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Sprites

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Layering sprites

A sprite appears in front of other sprites on the Stage according to its channel. Sprites in higher-
numbered channels appear in front of sprites in lower-numbered channels.

The rocket in channel 2 appears in front of the planet in channel 1.

To change a sprite’s layer on the Stage:

1

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 following:

Select Modify > Arrange, and select a command from the submenu to change the order 
of sprites.

Drag the sprite in the Score from one channel to another.

If you selected a channel, drag its contents to another channel.

Displaying and editing sprite properties

As you work with sprites in your movie, you’ll want to monitor and possibly modify 
sprite properties. Director offers several methods of accomplishing this using one or more of 
the following:

The Property inspector

The Sprite toolbar, which includes a subset of Sprite fields found in the Property inspector

The Sprite Overlay, which displays, directly on the Stage, the most commonly used properties 
for selected sprites 

Sprite labels, which appear within the sprite bars in the Score and let you view important 
sprite properties

Lingo

Summary of Contents for DIRECTOR MX-USING DIRECTOR MX

Page 1: ...Using Director MX Macromedia Director MX...

Page 2: ...de contains links to third party Web sites that are not under the control of Macromedia and Macromedia is not responsible for the content on any linked site If you access a third party Web site mentio...

Page 3: ...in the Score 43 About adding interactivity with Lingo 44 Converting movies created in previous versions of Director 45 Managing the Director authoring environment 45 About using Xtra extensions to ext...

Page 4: ...s 111 View a 3D world 112 Use the camera 112 Set model rollover cursors 121 Use 3D behaviors for navigation 122 Play your completed movie 125 To learn more 126 CHAPTER 4 Cast Members and Cast Windows...

Page 5: ...ng sprite frames 192 Frame by frame animation 193 Shortcuts for animating with multiple cast members 195 Using film loops 197 Setting film loop properties 198 Step recording animation 199 Real time re...

Page 6: ...po and Transitions 255 Controlling color 255 Setting palette cast member properties 266 About tempo 267 Using transitions 270 CHAPTER 10 Text 273 Embedding fonts in movies 274 Creating text cast membe...

Page 7: ...internal and linked sounds 320 Setting sound cast member properties 321 Controlling sound in the Score 321 Looping a sound 322 Using sound in Windows 323 Playing sounds with Lingo 323 About Shockwave...

Page 8: ...ith Lingo 375 Detecting mouse clicks with Lingo 377 Making sprites editable and draggable 377 Making sprites editable or moveable with Lingo 378 Checking which text is under the pointer with Lingo 379...

Page 9: ...3D cast member 455 Model resources 456 Models 458 Shaders 458 Textures 459 Motions 460 Lights 460 Cameras 461 Groups 462 Creating 3D text 462 Modifying 3D text 463 Lingo for 3D text 464 Using 3D beha...

Page 10: ...HAPTER 22 Using the XML Parser Xtra 543 About XML 543 Using XML parser objects 544 Using XML document nodes 545 Accessing attributes 548 Parser objects and XML nodes 548 Treating white space 549 XML a...

Page 11: ...d frame by frame bitmaps 586 Setting QuickTime export options 588 About organizing movie files 590 CHAPTER 27 Using Shockwave Player 591 About streaming movies 591 About network operations 592 Setting...

Page 12: ...Contents 12...

Page 13: ...processor running Windows 98 2000 or XP 128 MB of available RAM plus 100 MB of available disk space a color monitor and a CD ROM drive For the Macintosh A Power Macintosh G3 running System 10 1 or la...

Page 14: ...he application s strong integration with Macromedia Flash MX ColdFusion MX Flash Communications Server MX and other Macromedia MX products The Macromedia MX workspace lets you organize and customize a...

Page 15: ...ble accessible content that doesn t rely on screen readers Any user with Shockwave Player and an installed speech engine which ships with current operating systems can then use your accessible content...

Page 16: ...ng the printed books Using Director MX and Director MX Lingo Dictionary both of which are also available as online help Using Director MX contains two tutorials The Director MX workspace contains tool...

Page 17: ...the item Keyboard shortcuts Many commands that are available from Director menus are also accessible through keyboard shortcuts When you display a menu or submenu the appropriate key combinations are...

Page 18: ...ight quotation marks rather than as curly quotation marks The continuation symbol which you enter by pressing Alt Enter Windows or Option Return Macintosh indicates that a long line of Lingo has been...

Page 19: ...e can link to external media or be one of a series of movies that refer to one another Your users view completed Director movies in one of the following ways In the Macromedia Shockwave movie format w...

Page 20: ...ctor The Stage If the Stage is not open select Window Stage The Stage is the visible portion of a movie on which you determine where your media elements appear During authoring you have the ability to...

Page 21: ...back in the authoring environment To go to a specific frame number in a movie enter the number in the frame counter and press Enter Windows or Return Macintosh You can also use the toolbar buttons or...

Page 22: ...h the floating Control panel to the Stage do one of the following Right click Windows or Control click Macintosh the Control panel In the context menu select Attach Control Panel Right click Windows o...

Page 23: ...ow you can view your cast members which are the media in your movie such as sounds text graphics and other movies Cast members can also include assets that you use in your Score but not on the Stage s...

Page 24: ...of any selected object or multiple objects in your movie After you select an object relevant category tabs and associated fields appear in the Property inspector If you select multiple objects only t...

Page 25: ...at appears in the Property inspector depending on what is selected In the first illustration a sprite is selected In the second illustration a cast member is selected To show more or less information...

Page 26: ...Chapter 1 26 The following illustrations show different information appearing in the Property inspector depending on whether the expanded information is hidden or shown...

Page 27: ...e Stage during playback if the movie does not take up the full screen select an option from the Location pop up menu or enter values for Left and Top these values specify the number of pixels the Stag...

Page 28: ...Software specifies Director s built in software renderer that works with Macintosh and Windows platforms Auto specifies that the most suitable renderer should be selected This option is the default v...

Page 29: ...Stage size To zoom in while selecting an area of the Stage to center within the zoomed window select the Magnifying Glass tool from the Tool palette Click a point on the Stage to zoom and center To z...

Page 30: ...channels most movies use as few channels as possible to improve performance in the authoring environment and during playback Sprites in higher channels appear on the Stage in front of sprites in lowe...

Page 31: ...n To show or hide the special effects channels Click the Hide Show Effects Channels button in the upper right corner of the Score to change the display About Frames A frame in a movie represents a sin...

Page 32: ...the playhead to that frame and you can drag the playhead backward or forward through frames Changing your view of the Score To narrow or widen the Score you change the zoom percentage Zooming in wide...

Page 33: ...zoomed out to 50 Score at 100 Score zoomed in to 200 You can also display more frames in a Score without changing the zoom setting To do so place a sprite in the rightmost frame of the Score Director...

Page 34: ...uctivity You can group panels together in a tabbed view to form a panel group expand and collapse panels and panel groups and dock panels or panel groups to each other or to the Director application w...

Page 35: ...dows Property inspector Tool palette Object inspector Library palette Behavior inspector Text inspector Memory inspector Control panel Onion Skin Align Color palettes Markers Tweak Managing panels and...

Page 36: ...e Options menu see Using panel Options menus on page 40 Right click Windows or Control click Macintosh on the panel group s header bar and select Close Panel Group Select the window name from the Wind...

Page 37: ...ter of the docking channel s separator bar Collapsing a docking channel increases the space allocated to the View Port To resize a docking channel Drag the docking channel s separator bar Panel dockin...

Page 38: ...ize button Windows only Note To return the document window to its original state double click the Title bar again or click the Restore Down button Windows only Working with panel groups You can combin...

Page 39: ...new name for the panel in the Panel Group Name text box and click OK To rearrange the order of tabs within a panel group 1 Select a tab within a panel group 2 Select Group Panel Name With from the pan...

Page 40: ...ictions see Working with panel groups on page 38 Rename Panel Group opens the Rename Panel Group dialog where you can rename the panel or panel group If the current window cannot be renamed this item...

Page 41: ...To change Score settings 1 Select Edit Preferences Score 2 The Extended display option lets you display information within sprites in the Score See Displaying sprite labels in the Score on page 165 To...

Page 42: ...s navigation references than frame numbers which can change if you insert or delete frames in the Score You can use the Markers window to write comments that are associated with markers you set in the...

Page 43: ...rker name that appears in the comments column When the insertion point appears click again to deselect the marker name and press Control Enter Windows or Control Return Macintosh to start a new line T...

Page 44: ...the entire sprite can fit without being truncated or overwriting other sprites To add new frames 1 Select a frame in the Score 2 Select Insert Frames 3 Enter the number of frames to insert The new fra...

Page 45: ...rector 8 or Director 8 5 for use in Director MX You can also update movies to Director MX by simply opening and saving them but the Update Movies command is faster for converting large projects It s a...

Page 46: ...depth of a movie on page 256 Animate in Background runs animation in the background while you work with other applications When you are running animation in the background the Stage remains on the sc...

Page 47: ...ght not always display the most current version of a page Every Time checks for changes whenever you request a page This option slows performance but ensures you are always viewing the most current ve...

Page 48: ...t cast art cast thumbnails and the comments in the Markers window The Scripts Cast Text Cast Art and Cast Thumbnails print options specify a range of casts and cast members internal or external Inform...

Page 49: ...intensive operation Note The Memory inspector is not available on Macintosh To use the Memory inspector 1 Select Window Memory Inspector 2 Observe the following memory use indicators Total Memory dis...

Page 50: ...r displays a red X as a placeholder Types of Xtra extensions The following types of Xtra extensions are supplied with Director Cast member Xtra extensions provide new media types to Director They crea...

Page 51: ...te the movie as a Shockwave movie that plays within a web page or as a projector that downloads to the user s computer or that you distribute on a disk A Shockwave movie is a compressed version of the...

Page 52: ...ick access to information that helps you work effectively with Director including TechNotes articles and other useful content To open the Answers panel Select Window Answers To get the latest Director...

Page 53: ...n sound and video The movie you ll create is designed to suggest what is possible with Director rather than simulate a fully developed Director project What you ll learn This tutorial introduces you t...

Page 54: ...e However the score of a Director movie contains more than just music The Score window in Director contains information about when and where each of the cast members will appear on the Stage The Score...

Page 55: ...trol the playback of the video clip The movie consists of three scenes The first is a title scene that contains buttons for navigating to the other two scenes The second scene is an animation of a sun...

Page 56: ...e List View Mode icon to deselect it The Property inspector lets you change attributes of a selected object 2 In the Stage Size pop up menu select 500 x 330 Note You can view tooltips for pop up menus...

Page 57: ...torial 57 4 In the Property inspector select a dark orange color from the Stage Fill color picker 5 Save your movie by selecting File Save or clicking the Save button in the toolbar Window Toolbar Sta...

Page 58: ...ggle from List view to Thumbnail view click the Cast View Style button in the upper left corner of the Cast window The Cast window contains cast members that you can use in your movie The first is a t...

Page 59: ...ciated windows that you can use to view and edit the cast member 2 If the text is not already selected select it then select 36 point from the Size pop up menu in the tool bar near the top of the wind...

Page 60: ...ls when where and how cast members appear in a movie You create sprites by placing cast members on the Stage or in the Score To build the first scene of the movie you place sprites of the TitleText ca...

Page 61: ...to select it On the Sprite tab in the Property inspector select Background Transparent from the Ink pop up menu Inks control the way a sprite color appears on the Stage Background Transparent ink mak...

Page 62: ...ick the button cast member in cast slot two 2 Click the Cast Member Name text box at the top of the Cast window and type Animation Press Enter Windows or Return Macintosh 3 Drag the Animation button c...

Page 63: ...ers Cast members are often created in separate windows and then dragged from the Cast window to the Stage You create a button cast member directly on the Stage using the Tool palette You ll use the Bu...

Page 64: ...learned earlier in this tutorial when you drag cast members onto the Stage you create sprites Sprites are instances of cast members that appear on the Stage and in the Score window The Score window d...

Page 65: ...fy Extend Sprite The sprites shorten in length so they occupy only frames 1 through 10 You can use the Extend Sprite command to either lengthen or shorten sprites Change the default length of sprites...

Page 66: ...rt in frame 15 you ll place a sprite of the mountain range on the Stage in frame 15 1 Open the Stage if it is not already open by selecting Window Stage 2 Open the Score if necessary and click frame 1...

Page 67: ...cast member in cast slot 4 Click the Name text box at the top of the Cast window and type Mountain Press Enter Windows or Return Macintosh Draw using the Paint window The animation of the sunset will...

Page 68: ...of line widths at the bottom of the left side Paint window toolbar 5 In the Paint window draw a small flat cloud with the pencil tool Be sure that the cloud has no gaps in the outline Use the Eraser...

Page 69: ...o fill enclosed lines 2 Select an orange color from the Gradient Start color box This will be the starting color of your gradient Your cloud will look best if you select the same orange you used for t...

Page 70: ...n as mathematical descriptions of an image Because of this difference vector cast members generally use less memory than comparable bitmap cast members There are some differences in the kinds of effec...

Page 71: ...of the window 2 Select 0 point from the Stroke Width pop up menu 3 Drag the pointer in the window to make a circle 4 Click the first Gradient Color box on the left and select a bright shade of yellow...

Page 72: ...r boxes 7 The gradient fill in the circle changes color from left to right To rotate the gradient so it changes from top to bottom enter 90 in the Angle text box at the top of the window 8 Click the C...

Page 73: ...is not already on frame 15 the beginning of the second scene click frame 15 in the frame number bar at the top of the Score 2 Make sure the Cast and Stage windows are open Drag the Cloud cast member f...

Page 74: ...sent points in the sprite s animation path When you first drop a sprite on the Stage there is no animation so there s only one dot The line on the Stage that connects the dots represents the animation...

Page 75: ...ed to lengthen the Mountain sprite to extend the duration of the entire animation scene 3 Click the end frame of the Mountain sprite in frame 24 of the Score and drag the end frame to frame 50 The nex...

Page 76: ...untains because the stacking order of sprites on the Stage is from the lowest numbered Score channel to the highest numbered channel The sprites in lower numbered channels appear below sprites in high...

Page 77: ...ns users to the first scene Later you ll add Lingo to these buttons to make them function Add an existing button First you add the Go to Sound and Video button that you created earlier for scene 1 1 C...

Page 78: ...4 In the button text box type Go to Start and then click the Stage outside the button 5 In the Cast window select the new button cast member and type GoStart in the Cast Member Name text box at the to...

Page 79: ...sunset animation once before returning to frame 1 and playing again 4 If your movie plays only once turn on looping by clicking the Loop Playback icon on the Control panel or by selecting Control Loop...

Page 80: ...erence rather than fully import your media Referencing media offers greater flexibility in terms of how you manage and where you locate your media assets When the referenced file is edited using the L...

Page 81: ...use button reverts to a Play button The QuickTime window has its own playhead that moves to the right as the video plays You can use the playhead to jump to a specific point in the video or to scrub t...

Page 82: ...Stage option which lets the video play at the fastest possible speed However when Direct to Stage is selected for digital video the video appears in front of all other sprites regardless of the chann...

Page 83: ...m control the QuickTime sprite You ll put the buttons near the bottom of the QuickTime sprite allowing room on the Stage for the scene navigation buttons as well 1 To place the Play button on the Stag...

Page 84: ...s at once by selecting them all in the Score or on the Stage and selecting the new ink in the Property inspector 5 In the Score or on the Stage Shift click the three buttons 6 Select Background Transp...

Page 85: ...lect File Import In the Import dialog box navigate within your Director MX application folder to Tutorials Basics BasicsMedia folder and open the Sounds folder 2 Select the sound file named drumloop a...

Page 86: ...member from the Cast window to frame 55 in sound channel 1 The sound is now ready to play when frames 55 to 64 of your movie play 2 Rewind and play your movie The playhead moves through all the frame...

Page 87: ...the Score to the sound and video scene When you do this the button occupies the same space on the Stage in both scenes 1 Drag the end frame of the GoStart button sprite in frame 50 channel 6 to frame...

Page 88: ...ts that control the playhead Loop the playhead with Lingo The scenes of your movie aren t much good as scenes if the playhead simply races through them without stopping to let the user absorb their co...

Page 89: ...ow select the new script and type Loop in the Cast Member Name text box at the top of the window Press Enter Windows or Return Macintosh 6 Rewind and play your movie The movie plays to frame 10 and st...

Page 90: ...he last frame of the animation scene However this new script will send the playhead to the first frame of the animation rather than to the frame where the script is located Because the first frame of...

Page 91: ...ript already entered 2 Inside the default script on line 2 type the following go to frame Animation 3 In the Name text box at the top of the window type AnimLoop and close the Script window The new sc...

Page 92: ...te to which the script is attached Specifically the mouseUp event refers to the action of releasing the mouse button after it has been pressed This way the script is not run until the user releases th...

Page 93: ...press Enter Windows or Return Macintosh Save your movie Write Lingo that refers to scenes You can write scripts that refer to any of the three scenes by name You ll now add a script to the Go to Sound...

Page 94: ...avigation buttons is to add the GoAnim script you ve already written to the Go to Animation button in the sound and video scene Add scripts to the sound and video scene You ve already added the naviga...

Page 95: ...o plays from start to finish once To play the video again without first leaving the scene you need to rewind it You rewind the video by setting its movieTime property The movieTime property indicates...

Page 96: ...sprite with a dot or period The equal sign is sufficient to indicate that the property should be set to the specified value as in sprite 1 movieTime 0 7 Close the Script window Rewind and play your mo...

Page 97: ...u can also add Lingo to make a short sound effect play when the video control buttons are clicked Control sound with Lingo To control sound with Lingo you use commands that are specifically intended f...

Page 98: ...e video will resume and the sound plays again Modify the script for the Rewind button You can modify the RewindScript Lingo so that the sound stops when the user clicks the Rewind button 1 In the Cast...

Page 99: ...new line type the following Lingo sound 2 play member button The 2 specifies the second sound channel 4 Close the Script window and save your movie 5 Repeat steps 1 through 4 for the PlayScript and P...

Page 100: ...ode the files must be in a folder named dswmedia This is the only folder name that lets the Player access linked local files The file naming convention applies only to DCR movies that you play on your...

Page 101: ...ssary a message appears that advises your user to update the Shockwave installation 1 Open the version of the My_Basic_start movie that resides on your desktop within the dswmedia folder 2 Select File...

Page 102: ...Score Use sounds Write simple Lingo scripts Publish your movie for web playback To learn more about using Lingo to create sophisticated Director movies see Chapter 16 Writing Scripts with Lingo on pa...

Page 103: ...movie without using the Lingo scripting language directly Lingo enthusiasts can refer to 3D Lingo by Feature in the Lingo Dictionary for information on Lingo syntax in Director MX The tutorial takes a...

Page 104: ...scene Press the Spacebar to return to the original view 5 When you finish viewing the movie either click Stop along the bottom of the Stage window or select Control Stop Open the tutorial movie To be...

Page 105: ...le text is 2D text created in Director MX 3 In the Score Window Score select frame 1 in channel 3 4 Drag the Title text cast member from the Internal Cast window to the upper left area of the Stage as...

Page 106: ...Windows or Return Macintosh You use the X and Y text boxes to place the sprite precisely 7 Type 70 in the End frame text box and press Enter Windows or Return Macintosh to extend the Title text sprite...

Page 107: ...3D text by changing settings in the Property inspector 3D Extruder tab 1 Click the Property inspector 3D Extruder tab 2 Move the Tunnel Depth slider left and right to see the different effects When yo...

Page 108: ...sional objects in Director can use both ambient and directional lights By specifying Top Center as the light you re indicating where on the text it should appear as though a light is shining The Title...

Page 109: ...3D behaviors actions and triggers Actions specify what occurs in the movie such as a camera rotating around a model You ll learn more about actions and triggers later in the tutorial 2 Resize the Lib...

Page 110: ...l and vertical axes respectively the z axis refers to the depth of the model 6 To view the 3D text rotating play your movie The rotation speed seems a bit fast To avoid making your users dizzy you ll...

Page 111: ...the Property inspector Behavior tab 2 With Automatic Model Rotation Internal selected in the Property inspector click the down arrow to the right of Rotation Speed and move the Rotation Speed slider...

Page 112: ...axis such as when a camera turns from side to side on a tripod You use two panning behaviors in the Library palette to pan the camera up down left and right Specifying parameters for the panning behav...

Page 113: ...an horizontally you still must identify how the user activates and controls panning during movie playback As you learned earlier Pan Camera Horizontal is an action behavior you apply a trigger behavio...

Page 114: ...eyboard Input behavior once making it part of your cast Drag the Keyboard Input behavior from the Cast window to the Magic trick sprite on the Stage 2 In the Parameters for Keyboard Input dialog box s...

Page 115: ...ors stop and rewind the movie Apply an action behavior to pan the camera vertically Attaching the Pan Camera Vertical behavior is similar to attaching the Pan Camera Horizontal behavior 1 In the Libra...

Page 116: ...appears in the third text box Confirm that Group Pan Pan Camera Up appears in the Select a Group and Its Action pop up menu Then click OK Add the panning trigger for the opposite direction You can pro...

Page 117: ...rted forward and backward without turning on a tripod with wheels For dollying you will drag the behavior to the Score rather than the Stage although you could use either procedure 1 If the Score is n...

Page 118: ...Key Will Be Used pop up menu select The Custom Key I ve Entered Below if it s not already selected In the If Using a Custom Key Enter It Here text box type f Verify that No Modifier Key is selected f...

Page 119: ...the Which Modifier Key Will Be Used pop up menu In the Select a Group and Its Action pop up menu select Dolly Move Camera Out Then click OK Note Remember to save your work frequently Dolly the camera...

Page 120: ...camera resets whenever the user presses the Spacebar 1 Drag the Keyboard Input behavior from the Cast window to the Magic trick sprite on the Stage 2 In the Parameters for Keyboard Input dialog box sp...

Page 121: ...nu select Table 1 In the Which Cursor pop up menu verify that Finger is selected Then click OK Note Because the Model Rollover Cursor behavior is an independent action you do not need to assign a trig...

Page 122: ...se on the tables If you look in your Score you see that the text associated with the merchandise first appears in frame 10 of channel 1 A marker named Cards marks where the card text begins just as ma...

Page 123: ...rds Then click OK Add the trigger behavior You ll now add a behavior that triggers the Click Model Go to Marker behavior when the user clicks the left mouse button Note When a movie with a Mouse Left...

Page 124: ...select Table 2 In the Go to Which Marker pop up menu select Hat In the Which Group Does This Behavior Belong To text box type hat Then click OK 3 In Cast window drag the Mouse Left behavior to the Mag...

Page 125: ...m the Cast window to the Magic trick sprite Repeat the steps from the two previous times you ve applied this behavior except this time in the Select a Group and Its Action pop up menu select Group Rin...

Page 126: ...other tables to see where in the Score the playhead jumps 5 Use the arrow F and B keys to move the camera around the world Use the Spacebar to reset the camera 6 When you finish viewing your movie sto...

Page 127: ...e cast windows together in a tabbed panel layout Cast window with tabs in Thumbnail view You can create and edit cast members in Macromedia Director MX using basic tools and media editors such as the...

Page 128: ...text cast members in your movie from English to French by simply switching the cast the movie uses rather than each individual cast member Using external casts can keep the movie size small for downlo...

Page 129: ...akes the cast available for sharing with other movies For information about internal and external casts see Managing external casts on page 153 4 If you chose External and you don t want to use the ca...

Page 130: ...elect Insert Media Element and then select the type of cast member to create For more information on each choice see the following sections Using the Paint window on page 206 Using the Color Palettes...

Page 131: ...member Note Cast members created on the Stage are automatically placed in the Score Using the Cast window In the Cast window you can view the cast in either the default List view or the Thumbnail vie...

Page 132: ...enu located in its upper right corner The Options menu contains items for grouping closing and renaming panels To use a Cast panel Options menu Click the Options menu control in the upper right of the...

Page 133: ...group 1 Select a tab within the Cast panel group 2 Select Group Panel Name With from the panel group s Options menu then choose the name of the Cast panel group that contains the selected panel The ta...

Page 134: ...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 restore your Cast panel configuration the next time you open your file For mo...

Page 135: ...he last cast member in the range To select multiple nonadjacent cast members In either List or Thumbnail view Control click Windows or Command click Macintosh each cast member that you want to select...

Page 136: ...ur additional columns are available in the Cast Window Preferences dialog box See Setting Cast window preferences on page 140 The additional columns that you can display are described in the following...

Page 137: ...lowing In List view Director places new cast members at the end of the list and the cast member number becomes the first available number after the current selection You can use Thumbnail view to reor...

Page 138: ...your system s Clipboard You can copy the image from any bitmap editor including the Paint window The image can be any size but smaller images look better because they require less scaling 2 Using Thu...

Page 139: ...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 cast member name Th...

Page 140: ...largest files appearing first Empty at End places all 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...

Page 141: ...view The default is Fit to Window 8 To set the size of each cast thumbnail image that appears in the Cast window select one of the following options from the Thumbnail Size pop up menu Small 44 x 33 p...

Page 142: ...begin playing sooner This setting is the best choice when controlling cast members loading with Lingo After Frame One loads all cast members except those required for frame 1 when the movie exits fram...

Page 143: ...ems Editable fields to view or change the cast member s name the Name text box a Comments text box to enter text that appears in the Comments column of the Cast List window and an Unload pop up menu t...

Page 144: ...page 326 Launching cast member editors You can open any cast member in the appropriate editor directly from the Cast window You can use the Director internal media editors such as the Text Paint or Ve...

Page 145: ...rd 2 and Bird 3 Select Type and select an option from the pop up menu to search for cast members by media type Select Palette and select an option from the pop up menu You can use this option to searc...

Page 146: ...can either import data into a Director movie file or create a link to the external file and re import the file each time the movie opens Linked files let you display dynamic media from the Internet su...

Page 147: ...dd Click Add All You can switch folders and import files from different folders at the same time 6 From the Media pop up menu at the bottom of the dialog box select an option to specify how to treat i...

Page 148: ...import options for PICS and Scrapbook files on page 150 8 When you finish selecting the files click Import If you ve imported a bitmap with a color depth or color palette that differs from the current...

Page 149: ...include all linked cast member files and they must be in their expected locations In addition the Xtra extensions that are used to import the media must be present when the movie runs either on the u...

Page 150: ...s while you are importing a bitmap image using File Import select one of the following Color Depth options Image specifies the color depth and palette of the image Stage specifies the color depth of t...

Page 151: ...g box After you set up an external editor for a particular media type Director launches the application when you edit a cast member of that type When you finish editing a cast member in an external ed...

Page 152: ...re lost Director warns you of this possibility 3 Save and close the file Director re imports the cast member Controlling cast member unloading When Director runs low on memory it removes cast members...

Page 153: ...cify that the cast be stored as an external cast If you don t want to use the cast in the current movie deselect the Use in Current Movie option 4 Click Create The cast is created and a Cast window fo...

Page 154: ...mber properties using Lingo Lingo lets you control and edit cast members by setting their properties Some properties are available for every type of cast member and other properties are available only...

Page 155: ...mined by the developer of the Xtra For non Macromedia Xtra extensions refer to any documentation that the developer supplies To view or change Xtra cast member properties 1 Select an Xtra cast member...

Page 156: ...Chapter 4 156...

Page 157: ...acteristics that are related to the specific sprite type For example Lingo has several digital video properties that determine the contents of tracks in digital video sprites To control the way a spri...

Page 158: ...sprites must be manually tweened when new frames or keyframes are added to the sprite For additional information on tweening see Chapter 6 Animation on page 185 4 To determine the length of sprites me...

Page 159: ...ect On the Stage click a sprite to select the entire sprite span You can change sprite preferences so that selecting a sprite on the Stage selects only the current frame instead of the entire sprite S...

Page 160: ...indows or Command click Macintosh the keyframe and the desired sprites To select a frame within a sprite that isn t a keyframe do one of the following In the Score Alt click Windows or Option click Ma...

Page 161: ...hange the order of sprites Drag the sprite in the Score from one channel to another If you selected a channel drag its contents to another channel Displaying and editing sprite properties As you work...

Page 162: ...ow Property Inspector The Property inspector opens with focus on the Sprite tab The Graphical view is the default view You can toggle to the List view by clicking the List View Mode icon The Property...

Page 163: ...how the size of the sprite s bounding rectangle in pixels The Ink pop up menu displays the ink of the current sprite and lets you select a new ink color See Using sprite inks on page 180 Blend determi...

Page 164: ...r 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 inspector click this icon S...

Page 165: ...nd quickly locate the problem in a sprite label You can change the information that appears in labels for example you can use the Extended display option to display the precise location of a sprite in...

Page 166: ...ink effect that is applied to each sprite Blend displays the blend percentage Extended displays any combination of display options select options by selecting Edit Preferences Score Editing sprite pr...

Page 167: ...k the padlock icon Right click Windows or Option click Macintosh and select Lock Sprite from the context menu In the Score a locked sprite appears with a padlock in front of its name On the Stage a lo...

Page 168: ...structions on changing a vector shape cast member s registration point see Editing vector shapes on page 249 Visually positioning sprites on the Stage You can position sprites on the Stage by dragging...

Page 169: ...ut resizing it adjust only the x and y coordinates Positioning sprites with the Tweak window You can use the Tweak window when you want to move sprites by a certain number of pixels To position sprite...

Page 170: ...guide move the pointer over the guide When the sizing handle appears drag the guide to its new position 6 To remove a guide drag it off the Stage 7 To remove all guides click Remove All on the Guides...

Page 171: ...t Edge Align Horizontal Center Align Right Edge Align Horizontal Registration Point Align Top Edge Align Vertical Center Align Bottom Edge or Align Vertical Registration Point For Distribute select Di...

Page 172: ...determine whether a sprite s bounding rectangle touches the bounding rectangle of a second sprite Use the sprite within operator to determine whether a sprite is entirely within a second sprite See s...

Page 173: ...ite a duration of 28 frames You can change the duration of a sprite that is the amount of time the sprite appears in a movie by adjusting its length changing the number of frames in which it appears o...

Page 174: ...animation as separate sprites and now want to move the entire sequence in the Score you would join the sprites Splitting and joining also lets you update movies created with older versions of Director...

Page 175: ...s can cause noticeable delays If a bitmap sprite must be a particular size make the cast members that appear in the sprite the proper size You can do this with Modify Transform Bitmap or in any image...

Page 176: ...d skew sprites on the Stage by dragging To rotate and skew sprites more precisely use Lingo or the Property inspector to enter degrees of rotation or skew The Property inspector is also useful for rot...

Page 177: ...ither of the following To rotate the sprite move the pointer inside the sprite and drag in the direction you want to rotate To skew the sprite move the pointer to the edge of the sprite until it chang...

Page 178: ...u resize Enter new values on the Sprite tab in the Property inspector Director resizes the sprite at the current skew or rotation angle To restore a skewed or rotated sprite to its original orientatio...

Page 179: ...ackground color changes white pixels within the sprite to the selected color and blends light colors with the new color Director can animate foreground and background color changes in sprites shifting...

Page 180: ...the Blend pop up menu in the Property inspector or enter a blend percentage between 0 and 100 To set blending with Lingo Set the blend sprite property See blend in the Lingo Dictionary Using sprite i...

Page 181: ...e have been blended or are fuzzy applying these inks might create a halo effect Use the Paint window or an image editing program to change the background to true white and harden the edges You can als...

Page 182: ...ent invisible 4 Drag the original cast member to the Stage or Score to create a sprite 5 Make sure the new sprite is selected and select Mask ink from the Ink pop up menu on the Sprite tab in the Prop...

Page 183: ...g 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 of t...

Page 184: ...nd Lighten inks on page 182 Lighten changes the effect of the Foreground and Background color properties of a sprite so that it is easy to create dramatic color effects that generally lighten an image...

Page 185: ...s the animation frames where major changes take place called keyframes Assistants draw the frames in between Frame by frame animation involves manually creating every frame in an animation whether tha...

Page 186: ...ar for all sprites for selected sprites or only when the pointer rolls over a sprite See Using the Sprite Overlay on page 164 You can tween a sprite directly on the Stage by editing the sprite s path...

Page 187: ...Alt key Windows or Option key Macintosh and move the pointer on the Stage over a tick mark When the pointer changes color drag the tick mark to a new location This creates a new keyframe and records...

Page 188: ...or deceleration of a sprite 1 Use one of the tweening methods to create a moving sprite 2 Turn on View Sprite Overlay Show Paths to see how far the sprite moves between each frame 3 Select the sprite...

Page 189: ...g and skewing sprites on page 176 To tween color use the color boxes in the Property inspector to open the color palette for foreground and background color or enter the RGB values for a new color in...

Page 190: ...ore information see Using film loops on page 197 To make a sprite jump instantly between settings in different keyframes turn off all tweening options Changing tweening settings To change tweening pro...

Page 191: ...e In defines the percentage of the sprite span through which the sprite accelerates Ease Out defines the percentage of the sprite span through which the sprite decelerates Switching a sprite s cast me...

Page 192: ...ently it s especially useful for cell animation in which each frame contains a different cast member in a different position Ordinarily clicking a sprite on the Stage or in the Score selects the entir...

Page 193: ...roach sparingly for movies that will be downloaded from the Internet because all cast members must be downloaded before the animation can run As an alternative to this type of animation consider using...

Page 194: ...er to select frames within a sprite See Editing sprite frames on page 192 6 Select the frames in the sprite where you want a different cast member to appear 7 Open the Cast window and select the cast...

Page 195: ...kly 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 onion...

Page 196: ...prites 2 Select an empty frame in the Score This is usually at the end of the Score 3 Drag cast members onto the Stage to create sprites where you want them to appear in the animation As you position...

Page 197: ...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 sprite fragmen...

Page 198: ...bytes 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 comments about the cast member...

Page 199: ...begin 4 Select Control Step Recording The step recording indicator appears next to the channel numbers for the sprites being recorded and the selection border widens 5 Press 3 on the numeric keypad ma...

Page 200: ...To use real time recording 1 Select one or more sprites on the Stage or in the Score Recording will begin at the playhead It s best to select a sprite in a channel that contains no other sprites later...

Page 201: ...f the pasted sprite where the previous sprite ends Repeat the process as many times as you need to create one continuous animation across the Stage Animating sprites with Lingo Lingo can create animat...

Page 202: ...Chapter 6 202...

Page 203: ...ressed 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 distort...

Page 204: ...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 particularly those focused on creating im...

Page 205: ...ead of being first composed in an offscreen buffer with other sprites A direct to Stage GIF takes less time to load but you cannot place other sprites in front of it or use any ink effect To set prope...

Page 206: ...click it and hold down the mouse button to display a pop up menu of options for that tool To select an irregular area do one of the following Click the Lasso tool in the Paint window and drag to enclo...

Page 207: ...Shift click to zoom out See Zooming in and out in the Paint window on page 214 To select a color in a cast member 1 Click the Eyedropper tool 2 Do one of the following Click a color to select it as th...

Page 208: ...ing the Airbrush tool on page 212 To brush strokes of the foreground color Click the Brush tool and drag it in the Paint window To constrain the stroke to horizontal or vertical Shift click and drag T...

Page 209: ...ckground colors Use the Foreground Color pop up menu to select the primary fill color used when the pattern is solid and the ink is Normal Use the Background Color pop up menu to select the secondary...

Page 210: ...change the color depth of the current cast member Double click the Color Depth button to open the Transform Bitmap dialog box The button displays the color depth of the current cast member See Changin...

Page 211: ...lasso to tighten around the selected object so that only the object is selected No shrink lets you select the entire area you drag around The lasso selects whatever is inside the selected area See Th...

Page 212: ...en the pointer is positioned on the Airbrush tool the Airbrush pop up menu appears Each of the five settings in the pop up menu can be defined so you can have several types of spray available without...

Page 213: ...the pop up menu 5 To create a new brush shape select Custom from the pop up menu and select the brush shape you want to modify from the chart below the pop up menu 6 Edit the current brush shape by c...

Page 214: ...a particular place To return to normal view do one of the following Click the normal sized image in the upper right corner Select View Zoom 100 Changing selected areas of a bitmap After you select par...

Page 215: ...e selection is made with the Marquee tool Effects that change colors within the selection work with the Marquee and the Lasso tools Lingo flips and rotates bitmaps by flipping and rotating bitmap spri...

Page 216: ...ate handles in any direction You can rotate a sprite that contains a bitmap instead of the bitmap See Rotating and skewing sprites on page 176 To skew the selection click the Skew button and drag any...

Page 217: ...around the edges of the selected artwork click the Trace Edges button To apply color effects to a selected area 1 Select an area within a bitmap cast member using either the Marquee or the Lasso tool...

Page 218: ...ation 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 Distort generates...

Page 219: ...or assigns a registration point in the center of all bitmaps but for many types of animation you might want to move the registration point To do this you can use the Registration Point tool You can ed...

Page 220: ...palette If you want to keep a cast member s original bitmap unchanged but temporarily apply a different palette use the Member tab in the cast member s Property inspector To change the size of only th...

Page 221: ...he following remapping options Remap Colors replaces the original colors in the graphic with the most similar solid colors in the new palette This is the preferred option in most cases Dither blends t...

Page 222: ...ember property to the Stage s picture property See picture cast member property in the Lingo Dictionary For example the member Archive picture the stage picture statement makes the current image of th...

Page 223: ...he color of an individual pixel of an image object or set that pixel s color Use the getPixel or setPixel command To copy part or all of an image object into a different image object Use the copyPixel...

Page 224: ...one side or the center of an image and another color the destination color at the other side or outside edge of the image Between the foreground and destination colors Director creates a blend of the...

Page 225: ...up menus that control the style of your gradient fill Each choice you make is immediately previewed on the left To edit gradient settings 1 Select Gradient Settings from the Gradient Colors pop up me...

Page 226: ...ransparent ignores the order of the colors in the palette and uses only colors that create a continuous blend of the foreground and background colors White pixels in patterns created with this method...

Page 227: ...he following list Equal provides even spacing of colors between the foreground and destination colors More Foreground increases the amount of the foreground color in the gradient More Middle increases...

Page 228: ...f patterns or create a custom pattern 1 Select Pattern Settings from the bottom of the Patterns pop up menu 2 Select an option from the pop up menu at the top of the Pattern Settings dialog box To sel...

Page 229: ...t and click Built in 4 Click Cast Member The cast member appears in the box at the lower left The box at the right shows how the image appears when it is tiled The dotted rectangle inside the cast mem...

Page 230: ...A gradient fill is one that progresses from one color called the foreground color to another color called the destination color You can paint with Gradient ink using the Brush tool the Bucket tool an...

Page 231: ...e as reducing a color s brightness with the controls in the Color Palettes window You can change the rate of this ink effect in the Paint Preferences dialog box Lighten makes colors lighter The more t...

Page 232: ...a filter to several cast members at once by selecting them all in the Cast window To apply a filter to a selected portion of a cast member use the Marquee or the Lasso tool in the Paint window to sele...

Page 233: ...cast member use the Marquee or the Lasso tool in the Paint window to select the part you want to change 2 In the Auto Filter dialog box select a filter 3 Click Set Starting Values and use the filter...

Page 234: ...ves as the background while you paint a series of foreground images Onion skinning uses registration points to align the current cast member with the previous ones you selected Be careful not to move...

Page 235: ...e Onion Skin toolbar appears 2 In the Paint window open the cast member that you want to use as the reference image or background 3 If necessary click the Toggle Onion Skinning button on the Onion Ski...

Page 236: ...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 cast membe...

Page 237: ...p tab using the Graphical view 4 To invert the current cast member when the user clicks it select Highlight Use this option to create buttons Even if Highlight When Clicked is selected the cast member...

Page 238: ...ins selected for the next time you use the Brush or Airbrush tools Remember Ink remembers the last ink used with a tool which remains selected for the next time you use any tool 3 To control the way c...

Page 239: ...s in the Director Support Center website at www macromedia com support director vector d8 fw_bitmaps html To compress a bitmap at the cast member level 1 Select bitmap cast members or sprites and clic...

Page 240: ...ur bitmap is compressed that is 100 indicates no compression Note Director saves your publish settings when you save your movie Working with Macromedia Fireworks You can combine the power of Macromedi...

Page 241: ...yers exports each layer in the document Select this option if you are exporting layered content or an animation Fireworks Slices exports the slices in the document Select this option if you are export...

Page 242: ...options if desired Color lets you specify a color depth for the imported graphics If the graphics contain transparency select 32 bit color Registration lets you set the registration point for the impo...

Page 243: ...ternal editor for bitmap graphic file types The file opens in Fireworks and the document window indicates that you are editing a file from Director 3 Make changes to the image and click Done when you...

Page 244: ...Chapter 7 244...

Page 245: ...e entirely with Lingo 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 bitmap image an...

Page 246: ...nd 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 Plus key...

Page 247: ...Member button 2 Select the Filled or Unfilled Rectangle Rounded Rectangle or Ellipse tool 3 Hold down the mouse button to start a shape drag to draw and release the mouse button to end the shape To c...

Page 248: ...ontrols in the Vector Shape window or Lingo to choose a vector shape s fill color line width and color and background color The background is the area outside of a vector shape but within the cast mem...

Page 249: ...curves You can also change the way a vector shape is placed on the Stage by moving its registration point using either the Vector Shape window or Lingo To adjust the outline of a vector shape 1 Open a...

Page 250: ...curve 2 Select Modify Join Curves To split two curves Select two adjacent vertices and select Modify Split Curves To change the registration point 1 Click the Registration Point tool The dotted lines...

Page 251: ...nt how it is placed within a shape and how many times it cycles within the shape A gradient for a vector shape shifts between the fill color and the end color you define You can create linear or radia...

Page 252: ...ntains the location of each vertex and control handle in a vector shape test the vertexList property To access a vertex directly use the vertex chunk expression To add or delete a vertex use the addVe...

Page 253: ...how you resize the sprite even if it means cropping the vector shape 10 To change the size of the cast member either enter a percentage in the Percentage text box Graphical view or use the Scale slid...

Page 254: ...tor removes the cast member from memory if memory is low select an option from the Unload pop up menu See Controlling cast member unloading on page 152 4 To change the type of shape click the Shape ta...

Page 255: ...Director controls color Director provides a variety of color controls The following list describes the most important Use the Movie tab in the Property inspector to change modes for selecting colors T...

Page 256: ...st color in the current color palette to approximate the RGB color To choose the color mode for the current movie you use the color mode settings on the Movie tab of the Property inspector When you se...

Page 257: ...from the Color menu specifies the RGB value of the color not its index value For an explanation of the difference between index and RGB color see Specifying palette index and RGB color on page 255 Th...

Page 258: ...or index hold down the Alt key Windows or Option key Macintosh while clicking 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 th...

Page 259: ...s a viable option for displaying 8 bit graphics with the best possible colors If you place a cast member that has its own custom palette on the Stage and if it s the first cast member that has a diffe...

Page 260: ...l 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 palette change...

Page 261: ...lor Palettes window does not change the palette for the movie or any frame in the movie Use the Movie tab in the Property inspector to select the movie color palette or select Modify Frame Palette to...

Page 262: ...ndow If the selection arrow is not active click the Arrow 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...

Page 263: ...ct the cast member 2 Select Window Color Palettes 3 Click the Select Used button in the Color Palettes window 4 In the Select Colors Used In Bitmap dialog box click Select To select all colors not cur...

Page 264: ...rols click the arrows next to the controls Hue is the color that is created by mixing primary colors Saturation is a measure of how much white is mixed in with the color A fully saturated color is viv...

Page 265: ...ette can be active Whenever it s necessary to display more than one 8 bit bitmap on the screen at one time as is often the case in Director movies all the images must refer to the same palette To solv...

Page 266: ...ory To view or change color palette cast member properties 1 Select a color palette cast member 2 To display the Property inspector select Modify Cast Member Properties or select Window Property Inspe...

Page 267: ...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 Mak...

Page 268: ...e 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 Wai...

Page 269: ...rol 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 Directo...

Page 270: ...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 In the transition chann...

Page 271: ...ion Xtra extensions appear in the Frame Properties Transitions dialog box Transition Xtra extensions are often more complex than the transitions that are provided with Director and might include an ad...

Page 272: ...s about the cast member use the Comments field 6 To specify how Director removes the cast member from memory if memory is low select one of the following options from the Unload pop up menu 3 Normal s...

Page 273: ...After text is part of your movie you can format the text in a variety of ways using the Director formatting tools Director offers standard professional formatting functions including alignment tabs k...

Page 274: ...font Director uses the embedded font 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...

Page 275: ...int The height adjusts automatically when you add text When you release the mouse button a text insertion point appears in the area you defined 3 Enter text The new text cast member appears in the fir...

Page 276: ...you import text from an RTF file Director recognizes most standard RTF formatting but it does not import pictures embedded in the file The amount of text in a cast member is limited only by the memor...

Page 277: ...at display the text cast member Note If you re changing the background color of text you have two options To change the background color of the cast member double click the text sprite on the Stage an...

Page 278: ...increase or decrease the spacing with the Spacing option To specify kerning between selected characters use the Kerning option to specify the number of points This setting supplements the standard ker...

Page 279: ...djusts line spacing to match the size of the text you are using If you change the line spacing setting Director stops making automatic adjustments To resume automatic adjustments of spacing enter 0 in...

Page 280: ...s in a compact window for use on the Stage or with entire cast members in the Cast window Most of the formatting controls also appear at the top of the Text window and in the Font and Paragraph dialog...

Page 281: ...e characters in the cast member according to standard kerning tables see Setting text or field cast member properties on page 285 The setting you enter in the Kerning text box in the Text window or Fo...

Page 282: ...with blue underlining You can turn off this formatting in the Property inspector s Text tab See Setting text or field cast member properties on page 285 The following procedure describes how to add a...

Page 283: ...indow If necessary use the Previous Cast Member and Next Cast Member buttons to navigate to the field you want to edit See Setting text or field cast member properties on page 285 Using editable text...

Page 284: ...ndow After you convert a cast member to a bitmap graphic you cannot undo the change This command works only with text and field cast members You can t convert a shape to a bitmap To convert text to a...

Page 285: ...one of the following actions Select Modify Cast Member Properties Select Window Property Inspector 3 Click the Member tab if it s not already selected using the Graphical view The following noneditab...

Page 286: ...nt to the next editable sprite on the Stage when the user presses Tab DTS Direct to Stage text cast members only makes text display more quickly by rendering it directly to the Stage without composing...

Page 287: ...sing the Save Bitmap feature for pre rendered text The Save Bitmap feature works with pre render options to display a buffer image of your text while your user waits for the actual text to load This f...

Page 288: ...ontStyle property To specify the drop shadow size for the characters in a field cast member set the boxDropShadow property To specify additional spacing to be applied to a chunk expression in a text c...

Page 289: ...g text boxes with Lingo Lingo can specify the type of box that surrounds a text or field cast member For field cast members Lingo can also specify box characteristics such as borders margins drop shad...

Page 290: ...tion To determine the number of the line that appears at a specific vertical position in a text or field cast member use the locVToLinePos function This measures the distance from the top of the cast...

Page 291: ...ext The chunk can be a string or another text cast member To combine character strings use the and operators The operator attaches the second string to the end of the first string The operator include...

Page 292: ...Chapter 10 292...

Page 293: ...ing Flash Movies You can incorporate Flash vector based animation in your Director movies projectors and Macromedia Shockwave movies for the web simply by importing a Flash movie into Director and usi...

Page 294: ...ndow To add a Flash movie 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...

Page 295: ...select Auto High to have Director start playing the movie with anti aliasing on but turn it off if it can t play the movie at the required frame rate Select a low quality setting to turn off anti alia...

Page 296: ...cts will be ignored Only the Copy Transparent Background Transparent and Blend ink effects work with Flash movies and only when the sprite is not played Direct to Stage Blend and color settings are su...

Page 297: ...member s properties Some cast member properties such as the flashRect and frameRate cast member properties are valid only after the Flash movie s header has streamed into memory Director provides the...

Page 298: ...the Lingo Dictionary 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 movies You can use Lingo...

Page 299: ...point after resizing the cast member set the centerRegPoint property to TRUE Placing Flash movies on the Stage Lingo can set whether a Flash movie appears at the front of the Stage and whether specif...

Page 300: ...eck the current state of a streaming file test the state property To attempt to forcibly stream a specified number of bytes of a Flash movie use the stream command Playing back Flash movies with Lingo...

Page 301: ...hether the mouse pointer is over a button in a Flash movie test the mouseOverButton property Using Lingo to set and test Flash variables Two sprite functions exist to support access to ActionScript va...

Page 302: ...or frame and then assign it a Get URL action in which you specify the Lingo that the Flash cast member sends To set up a Flash movie to generate an event 1 In Flash select a button 2 Select Window Ac...

Page 303: ...receives the getURL message from the Flash movie the movie immediately executes the Lingo statement In this case the movie jumps to the frame containing the marker Dali To send XML data from a Flash s...

Page 304: ...and myNewFlashObject sprite 1 newObject Array apple orange banana In this example the specified sprite sprite 1 is the Flash sprite The object is an array In Lingo arrays are called lists The array co...

Page 305: ...that need to be routed to an appropriate Lingo handler For example a Flash Communication Server connection object generates an event each time an incoming message is received from the server You can...

Page 306: ...local connection object Initialize properties The first thing to do is declare some properties that you will use throughout the local connection script to store references to the local connection obj...

Page 307: ...ns it is the same script object that contains this setCallback command referred to as me Note the quotes around the event name and the pound sign preceding the handler name The pound sign converts the...

Page 308: ...message is displayed in a chat input field If no error occurs a text output field is updated with the contents of the chat input field For more information about the Flash infoObject see the Flash Com...

Page 309: ...sing 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 object is set u...

Page 310: ...object that does not require a sprite reference Use the newObject command and include the NetConnection object as a parameter and omit the sprite reference myStream newObject NetStream myNetConObject...

Page 311: ...e Macromedia Flash Player Help section of the Macromedia website www macromedia com support flashplayer help Opening the Settings panel You must have a Flash sprite on the Stage to display the Setting...

Page 312: ...the following on mouseUp if the rightMouseDown or the controlDown then sprite 1 settingsPanel 0 end if end or on rightMouseUp sprite 1 settingsPanel 0 end You can also choose to use ActionScript in y...

Page 313: ...member modifies values at the cast member level and broadcasts the change to all sprites on the Stage This overhead can affect performance If you have only a single sprite for the cast member modify t...

Page 314: ...pears as a single cast member 5 Click Import To place a Director movie cast member in the current movie 1 Do one of the following For an internal movie drag the film loop cast member to the Stage or S...

Page 315: ...ars within the sprite bounding rectangle select a Framing option Crop displays the movie image at its default size Any portions that extend beyond the sprite s rectangle are not visible Center is avai...

Page 316: ...a software Macromedia Technical Support does not support them Inserting an ActiveX control You can place ActiveX controls in a Director movie and have them function as sprites Note that this procedure...

Page 317: ...value The generic Lingo syntax for getting an ActiveX control property is as follows value sprite X propertyName As an example if the Microsoft Access Calendar control is inserted into a Director movi...

Page 318: ...k event when the button is pressed and a calendar ActiveX control may generate a dateChanged event when the date within the calendar is changed Director converts any event generated by the ActiveX con...

Page 319: ...Sound makes significant demands on a computer s processing power so you might need to manage sounds carefully to make sure they do not adversely affect your movie s performance Lingo gives Director mo...

Page 320: ...est of the sound continues to load from its source whether on disk or over the Internet This can dramatically improve the downloading performance of large sounds Linked sounds are best for longer soun...

Page 321: ...sound file to which the cast member is linked if it is a linked sound enter a new path and file in the Filename text box You can also use the Browse button to select a new file 8 To specify how Direc...

Page 322: ...end the sound through as many frames as necessary New sounds are assigned the same number of frames as set for sprites in the Sprite Preferences dialog box You might need to adjust the number of frame...

Page 323: ...at aren t cast members Using Lingo to play sounds lets you control the exact timing of when sounds start and stop Lingo also lets you play only part of a sound cast member or play several sounds in su...

Page 324: ...und playFile in the Lingo Dictionary Playing external sound files from disk minimizes the amount of RAM that is used to play sounds However because the computer can read only one item from disk at a t...

Page 325: ...sing the same sound at several different bit rates to see how the sound changes Select the bit rate that is appropriate for the intended delivery system modem ISDN CD ROM hard disk and so on the type...

Page 326: ...ression Xtra is already included in the Shockwave player If you compress sounds in Shockwave format in a projector you must provide the SWA Decompression Xtra for the projector To have Director compre...

Page 327: ...el not one of the sound channels to create a sprite Extend the sprite through all frames in which the sound should play or use the tempo channel to make the movie wait for the end of the sound See Syn...

Page 328: ...video is reached you can use the Wait for Cue Point option in the Tempo dialog box You can also use this function to wait for the end of the sound or digital video even if it has no cue points Cue poi...

Page 329: ...points When the movie plays the playhead pauses at the frame until the cue point passes Synchronizing sound with Lingo By writing Lingo that performs an action when a cue point is reached in a sound...

Page 330: ...Chapter 12 330...

Page 331: ...kTime 3 or later QuickTime 6 or later is recommended from Apple The Director media synchronization features let you synchronize events in a movie to precise cue points embedded in digital video Video...

Page 332: ...ore information see the Director Support Center website at www macromedia com support director To import a digital video 1 Select File Import 2 Select QuickTime AVI Windows only or RealMedia Windows o...

Page 333: ...the properties for RealMedia cast members see The RealMedia tab in the Property inspector on page 349 7 To determine how a movie image appears within the sprite bounding rectangle when the movie is r...

Page 334: ...ollowing options from the Rate pop up menu to set the rate at which a digital video plays Normal plays each frame at its normal rate and no frames are skipped Maximum plays the movie as fast as possib...

Page 335: ...rectangle around the video use the Background Transparent ink to remove it Inks don t work if Direct to Stage is turned on see Playing digital video direct to Stage on page 334 Matte ink does not wor...

Page 336: ...to 1 To play a digital video sprite in reverse set the sprite s movieRate property to 1 To rewind a digital video sprite to the beginning set the sprite s movieTime property to 0 To control a digital...

Page 337: ...for AVI You can use Lingo to control a QuickTime video s appearance and sound volume For QuickTime VR you can use Lingo to pan a QuickTime VR digital video and specify what happens when the user clic...

Page 338: ...the hotspot if any at a specific point on the Stage use the ptToHotSpotID function To specify the name of the handler that runs when the user clicks a hotspot in a QuickTime VR sprite set the trigger...

Page 339: ...e VR sprite property To swing a QuickTime VR sprite to a specific pan tilt or field of view set the swing function Cropping digital video Cropping a digital video means trimming the edges off the top...

Page 340: ...wsers 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 the digital video to a URL and the movie begi...

Page 341: ...it into memory If this option is turned off Director does not load the movie into memory and instead plays it from disk This results in slower animation speeds since each frame must be retrieved from...

Page 342: ...available for download at www real com To view Shockwave movies containing RealMedia content the following software must be installed The Shockwave player RealPlayer 8 or RealOne Player If a user with...

Page 343: ...system and are familiar with Director viewing and using RealMedia files in Director is incredibly quick and easy Before you begin reading this document please view the RealMedia sample file included o...

Page 344: ...ject RealVideo is fully integrated into the graphics capabilities of Director and you add RealMedia cast members containing RealVideo to a movie just as you would any other cast member The RealVideo c...

Page 345: ...ing viewing and listening to video and audio content on the Internet Users can begin viewing content as soon as a small portion usually a few seconds of the file has downloaded As the stream plays the...

Page 346: ...etwork congestion and rebuffering RealPlayer is not designed to play concurrent streams and since RealAudio and RealVideo files in Director movies are played by an embedded RealPlayer engine playing m...

Page 347: ...lMedia tab For details see The RealMedia tab in the Property inspector on page 349 To create a RealMedia cast member from a local file using File Import 1 Select File Import or press Control R to open...

Page 348: ...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 depending on the l...

Page 349: ...m plays TRUE or not FALSE The default setting is TRUE This property has no effect if realPlayerNativeAudio is enabled soundChannel RealMedia specifies the Director sound channel where the RealAudio pl...

Page 350: ...ble values see the state RealMedia entry This property cannot be set About RealMedia behaviors The RealMedia behaviors are designed to let you easily add playback controls for RealMedia streams in you...

Page 351: ...behavior to the RealMedia sprite on the Stage 4 Enter the number of milliseconds for a long and short seek operation and assign the behavior to a group or accept the defaults The number of millisecon...

Page 352: ...iewer has the following controls New Cast Member lets you create a new RealMedia cast member You need to open the Property inspector to specify the name and filename for the cast member Next Cast Memb...

Page 353: ...current time and duration of the stream on the right in the format MM SS S or HH MM SS S If the stream is playing the status appears as Playing To view a RealMedia cast member in the RealMedia viewer...

Page 354: ...Although you can use the following Lingo elements with a RealMedia cast member they cause problems when used on a sound channel For example you can use member Real stop but should not use sound which...

Page 355: ...channels playing the audio portion of a RealMedia stream breakLoop channelCount endTime getPlayList loopCount loopEndTime loopsRemaining loopStartTime playNext puppetSound queue rewind sampleCount set...

Page 356: ...Chapter 13 356...

Page 357: ...rs on the Director Support Center at www macromedia com support director lingo d8 d8behaviors html Attaching behaviors You use the Library palette to display behaviors included in Director Director al...

Page 358: ...over a behavior icon If the behavior includes a longer description you can view it in the Behavior inspector See Getting information about behaviors on page 361 The behaviors included with Director c...

Page 359: ...r is copied to an internal cast to prevent you from accidentally changing the original behavior To attach the same behavior to several sprites at once using the Library palette Select the sprites on t...

Page 360: ...he Behavior tab has the same fields for the behavior as those in the Parameters dialog box Changing the order of attached behaviors Director executes behaviors in the order they were attached to a spr...

Page 361: ...havior description 1 Open the Behavior inspector 2 Select a sprite or frame to which a behavior has been attached 3 Click the arrow that expands the Behavior inspector s description pane You can leave...

Page 362: ...hortcut for writing simple scripts Note To always edit behaviors in the Script window instead of the Behavior inspector select Edit Preferences Editors In the Editors Preferences dialog box select Beh...

Page 363: ...the sequence of actions in an event or action group select an event from the Events list select an action from the Actions list and then click the up and down arrows above the Actions list to change...

Page 364: ...he specified frame Go to Movie opens and plays the specified movie Go to Marker moves the playhead to the specified marker Go to Net Page goes to the specified URL Wait on Current Frame waits at the c...

Page 365: ...variety of actions you want The behavior can have parameters that users edit from the Parameters dialog box The optional on getPropertyDescriptionList handler sets up the Parameters dialog box See on...

Page 366: ...g a behavior s property If a behavior s script includes an on getPropertyDescriptionList handler Director lets users set the property s initial values from the Parameters dialog box The behavior s Par...

Page 367: ...aximum or minimum number the Parameters dialog box provides a slider that sets the value To specify no range omit the range parameter If the property s definition doesn t include range a text entry fi...

Page 368: ...to do the same as the previous handler on getPropertyDescriptionList return Movement default 5 format integer comment Set motion to the right range min 1 max 10 noise default format sound comment Soun...

Page 369: ...e stageRight then set the locH of sprite the spriteNum of me the stageLeft else set the locH of sprite the spriteNum of me to the locH of sprite the spriteNum of me movement end if end When this behav...

Page 370: ...behaviors Unlike the sendSprite command the call command doesn t pass the message to frame scripts scripts of the cast member or movie scripts Before sending a message to a specific behavior check the...

Page 371: ...ance see Using parent scripts and child objects on page 417 To make a script an ancestor do one of the following Declare that ancestor is a property in the property statement at the beginning of the b...

Page 372: ...Chapter 14 372...

Page 373: ...ch as buttons There are several other interactive features that you can add to your movie Draggable sprites give your audience the ability to move sprites anywhere on the Stage You can also create bou...

Page 374: ...d the behavior Notice that the movie is still playing but the playhead remains on the single frame Use the Go Next Button behavior to send the playhead to a new frame and continue playing as described...

Page 375: ...other frames to other movies or to Internet movies and web pages You can also use Lingo to make a movie appear to pause by looping in one frame or a group of frames For details about specifying the l...

Page 376: ...but keep it playing so the movie can react to events use the statement go to the frame to loop in the current frame To resume playing a movie that is looping in one frame use the go to the frame 1 st...

Page 377: ...the mouse button is pressed check the mouseDown property To determine whether the mouse button is released check the mouseUp property To determine whether the user presses the right mouse button Windo...

Page 378: ...text sprite editable with Lingo set the text sprite s editable property to TRUE For best results set this property in a script that is attached to the sprite or the frame where the sprite is located...

Page 379: ...function Responding to rollovers with Lingo You often want some action to occur when the user rolls the mouse pointer over a sprite or a particular place on the Stage You can use Lingo to specify how...

Page 380: ...functions in the Lingo Dictionary To obtain the ANSI value of the last key that was pressed use the key function To obtain the keyboard s numerical or ASCII value for the last key pressed use the keyC...

Page 381: ...ursor consists of a series of bitmap cast members Each bitmap cast member is a frame of the cursor You can control the rate at which Director plays the frames of an animated cursor Using the Cursor Pr...

Page 382: ...ratio as it scales them If you specify a cast member smaller than the maximum size Director displays the cast member at its original size without scaling For example if you select a maximum size of 1...

Page 383: ...tion fields specify the location of the mouse pointer s active point Director uses this point to track the mouse pointer s position on the screen For example Director uses this point s location when i...

Page 384: ...stMember 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 curso...

Page 385: ...in this chapter the term behavior refers to any Lingo script that you attach to a sprite or a frame This differs from the behaviors that come in the Director Library Palette For more information about...

Page 386: ...repeat loop structures For example you can create an if then structure that tests whether text has finished downloading from the Internet and if it has then attempts to format the text See Controlling...

Page 387: ...ehavior channel in the frame that you want to attach a behavior to When you create a new behavior the behavior receives the cast number of the first available location in the current Cast window When...

Page 388: ...or Alternatively you can open the Script window and cycle through the scripts until you reach the behavior To remove a behavior from a Score location Select the location and then delete the script fro...

Page 389: ...click the Cast Member Script button in the Cast window Lingo terminology Like any programming language Lingo uses specific terminology and has rules of grammar and punctuation that you must follow Thi...

Page 390: ...m one or more values For example the addition operator adds two or more values together to produce a new value Properties are attributes that define an object For example picture is a property of a bi...

Page 391: ...e used in this book to make it is easier to identify names of handlers variables and cast members when reading Lingo code Literal strings are case sensitive See Writing strings on page 405 Comments Co...

Page 392: ...statements in a Lingo script you can choose between two types of syntax verbose syntax and dot syntax Verbose syntax Verbose syntax is similar to English Because of this verbose syntax is an excellent...

Page 393: ...to an object or to specify a chunk of text within a text object A dot syntax expression begins with the name of the object followed by a period dot and then the property function or text chunk that y...

Page 394: ...Movie in a window MIAW events Movie events Synchronizing media events Idle events Timeout events Authoring behavior events Defining custom messages In addition to using built in message names you can...

Page 395: ...y after the prepareFrame event Director plays sounds draws sprites and performs any transitions or palette effects This event occurs before the enterFrame event An on prepareFrame handler is a good lo...

Page 396: ...quired depending on the situation To create arguments for a handler Put the arguments after the handler name Use commas to separate multiple arguments For example the following handler called addThem...

Page 397: ...r in a behavior attached to the frame For example to have a handler respond to a mouse click while the playhead is in a frame regardless of where the click occurs place an on mouseDown or on mouseUp h...

Page 398: ...property list each element contains two values separated by a colon One value is a property name always preceded by a pound sign the other value is the value associated with that property For example...

Page 399: ...100 top 150 right 300 bottom 350 sprite2Location left 400 top 550 right 500 bottom 750 To create an empty property list Set the list to Setting and retrieving items in a list Lingo lets you set and r...

Page 400: ...the property list foodList breakfast Waffles lunch Tofu Burger dinner Hungarian Goulash the expression foodList breakfast represents the value associated with the property breakfast The value is Waffl...

Page 401: ...s of two continents The statement continentList landList assigns the same list to the variable continentList However adding Australia to landList using the statement add landList Australia automatical...

Page 402: ...rom other languages such as Java in which a variable s type cannot be changed For example the statement x 1 creates the variable x which is an integer variable because you assigned the variable an int...

Page 403: ...d by the goToNetPage command Every handler that declares a variable as global can use the variable s current value If the handler changes the variable s value the new value is available to every other...

Page 404: ...Assign the variable a value using the equals operator or the set variableName value command Unless the handler uses the term global to declare that a variable is global the variable is automatically...

Page 405: ...An integer is a whole number without any fractions or decimal places Director works with integers between 2 147 483 648 and 2 147 483 647 For numbers outside this range use decimal numbers sometimes...

Page 406: ...l To specify a cast without parentheses when using member include the term of castLib followed by the cast s name or number When the cast member s name is unique in the movie the cast s name or number...

Page 407: ...er after the current frame If the frame is marked marker 0 returns the frame number of the current frame if not marker 0 gives the frame number of the previous marker The term movie followed by the mo...

Page 408: ...ngo follows to determine which operators to execute first This is called the operators precedence order For example multiplication is always performed before addition However items in parentheses take...

Page 409: ...re the comparison operators available in Lingo Logical operators Logical operators test whether two logical expressions are true or false These are the logical operators available in Lingo The not ope...

Page 410: ...tement following then in the same line as then or you can place it on its own line by inserting a carriage return after then If you insert a carriage return you must also include an end if statement a...

Page 411: ...tion exists To repeat an action a specified number of times Use a repeat with structure Specify the number of times to repeat as a range following repeat with This structure is useful for performing t...

Page 412: ...e Script window To open the Script window do one of the following Select Window Script Double click a script cast member in the Cast window For more ways to create and open scripts see Performing comm...

Page 413: ...p right or bottom from the Debugger Panes menu Inserting common Lingo terms The Script window provides pop up menus of common Lingo terms that you can use to insert Lingo in a script The same menus al...

Page 414: ...indows or Option Return Macintosh where you want to insert a soft line break The continuation symbol that appears indicates that the statement continues on the next line Director 7 and earlier used a...

Page 415: ...you want to find 3 Click Find The handler appears in the Script window The title bar at the top of the Script window indicates the script s type To find text in scripts 1 Make the Script window active...

Page 416: ...runtime Director projectors and Shockwave use a special internal copy of the script data stored in the movie This way your linked scripts need not be distributed with your movies and cannot be copied...

Page 417: ...created from the same parent script You can create as many child objects as the computer s memory can support Director can create multiple child objects from the same parent script just as Director ca...

Page 418: ...g the other child objects based on the same parent script Similarly a child object can have a property set to either TRUE or FALSE regardless of that property s setting in sibling child objects Differ...

Page 419: ...y variables these variables represent properties for which each child object can contain a value independent of other child objects See Parent script and child object basics on page 418 Sets up the in...

Page 420: ...behavior by including in the parent script the handlers that produce the desired behavior For example you could add a handler to the code above to make the sprite change color The following parent sc...

Page 421: ...child object s on new handler The new function creates a child object whose ancestor is scriptName It then calls the on new handler in the child object with the specified arguments You can issue a new...

Page 422: ...eck whether the object car1 was created from the parent script named Car if car1 script script Car then beep end if You can also get a list of the handlers in a child object by using the handlers func...

Page 423: ...ld objects Using actorList Lingo can set up a special list of child objects or any other objects that receives its own message each time the playhead enters a frame or the updateStage command updates...

Page 424: ...led and the frequency with which you want the handler to be called Once a timeout object is created Director keeps a list of currently active timeout objects called timeOutList To create timeout objec...

Page 425: ...an individual timeout object by its number in the list The following statement deletes the second timeout object in timeOutList See forget in the Lingo Dictionary timeOut 2 forget Relaying system eve...

Page 426: ...is currently running the sequence of handlers that Lingo ran to get to its current point and the value of variables and expressions that you select The Script window lets you enter comments insert st...

Page 427: ...tart locating a problem Think backwards through the chain to identify where the unexpected started to happen Use the Message window to trace which frames the movie goes through and the handlers that L...

Page 428: ...re spelled correctly spaces are in the correct places and necessary punctuation is used Lingo can t interpret incorrect syntax Quotation marks surround the names of cast members labels and strings wit...

Page 429: ...rizontal divider to a new position To hide the Output pane completely Click the Collapse Expand button in the center of the horizontal divider When the Output pane is hidden output from Lingo that exe...

Page 430: ...o all at once by copying and pasting Lingo statements into the Message window or by pressing Shift Return after each line of Lingo To execute multiple lines of Lingo by copying and pasting 1 Copy the...

Page 431: ...Lingo includes all Lingo except 3D Lingo presented in an alphabetical list Categorized Lingo includes all Lingo except 3D Lingo presented in a categorized list Alphabetical 3D Lingo includes all 3D L...

Page 432: ...where its value is displayed and updated as the movie plays For more information about the Object inspector see Using the Object inspector on page 433 When you are in debugging mode you can follow ho...

Page 433: ...where the two differ You can also copy the section into the original piece and see whether this corrects the problem Using the Object inspector With the Object inspector you can view and set properti...

Page 434: ...ctor Sprites sprite 3 Cast members member 2 Global variables gMyList Child objects gMyChild Flash objects gMyFlashObject For more information about using Flash objects in Director see Using Flash obje...

Page 435: ...you entered in the Object inspector remain This makes it easy to compare different versions of the same movie When you exit Director the items in the Object inspector are lost Using the Debugger windo...

Page 436: ...use the Debugger to tell Director how to proceed If you have multiple Script windows open Director searches for one containing the script where the breakpoint occurred and changes that window to debu...

Page 437: ...nce is called the call stack Use the call stack to keep track of the structure of your Lingo while you are debugging You can view the variables associated with a specific handler by clicking the handl...

Page 438: ...he new value for the variable 3 Press Enter Window or Return Macintosh Viewing objects in the Watcher pane With the Watcher pane in the Debugger window you can view variables and other data objects as...

Page 439: ...in the current handler When you are confident that nested handlers are performing as expected and want to concentrate on Lingo in the current handler the Debugger window can step over nested handlers...

Page 440: ...To Handler button 3 When you are finished debugging and editing scripts click the Stop Debugging button The Script window returns to Script mode 4 Click the Recompile All Modified Scripts button Usin...

Page 441: ...Writing Scripts with Lingo 441 To add the selected expression or variable to the Object inspector Click Inspect Object To recompile the movie s scripts Click Recompile All Modified Scripts...

Page 442: ...Chapter 16 442...

Page 443: ...tor If you re not familiar with Director you should gain at least a basic knowledge before using 3D in Director MX The Director MX documentation and help files included with Director MX are the place...

Page 444: ...are stored Cast members are the media in your movies such as sounds text graphics and 3D scenes Sprites are instances of cast members that appear on the Stage with individual properties and attributes...

Page 445: ...re information see Creating 3D text on page 462 Lingo is the Director scripting language It can be used to create movies that are more complex and interactive For detailed Lingo information see About...

Page 446: ...W3D Web 3D format which Director supports Typically each rendering application requires its own specific file converter to create W3D files See the documentation for your 3D modeling software for inf...

Page 447: ...era Transform buttons let you set and undo the changes you make to camera angles Set Camera Transform remembers the current camera position Reset Camera Transform restores the camera to the previously...

Page 448: ...cal The Property inspector s 3D Model tab provides several options The fields at the top of the tab show the initial position and orientation of the default camera The default 0 0 0 represents a vanta...

Page 449: ...assign a texture to a shader You can also control its specular highlight color its diffuse overall color and its reflectivity For more information see The 3D world on page 452 and Chapter 19 Working w...

Page 450: ...other against each other and against the background Anti aliasing of 3D sprites is particularly well suited for merchandise demos and other e commerce applications because its image quality is high an...

Page 451: ...in Lingo as shown in the following example 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...

Page 452: ...u on the Text tab of the Property inspector 3 Set properties of the 3D text using the 3D Text tab to manipulate the specific properties of the 3D text You can also manipulate the text cast member with...

Page 453: ...els don t appear in and can t be controlled from the Score For example a 3D cast member might contain two model resources One could be the geometry for a car body and the other could be the geometry f...

Page 454: ...n have one or more children It has no other properties The highest level group is the group called world which is essentially synonymous with the 3D cast member For more information see Groups on page...

Page 455: ...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 world Models are visible objects in the...

Page 456: ...owing figures show the relationships between 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 Al...

Page 457: ...point of a triangle numTextureCoordinates 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 n...

Page 458: ...t exists Returns void if the object does not exist at that index 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...

Page 459: ...f the cast member Integer texture name Returns the texture object named name Returns the texture object named name if it exists Returns void if the object does not exist texture index Returns the text...

Page 460: ...urns the motion object at that index number if it exists Returns void if the object does not exist at that index number newMotion name Creates a new motion object Returns a new motion object with a un...

Page 461: ...ast member Integer camera name Returns the camera named name Returns the camera object named name if it exists Returns void if the object does not exist camera index Returns the camera at the designat...

Page 462: ...g the Drag 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 Command Function...

Page 463: ...ation with the values that you enter in the text boxes at the top of the pane The default camera position represents a vantage point looking up through the middle of the scene Note You might prefer to...

Page 464: ...ity As with any model you can apply a texture that uses a bitmap cast member You can import a bitmap cast member or create a new one in the Paint window Be sure to give your bitmap cast member a name...

Page 465: ...TextProperty For example to set the bevelDepth property of the first model in cast member 1 to a value of 25 use the following syntax member 1 model 1 resource bevelDepth 25 Member command scrollByLin...

Page 466: ...th different triggers These behaviors can be used with any 3D cast member displayFace Get and set Faces of shape to display front tunnel back Default is to show all three faces displayMode Get and set...

Page 467: ...s separate triggers To view 3D action behaviors 1 Click the Library Palette button on the Director toolbar 2 Click the Library List button and select 3D 3 Select Actions from the 3D submenu Name Descr...

Page 468: ...s a sphere 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 w...

Page 469: ...s the camera around the z axis by a specified number of degrees each time its trigger is activated This makes the 3D scene appear to rotate and turn upside down Toggle Redraw Drawing Toggles the redra...

Page 470: ...e 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 Score The Parameters d...

Page 471: ...About groups on page 471 7 Specify options in the Parameters dialog box 8 Click OK About groups The Parameters dialog boxes of the local and public action behaviors give you the option to assign the...

Page 472: ...Chapter 18 472...

Page 473: ...o use the Director 3D behaviors or Lingo to manipulate camera positions About models and model resources Models are the objects you see in the 3D world You can create models within Macromedia Director...

Page 474: ...n page 498 for more information Primitives Each type of primitive has its own set of Lingo commands and properties used to define its appearance Use the newModelResource command to create new primitiv...

Page 475: ...sphere surface The higher the value the smoother the surface An integer value of 1 or greater The default is 20 startAngle Get and set Starting angle of the sweep Floating point value of from 0 0 to 3...

Page 476: ...hether the front of the box is closed or open TRUE 1 closed TRUE 1 or FALSE 0 The default is TRUE 1 back Get and set Value indicating whether the back of the cylinder is closed or open TRUE 1 closed T...

Page 477: ...umber of vertices along the length of the plane 2 or more The default is 2 width Vertices Get and set Number of vertices along the width of the plane 2 or more The default is 2 Property Access Descrip...

Page 478: ...egers specifying the indexes of the normals in the normalList that each point of the triangle should use Don t set a value if you aren t defining your own normals face index textureCoord inates face i...

Page 479: ...ption Value Range lifetime Get and set Lifetime of all particles emitted in milliseconds Positive integer The default is 10 000 ms colorRange end Get and set Color value of a particle at the end of it...

Page 480: ...set Point line or region from which particles are emitted Possible values single vector for point source two vectors for line segment four vectors for quadrilateral emitter distribution Get and set Ha...

Page 481: ...ls as children of the world and updates all palettes You can call this function only if the cast member s state property is either 1 meaning that an error occurred during a previous attempt to load th...

Page 482: ...the same transform parent and child properties The others are cameras lights and groups Models cameras lights and groups are generically referred to as node types or nodes Nodes can be each other s pa...

Page 483: ...get and set properties on this list The default list includes the properties assigned in the 3D modeling tool Additional properties may also be added resource Get and set Model resource object defini...

Page 484: ...around the model TRUE 1 or FALSE 0 The default is FALSE 0 bounding Sphere Get A list containing a vector and a floating point value The vector represents the position of the model in world space and...

Page 485: ...mand Nothing getWorld Transform Sets this model s position and orientation relative to the world model s position and orientation Nothing remove FromWorld For models whose parent hierarchy terminates...

Page 486: ...Rotates the model by x around the x axis y around the y axis and z around the z axis The relativeTo argument is optional and defaults to self If included it defines the coordinate space of the axes Th...

Page 487: ...tate 0 10 0 or car child 1 rotate 0 10 0 self where the fourth parameter of the rotate command is the object the rotation should be relative to Parent relative A model s transform property expresses i...

Page 488: ...t seems to give off This does not turn the surface using this shader into a light source it just gives it the appearance of being one rgb 0 0 0 blend Get and set An integer between 0 and 100 indicatin...

Page 489: ...ayer Set Specifies a texture to be used in the third layer and applies the following values textureModeList 3 reflection blendFunctionList 3 blend blendSourceList 3 constant blendConstantList 3 50 0 v...

Page 490: ...eLight specularLight none textureMode Get and set Access to the texture coordinate generation function for the first layer Possible values are as follows none wrapPlanar wrapCylindrical wrapSpherical...

Page 491: ...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 position...

Page 492: ...ratio The blending ratio in this case is the value of blendConstant for layer index For example if the layer at that index position s blendConstant value is 0 9 the resultant texture will be 90 of th...

Page 493: ...s set to FALSE 0 the border of the texture is extended past the unit UV coordinate range TRUE 1 textureRepeat List Get and set Access to the list of texture clamping behaviors one per layer When set t...

Page 494: ...ideo RAM at the same time If not Director switches to software rendering which slows performance Be aware of the limitations of your video RAM and that of your intended audience Some video cards have...

Page 495: ...uality Get and set Property with the following possible values low texture is not mipmapped medium mipmapping is at a low bilinear setting default high the mipmapping is at a high trilinear setting Fo...

Page 496: ...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 and set A property li...

Page 497: ...ary group instances Lingo group object cloneDeep name Clones both the group and the parent used by the group s children Modifications to the clones resource don t affect the parent This is a more memo...

Page 498: ...e vector directionVector The relativeTo argument is optional and defaults to self Nothing translate x y z relativeTo Moves the group distance x along the x axis distance y along the y axis and distanc...

Page 499: ...ic mode A value of 0 0 is most aggressive and removes all polygons A value of 100 00 should result in no visible degradation of the geometry A middle level can be used to remove polygons at runtime th...

Page 500: ...silhouettes Get and set TRUE 1 or FALSE 0 value indicating presence or absence of lines around silhouettes TRUE 1 whichModel toon creases Get and set TRUE 1 or FALSE 0 value indicating whether lines a...

Page 501: ...to TRUE and set the resolve property to FALSE Use these properties to work with the collision modifier Property Access Description Default whichModel sds enable d Get and set Enables disables subdivis...

Page 502: ...al contact TRUE 1 whichModel collision immovable Get and set TRUE 1 or FALSE 0 value indicating whether the model can be moved If a model cannot be moved the 3D Xtra can save time by not checking it f...

Page 503: ...to the end of the list Using the play command starts the motion immediately The motion previously at the beginning of the play list is halted unless autoBlend is turned on When you use queue the moti...

Page 504: ...abled blending begins the instant play is called Nothing whichModel bonesPlayer playNext Ends the currently playing motion removes it from the play list and begins the next motion if blending is enabl...

Page 505: ...endTime Get and set Length in milliseconds of the period when blending takes place between motions The blendTime property is linked to motion duration Motion blending is disabled if blendTime 0 and au...

Page 506: ...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 defined notification even...

Page 507: ...called Nothing whichModel keyframePlayer playNex t Ends the currently playing motion removes it from the play list and begins the next motion If blending is enabled blending begins the instant playNe...

Page 508: ...econds of the period when blending takes place between motions The blendTime property is linked to motion duration Motion blending is disabled if blendTime 0 and autoBlend TRUE 500 whichModel keyframe...

Page 509: ...operty maintains any or all of the rotational changes after playing is complete The values are as follows none x y z xy xz all all whichModel keyframePlayer lockTranslation Get and set Defines the axi...

Page 510: ...ed mesh whichModel meshDeform mesh index face count Get Returns the number of triangular faces in a given mesh whichModel meshDeform mesh index face index Get Returns a list of three indexes into the...

Page 511: ...bout behaviors see Chapter 18 The 3D Cast Member 3D Text and 3D Behaviors on page 455 More complex manipulations require the use of Lingo commands and properties These are detailed here and in the Lin...

Page 512: ...g ambient applied to all sides of the model directional applied to those parts of the light facing the light s direction Distance to the light isn t important point Like a bare light bulb omnidirectio...

Page 513: ...form is interpreted as remaining parent relative Nothing child index Returns the child at the specified position in the index Lingo light object child name Returns a reference to the named child Lingo...

Page 514: ...l and defaults to self Nothing translate x y z relativeTo Moves the light distance x along the x axis distance y along the y axis and distance z along the z axis The relativeTo argument is optional an...

Page 515: ...group that is this light s parent If the camera has no parent it cannot contribute light group world child count Get Number of immediate children no grandchildren the camera has 0 transform Get and s...

Page 516: ...ponential projection Get and set Method of determining the vertical field of view which must be of type perspective or orthographic perspective fieldOfView Get and set A floating point value specifyin...

Page 517: ...Scale value used by a specific backdrop in the camera s list of backdrops 1 0 backdrop index rot ation Get and set Rotation value used by a specific backdrop in the camera s list of backdrops 0 0 bac...

Page 518: ...is option lets you quickly create temporary camera instances Lingo camera object cloneDeep name Clones both the camera and all resources used by the camera s children Lingo camera object addtoWorld Ad...

Page 519: ...To argument is optional and defaults to self This command 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 d...

Page 520: ...Chapter 19 520...

Page 521: ...back You can also find the commands and properties given here in tabular form in alphabetical form with accompanying syntax definitions and examples in the Lingo Dictionary Help Lingo Dictionary 3D Li...

Page 522: ...plicitly registered when setCollisionCallback is called Equivalent to calling model collision setCollision Callback timeMS Sets up a time based simulation callback using the format registerForEvent ti...

Page 523: ...hat an action such as a button being pushed or a door being opened has taken place Picking can be accomplished using cast member or camera commands pointOf Contact Get Vector describing world space lo...

Page 524: ...t within the rect of the sprite using this camera The location point is relative to the upper left corner of the sprite in pixels The ray is cast forward in the direction the camera is looking This fu...

Page 525: ...in an index between 1 and 3 x Get and set The x component of a vector y Get and set The y component of a vector z Get and set The z component of a vector Command Description Returns normalize Normaliz...

Page 526: ...x equaling 1 through 3 A new vector object vector1 vector2 Returns the product of the two vectors A floating point value vector1 vector2 Not supported 0 vector2 scalar Returns a new vector equaling v...

Page 527: ...vary because of the permissible types of transform operation For example translate followed by rotate gives a different value than rotate followed by translate and the results can t be differentiated...

Page 528: ...0 0 90 After this series of transformations performed in this order the model s local origin will be at 100 0 0 assuming the model s parent is the world Nothing rotate point vector angle Similar to t...

Page 529: ...form2 Alters the original transform by preapplying the positional rotational scaling effects of transform2 to the original transform If transform2 describes a rotation of 90 around the x axis and this...

Page 530: ...raw themselves This property must be set before any 3D sprite comes into existence Its default value is determined by the preferredRenderer property of the first cast member loaded from file This is a...

Page 531: ...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 rendering Po...

Page 532: ...thBufferRange list of bit depth resolutions available colorBufferRange list of bit depth resolutions Property Access Description the preferred3d Renderer Get and set The renderer a particular movie pr...

Page 533: ...ith values ranging from Float_Min to Float_Max vector 0 0 0 0 250 0 camera Rotation Get and set Independent x y z rotation transforms for the default camera with values ranging from Float_Min to Float...

Page 534: ...s are as follows 0 unloaded 1 headerLoading 2 headerLoaded 3 mediaLoading 4 mediaLoaded 1 error Once state 3 or 4 has been reached it s safe to execute Lingo that manipulates the 3D world Before then...

Page 535: ...sted addCamera camera index Adds a camera named camera at the specified index number If the index number is greater than the number of cameras in the sprite s camera count or if there is no index the...

Page 536: ...Chapter 20 536...

Page 537: ...vie to the window Open the window and play the movie 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 dec...

Page 538: ...and the Open Window command Use the following Lingo on beginNewMovie theMovie global newWindow set newWindow to window theMovie set newWindow titleVisible to FALSE open newWindow end beginNewMovie Th...

Page 539: ...om memory performance slows down if the window is reopened because the movie has to reload however it doesn t consume memory until the movie is reloaded You might want to use this option if you don t...

Page 540: ...controls the initial position of the window setting them after the window appears moves the window To specify the screen coordinates for a MIAW Set the rect property to the coordinates of the locatio...

Page 541: ...hind other windows and has a title For more information see the Lingo Dictionary To specify whether the window is visible Set the window s visible window property To avoid a potential time lag when th...

Page 542: ...ed When you want a MIAW to send a Lingo message to the main movie use the stage to refer to the main movie For example the statement tell the stage to go to Help instructs the main movie to go to the...

Page 543: ...any data Any application that reads HTML must understand the meaning of tags such as TITLE P and BODY HTML tags also describe how information appears on the screen XML on the other hand consists of a...

Page 544: ...a create a parser object by using Lingo to assign a new instance of the Xtra to a variable This variable now contains the parser object Use a global variable if you need to access the XML data from an...

Page 545: ...previous XML example would look like the following code ROOT OF XML DOCUMENT ATTRIBUTES e1 ATTRIBUTES tagName ATTRIBUTES attr1 val1 attr2 val2 e2 ATTRIBUTES CHARDATA element 2 e3 ATTRIBUTES CHARDATA...

Page 546: ...ue if text Return value if Processing Instruction type element text procInst name String representing the name of the element VOID String representing the name of the processing instruction child N N...

Page 547: ...this example the gParserObject variable refers to the root node of the XML The child 1 refers to the e1 tag which occupies the first level down in the XML s nested structure The child 2 refers to the...

Page 548: ...on with the attributeName property to return the number of attributes in the first child of the e1 tag put gParserObject child 1 child 1 attributeName count 2 Parser objects and XML nodes As described...

Page 549: ...TES The following Lingo statements set ignoreWhiteSpace to FALSE and parse the given XML into a list The sample element now has a child that contains one space character XMLtext sample sample parserOb...

Page 550: ...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 8 bit encoding of the Unicode character set This is the XML defaul...

Page 551: ...accessibility behaviors or special Lingo commands The text to speech behaviors and Lingo require the Speech Xtra If you use text to speech in your movie you need to add the Speech Xtra to your movie...

Page 552: ...ie Testing the Speech Xtra To verify that your computer is configured correctly to let the Speech Xtra work you can perform a simple test To test the Speech Xtra type the following Lingo into the Mess...

Page 553: ...essibility Target Accessibility Item Accessibility Text Edit Item Accessibility Group Order and Accessibility Keyboard Controller behaviors together To apply the Accessibility Target behavior 1 Create...

Page 554: ...ly below the Stage You can expand the Stage window to display more of this area if necessary 3 Drag the Accessibility Keyboard Controller behavior from the Library palette to the sprite 4 In the dialo...

Page 555: ...the other accessibility behaviors in the scene such as Accessibility_Scene_1 3 Enter the tab order for the sprite This is the order in which the sprites are selected when the user presses the Tab key...

Page 556: ...n by using the Accessibility Speak Member Text behavior To apply the Accessibility Speak Member Text behavior 1 Apply the keyboard navigation behaviors to sprites in your scene For more information se...

Page 557: ...ying text that corresponds to spoken narration or other sounds being played Using the captioning behaviors in addition to the text to speech behaviors lets you make your movies accessible to users wit...

Page 558: ...number that you selected in the previous step This is the number of words that can appear in the captioning sprite when the captioning begins For example if you want the first section of text to begin...

Page 559: ...t to speech is not available end if end To determine the number of available voices Use the voiceCount function To return a property list that describes the name gender age and index number of the cur...

Page 560: ...Lingo by Feature section of the Lingo Dictionary Deploying accessible movies To successfully deploy an accessible movie you become familiar with the Speech Xtra s system requirements and download proc...

Page 561: ...efault It can be downloaded from the Microsoft website at www microsoft com speech A separate screen reader application is not necessary Macintosh OS 8 6 and later include text to speech software No a...

Page 562: ...Chapter 23 562...

Page 563: ...an 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 564: ...t in the same frame as a cast member is used the cast member will be treated as if it had its old priority because all drawing on the screen is done before any enterFrame or exitFrame scripts are perf...

Page 565: ...ore 2 Begin the sprite one or two frames before the frame where you want to display the video 3 Locate this sprite off the Stage except for at least one pixel of one corner of the sprite This is so th...

Page 566: ...Chapter 24 566...

Page 567: ...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 organization a...

Page 568: ...rame and use the marker name as in the following Lingo go to frame Main_menu During work sessions save your movie file often Save a copy of the movie after each milestone such as a day of work or afte...

Page 569: ...creen resolution and available memory in your testing This approach can help you find problems that are specific to an operating system or configuration which are distinct from authoring errors Testin...

Page 570: ...e information about debugging Lingo scripts Index of Director testing and troubleshooting TechNotes at www macromedia com support director troubleshoot html TechNote 13872 General troubleshooting tips...

Page 571: ...and protect them from being edited Shockwave browser compatibility Shockwave works with Netscape Navigator as a plug in with Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows 95 98 ME NT 2000 XP as an ActiveX c...

Page 572: ...review a movie in a browser Select File Preview in Browser or press F12 About Xtra extensions All Xtra extensions a movie requires must be installed on your user s system when the movie runs When you...

Page 573: ...installation programs or other means of modifying Xtrainfo txt automatically If a user chooses to download an Xtra extension Director retrieves the Xtra extension from the URL specified in Xtrainfo tx...

Page 574: ...Third party Xtra extensions often include some explanations and information about the developers Note Another way to include Xtra extensions with a movie is to create an Xtras folder containing all r...

Page 575: ...play faster than Shockwave movies from a disk because they do not need to be decompressed These movies are preferable if disk space isn t limited Like Shockwave movies protected movies do not include...

Page 576: ...ify a different file location hold Alt Windows or Option Macintosh when you select File Publish Continue to hold the key for access to dialog boxes that let you specify new paths for both your DCR and...

Page 577: ...lect Fill Browser Window To play a loader movie while the Shockwave file downloads select Loader Movie To display a game with a progress bar while the Shockwave file loads select Loader Game To displa...

Page 578: ...can disable zooming with Lingo by setting the allowZooming property For more information see the Lingo Dictionary Save Local determines if the movie can be saved to Shockmachine Display Progress Bar...

Page 579: ...vie select Compression Enabled 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 o...

Page 580: ...s the image is compressed To specify that the image download as a progressive JPEG select Progressive The JPEG will then display at low resolution and increase in quality as it continues to download M...

Page 581: ...hat you specify in step 4 To change the size of the movie to fit the size of the browser select Stretch to Fill Any browser resizing stretches the movie to fill the width and height parameters Note ho...

Page 582: ...include Xtra extensions inside the projector itself so there s nothing to unpack Creating projectors When creating a projector place the starting movie at the top of the list of files in the Create P...

Page 583: ...colors the monitor automatically switches to thousands of colors 6 To determine how the projector appears on the screen make an Options selection Full Screen displays the movie in the entire screen p...

Page 584: ...or the projector 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 movies casts and included Xtra ex...

Page 585: ...e and compress movies and casts 1 Select Xtras Update Movies The Update Movies dialog box appears 2 Select one of the Action options Update converts movies from Director 5 or later versions to the lat...

Page 586: ...to external casts in the Shockwave format Protected movies have the DXR extension and protected casts have the CXT extension Exporting digital video and frame by frame bitmaps You can export all or p...

Page 587: ...ickTime Movie MOV Macintosh PICT Scrapbook PICS or QuickTime Movie BMP is the standard format for a Windows bitmap series PICT Scrapbook and PICS are all Macintosh bitmap file formats 5 If you are exp...

Page 588: ...e more frames per second A movie that would work well with Tempo Settings as the Frame Rate option is one in which the tempos have been carefully timed For instance some frames could be set to a tempo...

Page 589: ...es the size of the file 7 To determine the color depth the number of colors of your artwork select a setting from the Color Depth pop up menu The compression method you select determines the color dep...

Page 590: ...tected movies This saves you the trouble of re creating the projector every time you change one part of a movie A typical file organization for a distributed movie This approach also makes sense for m...

Page 591: ...and to use the behaviors that are built in to Director to make the movie wait while certain cast members download Controls and Lingo commands offer methods for sending and retrieving media and other...

Page 592: ...s background loading lets Director perform multiple operations while loading files Because something else is happening while files are loading the user doesn t perceive the wait Note Loading data from...

Page 593: ...not been downloaded select Show Placeholders The placeholders appear as rectangles when the movie plays 5 To lock the movie to its current tempo settings select Lock Frame Durations See Locking frame...

Page 594: ...Flash Communication server functionality entirely in Director For more information about using Flash Communication Server MX in Director see Chapter 11 Using Flash and Other Interactive Media Types o...

Page 595: ...the playhead to the specified frame after a certain cast member has been downloaded Jump When Media in Frame is Available moves the playhead to the specified frame after the media elements for a parti...

Page 596: ...pacts performance When using network Lingo the current handler must finish before an operation s result can return For best results place Lingo that initiates a network operation and Lingo that uses t...

Page 597: ...he page The gotoNetPage command is similar to the Director open command It doesn t return a value To preload a file from the server into the cache Use the preloadNetThing function See preLoadNetThing...

Page 598: ...th Internet security restrictions Because of security issues for movies that play back in browsers the following Lingo features are unsupported for Shockwave movies playing in a browser Many of these...

Page 599: ...s can use URLs to Shockwave Audio SWA sound files as file references streamName URL cast member property The following Lingo elements can use URLs as file references only during authoring or in projec...

Page 600: ...for Windows and Macintosh are described in the following list Windows The Macromed Shockwave 8 subfolder of the system folder the system folder is typically c winnt system32 or c windows system Macint...

Page 601: ...ie uses nonstandard fonts use embedded fonts See Embedding fonts in movies on page 274 Check for sound problems particularly if you stream sounds with SWA About downloading speed Developers distributi...

Page 602: ...Chapter 27 602...

Page 603: ...independent 466 469 local 466 468 public 466 469 viewing 467 actions Behavior inspector Beep 364 Change Cast Member 364 Change Cursor 364 Change Ink 364 Change Location 364 Change Palette 364 Change...

Page 604: ...line spacing 279 AVI Video for Windows See digital video axis and camera movement 447 and model generation 475 and model movement 486 487 498 camera movement 469 colors 469 in animation 491 506 509 B...

Page 605: ...in 572 status area text 600 Bucket tool Paint window 207 button cast member properties 375 button tool palette 253 C cache clearing 47 call command 370 cameras commands 518 524 defined 454 515 manipu...

Page 606: ...l and external 128 managing external 153 casts continued opening in new window 134 preferences 138 saving 153 saving as libraries 154 centering the Stage 46 centimeters specifying as unit of measure 2...

Page 607: ...97 puppetTransition 271 showGlobals 403 showLocals 404 comments Lingo scripts 391 uses for 426 comparison operators 409 compressing bitmaps 579 movies 576 sounds See Shockwave for Audio concatenating...

Page 608: ...proving playback performance 341 preloading 341 synchronizing with cue points 328 341 turning tracks on and off with Lingo 337 using on the Internet 340 Video window 332 digital video cast member prop...

Page 609: ...option 191 extruder model resource 481 Eyedropper tool 262 Eyedropper tool Paint window 207 F facets text 463 Fade to Black White 260 fading sprites 180 188 FALSE keyword definition of 392 testing for...

Page 610: ...31 jumping to with Lingo 375 looping 376 moving sprites in 172 printing 48 selecting within a sprite 160 start and end 163 Full Screen projector option 583 functions charToNum 381 contains 290 defini...

Page 611: ...cast members 146 color palette requirements 266 digital video 332 image options 150 JPEG files 204 importing continued linking to files 149 PICS and Scrapbook 150 Preserve Original Data for External...

Page 612: ...model resources 474 modifier 469 level of detail LOD modifier automatic assignment of settings 474 properties 474 libraries creating new 154 Library palette Behavior library 467 Lighten button Paint w...

Page 613: ...r 595 looping and frames containing transitions 271 animation 449 frames 376 sound 322 lowercase letters using in Lingo 391 405 M Macromedia Director cast members 243 exporting to 241 placing Firework...

Page 614: ...Within event 364 Movie Casts command 153 movie in a window closing 539 controlling appearance 541 controlling interaction with other movies 542 movie in a window continued creating with Lingo 538 crop...

Page 615: ...ot Copy ink 183 Not Ghost ink 183 Not Reverse ink 183 Not Transparent ink 183 Novell networks movies on 575 numbers decimal 405 floating point 405 numToChar function 381 O object relative model moveme...

Page 616: ...g 523 524 PICS import 150 PICT Cast Member Properties 238 pixels specifying as unit of measure 278 placing handlers 397 planes 477 Play Animation option in Property inspector 449 Play Cast Member acti...

Page 617: ...eating interaction with Lingo 338 exporting options 588 importing files 147 masks 337 rotating and scaling with Lingo 338 See also digital video QuickTime VR 335 337 interaction 338 panning 339 R radi...

Page 618: ...scaling movie in a window 540 sprites 175 vector shapes 251 Score 20 444 adding frames 33 basics of 22 Blend display 166 channels 27 Score continued digital video in 335 displaying sprite information...

Page 619: ...ties 254 shape drawing tools Paint window 208 shapes 253 creating with Tool palette 253 Sharp Changes tweening option 188 191 shocked fonts 274 Shockmachine exporting movies for 579 Shockwave and glob...

Page 620: ...6 creating 157 defined 29 displaying and editing properties 162 displaying Sprite toolbar 163 displaying the Sprite Overlay 164 editing frames 192 editing properties with Lingo 166 sprites continued e...

Page 621: ...decimal and floating point numbers 405 for frames and movies 406 for integers 405 syntax continued for lists 398 for strings 405 of Lingo elements 390 troubleshooting 426 system events relaying to ch...

Page 622: ...orm operator 530 transforms 487 commands 528 defined 526 functions for creating 526 properties 527 transition cast member properties 272 transition Xtra extensions 51 transitions adding 270 channel 27...

Page 623: ...for with Lingo 252 vectors 524 binary operations 526 commands 525 functions for creating 525 manipulating with transform functions 526 properties 525 verbose syntax in Lingo 392 Verisign Xtra downloa...

Page 624: ...mmand 232 importing 50 installing 51 managing for distributed movies 572 scripting 50 tool 51 transition 51 270 271 viewing properties 142 143 Xtras Cast Member Properties dialog box 155 Z z axis and...

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