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MAY 27, 2003 Customizing iDVD 3, Part 3
The settings file Fine, so now you've completed your foreground elements and placed them into the Materials folder, replacing the old material files. If you're the type (like me) to try these things out without thinking first, you've no doubt discovered that your elements are all scrunched up and distorted. This is because we still have to tell iDVD the dimensions of our foreground. This is quite simple, but it's somewhat hidden from all but the most dedicated of settings file perusers.[an error occurred while processing this directive]This portion of the process requires an application called Property List Editor, which came with Mac OS X. This application is part of the Developer Tools package, which you may or may not yet have installed. If you have not, the installer is located on your hard drive. Go to Macintosh HD/Applications/Installers/Developer Tools. There you'll find a file called "Developer.mpkg." Launch this and follow the installation instructions, and you're good to go. After you've installed the Developer Tools, go back to your 000_Theater.theme file. Show it's package contents, as before, and navigate to Contents/Resources/English.lproj. There you'll see a file called "Description.plist."  This is a property list file that can be opened using Property List Editor. Open this file, and you'll see a bunch of settings that won't mean a lot to you at the moment. Locate the item called "dropZones." Expand this, and then expand the item called "0." From there, expand the item called "BoundBox." Here you'll see four settings labeled 0, 1, 2 and 3. These are your x,y coordinates. Items 0 and 1 are the horizontal and vertical start positions, while 3 and 4 are the horizontal and vertical end positions. If you created a foreground of 640 x 480, you would enter the values as seen below. (Otherwise, enter whatever values are appropriate for your particular foreground elements.)  And that's it. Save your Description.plist file with the modifications, and you have a fully functional, custom drop zone for iDVD.  In future installments, we'll look at adding effects and other tricks for customizing iDVD. In the meantime, if you have any questions, drop me a line or visit me in one of the forums listed below. Contact the author: Dave Nagel is the producer of Creative Mac and Digital Media Designer; host of several World Wide User Groups, including Synthetik Studio Artist, Adobe Photoshop, Mac OS, Adobe InDesign, Adobe LiveMotion, Creative Mac and Digital Media Designer; and executive producer of the Digital Media Net family of publications. You can reach him at dnagel@digitalmedianet.com. Prev 1 2 3 Related sites: • AV Video • Creative Mac • Digital Post Production • Digital Producer • DVD Creation • Film and Video Magazine • The WWUG Related forums: [an error occurred while processing this directive] 
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