DVD Subpicture - A Photoshop Plugin

DVD Subpicture
by Chris Linke

This plugin converts a black & white antialiased RGB image and converts it to a four-color image that Sonic's DVD creator can use as a subpicture overlay. It has the advantage over posterizing because it creates the exact white-black-red-blue colors required. Just drop the plugin into Photoshop's plugins folder. I haven't tested the images on anything other than Creator, but it should work on any other system that uses standard subpicture overlay colors.

First of all, the DVD spec doesn't allow for true antialiased subpictures for interactive menus; the file you use for the subpic can only be 100% values of white, black, red and blue. But there's a way around that using the emphasis colors to fake the antialiasing.

Create your subpicture in Photoshop using 100% black antialiased graphics on a 100% white background at whatever square pixel resolution you require for the aspect ratio and broadcast standard in which you're working. Once your graphics are completely set up, flatten the image. Then resize it to the final resolution for said aspect and standard (I find that bilinear resizing produces the best results).


Antialiased text before filter is applied.

Now apply the filter (Filters > Video > DVD Subpicture). Your black graphics will now have little specks of red and blue around them.


Antialiased text after filter is applied.

IMPORTANT: Applying the filter must be the last step before saving. If you resize the image after applying the filter, you'll get some pixels that aren't the right color.

Save and import it into the DVD authoring program.

I'll assume you know how to use your subpicture editor, so I'll just say that for each color family (overlay, selected and action) set your pattern and both emphasis colors to the same color, i.e., all white in overlay, all red in selected, and all green in action. For each color group, set pattern's transparency to 100%, emphasis 1's to 69% and emphasis 2's to 31%.

Voila! You now have antialiased graphics in your menu! Of course, the down side of this is that you don't have any emphasis colors to play with, so if you need them, you'll have to live without antialiased text. But with some creativity you might be able to figure out your own workaround.

UPDATE
July 2, 2007: Some users of Photoshop CS3 (OSX) are reporting compatibility problems. I will work to correct this as soon as possible.
May 30, 2008: The OSX Photoshop CS3 problem seems to be happening only on Intel machines. I've added a new download below that should correct this.

DOWNLOAD

DVD Subpicture is available for Mac OS 9 or earlier, Mac OS X, and Windows.
NOTE: Some Windows Photoshop CS users may need the msvcrt10.dll file in order for the plugin to function. This dll is included in the download.

This plugin is completely free. I only made it to help myself and other DVD professionals, not as a commercial venture. If you wish to donate a little something, I could use the gas money. To donate, click the "Donate" button below to make a donation via PayPal. Thanks to all who have said nice things about the plugin.

PRC Digital Media
476 Riverside Avenue
Jacksonville, Florida 32202
(904) 354-1500
Fax (904) 354-8344