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Chapter 15: 3D Basics
Adobe
®
Director
®
lets you bring robust, high-performance 3D graphics to the web. With Director, you can develop
a wide spectrum of 3D productions, ranging from simple text handling to interactive product demonstrations to
complete immersive game environments. Using Shockwave
®
Player, users can view your work on the web with
Netscape
®
Navigator, Microsoft
®
Internet Explorer
®
, or other browsers that support web packaging.
Director lets you detect the capabilities of the user’s system and adjust playback demands accordingly. A powerful
computer with 3D hardware acceleration brings the best results, but users can successfully use Director movies with
3D on most Mac® or Windows® hardware platforms. The faster the computer’s graphics processing, the better the
results. The ability to adjust for client-side processing power makes Director ideal for web delivery.
What you need to know
(You can perform many basic 3D operations by using the built-in 3D behaviors in Director.(For more information,
see
Using 3D behaviors
.) Most complex 3D operations, however, are performed by using either Lingo or JavaScript™
syntax, the built-in scripting languages of Director. The 3D documentation assumes that you understand either
Lingo or JavaScript syntax. If you have not yet learned Lingo or JavaScript syntax, see the Scripting Reference topics
in the Director Help Panel
,
which list all of the Lingo and JavaScript syntax methods and properties that are available
in Director. The Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel describe each expression, illustrate its syntax,
and provide examples.
Because 3D is primarily controlled by behaviors and scripts, the 3D methods and properties are described here in
detail. You will find them grouped by category in
The 3D Cast Member, 3D Text, and 3D Behaviors
,
Working with
Models and Model Resources
, and
Controlling the 3D World
.
About 3D in Director
The following are the main components that are common between this and earlier versions of Director:
•
The Stage is the authoring area where the Director movie is assembled.
•
The Score displays the arrangement of channels that organize, display, and control the movie over time.
Because 3D is primarily script-controlled, it involves much less direct manipulation in the Score than other
Director features.
•
The Cast window is where all cast members, including the 3D cast members, are stored.
Cast members are the media in your movies, such as sounds, text, graphics, and 3D scenes.
•
Sprites are instances of cast members that appear on the Stage with individual properties and attributes.
A sprite of a 3D cast member displays a particular camera’s view into the 3D world. The 3D cast member contains
models, which are individual objects inside the 3D cast member. For more information about models, see
The
3D world
. Also see
3D cast members
and
Working with Models and Model Resources
.
•
The Property inspector is a tabbed panel that lets you view and control properties of multiple objects in your
movie.
