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MACROMEDIA DIRECTOR MX 2004-USING DIRECTOR Use Manual Download Page 159

About tempo

159

Comparing actual speed with tempos

It’s good practice to test the performance of your movie on a system that is similar to that of your 
users. Make sure the movie plays well on the slowest systems likely to be used. 

The tempo you’ve set and the actual speed of a movie both appear in the floating Control panel.

Note: 

The Control panel attached to the bottom of the Stage does not include tempo settings. 

Tempo settings are available only from the floating (detached) version of the Control panel. To 
detach the Control panel from the Stage, Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) the 
Control panel. In the context menu, select Detach Control Panel. 

To compare the actual speed of a movie with the tempos you’ve set:

1

Play the movie from start to finish, and then rewind it to the beginning.

2

Use the Step Forward button to step through the movie frame by frame.

3

In each frame, compare the tempo setting shown in the floating Control panel with the actual 
speed shown there. 
If you haven’t recorded the actual speed of a movie in a particular frame, the actual tempo field 
displays two dashes (--).

Locking frame durations

To make Director play a movie at the same tempo on all types of computers, use the Lock Frame 
Durations option in the Movie Playback Properties dialog box (see 

“Setting movie playback 

options” on page 471

). For frames without tempo settings, Director uses the current tempo. Lock 

Frame Duration prevents a movie from playing too fast on a fast system, but it cannot prevent a 
movie from playing slowly on a slow system. 

To turn on Lock Frame Durations:

1

Select Modify > Movie > Playback.

2

Select Lock Frame Durations.

Controlling tempo with Lingo or JavaScript syntax

To override the tempo set in the movie’s tempo channel, you use the 

puppetTempo() 

method. 

This approach is useful when you want to change the movie’s tempo in response to conditions 
that you can’t control, such as the type of computer the movie is playing on or a user’s action.

The 

puppetTempo()

 method doesn’t retain control of the tempo channel. If the movie 

encounters any tempo settings in the tempo channel, the 

puppetTempo()

 settings are overridden. 

For more information about 

puppetTempo()

, see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director 

Help Panel.

Step Forward

Tempo setting

Actual tempo

Summary of Contents for DIRECTOR MX 2004-USING DIRECTOR

Page 1: ...DIRECTOR MX 2004 Using Director...

Page 2: ...f Macromedia Inc and may be registered in the United States or in other jurisdictions including internationally Other product names logos designs titles words or phrases mentioned within this publicat...

Page 3: ...23 Creating cast members 24 Using the Cast window 26 Naming cast members 31 Using Cast List view 31 Using Cast Thumbnail view 33 Moving cast members within the Cast window 35 Organizing cast members w...

Page 4: ...ning 87 Changing tweening settings 88 Switching a sprite s cast members 89 Editing sprite frames 89 Frame by frame animation 90 Shortcuts for animating with multiple cast members 92 Using film loops 9...

Page 5: ...mpo and Transitions 145 Controlling color 145 Setting palette cast member properties 155 About tempo 157 Using transitions 160 CHAPTER 8 Text 163 Embedding fonts in movies 164 Creating text cast membe...

Page 6: ...content 201 Using Director movies within Director movies 202 Setting linked Director movie properties 203 Using ActiveX controls 204 Using Flash components 207 Button component 210 CheckBox component...

Page 7: ...properties with script 282 Customizing a behavior s property 283 Creating an on getPropertyDescriptionList handler 284 Including a description for the Behavior inspector 285 Example of a complete beh...

Page 8: ...bout the 3D cast member 315 Model resources 316 Models 318 Shaders 319 Textures 320 Motions 321 Lights 321 Cameras 322 Groups 323 Creating 3D text 324 Modifying 3D text 324 Script and 3D text 325 Usin...

Page 9: ...19 Using XML parser objects 420 Using XML document nodes 422 Accessing attributes 424 Parser objects and XML nodes 424 Treating white space 425 XML and character sets 425 CHAPTER 20 Making Director Mo...

Page 10: ...t cross platform projectors 463 Processing movies with Update Movies 464 Exporting digital video and frame by frame bitmaps 465 Setting QuickTime export options 466 About organizing movie files 468 CH...

Page 11: ...ur creativity and build rich interactive experiences that deliver measurable results Director provides all the tools you need to maximize productivity including a choice of scripting languages and cro...

Page 12: ...ng DVD Video You can now embed control and play back the popular DVD Video format inside Director movies This feature makes DVD possible and affordable for a wide variety of developers including enter...

Page 13: ...erfaces APIs for both Lingo and JavaScript syntax Guide to instructional media Director contains a variety of information sources to help you learn the program quickly and become proficient in creatin...

Page 14: ...ed for those who are new to Director Director Help Panel This online help system is the comprehensive information source for all Director features It includes overviews of the features examples how to...

Page 15: ...r_support contains the latest information about Director plus additional topics examples tips and updates Check the website often for the latest news and how to get the most out of Director Document c...

Page 16: ...16 Chapter 1 Introduction...

Page 17: ...o greater detail about how to use three of the most important windows in Director the Score the Stage and the Cast windows Using the Tool palette with the Stage The Tool palette contains useful tools...

Page 18: ...you set the properties of the movie on the Stage These properties include color definitions size and location of the Stage while the movie plays and channels in the movie s Score For more information...

Page 19: ...the Property inspector To set grid properties 1 With the Property inspector open click the Guides tab The bottom half of the Guides tab contains grid settings 2 To change the grid color click the Gri...

Page 20: ...they have names assigned to them Cast Member displays the cast member number name or both Behaviors displays the behaviors attached to the sprite Ink Mode displays the type of ink applied to the sprit...

Page 21: ...frame you can also select Insert Remove Frame 4 To paste frames that you have cut or copied select any frame or sprite and select Edit Paste Sprites If there aren t enough empty frames available for t...

Page 22: ...3 Sprites on page 51 You use windows called casts to group and organize your cast members To populate casts you import and create cast members You can create and use multiple casts in a movie You can...

Page 23: ...text cast members in your movie from English to French by simply switching the cast that the movie uses rather than each individual cast member Using external casts can keep the movie size small for...

Page 24: ...Current Movie option Note You can link the external cast to your movie later See Managing external casts on page 47 5 Click Create The cast is created and appears as a tabbed panel in the Cast window...

Page 25: ...t in Director on page 254 About digital video formats on page 244 Using animated GIFs on page 101 3 To create a control or button do one of the following Select Insert Control Push Button Radio Button...

Page 26: ...ve groups of cast members Start editors for cast members Launch the Property inspector to view add and change comments about your cast members and to view and modify cast member properties Group multi...

Page 27: ...ng channel Close Panel Group closes the panel group To group a Cast panel with another Cast panel or Cast panel group 1 Select a Cast panel or a tab within a Cast panel group 2 From the panel s Option...

Page 28: ...save the panel layout before closing your file When you open the file again restore the tab configuration by opening the panel layout you created For more information select Help Director Help and se...

Page 29: ...a cast in a new Cast window Alt click Windows or Option click Macintosh the Cast button and select a cast from the context menu A dialog box reminds you to save your panel layout if you want to restor...

Page 30: ...humbnail view click the first cast member in the range and then Shift click the last cast member in the range To select multiple nonadjacent cast members In either List or Thumbnail view Control click...

Page 31: ...e the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel Using Cast List view Cast List view the default view in which the Cast window opens provides seven columns of information by default They ar...

Page 32: ...ast member attributes About cast member order in Cast List view Unlike the way in which cast members appear in Thumbnail view in List view the cast member order does not always correspond to the membe...

Page 33: ...e following table Icon Cast member type Icon Cast member type Animated GIF Behavior Bitmap Button Check box Custom cursor Digital video DVD Field Film loop Flash component Flash movie Font Linked bitm...

Page 34: ...identify in the Library palette because behaviors have no identifying image To create a custom cast member thumbnail 1 Select the bitmap image to use as the new thumbnail and copy it to your system s...

Page 35: ...e of the following In Thumbnail view select an empty position in any open Cast window and then select Edit Paste In List view deselect all cast members by clicking anywhere in the window except on a c...

Page 36: ...empty cast positions in the selection at the end 4 Click Sort Director reorders the cast members according to the sorting method you selected The Score automatically adjusts to the new cast member nu...

Page 37: ...bnail image that appears in the Cast window select one of the following options from the Thumbnail Size pop up menu Small 44 x 33 pixels Medium 56 x 42 pixels default Large 80 x 60 pixels Thumbnails a...

Page 38: ...en it is required by the movie This setting can slow down the movie while it plays but it makes the movie begin playing sooner This setting is the best choice when controlling cast members loading wit...

Page 39: ...is common to all the selected cast members appears Any changes you make apply to all the selected cast members 3 Display the Graphical view on the Member tab The Member tab displays the following ite...

Page 40: ...tting Windows Media properties on page 253 Setting DVD Cast member properties on page 257 Launching cast member editors You can open any cast member in the appropriate editor directly from the Cast wi...

Page 41: ...s that you find with this option might be used in the movie by a script Director displays the specified cast member 4 Do one of the following Select a cast member on the list and click Select to close...

Page 42: ...ast window or by using Lingo or JavaScript syntax To import cast members and specify import options 1 In Thumbnail view select an empty position in a cast If no cast position is selected Director plac...

Page 43: ...and sends the original to the external editor when you edit the cast member This option preserves all the editor s capabilities For example if you specify Photoshop to edit PICT images Director mainta...

Page 44: ...at s close to the original movie file Paths are restricted to 4096 characters by the system URLs can be as many as 260 characters If you store a file too many folders away from the movie or using a ve...

Page 45: ...r more information about controlling color in Director see Chapter 7 Color Tempo and Transitions on page 145 If you change 16 24 or 32 bit cast members to 8 or fewer bits you must remap the cast membe...

Page 46: ...Edit menu to access Preferences 2 Select a type of media for which you want to define an external editor 3 Click Edit 4 Click Browse or Scan to locate the application You can specify any application...

Page 47: ...2 cast members are removed 2 Next sets the selected cast members to be among the first removed from memory 1 Last sets the selected cast members to be the last removed from memory 0 Never sets the se...

Page 48: ...ink to the external cast first copy the cast member to an internal cast or to a different linked external cast Creating libraries A library is a special type of unlinked external cast that appears in...

Page 49: ...signed to a linked cast member Set the fileName cast member property For additional cast member properties that you can test and set using Lingo or JavaScript syntax see the properties in the Scriptin...

Page 50: ...he user who last modified the cast member 3 Use the Name field to view or edit the cast member name 4 To specify how Director removes cast members from memory if memory is low select options from the...

Page 51: ...occurs Different properties can alter the appearance of a sprite You can rotate skew flip and change the color of sprites without affecting cast members You can change sprite properties with the Prop...

Page 52: ...ons Entire Sprite selects the sprite in all frames that it occupies Current Frame Only selects only the current frame of the sprite 3 To determine the appearance and behavior of sprites yet to be crea...

Page 53: ...alled a keyframe See Editing sprite frames on page 89 A selected sprite appears on the Stage with a double border When you select a single frame within a sprite the sprite appears on the Stage with a...

Page 54: ...select only a keyframe click the keyframe indicator To select a keyframe and sprites at the same time Control click Windows or Command click Macintosh the keyframe and the desired sprites To select a...

Page 55: ...r name because a sprite is an instance of that cast member If you want the sprite name to be displayed in the Score and Stage select Edit Preferences Score Name If you are using a Macintosh OS X opera...

Page 56: ...igned via script when in score recording mode The syntax is as follows put sprite 1 name this displays the name in the message window You can also refer to the sprite by using its given name when evok...

Page 57: ...e that you want to find You can type just the first letters to limit the list to sprites that start with those letters 3 Select Name if you want the sprites sorted by name select Number if you want th...

Page 58: ...e planet in channel 1 To change a sprite s layer 1 In the Score select the sprite To select the contents of an entire channel click the channel number at the left side of the Score 2 Do one of the fol...

Page 59: ...splaying and editing sprite properties in the Property inspector Depending on your preference you can use either the Sprite toolbar or the Property inspector to perform many of the same procedures To...

Page 60: ...n page 63 Left L Top T Right R and Bottom B show the location of the edges of the sprite s bounding rectangle Width W and Height H show the size of the sprite s bounding rectangle in pixels The Ink po...

Page 61: ...is icon displays the Vector tab for a vector sprite the Text tab for a text sprite and so on To open the Sprite tab in the Property inspector click this icon To open the Behavior tab in the Property i...

Page 62: ...selecting from the different sprite labels available for example you can use the Extended display option to display the precise location of a sprite in every frame i To display sprite labels 1 With t...

Page 63: ...To check a property value Use the put method or check in the Watcher window For more information see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel To edit a property Use the equals operato...

Page 64: ...e To unlock a sprite 1 In the Score or on the Stage select one or more sprites to unlock 2 Do one of the following Select Modify Unlock Sprite On the Sprite tab in the Property inspector click the pad...

Page 65: ...sprites on the Stage by dragging them or by using the arrow keys To visually position a sprite on the Stage 1 Select Window Stage to display the Stage 2 Do one of the following on the Stage Drag a sp...

Page 66: ...de of the window or enter the number of pixels in the text boxes for horizontal and vertical change and then click Tweak 4 If you want to repeat the move click Tweak again Positioning sprites using gu...

Page 67: ...View Guides and Grid Show Grid 2 If Snap to Grid is not selected select View Guides and Grid Snap to Grid 3 Move a sprite on the Stage near a grid line to make the sprite snap to that exact location...

Page 68: ...he bottom left loc locH locV right or top sprite property The bottom left right and top sprite properties determine the location of the sprite s individual edges For more information about these prope...

Page 69: ...movie to another save the source movie first Moving a sprite in the Score To change when a sprite appears on the Stage 1 Select Window Score to display the Score 2 Select a sprite or sprites as descr...

Page 70: ...keyframes in place Control drag Windows or Command drag Macintosh the end frame Enter new values in the Start and End text boxes on the Sprite tab in the Property inspector to change the start and en...

Page 71: ...cast member adds to downloading time reusing cast members in this way reduces the number of cast members in your movie and makes it download faster Reusing the same cast member for multiple sprites a...

Page 72: ...the following On the Sprite tab in the Property inspector Graphical view click Restore All Select Modify Transform Reset Width and Height or Reset All To resize a sprite s bounding rectangle with scr...

Page 73: ...ewed sprite After a sprite is rotated or skewed you can still resize it Director can automatically change rotation and skew from frame to frame to create animation See Tweening other sprite properties...

Page 74: ...ed or skewed sprite do one of the following Click the Rotate and Skew tool and drag any of the sprite s handles Use Alt drag Windows or Option drag Macintosh to maintain the sprite s proportions as yo...

Page 75: ...by selecting new foreground and background colors from the Property inspector or with Lingo or JavaScript syntax Selecting a new foreground color changes black pixels within the sprite to the selecte...

Page 76: ...e blending to make sprites transparent To change a sprite s blend setting use the Sprite tab in the Property inspector Director can gradually change blend settings to make sprites fade in or out See T...

Page 77: ...pop up menu on the Sprite tab in the Property inspector To change a sprite s ink with script Set the sprite s ink sprite property For more information about this property see the Scripting Reference t...

Page 78: ...r Black areas of the mask make the sprite completely opaque in those areas and white areas make it completely transparent invisible 4 Drag the original cast member to the Stage or Score to create a sp...

Page 79: ...apping colors except nonoverlapping colors are transparent The sprite is not visible unless it is overlapping another sprite Not Copy reverses all the colors in an image to create a chromatic negative...

Page 80: ...eground and Background color properties of a sprite so that it is easy to create dramatic color effects that generally lighten an image Lighten ink makes the colors in a sprite lighter as the backgrou...

Page 81: ...the score it doesn t modify cast members The command is enabled only when both a sprite and a cast member are selected If multiple cast members are selected the command associates only the first selec...

Page 82: ...82 Chapter 3 Sprites...

Page 83: ...is very efficient for adding animation to movies for websites since no additional data needs to download when a single cast member changes Frame by frame animation involves manually creating every fr...

Page 84: ...the pointer rolls over a sprite For more information see Using the Sprite Overlay on page 61 You can tween a sprite directly on the Stage by editing the sprite s path Director displays the path of the...

Page 85: ...e and records the new location Repeat this step to create additional keyframes 7 To make the property changes defined by a keyframe occur at a different time drag the keyframe in the Score to a new fr...

Page 86: ...ngs Sharp Changes moves the sprite between keyframe locations without adjusting the speed Smooth Changes adjusts the sprite s speed gradually as it moves between keyframes Tweening other sprite proper...

Page 87: ...eyframe in the Score to a new frame within the sprite 10 To view the tweening rewind and play the movie Director gradually changes the value of the tweened property in the frames between the keyframes...

Page 88: ...perties of the sprite are tweened change the values for Tween A check mark indicates that the property will be tweened The available properties are Path Size Rotation Skew Foreground Color Background...

Page 89: ...3 Do one of the following Select Edit Exchange Cast Members Click the Exchange Cast Members button on the Director toolbar Window Toolbar If you selected an entire sprite Director replaces the cast m...

Page 90: ...a man walking may display several cast members showing the man in different positions By placing all the images in a sequence within a single sprite you can work with the animation as if it were a si...

Page 91: ...ames within a sprite For more information see Editing sprite frames on page 89 6 Select the frames in the sprite where you want a different cast member to appear 7 Open the Cast window and select the...

Page 92: ...quickly place them in the Score as a single sprite The Director onion skinning feature is also useful for creating and aligning a series of images for use in animation For more information see Using...

Page 93: ...operating system select the Director menu instead of the Edit menu to access Preferences 2 Select an empty frame in the Score This is usually at the end of the Score 3 Drag cast members onto the Stag...

Page 94: ...nt to turn into a film loop Use sprites in as many channels as you need in film loops even in the sound channel Select sequences in all the channels you want to be part of the film loop You can select...

Page 95: ...o view or edit the cast member name use the Name text box 5 To add comments about the cast member use the Comments text box 6 To specify how Director removes the cast member from memory if memory is l...

Page 96: ...vances to the next frame If you reach the last frame of a sprite Director extends the sprites being recorded into the new frame Note As soon as you move the animation in any way other than stepping su...

Page 97: ...ste Relative Paste Relative automatically aligns the start frame of one sprite with the end frame of the preceding sprite It is useful for extending animations across the Stage To paste one sequence r...

Page 98: ...98 Chapter 4 Animation...

Page 99: ...xpressed mathematically Bitmaps are suited for continuous tone images such as photographs You can easily make minute changes to a bitmap by editing single pixels but resizing the image can cause disto...

Page 100: ...n at your monitor s resolution generally 72 to 96 dots per inch Higher resolution images that you place on the Stage in Director might appear much larger than you expect Other applications particularl...

Page 101: ...of being first composed in an offscreen buffer with other sprites A direct to Stage GIF takes less time to load but you can t place other sprites in front of it or use any ink effect To set propertie...

Page 102: ...w and drag to enclose the pixels you want to select The Lasso selects only those pixels of a color that are different from the color the Lasso was on when you first started dragging it Press Alt Windo...

Page 103: ...her paint tools To fill all adjacent pixels of the same color with the foreground color Click the Bucket tool and click the area you want to fill To open the Gradient Settings dialog box double click...

Page 104: ...ent pattern The thickness of lines is determined by the line width selector To select a foreground and destination color for color shifting inks Click the color box on the left to select a foreground...

Page 105: ...ollowing Click the None One Two or Three Pixel Line button Double click the Other Line Width button to open the Paint Window Preferences dialog box and assign a width to the line To change the color d...

Page 106: ...bject is selected No shrink lets you select the entire area you drag around The lasso selects whatever is inside the selected area See Thru Lasso causes your selection to become transparent as if the...

Page 107: ...tings 1 Click the Airbrush tool and hold down the mouse button 2 Select the menu item for which you want to define settings 3 Open the menu again and select Settings from the Airbrush pop up menu Ente...

Page 108: ...d down arrows move the brush shape up or down one pixel The black and white square reverses the colors of the brush shape for example black becomes white and white becomes black Copy copies the brush...

Page 109: ...sh the selection To stretch the selection proportionally Marquee tool only Control Shift drag Windows or Command Shift drag Macintosh the selection To copy and stretch the selection Marquee tool only...

Page 110: ...Left or Rotate Right buttons respectively To rotate the selection by any amount in either direction click the Free Rotate button and drag the rotate handles in any direction You can rotate a sprite th...

Page 111: ...elected destination color click the Switch Colors button Using Auto Distort You can use Auto Distort to create animations that show bitmap cast members gradually changing from frame to frame Auto Dist...

Page 112: ...ation point is useful for preparing a series of images for animation When you use Cast to Time or exchange cast members Director places a new cast member s registration point precisely where the previ...

Page 113: ...he Member tab in the cast member s Property inspector To change the size of only the sprite on the Stage use the Sprite tab in the sprite s Property inspector You can also remap images to new palettes...

Page 114: ...s you control bitmap images in two ways First you can perform simple operations that affect the content of entire image cast members These operations include changing the background and foreground col...

Page 115: ...reference to the image of the cast member called Boat myImage member Boat image Because the image object myImage contains a reference to the cast member Boat any changes you make to the object are re...

Page 116: ...00 pixel object called myNewImage myNewImage copyPixels myImage rect 260 260 300 300 rect 0 0 40 40 When using copyPixels you can specify optional parameters that tell the script to modify the pixels...

Page 117: ...adient Setting from the pop up menu For more information see Editing gradients on page 117 3 Select a foreground color from Gradient Colors pop up menu on the left The foreground color is the same col...

Page 118: ...round color and fades it with a dithered pattern Standard Colors ignores all colors between the foreground and background colors and adds several blended colors with a dithered pattern to create the g...

Page 119: ...r Sharp cycles the gradient from foreground to destination four times Four Smooth cycles the gradient from foreground to destination destination to foreground foreground to destination and destination...

Page 120: ...p up menu at the top of the Pattern Settings dialog box To select one of the standard noneditable sets of patterns select QuickDraw Grays or Standard To edit a pattern select Custom Custom is an edita...

Page 121: ...tangle to the area of the cast member you want tiled 6 Use the Width and Height controls to specify the size of the tile The new tile appears in the tile position you selected You can use it in the Pa...

Page 122: ...certain shapes for the airbrush spray an area with the airbrush first then in the next cast member paint the shapes you need with a Reveal ink As you paint your object you expose the airbrush pattern...

Page 123: ...to smooth out jagged edges Smear works with the Brush tool and functions like mixing paint Any area you drag across with a Smear ink spreads in the direction of the brush fading as it gets farther fr...

Page 124: ...t member changes with no further steps Using filters to create animated effects You can use Auto Filter to create dramatic animated effects with bitmap filters Auto Filter applies a filter incremental...

Page 125: ...window you can view not only the current cast member that you re painting but also one or more cast members that are blended into the image You can use onion skinning to do the following To trace over...

Page 126: ...d images behind the current cast member The order is determined by the position in the cast To create a new cast member by tracing over a single cast member as a background image 1 Open the Paint wind...

Page 127: ...ton on the Onion Skin toolbar 8 Paint the new cast member using the background image as a reference 9 When you finish drawing the cast member click the New Cast Member button again to create the next...

Page 128: ...or a script 5 To make Director approximate an original color in the bitmap if there is a palette problem select Dither When a color is not available because of a palette conflict Dither displays a pa...

Page 129: ...reground 4 To set a line width that is thicker than the widths available in the Paint window use the Other Line Width slider to enter a value The width you set is the width that appears when you draw...

Page 130: ...the less your bitmap is compressed that is 100 indicates no compression Movie Setting is usually the default compression setting except under certain conditions when the compression feature is disabl...

Page 131: ...e as Type pop up menu Name the file and click Save Exporting layered and sliced content to Director By exporting Fireworks slices to Director you can export sliced and interactive content such as butt...

Page 132: ...tor select Insert Fireworks Images from Fireworks HTML Note The location and name of this menu command might be different depending on your version of Director The Open Fireworks HTML dialog box appea...

Page 133: ...you are using a Macintosh OS X operating system select the Director menu instead of the Edit menu to access Preferences The file opens in Fireworks and the document window indicates that you are editi...

Page 134: ...134 Chapter 5 Bitmaps...

Page 135: ...vector shape entirely with script or modify an existing one as the movie plays Because vector shapes are stored as mathematical descriptions they require less RAM and disk space than an equivalent bi...

Page 136: ...Zoom and then select the level of magnification Right click Windows or Control click Macintosh and select Zoom In or Zoom Out from the context menu Press Control the Plus key Windows or Command the P...

Page 137: ...or vertices do one of the following To select one vertex select the Arrow tool and click the vertex To select multiple vertices either select the Arrow tool and hold Shift while clicking the vertices...

Page 138: ...elect a color from the Line Color menu To choose the fill color select a color from the Fill Color menu To set the background color select a color from the Background Color menu Choosing a background...

Page 139: ...a curve point and drag a control handle By default the two control handles remain at a 180 angle from each other If you want to drag one control handle independently from the other one hold down Cont...

Page 140: ...egPoint or regPointVertex cast member property You can test the centerRegPoint property to determine whether Director automatically recenters the registration point when the cast member is edited If y...

Page 141: ...ng the color box on the right side of the Gradient Colors control 4 Select Linear or Radial from the Gradient Type pop up menu at the top of the window 5 To define the number of times the gradient sho...

Page 142: ...originMode property Setting vector shape properties You can use the Property inspector to view and change settings for selected vector shape cast members In addition to setting standard name and unloa...

Page 143: ...ilable in older versions of Director Shapes are different cast member types than vector shapes Similar to vector shapes they are very memory efficient Shapes are images you can create directly on the...

Page 144: ...more information see Controlling cast member unloading on page 47 4 To change the type of shape click the Shape tab and select an option from the Shape pop up menu 5 To fill the shape with the curren...

Page 145: ...rrectly on as many systems as possible it helps to understand how Director controls color Director provides a variety of color controls The following list describes the most important Use the Movie ta...

Page 146: ...ing the movie or never make sure that the correct palette is active the images in your movie might appear with the wrong colors Director identifies an RGB color as a set of hexadecimal numbers that sp...

Page 147: ...r movie elements Use the Color menu to select colors for movie elements such as the Stage vector shapes and the foreground and background of sprites For some elements such as Stage and sprite colors y...

Page 148: ...icking the color box To select colors not on the Color menu 1 Open the Color menu 2 Click Color Picker 3 Use the color picker that appears to select colors To edit the favorite colors on the Color men...

Page 149: ...st member that has a different palette in the frame Director automatically assigns the new palette to the palette channel The new palette becomes the active palette unless you clear it from the palett...

Page 150: ...ts Channel tool in the upper right of the score window 2 Select the options you want to use in the Frame Properties Palette dialog box Select a new palette Specify how you want Director to manage the...

Page 151: ...in the movie Use the Movie tab in the Property inspector to select the movie color palette or select Modify Frame Palette to change the color palette at a particular frame When you modify a palette al...

Page 152: ...w tool at the bottom of the window 2 To select a range drag across colors or click the first color in the range and then Shift click the last 3 Control click Windows or Command click Macintosh to sele...

Page 153: ...ialog box click Select To select all colors not currently selected Click the Invert Selection button in the Color Palettes window Changing colors in a color palette You can define a new color for a co...

Page 154: ...current palette and specify how quickly a new palette fades in This method is useful when you want to change the palette to suit changing conditions in the movie without entering a new frame For examp...

Page 155: ...ie plays For disk based movies simplify your work and avoid frequent palette changes by mapping all the images in your movie to as few palettes as possible Remap existing cast members to a new color p...

Page 156: ...k the Member tab and display the Graphical mode The following non editable settings appear The cast member size in kilobytes The cast member creation and edit dates The name of the last person who mod...

Page 157: ...l tempo You can t make a movie go faster than the computer allows Many factors can make movies play more slowly than the specified tempo such as the following Playing the movie on a slower computer Ma...

Page 158: ...rame Properties Tempo dialog box To set a new tempo for the movie select Tempo then use the Tempo arrows or drag the slider To pause the movie at the current frame for a certain length of time select...

Page 159: ...ovie in a particular frame the actual tempo field displays two dashes Locking frame durations To make Director play a movie at the same tempo on all types of computers use the Lock Frame Durations opt...

Page 160: ...where the transition is set If you want to create a dissolve between two scenes set the transition in the first frame of the second scene not in the last frame of the first scene To add a transition 1...

Page 161: ...he Frame Properties Transitions dialog box Transition Xtra extensions are often more complex than the transitions that are provided with Director and might include an additional dialog box for special...

Page 162: ...the Name text box 5 To add comments about the cast member use the Comments text box 6 To specify how Director removes the cast member from memory if memory is low select one of the following options f...

Page 163: ...er text is part of your movie you can format the text in a variety of ways by using the Director formatting tools Director offers standard professional formatting functions including alignment tabs ke...

Page 164: ...t for all the text in the movie that uses the original font This saves you the trouble of manually reapplying the font to all the text in existing movies After you embed a font in a movie file the fon...

Page 165: ...sertion point appears in the area you defined 3 Enter text The new text cast member appears in the first available position in the current cast and the sprite is placed in the first open cell in the c...

Page 166: ...cal computer select or create a text cast member and set its fileName property to the name of the external file that contains the text For more information about this property see the Scripting Refere...

Page 167: ...t dialog box but many of the same options are available in the Text inspector and the Text window To format characters 1 Double click a text sprite or cast member 2 Select Modify Font to open the Font...

Page 168: ...rs Then click the ruler to place the tab Move a tab by dragging the tab marker on the ruler Remove a tab by dragging the tab marker up or down off the ruler 5 To set margins drag the indent markers on...

Page 169: ...e the Text inspector Modify Font or Modify Paragraph to make formatting changes The change affects all the text in the selected cast members Formatting with the Text inspector The Text inspector provi...

Page 170: ...s a specialized form of spacing between certain pairs of characters that look best when they overlap slightly such as A and W AW Kerning dramatically improves the appearance of large text for headline...

Page 171: ...h the same capitalization as the text in the Find box Creating a hypertext link In the Text inspector you can turn any selected range of text into a hypertext link that links to a URL or initiates oth...

Page 172: ...field 2 Enter the text for the field When you finish click outside the field to exit the field To specify field settings Select Window Field or double click a field cast member in the Cast window If...

Page 173: ...nge a text or field cast member to a bitmap The converted graphic can then be edited in the Paint window After you convert a cast member to a bitmap graphic you can t undo the change This command work...

Page 174: ...ompts you to specify the font mapping file to load 5 Enter a name for the fontmap or browse for the file and click Open Setting text or field cast member properties Use the Property inspector to view...

Page 175: ...able while the movie plays for more information see Using editable text on page 172 Wrap increases the vertical size of the text box or field on the Stage so that all text is visible Tab advances the...

Page 176: ...ur text while your user waits for the actual text to load This feature is useful when you re working with a large amount of anti aliased text The Save Bitmap feature is different from the Convert to B...

Page 177: ...pacing property To specify the foreground color for a field cast member set the foreColor property For more information about these properties see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help P...

Page 178: ...Lingo or JavaScript syntax Lingo or JavaScript syntax can specify the type of box that surrounds a text or field cast member For field cast members script can also specify box characteristics such as...

Page 179: ...PosToLocV method To determine the number of the line that appears at a specific vertical position in a field cast member use the locVToLinePos method This measures the distance from the top of the cas...

Page 180: ...cs in the Director Help Panel To set the entire content of a text or field cast member set the text cast member property to a new chunk of text The chunk can be a string or another text cast member To...

Page 181: ...naging extra cast members and Score data Using discrete movies also helps you manage file size for easier downloading ActiveX controls in Director can manage ActiveX application resources from within...

Page 182: ...use large numbers of Flash assets Adding a Flash content cast member All Flash cast members added to a Director movie must have been created with Flash 2 0 or later and saved in the Flash format SWF...

Page 183: ...Select a low quality setting to turn off anti aliasing but speed up performance select Auto Low to have Director start playing the movie without anti aliasing but turn on anti aliasing if it can do so...

Page 184: ...vector shapes Editing a Flash cast member If you have Macromedia Flash MX or later installed you can launch the Flash authoring tool from within Director to edit your Flash cast members To edit a Fla...

Page 185: ...properties are valid only after the Flash content header has streamed into memory Director provides the following Lingo or JavaScript syntax that lets you manage how Director uses Flash content For mo...

Page 186: ...topics in the Director Help Panel To specify the color of a Flash sprite Set the color sprite property To specify the blend for a Flash sprite Set the blend sprite property Scaling Flash content You...

Page 187: ...nt plays in front of all other layers on the Stage and whether ink effects work set the directToStage property To determine which Stage coordinate coincides with a specified coordinate in Flash conten...

Page 188: ...sh content For more information see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel To control the tempo of Flash content set the fixedRate and playBackMode properties To determine the origi...

Page 189: ...y Using Lingo or JavaScript syntax to set and test Flash variables In previous Director releases it was necessary to use the getVariable and setVariable methods to access Flash variables Director MX 2...

Page 190: ...setVariable methods Failure to do so results in script errors when the methods are executed Sending messages from Flash content using getURL A Flash sprite can send messages to Director in the form o...

Page 191: ...t as the URL parameter of the getURL function lingo myDirectorScript In Flash the ActionScript would look as follows getURL lingo myDirectorScript Note Using lingo with getURL fully supports sending L...

Page 192: ...lowing statement in your Flash ActionScript getURL lingo addTwoNumbers 100 200 If the arguments are strings you need to escape the double quote characters using a backslash character on each double qu...

Page 193: ...You can also create references to existing ActionScript objects with the getVariable method For more information about accessing these objects see Using Lingo or JavaScript syntax to set and test Flas...

Page 194: ...2 banana Note The items in an ActionScript array are numbered beginning with zero while the items in a script list are numbered beginning with one Be sure to use the correct number when referring to i...

Page 195: ...lowing are examples of a script that is attached to a Flash sprite in channel 1 of the Score The script contains a beginSprite handler and other handlers that manage the local connection object Initia...

Page 196: ...pound sign converts the handler name to a symbol The actual callback handlers such as the myOnStatus handler are illustrated later in this section 2 Set up the allowDomain callback An allowDomain even...

Page 197: ...MX documentation The allowDomain event is generated each time the local connection object receives an incoming message This provides an opportunity for the myAllowDomain callback handler to determine...

Page 198: ...her handler by using the statement sendSprite 1 closeConnection You might also use the close method in an endSprite handler on endSprite me pLocalConn close end endSprite Now that the local connection...

Page 199: ...e send method myStream send handlerName p1 pN To send audio or video you need to associate a camera and microphone with the NetStream object To associate a video camera with the NetStream object Use t...

Page 200: ...y the Settings panel in a Director movie by using the settingsPanel method Once the panel is displayed the user can choose the desired settings and then close the panel To display the Flash Settings p...

Page 201: ...g animation sequence such as a spinning logo and then switch the quality back to High on the fly as the animation slows down or comes to a stop This way performance can be improved during the part of...

Page 202: ...e Import command As with other media types you can link to an external movie file or import the file so that it becomes internal media The way you choose to import a movie affects its properties For l...

Page 203: ...The cast member size in kilobytes The cast member creation and edit dates The name of the last person who modified the cast member 4 To view or edit the cast member name use the Name field 5 To add c...

Page 204: ...icrosoft Internet Explorer 3 0 or later you can browse the Internet from within a multimedia production using the FarPoint Spreadsheet control you can create and access spreadsheets using the InterVis...

Page 205: ...exported by the ActiveX control is identified along with the current value of the property The user edits a property value by simply clicking over the existing value with the mouse For most propertie...

Page 206: ...o equivalent ActiveX data types Likewise the return value is automatically converted from an ActiveX data type to an equivalent Director data type Using ActiveX control events Each ActiveX control typ...

Page 207: ...varies based on your operating system If you add new components you must restart Director to use them For more information about the components that are bundled with Director other component types cre...

Page 208: ...Area component can be enabled or disabled in an application In the disabled state it doesn t receive mouse or keyboard input TextInput component is an editable single line text region In the disabled...

Page 209: ...code that executes when the event is triggered You can respond to these events in Director MX 2004 by writing an event handler in Lingo or JavaScript Below you ll find an example for changing one com...

Page 210: ...e a normal push button the default value is false selected if the toggle parameter is true this parameter specifies whether the button is pressed true or released false The default value is false labe...

Page 211: ...ox This parameter can be one of four values left right top or bottom the default value is right For more information see CheckBox labelPlacement You can write scripts to control these and additional o...

Page 212: ...DateChooser component in an application that displays current events such as performances or meetings when a user chooses a date Style Description themeColor The background of a component This is the...

Page 213: ...er or not to highlight today s date The default value is true You can write script to control these and additional options for the DateChooser component using its properties methods and events For mor...

Page 214: ...s Label html indicates whether the label is formatted with HTML true or not false If the html parameter is set to true a Label cannot be formatted with styles The default value is false Method Descrip...

Page 215: ...one word in a label and to red for the second word in the same label If the name of a style property ends in Color it is a color style property and behaves differently than non color style properties...

Page 216: ...set for each List component instance in the Property inspector or in the Component Inspector panel data An array of values that populate the data of the list The default value is an empty array There...

Page 217: ...e to an easing equation function used for controlling programmatic tweening disabledColor The disabled color for text textRollOverColor The color of text when the pointer rolls over it textSelectedCol...

Page 218: ...d to specify icons List iconFunction A function that determines which icon to use List labelField Specifies a field of each item to be used as label text List labelFunction A function that determines...

Page 219: ...component You can transform a NumericStepper component horizontally and vertically both while authoring and at runtime Resizing the NumericStepper component does not change the size of the down and up...

Page 220: ...If more than one radio button within a group is set to true the radio button that is instantiated last is selected The default value is false labelPlacement orients the label text on the button This...

Page 221: ...ground of a component This is the only color style that doesn t inherit its value Possible values are haloGreen haloBlue and haloOrange color The text of a component label disabledColor The disabled c...

Page 222: ...ative path to a local SWF or JPEG file or a relative or absolute path to a file on the internet hLineScrollSize indicates the number of units a horizontal scroll bar moves each time an arrow button is...

Page 223: ...tion The horizontal pixel position of the scroll pane ScrollPane hScrollPolicy The status of the horizontal scroll bar It can be always on on always off off or on when needed auto The default value is...

Page 224: ...tArea component is editable true or not false The default value is true wordWrap indicates whether the text wraps true or not false The default value is true You can write code to control these and ad...

Page 225: ...e true or not false TextArea hPosition Defines the horizontal position of the text within the scroll pane TextArea hScrollPolicy Indicates whether the horizontal scroll bar is always on on never on of...

Page 226: ...der is resized to the new bounding box The TextInput component doesn t use scroll bars but the insertion point scrolls automatically as the user interacts with the text The text field is then resized...

Page 227: ...text field TextInput maxHPosition The maximum possible value for TextField hPosition This property is read only TextInput password A Boolean value that indicates whether or not the input text field i...

Page 228: ...te The isBranch attribute is read only you cannot set it directly To set it call the Tree setIsBranch method Nodes in the XML data source can have any name Notice in the sample above that each node is...

Page 229: ...its properties methods and events You cannot enter data parameters in the Property inspector for the Tree component like you can with other components Customizing the Tree component You can size a Tre...

Page 230: ...be used as an icon for a node Property Description Alert cancelLabel Specifies an XML data source Alert noLabel Specifies the first node at the top of the display Alert okLabel Specifies the selected...

Page 231: ...he Score alone Using Lingo or JavaScript syntax you can do the following Turn sound on and off in response to movie events Control sound volume Control the pan of a sound relative to the pan of a Quic...

Page 232: ...Import 2 Select sound files to import 3 To determine whether the imported sounds are internal or linked select a Media option Standard Import makes all the selected sounds internal sound cast members...

Page 233: ...frames that contain the sound After a sound begins playing it plays at its own speed Director can t control the speed at which a sound plays If a sound is not set to loop it stops playing at the end e...

Page 234: ...can also loop sounds with Lingo or JavaScript syntax For more information see Playing sounds with Lingo or JavaScript syntax on page 235 Using sound in Windows The following issues are specific to ma...

Page 235: ...lay sound cast members regardless of the settings in the Score Use the queue and play methods The queue method loads the sound into the Director RAM buffer so that it can be play immediately when call...

Page 236: ...el and control how a channel plays sound For more information about the following methods and properties see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel To determine whether a specific c...

Page 237: ...h as that of music Test the sound on several systems to find the right balance between quality and performance The more compressed a sound is the faster it streams If you select to use a high quality...

Page 238: ...or both methods the audio settings are similar to those for using Shockwave Audio to compress internal sounds For more information see Compressing internal sounds with Shockwave Audio on page 237 Note...

Page 239: ...Played cast member property To determine the percent of a streaming file that has streamed from an Internet server test the percentStreamed cast member property To specify the sound channel in which a...

Page 240: ...s Sound Loop Cue txt file in the Director application folder On the Macintosh use Sound Edit 16 2 07 or later or Peak LE 2 or later to define cue points in AIFF and Shockwave Audio sounds and in Quick...

Page 241: ...o determine whether a sound or QuickTime file has passed a specific cue point use the isPastCuePoint method To find the ordinal number of the last cue point passed in a sound or QuickTime file use the...

Page 242: ...242 Chapter 10 Sound and Synchronization...

Page 243: ...mmended from Apple Increasingly digital media is being provided in the DVD format The Director DVD editor lets you link to inspect manipulate and access the contents of a DVD You can link to media on...

Page 244: ...ed dswmedia To test movies in a browser locally before uploading them to your Internet server place the movie linked casts and linked media in folders within a dswmedia folder and use relative links t...

Page 245: ...viewer window has Root Menu Title Menu Pause Stop Play Fast Reverse and Fast Forward control buttons for previewing and interacting with DVD content Playing digital video direct to Stage Director can...

Page 246: ...edia tab in the Property inspector on page 267 If there s a white bounding rectangle around the video use the Background Transparent ink to remove it Inks don t work if direct to Stage is turned on se...

Page 247: ...e of a digital video sprite check the sprite s currentTime property To pause a digital video sprite set the sprite s movieRate property to 0 To start a paused digital video sprite set the sprite s mov...

Page 248: ...al video tracks play Use the setTrackEnabled method For more information about this method see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel Setting QuickTime digital video cast member pro...

Page 249: ...Paused stops the digital video when it first appears on the Stage while playing the Director movie Loop replays the digital video continuously from the beginning to the end Streaming begins playing th...

Page 250: ...t member property To control the way Director interprets a QuickTime video s mask cast member property set the invertMask property Responding to user interaction Lingo or JavaScript syntax lets you co...

Page 251: ...rite property To control the scaling of a QuickTime sprite set the scale QuickTime sprite property Panning QuickTime VR Use Lingo or JavaScript syntax to pan a QuickTime VR digital video without the u...

Page 252: ...The Import File dialog box appears 2 Select Windows Media from the Files of Type pop up menu Both AVI and Windows Media files appear listed 3 Select the digital video files you want to import Because...

Page 253: ...is low select an option from the Unload pop up menu For more information see Controlling cast member unloading on page 47 7 Click the Windows Media tab in the Property inspector to set the remaining p...

Page 254: ...nt to another The Windows Media sprite displays the attributes movie duration elapsed playtime height width and playback state for Lingo or JavaScript syntax scripting For more information see the Scr...

Page 255: ...empt to automatically link to available DVD media using the DVD resources that Director relies on to support DVD For Windows those resources are DirectX DirectShow and third party elements such as DVD...

Page 256: ...it would look like the following member 2 folder Volumes Macintosh HD Test_DVD video_ts When the _movie path command is used for retrieving the path of the projector or movie on a Macintosh it will c...

Page 257: ...ropping a digital video means trimming the edges off the top or sides of the movie image Cropping doesn t permanently remove the portions you crop but it hides them To crop a digital video 1 Select th...

Page 258: ...ne projectors and movies playing in web browsers Director can handle digital video the same way it handles all other media or it can stream the digital video using QuickTime 4 or later You can link th...

Page 259: ...ported by Director and handles the playback of RealMedia content in the Shockwave Player using an embedded RealPlayer engine Support for the RealAudio and RealVideo media types allows Director develop...

Page 260: ...r later or Netscape 7 1 or later License restrictions and copyright information The Macromedia Director license agreement outlines the restrictions and requirements for creating and serving content cr...

Page 261: ...elements for RealMedia including methods and properties The RealMedia viewer on page 270 Director supports RealAudio and RealVideo stream formats but does not support other formats that RealPlayer su...

Page 262: ...erties to control and manipulate RealAudio including mixing RealAudio with other Director audio However note that all RealAudio is played in a single sound channel If you inadvertently overlap RealMed...

Page 263: ...and information about the size and shape of each cast member and then downloads the media in the cast members as they are played in the movie When a RealMedia cast member begins to play the streaming...

Page 264: ...ector content are played by an embedded RealPlayer engine playing more than one RealMedia cast member at the same time is not supported If the RealMedia cast member in your movie references a local fi...

Page 265: ...RealMedia tab For more information see The RealMedia tab in the Property inspector on page 267 To create a RealMedia cast member from a local file using File Import 1 Select File Import or press Contr...

Page 266: ...e properties you can adjust the height and width of RealMedia sprites on the Stage to fit your movie s proportions It is important to remember that the actual playback time of a stream can vary depend...

Page 267: ...udio portion of the RealMedia stream plays TRUE or not FALSE The default setting is TRUE This property has no effect if realPlayerNativeAudio is enabled soundChannel RealMedia specifies the Director s...

Page 268: ...in the Director Help Panel This property cannot be set state displays which state the cast member is currently in the streaming process For a list of possible values see the Scripting Reference topics...

Page 269: ...lider Bar behaviors must be used together if they can t locate one another a one time error message appears To attach RealMedia behaviors 1 Create a RealMedia sprite on the Stage 2 Open the Library pa...

Page 270: ...rs if you want to control them from the Score or by using Lingo or JavaScript syntax The RealMedia viewer The new RealMedia viewer is a simple media viewer that lets you play RealMedia cast members in...

Page 271: ...the stream buffers and automatically starts playing from the new position but if the slider is dragged while the stream is paused or stopped the user must click the Play button to restart the stream T...

Page 272: ...avaScript syntax elements operate on a sound channel and are fully supported for sound channels playing the audio portion of a RealMedia cast member elapsedTime fadeIn fadeOut fadeTo pan Sound Channel...

Page 273: ...hannels playing the audio portion of a RealMedia stream breakLoop channelCount endTime getPlayList loopCount loopEndTime loopsRemaining loopStartTime play playFile playNext queue rewind sampleCount se...

Page 274: ...274 Chapter 11 Using Digital Video...

Page 275: ...d behaviors see Using Director Behaviors on the Director Support Center at www macromedia com go director_behaviors_en Attaching behaviors You use the Library palette to display behaviors included in...

Page 276: ...r icon If the behavior includes a longer description you can view it in the Behavior inspector or in Director Help For more information see Getting information about behaviors on page 278 The behavior...

Page 277: ...copied to a cast 1 Select Window Behavior Inspector to open the Behavior inspector 2 Do one of the following Select a sprite or several sprites Select a frame or several frames 3 Select a behavior fr...

Page 278: ...ctor have pop up descriptions that appear when you hold the pointer over a behavior in the Library palette Some behaviors however have longer descriptions and instructions which you can view in the Be...

Page 279: ...tor select Edit Preferences Editors In the Editors Preferences dialog box select Behaviors from the list and then click Edit In the Select Editor box select Script Window If you are using a Macintosh...

Page 280: ...viously encountered End Sprite contains the statements that run when the playback head leaves a sprite and goes to a frame in which the sprite does not exist MouseUp indicates that the mouse button wa...

Page 281: ...re Cursor restores the current system pointer New Action executes any method or sends a message to a handler You specify the new handler s name Writing behaviors with Lingo or JavaScript syntax If you...

Page 282: ...w stage rect right then sprite me spriteNum locH window stage rect left else sprite me spriteNum locH sprite me spriteNum locH 5 end if However users could adjust the speed of each sprite if they coul...

Page 283: ...ers dialog box The definition can also include an optional specification for the range of values allowed for the property or variable The name of the property or variable comes first in the definition...

Page 284: ...mple this statement defines the property whichSound description addProp whichSound default format sound comment Which cast member The value sound assigned to format provides a pop up menu in the Param...

Page 285: ...inspector when the behavior is selected For example this handler displays the phrase This changes sprite color and position in the Behavior inspector on getBehaviorDescription return This changes spri...

Page 286: ...ges sprite color and position function getPropertyDescriptionList description new Array description Movement new Array description Movement default 5 description Movement format integer description Mo...

Page 287: ...he mouse Lingo syntax on mouseDown me sendSprite 1 bumpCounter 2 end JavaScript syntax function mouseDown _movie sendSprite 1 symbol bumpCounter 2 Note The symbol operator must precede the message in...

Page 288: ...ehavior s handler Lingo syntax on showScriptRefs me put sprite me spriteNum scriptInstanceList end JavaScript syntax function showScriptRefs trace sprite spriteNum scriptInstanceList This handler send...

Page 289: ...eritance see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel To make a script an ancestor do one of the following Declare that ancestor is a property in the property statement at the beginni...

Page 290: ...290 Chapter 12 Behaviors...

Page 291: ...ur audience can enter or edit information Rollovers make certain sprites change in appearance when the mouse pointer passes over them even if the user has not clicked the mouse Using rollovers is an e...

Page 292: ...interface elements for quickly adding interactivity to your movies These elements include push buttons radio buttons and check boxes To add a push button radio button or check box 1 Open the Tool pale...

Page 293: ...Lingo or JavaScript syntax lets you jump to a URL that represents an Internet movie or a web page To jump to an Internet movie use the gotoNetMovie method For example the statement gotoNetMovie http w...

Page 294: ...ion about these methods see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel Detecting mouse clicks with Lingo or JavaScript syntax Users can click the mouse button in several ways each of wh...

Page 295: ...moveable sprite to a certain region For example you can create a draggable slider with an indicator that moves across a gauge For more information see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director H...

Page 296: ...hich line in a field is under the pointer use the mouseLine property For more information about this property see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel To detect which word in a fi...

Page 297: ...n pixels between the mouse pointer and the upper left corner of the Stage The statements put the mouseH and put the mouseV display the mouse pointer s location in the Message window For example this h...

Page 298: ...d out which character corresponds to an ASCII value use the numToChar method For example the following statement finds the character that corresponds to the ASCII value 65 The result is the letter A p...

Page 299: ...xels When you create cursors in the Cursor Properties Editor Director dims any size option that is not available on your computer The 16 x16 and 32 x 32 pixel sizes are the maximum sizes at which Dire...

Page 300: ...y the number of milliseconds that elapse between each frame of the cursor animation This interval affects all frames of the cursor and cannot vary for different frames The cursor frame rate is indepen...

Page 301: ...rsorCastMember substitute a cast member name surrounded by quotation marks or a cast member number For example the following sprite script changes the cursor to the cast member named myCursor when the...

Page 302: ...302 Chapter 13 Navigation and User Interaction...

Page 303: ...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 on page 327 Most complex 3D operatio...

Page 304: ...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 camer...

Page 305: ...roperties are covered according to function in each of these sources They are also presented in dictionary form with syntax guidelines definitions and examples in the Scripting Reference topics in the...

Page 306: ...ect a 3D cast member Some properties of 3D cast members can also be edited in this window To use the Shockwave 3D window 1 Select a 3D cast member in the cast 2 Click the Shockwave 3D Window button on...

Page 307: ...nd Reset Camera Transform buttons let you set and undo the changes you make to camera angles for the member s default camera Set Camera Transform remembers the current camera position Reset Camera Tra...

Page 308: ...axis through the middle of the screen The values you enter in these text boxes replace the displayed values and move the camera The Direct to Stage DTS option controls whether rendering occurs direct...

Page 309: ...For more information see The 3D world on page 313 and Chapter 16 Working with Models and Model Resources on page 335 Using rendering methods The rendering method refers to the specific way Director di...

Page 310: ...rite the edges of each model in the sprite appear smoother against each other and against the background Anti aliasing of 3D sprites is particularly well suited for merchandise demos and other e comme...

Page 311: ...ax on beginSprite check whether anti aliasing is supported by the current 3D renderer if sprite 5 antiAliasingSupported TRUE then if it is turn on anti aliasing for the sprite sprite 5 antiAliasingEna...

Page 312: ...viors that send signals to a local or public behavior to cause the behavior to execute For example attaching the Create Box action and Mouse Left trigger behaviors to a sprite will cause a box to be c...

Page 313: ...apter 16 Working with Models and Model Resources on page 335 The relationship between a model and a model resource is similar to that between a sprite and a cast member Model resource data can be reus...

Page 314: ...to each shader For more information see Shaders on page 352 and Textures on page 360 Modifiers Modifiers let you control many aspects of how models are rendered and how they behave When you attach a m...

Page 315: ...more models and other objects These objects include the following Model resources are elements of 3D geometry used to render models The same model resource can be used by several models in the 3D wor...

Page 316: ...tween cameras lights and models within the 3D cast member as well as the relation of a model to a model resource and of a model to shaders textures and motion Note A member can also contain lights mod...

Page 317: ...ureCoordinates is the number of user specified texture coordinates Enter 0 or omit this step to get the default coordinates Returns a new mesh model resource with a unique name If the name isn t uniqu...

Page 318: ...ndex number newModel name modelResource Creates a new model named name and adds it to the world Fails if a model by that name already exists The modelResource argument is optional and can be set at a...

Page 319: ...me3 Copies the model named name2 from the member named name3 into the current member The new copy is named name1 This is similar to the cloneDeep method but it copies a model from one cast member to a...

Page 320: ...d name Returns the texture object named name if it exists Returns void if the object does not exist texture index Returns the texture at the designated position in the index The index number can chang...

Page 321: ...bject named name if it exists Returns void if the object does not exist motion index Returns the motion at the designated position in the palette of available motions Returns the motion object at that...

Page 322: ...nt directional point or spot Returns a new light object with a unique name If the name isn t unique returns a script error deleteLight name Deletes the light named name Script references to this light...

Page 323: ...FALSE 0 if the camera with this index number doesn t exist Method Function Returns group count Returns the number of group objects included in the cast member Integer group name Returns the group nam...

Page 324: ...g Cast Member button next to the Name text box in the Text window 5 Click the Property Inspector button in the Director toolbar 6 Click the Text tab in the Property inspector 7 Select mode3d Mode from...

Page 325: ...a texture Shaders and shader properties determine the appearance of the surface of the 3D text model Textures are 2D images drawn on the surface of the text Using the Property inspector you can assig...

Page 326: ...AliasThreshold Member property picture Member property preRender Member property scrollTop Member property useHypertextStyles Member property autoTab Member property boxType scroll Member command scro...

Page 327: ...or JavaScript syntax Although scripting is still required for complex projects you can build simple 3D movies with behaviors alone Property Access Description Range or Default bevelDepth Get and set...

Page 328: ...fferent triggers These behaviors can be used with any 3D cast member Using the 3D Behavior Library All 3D behaviors are listed in the Behavior Library The Behavior Library is divided into two sublibra...

Page 329: ...on Mouse Left Triggers action when the user presses holds down or releases the left mouse button Windows or the mouse button Macintosh Mouse Right Triggers action when user presses holds down or relea...

Page 330: ...to the 3D world each time the trigger action occurs The author can set the diameter and texture Drag Camera Camera Provides full camera control including panning changing the direction in which the ca...

Page 331: ...del Rotation Motion Automatically rotates a model around a given axis and continues rotating it while the movie plays To rotate the model around multiple axes attach multiple instances of the behavior...

Page 332: ...es a trigger must have a unique trigger to activate it To apply a 3D behavior 1 Open the Library palette 2 Open the 3D library 3 Attach an action behavior to the sprite either on the Stage or in the S...

Page 333: ...ers dialog box 8 Click OK About behavior groups The Parameters dialog boxes of the local and public action behaviors give you the option to assign the behavior to a group of behaviors Groups let a sin...

Page 334: ...334 Chapter 15 The 3D Cast Member 3D Text and 3D Behaviors...

Page 335: ...se cameras A camera s position can be moved with the Property inspector or the Macromedia Shockwave 3D window You can also use the Director 3D behaviors or Lingo or JavaScript syntax to add camera and...

Page 336: ...properties Model resources defined by a W3D file imported into Director or loaded via script have a type value of fromfile File defined resources are automatically assigned level of detail LOD modifi...

Page 337: ...e xy plane from startAngle to endAngle If startAngle 0 0 and endAngle 360 0 a full cylinder is generated If startAngle 180 0 and endAngle 360 0 a half cylinder is generated These properties can be mod...

Page 338: ...and set Width of the box measured along the x axis Positive floating point value The default is 50 0 length Get and set Length of the box measured along the z axis Positive floating point value The de...

Page 339: ...t be rebuilt mathematically after each modification lengthVertices Get and set Number of vertices along the length of the box Increasing the number of vertices improves lighting effects 2 or more The...

Page 340: ...alue to the number of vectors specified in your newMesh call texture Coordinate List texcoordlist Get and set A list of sublists identifying locations in an image used for texture mapping a triangle E...

Page 341: ...the value to a list of three integers specifying the indexes of the texture coordinates in the textureCoordinates List that each point of the triangle should use Don t set a value if you aren t defini...

Page 342: ...The style parameter can be flat so that each triangle is clearly delineated or smooth The method assumes that all triangles were specified in a clockwise order Nothing Property Access Description Val...

Page 343: ...rticles are emitted burst All particles emitted at once stream X particles emitted per frame with X equalling emitter numParticles lifetime milliseco nds PerFrame Note milliseconds PerFrame is the tim...

Page 344: ...Vector positions that define the path the particles follow Vector list emitter path Strength Get and set Degree to which particles remain on a path Percentage between 0 0 and 100 0 emitter min Speed G...

Page 345: ...d world is replaced by the contents of the file FALSE 0 means the new file is merged into the existing world GenerateUniqueNames is a variable that has no meaning unless Overwrite is FALSE 0 If Overwr...

Page 346: ...named car1 is a wheel model the following transform script would refer to the position of the wheel relative to the model named car1 car1 child 1 transform position To refer to the position of the whe...

Page 347: ...et and set Transform object representing this model s position and orientation relative to its parent s position and orientation transform position gives the relative position transform rotation gives...

Page 348: ...that if the camera were outside the model the model wouldn t be seen both in which all polygons are drawn and the model is visible regardless of orientation This may solve drawing problems but it can...

Page 349: ...unique copies of the model s transform and modifier properties All children of the model are automatically cloned This can be avoided by removing the children performing the cloning operation and the...

Page 350: ...emoves the first modifier identified by symbol TRUE 1 if symbol is a valid modifier and attached to the model FALSE 0 if symbol is not a valid modifier or is not attached to the model update Updates a...

Page 351: ...on it is pointing relative to the camera or the world use car translate 0 0 10 To turn the car left use car rotate 0 45 0 The car model might have wheel models as children To rotate the wheel of a car...

Page 352: ...mera Shaders A model resource defines a model s shape and shaders define the model s surface colors and reflectivity You can use just one shader or more than one Each mesh in a model resource can have...

Page 353: ...1 renderStyle Get and set This property can take the following values fill wire point When shader renderStyle fill the polygons of the mesh are filled When shader renderStyle wire the polygon edges o...

Page 354: ...dSourceList 3 constant blendConstantList 3 50 0 void diffuseLightMap Get and set Get Returns the texture associated with the second layer Set Specifies a texture to be used in the second layer and app...

Page 355: ...Light specularLight none textureMode Get and set Access to the texture coordinate generation method for the first layer Possible values are as follows none wrapPlanar wrapCylindrical wrapSpherical ref...

Page 356: ...es regardless of the textureMode property setting This is the last modification of the texture coordinates before they are sent to the renderer Allows you to manipulate the scale orientation and posit...

Page 357: ...ecified layer When the blendFunction property is set to blend for the index th layer this results in the index th texture being combined with the result of the previous layers for the entire texture u...

Page 358: ...refers to how a texture clamps to its shader If the ratio of the texture to the shader is less than 1 to 1 and textureRepeatList is set to TRUE 1 the texture tiles over the shader If textureRepeatList...

Page 359: ...ckAndWhite sharp transitions between black and white gradient colorSteps Get and set Number of color steps used for lighting calculations 2 shadow Percentage Get and set Percentage of lighting intensi...

Page 360: ...ll the textures used in a 3D scene must be able to fit in the computer s video RAM at the same time If not Director switches to software rendering which slows performance Be aware of the limitations o...

Page 361: ...high the mipmapping is at a high trilinear setting For more information see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel medium nearFiltering Get and set Determines whether bilinear filte...

Page 362: ...ompress or to TRUE 1 to remove the decompressed representation from memory TRUE 1 renderFormat Get and set This property determines how many bits are used to render the texture It takes the following...

Page 363: ...arent s position and orientation transform position gives the relative position transform rotation gives the relative rotation Set a transform object Get reference to a transform object userData Get a...

Page 364: ...ned This can be avoided by removing the children performing the cloning operation and then adding the children back If the name is omitted or is the clone isn t added to the group palette has no paren...

Page 365: ...dinate system Equivalent to parent if parent is the world node group light camera or group increments are relative to the coordinate system of the argument object Nothing translate direction Vector re...

Page 366: ...ported models The LOD modifier can work in one of two ways automatically using the distance from the camera or manually To use manual mode disable auto mode and then set the properties yourself pointA...

Page 367: ...ets you override the default settings To release level of detail data from memory once the model has been streamed in set the userData property sw3D to TRUE 1 TRUE 1 whichModel lod bias Get and set Ag...

Page 368: ...mber of colors available rounded to the nearest power of 2 with a limit of 16 2 whichModel toon shadowPercentage Get and set The percentage of color steps to be used in shadows 50 whichModel toon high...

Page 369: ...TRUE 1 or FALSE 0 value indicating presence or absence of lines around silhouettes TRUE 1 whichModel inker creases Get and set TRUE 1 or FALSE 0 value indicating whether lines are drawn when mesh boun...

Page 370: ...ll In that case you d set the enabled property to TRUE and set the resolve property to FALSE Collision notification can also be implemented by using registerScript on a specific model in addition to u...

Page 371: ...wer than box or sphere box uses the bounding box of the model This is useful for objects that can fit more tightly in a box than in a sphere such as a wall sphere is the fastest mode because it uses t...

Page 372: ...med RtKneeTrack and move a bone named RtKnee These names are defined in the 3D modeling application Play list The Bones player manages a queue of motions The first motion in the play list is the motio...

Page 373: ...nchronized Use synchronized to start this new motion at the same relative time offset to it s total duration as the currently playing motion is to it s total duration The playRate parameter indicates...

Page 374: ...of 2 0 doubles the speed of the motion a value of 0 5 halves the speed of the motion This value is multiplied by the value of the playRate parameter of the play or queue method 1 0 whichModel bonesPl...

Page 375: ...list The blend factor can be changed frame by frame to create custom blending effects 0 whichModel bonesPlayer bone boneID transform Get and set A transform relative to the parent bone You can get an...

Page 376: ...a ground plane with the top pointing along the z axis set lockTranslation to z lockTranslation all is equivalent to rootLock TRUE 1 none Event name Description animation Started This is a system defin...

Page 377: ...cates how fast to play the motion A value of 2 doubles the speed of the motion This value is multiplied by the value of the keyframePlayer playRate property If blending is enabled blending begins the...

Page 378: ...on a value of 0 5 halves the speed of the motion This value is multiplied by the value of the playRate parameter of the play or queue method 1 0 whichModel keyframePlayer playList count Get Current nu...

Page 379: ...ition and begins again from there if looping is on TRUE 1 whichModel keyframePlayer rotationReset Get and set Normally a model snaps back to its original rotation after a motion finishes playing This...

Page 380: ...this event is triggered only by the first playthrough During a blend of two animations this event will be triggered as the blend begins animationEnded This is a system defined notification event trig...

Page 381: ...2 3 If the list is empty the face has no neighbors in that direction If the list contains more than one list the mesh is nonmanifold This is rare Usually the list contains four integer values The firs...

Page 382: ...perty inspector and the Shockwave 3D window see Chapter 14 3D Basics on page 303 For information about behaviors see Chapter 15 The 3D Cast Member 3D Text and 3D Behaviors on page 315 More complex man...

Page 383: ...ntation in space userData Get and set A property list associated with this light The list defaults to the properties assigned in the 3D modeling tool but users can add or delete properties at any time...

Page 384: ...nd objectRelativeUp controlling how the light s pointAt method works None boundingSphere Get A list containing a vector and a floating point value with the vector representing the position and the val...

Page 385: ...given node s parent heirarchy tree terminates with the world group object or not TRUE 1 or FALSE 0 registerScript eventName handlerName scriptInstance Registers a handler named handlerName that is cal...

Page 386: ...vector x y z relativeTo Nothing rotate x y z relativeTo Rotates the light by x degrees around the x axis y degrees around the y axis and z degrees around the z axis The relativeTo argument is optiona...

Page 387: ...tion gives the relative rotation Identity transform userData Get and set A property list associated with this camera The list defaults to the properties assigned in the 3D modeling tool but users can...

Page 388: ...varies between near and far with the following possible values linear density is linearly interpolated between fog near and fog far exponential fog far is saturation point fog near is ignored exponen...

Page 389: ...e 0 is fully transparent 100 0 overlay count Get and set Number of overlays in use on this sprite 0 backdrop index loc Get and set Location in pixels of the backdrop as measured from the upper left co...

Page 390: ...ild at the specified position in the index Camera object child name Returns the child named name Camera object clone name Clones a camera named name adds it to the cameras s parent s child list and ad...

Page 391: ...is optional and defaults to self This method can also be written as translate vector x y z relativeTo Nothing rotate x y z relativeTo Rotates the camera by x degrees around the x axis y degrees aroun...

Page 392: ...392 Chapter 16 Working with Models and Model Resources...

Page 393: ...The methods and properties that you see here in tabular form are also available with accompanying syntax definitions and examples in the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel 3D Lingo...

Page 394: ...hen any collision occurs collideWith Called when a collision with a specific model occurs and implicitly registered when setCollisionCallback is called Equivalent to calling model collision setCollisi...

Page 395: ...or to allow the user to select or drag an object Picking can be accomplished by using cast member or camera methods Property Access Description modelA Get One model in the collision If the script incl...

Page 396: ...ler For accuracy be sure to subtract the upper left corner of the sprite s loc from the mouseLoc The first model intersected by the ray A value of void means there is no model under the ray modelsUnde...

Page 397: ...rs Vector properties Use these properties to work with vectors Method Description Returns vector x y z Creates a vector from arguments representing all axes A vector object random Vector Creates a vec...

Page 398: ...unit length the result is the cosine of the angle between the two vectors Dot product of the two vectors angleBetween vector2 Returns the angle between vector and vector2 in degrees Value of the angle...

Page 399: ...scalar vector1 A new vector object vector1 scalar Returns a new vector equaling vector1 scalar A new vector object scalar vector1 Returns a new vector equaling scalar vector1 A new vector object vecto...

Page 400: ...Get and set A list including a vector and a floating point value that describes this transform s rotation as an axis angle pair The vector represents the direction and the angle represents the rotati...

Page 401: ...clockwise rotation around that axis model transform identity model transform translate 50 0 0 model transform rotate vector 100 0 0 vector 0 1 0 After this series of transformations performed in this...

Page 402: ...he x axis and this transform describes a translation of 100 units in the y axis transform preMultiply transform2 alters this transform so that it describes a rotation followed by a translation Nothing...

Page 403: ...he effects of two transforms A new transform object Property Access Description Default renderer Get and set The rasterizer library all 3D sprites use to draw themselves This property must be set befo...

Page 404: ...card You can fit twice as many 16 bit textures as 32 bit textures in the same space If a movie tries to use more textures than will fit on a card at a single time Director switches to software renderi...

Page 405: ...erRange list of bit depth resolutions Property Access Description preferred3d Renderer Get and set The renderer a particular movie prefers The default value is auto which allows the movie to pick the...

Page 406: ...r sprites that intersect with this sprite may flicker If FALSE 0 rendering layers well but speed declines TRUE 1 rendering occurs directly to the Stage camera Position Get and set Independent x y z tr...

Page 407: ...Streamed Get Integer number of bytes that have been downloaded with values from 0 to the size of the file in bytes None streamSize Get Total size of stream to be downloaded with values from 0 to the s...

Page 408: ...tFramerate property is TRUE 1 then the lod bias property of all model resources is dynamically altered until the target frame rate is met 30 useTarget FrameRate Get and set If a target frame rate has...

Page 409: ...e window Open the window Delete the window when the reason for playing the movie no longer applies When you create a MIAW decide how you want it to function For example decide how you want to display...

Page 410: ...er s window list Assigning a MIAW a filename and title Although the simple MIAW declaration line works well when the movie and the window title and name are all the same you can also explicitly set th...

Page 411: ...ory You might want to use this option if you expect a MIAW to be reopened after it initially runs or if other windows or global variables refer to the MIAW If you remove a MIAW from memory performance...

Page 412: ...om the movie that it contains rect This is a property of the window playing a particular movie and it indicates the current rect coordinates of the window on the user s monitor this property gets its...

Page 413: ...ou set the window s title It appears in the titlebar of the window Type determines the type of window It can be a tool document or dialog window type If Tool is selected the window can appear with a s...

Page 414: ...e appearanceOptions mask member my mask Drag Mask lets you use a bitmap cast member as a mask to determine which areas of the window a user can click on to move the window You can use this to create y...

Page 415: ...bounce to continue indefinitely until the user responds Here is an example window miaw notifyUser 1 10000 displaySystemTrayMessage Windows only This method allows users to pop up a message over their...

Page 416: ...the movie s window on zoomWindow called when the minimize or maximize box of a movie s window is pressed on openWindow called when the movie s window is opened on closeWindow called when the movie s...

Page 417: ...an interact with other MIAWs by accessing a window s movie property With a window s movie a user can access the movie s handlers variables members and so on Here are a couple of examples window other...

Page 418: ...418 Chapter 18 Movies in a Window...

Page 419: ...HTML in that it uses markup tags to define content However HTML has predefined tags that you can use to format any data Any application that reads HTML must understand the meaning of tags such as TITL...

Page 420: ...r the Xtra does not check the DTD file to ensure that the tags follow the specific rules for XML document tags which is described by the DTD For this reason the Xtra is called nonvalidating The creato...

Page 421: ...y value Attributes of an element are stored in a child list with the name ATTRIBUTES The property list of attributes contains the name of each attribute and its value Character data has the property n...

Page 422: ...ts for any field that is accessible with bracket access You can specify whichNode child count to find how many children are in the specified node Node Script Return value if an element Return value if...

Page 423: ...lowing script returns the name of the second tag that is nested within the e1 tag put gParserObject child 1 child 2 name e2 To refer to text data that occurs within a particular tag use the text prope...

Page 424: ...h is the first child of the e1 tag put gParserObject child 1 child 1 attributeName 1 attr1 The following script uses the attributeValue property with an integer to return the value of the first attrib...

Page 425: ...oreWhiteSpace set to the default TRUE value and parse the given XML into a list The sample element has no children in the list XMLtext sample sample parserObj parseString XMLtext theList parserObj mak...

Page 426: ...stern versions of the Mac OS MacRoman and does not match character sets commonly used in most non Western countries The first 127 characters binary codes 1 127 are the same in most countries UTF 8 An...

Page 427: ...ty behaviors or special script methods The text to speech behaviors and scripting require the Speech Xtra If you use text to speech in your movie you must add the Speech Xtra to your movie s Xtra exte...

Page 428: ...o close the Add Xtras dialog box 5 Click OK to close the Movie Xtras dialog box 6 Save your movie Testing the Speech Xtra To verify that your computer is configured correctly to let the Speech Xtra wo...

Page 429: ...he Accessibility Target Accessibility Item Accessibility Text Edit Item Accessibility Group Order and Accessibility Keyboard Controller behaviors together To apply the Accessibility Target behavior 1...

Page 430: ...eyboard Controller behavior from the Library palette to the sprite 4 In the dialog box that appears select the accessibility group name for the scene such as Accessibility_Scene_1 5 Click OK 6 Select...

Page 431: ...ch the sprites are selected when the user presses the Tab key Be sure to number each sprite consecutively and to use each number only once When the movie begins playing the focus ring automatically go...

Page 432: ...This sprite must already be attached to an Accessibility Item or Accessibility Text Edit Item and an Accessibility Group Order behavior 2 In the dialog box that appears select the behavior group name...

Page 433: ...ore information see Enabling keyboard navigation on page 429 2 Apply the text to speech behaviors to sprites in your scene For more information see Enabling text to speech on page 431 3 Drag the Acces...

Page 434: ...Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel First you must initialize the speech software To initialize the text to speech software Use the voiceInitialize method The following frame script...

Page 435: ...ion see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel Deploying accessible movies To successfully deploy an accessible movie you must become familiar with the Speech Xtra extension s syste...

Page 436: ...I 5 Earlier versions of Windows do not include SAPI by default It can be downloaded from the Microsoft website at www microsoft com speech A separate screen reader application is not necessary Macinto...

Page 437: ...can make intelligent choices about when and how to perform memory management tasks yourself if necessary A cast member is automatically loaded into memory when Director needs to draw a sprite of it on...

Page 438: ...video movies or linked files that are imported into the cast and are currently loaded into memory Screen Buffer shows how much memory Director reserves for a working area while executing animation on...

Page 439: ...om memory use the unLoadMember method To unload all the cast members used in a specific frame of your movie use the unload method To determine the number of bytes of memory required to display a range...

Page 440: ...ect 6 Set the movieRate property to 1 to start playing the video This way the video loads its initial segment into memory and is ready to play immediately when your movie reaches the frame where you w...

Page 441: ...its linked media The following guidelines can help make your project go smoothly Before you begin a project plan where media should be located when you deploy your movie and replicate that organizatio...

Page 442: ...d in the cast the script becomes invalid Instead use the following script member Output_text text Good planning makes Director projects easy Naming sprites makes changes to your script even easier For...

Page 443: ...hen you build features that are interdependent you should test each one before adding the next If you test this way you know that the most recently implemented feature is the most likely source of the...

Page 444: ...nfiguring your server for Macromedia Shockwave Player at www macromedia com support director ts documents shockwave_config htm When you use script look for typing errors missing punctuation or inconsi...

Page 445: ...ich new cast members are introduced in the Score Specify the channel number in the text box 5 To determine the layout of the items to print click Options and select from the following Scale provides o...

Page 446: ...446 Chapter 22 Managing and Testing Director Projects...

Page 447: ...or is distributed on a disk Shockwave content is a compressed version of the movie data only A projector is a stand alone version of a movie You can include one movie in a projector that links to oth...

Page 448: ...ocal computer to view JPEG compressed bitmaps and to check the movie design script and any other performance issues related to playing a movie in a browser Previewing a movie creates temporary Shockwa...

Page 449: ...ia If you don t use a feature or import a media type that is controlled by an Xtra you should not distribute the related Xtra with your movie This is especially true for movies distributed on the Inte...

Page 450: ...ve used Lingo or JavaScript syntax that requires Xtra extensions click Add and select from the list of Xtra extensions installed in your system To delete an Xtra extension from the list highlight the...

Page 451: ...wave Player on the user s system to play a movie instead of including the player code in the projector itself If no Shockwave Player is installed on the user s system the user must download a copy A S...

Page 452: ...s from editing the movie if they own Director If the Shockwave content you re creating will be distributed on the Internet and requires any Xtra extensions make sure the Xtra extensions are listed in...

Page 453: ...e following buttons OK Publish Cancel Save As Defaults Defaults and Help To save any changes you have made click OK To Publish your movie with the selected settings click Publish To Cancel any changes...

Page 454: ...ion when publishing To automatically save your movie when publishing instead of being prompted to save as is the case with default settings select Automatically save when publishing To change the defa...

Page 455: ...r To set options using the Files tab 1 Select File Publish Settings and click the Files tab 2 To set the Primary movie components for your projector select from the following options Include linked ca...

Page 456: ...udio on page 237 Convert Stereo to Mono lets you convert stereo audio to monaural This option is only available if Shockwave Audio Compression is enabled Enabled context menu items Include Cast Member...

Page 457: ...movie you must specify percentages and select either Preserve Proportions Stretch to Fill or Expand Stage Size on the Shockwave tab of the Publish Settings dialog box 4 On the Html tab select an optio...

Page 458: ...tab 2 Select from following Alternate Shockwave image options In the Poster Frame field enter the frame number from your movie s Score that you want to appear as a JPEG image for users who are unable...

Page 459: ...ontent from a local machine However when the movie is uploaded to a server the media show up fine Shockwave content is played in what is called safe player mode which is a feature specific to Director...

Page 460: ...e Xtras dialog box You can also add Xtra extensions to a projector manually the same way you select movie files You can create Macintosh projectors using a Windows application and create a Windows pro...

Page 461: ...to return the settings to their defaults Note To avoid problems with linked media create the new projector in its final folder location and do not move it to a different folder Director turns the mov...

Page 462: ...vie into the Xtras folder you just created You must also include external movies external casts and linked media with your projector If the external files are in the folder that contains the projector...

Page 463: ...ws system To create a cross platform projector 1 Select File Publish Settings 2 From the Formats tab select Macintosh Projector if you are working on a Windows system or select Windows Projector if yo...

Page 464: ...casts Protect also flags the movie so it can t be opened in the authoring environment Convert to Shockwave Movie s rewrites movies and casts in the compressed Shockwave file format and adds the DCR e...

Page 465: ...ersion 3 or later is required for Macintosh You can export the AVI Audio Video Interleaved format only using the Windows version of Director When you export to AVI all sounds are lost When Director ex...

Page 466: ...file for each frame attaching the corresponding frame number to each file For example if the name of the exported file is Myfile frame 1 will be exported to a file named Myfile0001 Setting QuickTime...

Page 467: ...ntation Animation compression is for simple animations Cinepak compresses 16 bit and 24 bit video for playback from CD ROMs Component Video is usually used when capturing from a live video feed Graphi...

Page 468: ...anize a large production is to create a small projector file that starts the movie and then branches to Shockwave content or protected content This saves you the trouble of re creating the projector e...

Page 469: ...to the local drive For more information see Setting movie playback options on page 471 You can also distribute a movie over the Internet as a projector a packaged movie that the user downloads and exe...

Page 470: ...ames or for particular cast members For more information see About streaming with the Score and behaviors on page 473 You can also write custom scripts to do this See Checking whether media elements a...

Page 471: ...s removed To set movie playback options 1 Select Modify Movie Playback to define streaming options 2 To let the movie stream automatically select Play While Downloading Movie 3 To make the movie wait...

Page 472: ...tion and select the level of compression from the kBits second pop up menu For more information about sound compression see Compressing internal sounds with Shockwave Audio on page 237 Convert Stereo...

Page 473: ...been downloaded and then continue to the next frame Attach a looping behavior to a frame in the script channel not to a sprite The following looping behaviors are accessible by selecting Internet Str...

Page 474: ...nce topics in the Director Help Panel Downloading files from the Internet with Lingo or JavaScript syntax Lingo or JavaScript syntax uses the Internet s resources by obtaining files from the Internet...

Page 475: ...a network operation without waiting for a result This frees up capacity for Internet access which lets other network operations finish faster For more information about this method see the Scripting R...

Page 476: ...post a limited amount of information compared with HTTP post operations If you are posting a great deal of information the postNetText method is recommended For more information about these methods s...

Page 477: ...thod Printing by using the printFrom method Opening an application by using the open method Stopping an application or the user s computer by using the quit restart or shutDown method Opening a local...

Page 478: ...en window forget window close window Differences in scripting for browsers The following list discusses some general differences in the way to script for a movie that plays over the Internet depending...

Page 479: ...method see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel To specify text in a browser s status area Use the netStatus method For more information about this method see the Scripting Refere...

Page 480: ...ively slow speeds At 28 800 bps it takes 30 seconds to 1 minute to download a 60K file Using streaming playback can help you avoid some of the delays caused by downloading large files Movies and strea...

Page 481: ...independent 331 local 330 public 330 viewing 329 ActionScript instructions 190 ActiveX 204 Add inks command 79 Airbrush tool Paint window 103 107 Align window 66 67 alternate image options 458 ancesto...

Page 482: ...s 287 streaming 473 viewing descriptions 278 writing with Lingo or JavaScript 281 behaviors 3D about 327 action 330 applying 332 groups 333 library 328 triggers 329 types 328 bevel 3D text 325 binary...

Page 483: ...omedia Fireworks 133 editing text 166 editors launching 40 46 exchanging 89 fields 172 174 film loop properties 95 finding 40 Flash 182 184 formatting text 169 178 frame by frame animation 90 importin...

Page 484: ...properties 155 changing palette 153 controls 145 cursor animating 298 Darken and Lighten inks 78 effects bitmaps 111 Favorites editing 148 Flash movies 186 guides 66 hue 154 importing images 45 inks...

Page 485: ...workspace 12 cylinders 337 D Darken button Paint window 111 Darken ink 78 Darkest ink 79 data obtaining from a network 474 DCR files creating 452 distributing 451 format options 454 previewing in brow...

Page 486: ...1 153 patterns 120 protected movies 451 sprite frames 89 text 166 vector shapes 139 editors cast members 40 46 effects filters 123 Paint window buttons 109 Ellipse tool 137 ellipses drawing 137 embedd...

Page 487: ...variables testing 189 XML data sending to Director 193 Flash MX 2004 12 Flash objects 193 Flip button Paint window 110 flipping Flash movies with Lingo 186 sprites 75 fonts 3D text 324 character sets...

Page 488: ...age Options dialog box 45 image options Shockwave 458 Import Pict File as PICT option 43 importing media ActiveX 204 animated GIFs 101 bitmaps 100 cast members 42 color palette requirements 155 digita...

Page 489: ...empo controls 159 text formatting 176 text importing 166 text user click detection 296 text to speech scripting 434 transitions 161 URL references 477 vector shape attributes 138 vector shape controls...

Page 490: ...176 text importing 166 text user click detection 296 text to speech scripts 434 transitions 161 URL references 477 vector shape attributes 138 vector shape controls 141 Link to External File option 4...

Page 491: ...particle systems 342 planes 339 primitives 337 properties 336 spheres 337 models 3D Xtra 305 automatic rotation 331 cast members 345 commands 318 defined 313 315 group properties 363 interaction with...

Page 492: ...tensions 449 450 moving accelerating and decelerating sprites 85 cast members 29 cast members in window 35 frames 21 guides 66 keyframes 87 models 330 351 selected bitmap areas 109 sprites 66 69 MP3 a...

Page 493: ...nging during movies 149 editing 151 importing 155 Lingo and JavaScript controls 154 modes 146 properties 155 remapping 114 troubleshooting 154 window 151 pan camera 331 panning QuickTime VR 251 paragr...

Page 494: ...rowser command 448 previous versions opening movies 28 459 Update Movies command 464 primitives 335 337 printing movies 444 projectors about 460 creating 460 cross platform 463 defined 447 451 options...

Page 495: ...mapping colors in bitmaps 114 renderer services object 403 rendering methods 309 407 properties 405 Reset Monitor option 461 resizing bitmaps 99 113 Flash movies 186 HTML pages 456 rotated or skewed s...

Page 496: ...ommands 319 defined 315 engraver 360 interactions with models 316 newsprint 359 painter 359 properties 352 Property inspector 309 text 325 shape cast members 142 shape drawing tools Paint window 104 S...

Page 497: ...changing frames 69 channels naming 57 color settings 75 147 coordinates 65 copying 69 creating 52 Darken and Lighten inks 78 defined 51 Direct to Stage option 308 draggable 295 duration changing 70 ed...

Page 498: ...vies 443 459 479 text 3D 324 anti aliased 170 character formatting 167 converting to bitmap 173 176 creating 165 editable 172 editing 166 embedding in a movie 164 features 163 field 163 field properti...

Page 499: ...136 vector shapes cast members 142 143 color settings 147 controlling with Lingo or JavaScript 142 corner points 137 creating 135 curve points 137 defined 99 editing 139 fill and line settings 138 gr...

Page 500: ...websites resources 420 white space ignoring 425 Xtra extensions 3D 305 Auto Filter command 124 bitmap filters 123 cast member properties 49 cursor animation support 299 distributing movies 449 450 exc...

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