AfterEffects
- First create the animation in After Effects, including the menu writing or movie thumbnails or anything that will be appearing as the menu screen of the dvd.
- Save the image layers at (/after) the looping point, do "Composition" / Save Frame as / Photoshop layers
- Render the movie
- Open the saved frame file in photoshop, so you have a background on which to draw your buttons
- Create a layer for each of the menu button, like a highlighted bounding box or something like that
- Name each of those layers with appropriate name, preceded by: (=1)
- Get rid of all other layers, so that only the (=1) named layers are left
- In Encore, Import the movie and put it in a timeline
- Import the psd file as menu
- Select the menu
- Under the layers panel, for each button layer, activate it as a button by clicking on the button little square checkbox (next to the lock checkbox)
- Under the menu / Motion tab => use the pick whip to link to the movie file, do the same for the audio.
- In the 'Loop Point', set the time to where the movie should loop from
- Ctrl/Right click this menu and set it as "first play"
- In the flowchart, link each button to whichever asset
- Don't forget to set the 'end actions' for each asset
