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Authoring workflow
Planning your disc
You're probably tired of hearing people talking about the importance of planning your Blu-ray Disc™
production. Chances are, you can knock out a DVD with very little planning at all. But keep in mind that the
Blu-ray Disc format introduces new interactive capabilities, new graphics requirements, and mandatory
protection schemes for replication.
A few items to think through before beginning your project:
Flowchart the interactive aspects of the disc
It is important to think through how the user will interact with the menu system and other interactive
features of the disc. Create a flowchart. Think through every button on the remote control. Will your main
program start automatically or will you create a video loop that your pop-up menu will appear over at
program start?
Naming conventions
If you are working with a team of authors and graphics designers, establish a naming convention for your
graphics particularly as they describe menu elements and button states. Many an authoring job has been
delayed due to confusion over the minutiae of which graphic is supposed to be the selected button state vs.
the activated state. These are new concepts if you have come out of a DVD authoring background.
Chapter 3
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