viewer can't readily navigate a menu, then it’s a bad menu – no matter how wonderful it looks.If a video clip is used as the main background to the menu system, it may be necessary to edit the clip to reduce its contrast and brightness so that overlaid text and buttons stand out better. But, clever though it is, Studio doesn't let you make such changes during DVD authoring – you have to do that separately.
If using animated video thumbnails as buttons, try to pick the most memorable part of each clip or, rather, one that gives the best idea of what the video or chapter contains.
Generally, try to keep menu footage short – 30 seconds or less - to save space on the disc and concentrate on the key part of the clips. Studio, though, understands the "grammar" and practicalities of DVD authoring and automatically reduces clips to that length.
Also, be careful with use of background music, it can become highly irritating when left on a loop for a long period of time – so having no music can be a better choice.
In Pinnacle Studio, menus don’t have to appear at the beginning of a project – the program allows them to be inserted anywhere on the timeline. This enables play-first elements such as copyright notices or company idents, to be shown before the root menu appears.
