i have figured out how to use the motion menu now. i had been originally mislead by several tutorials. most tutorials on google seem to suggest you must use the psd directly in encore for your menu. the truth is instead of using the psd in encore and laying the motion menu over it. you use a blank template in encore.and make your composition in after effects using the psd then the motion menu you made in after effects gets placed over the blank template in encore then you must set the loop point for the menu to loop after the animation takes place which also delays the button highlights until the loop point. so the 2 major problems are solved. and i have also learned that i should make my own button highlights in photoshop to avoid the ugly built in ones in encore. it is coming together it was just hard to find a good explanation of the steps to using a motion menu in encore. i am sure you have been busy chainsawash and i appreciate the attempts you made to help however i seem to have come into my own. i think i just expected encore to be simple to use like dvda when in fact it is much harder to use but can also lead to more professional dvd authoring. i think this thread is a wrap if i need any more advice for encore i will try to catch ash in off topic.