Adobe Encore DVD 2.0 product reviews

Wow, talk about playing with the big toys... I have been playing around with authoring original multimedia content as interactive DVDs for a little while now, and I thought I had some pretty nifty tools to do the job. From recording the events on MiniDV camcorders, through the welding and cutting clips into new units, dropping a few soundtracks over the top from the mp3 library, whip up a quick menu in Photoshop and assemble it all before burning to a disc.

Sure, the flow seems simple, and it is once you get used to the tools... but once I got a look at this, I saw that I was playing with toy trucks, not the serious earthmovers I thought they were. This application has it all. You have full control over every aspect of the DVDs performance, from initial concept, to final professional results. If you have done the smart thing and bought the whole suite then you now have the ability to make anything your imagination could want. OK, perhaps you should still have a good 3d environment package tucked away in there too.

If I had to pick on one aspect of it to be 'the most awkward component' I would have to pick Menus. Once you have your footage and audio taken care of, the files are simply drag'n'drop and a few tweaks. The bulk of the work is done in the original applications, but menus are all built within Encore. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that this is, of coutrse, a sign of just how powerful a tool it is, but it does take the most getting used to. Assembling the rest of the content is relatively easy, especially if you make good use of the flowchart window in the early stages of assembly, to minimise confusion during menu design and construction.

On the other hand, one of the most impressive aspects of this is summed up by "Adobe Dynamic Link". This amazing feature allows you on-the-fly edit-&-update of linked After Effects compositions. This can save a LOT of time designing 3d or motion menus, transition clips and animated content. When a good 80% of your time in Encore will be spent designing and tweaking the structure rather than the content, this is a major workflow enhancement. Combined with the resources-at-a-click functionality of Adobe Bridge and you have some amazing powers of creativty at your disposal, and all your raw elements just a couple of clicks away.

Overall, this one really blew me away. Whether as the final stage only, or an integral part of the Production Studio package, this has to be the leader of DVD authoring. Not as simple as some readily available packages, designed for beginners or casual users, this app is designed for the serious professional, and would be the Big Gun on the market. With the absorption of Macromedia into the Adobe Family, there are bound to be some more enhancements coming soon, so I am anticipating some more amazing content-creation tools to be integrated in the near future. Watch the Adobe site for signs...