MACROMEDIA DIRECTOR MX 2004-USING DIRECTOR, Use Manual, Page: 182 / 500

182 Chapter 9: Using Flash, Flash Components, and Other Interactive Media Types
In Flash, you can create cross-platform Windows and Macintosh movies and then play or
manipulate them in Director. You can create Flash content that communicates with your Director
movie by sending events that Director scripts can capture and process. You can store entire Flash
files in the Director cast file, or you can link to external Flash content. Director automatically
loads the Flash content it encounters in the Score into memory from disk, from a network drive,
or from anywhere on the Internet.
Flash content is particularly effective for use in Macromedia Shockwave content because, as
vector-based media, they are extremely small and therefore load much more quickly than most
other media types. Because Flash content is vector-based, you can scale and rotate them while still
maintaining their sharpness. For example, you can create splash screens for your Shockwave
content that loads quickly and entertains your users while the rest of the Director movie streams
into memory, or you can create interactive maps in Flash that users can pan across or zoom in on
to reveal details with vector-based precision.
Director MX 2004 uses the Flash asset commonPlayer. The commonPlayer is a property that
applies to all Flash assets, Vector shapes, and Flash components. It lets you load multiple Flash
sprites into one instance of the Flash Player rather than requiring one Flash Player for each Flash
sprite on the Stage. The commonPlayer feature is designed to provide better Flash playback
performance in Director projects that 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).
The following procedure explains how to create a Flash cast member and set properties for it at
the same time. You can also import a cast member by using the Import command or by dragging
and dropping a SWF file to the Director Cast window.
To add Flash content as a cast member:
1
Select Insert > Media Element > Flash Movie.
2
In the Flash Asset Properties dialog box, select the Flash movie (SWF) file you want to add to
your Director cast.
■
To add a file from your computer or from a network drive, click Browse, select the file, and
click Open. Director creates a relative link to the file, so it must maintain the same location
relative to the Director file, or the link becomes invalid.
■
To add a file from a location on the Internet, click Internet, type the URL of the file, and
click OK.
■
Type the pathname or the URL of the file in the Link File box.
3
Set Media options:
Linked leaves the actual media of the Flash content stored in an external file. When a sprite
created with this cast member appears on the stage in a Director movie, Director automatically
loads the file into memory by looking in the location specified in the Link File box. Deselect
Linked to have Director copy the Flash content into the cast.
Preload requires Director to load the all the Flash content into memory before playing the
movie’s first frame. Deselect Preload to have Director start playing the movie immediately,
while continuing to stream the cast member into memory. This option is only available if you
selected Linked. If the Flash file is internal instead of linked, it must load completely into
memory before beginning to play.