MACROMEDIA DIRECTOR MX-USING DIRECTOR MX, Use Manual

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Chapter 11 294
Flash movies are particularly effective for use in Shockwave movies because, as vector-based
media, they are extremely small and therefore load much more quickly than most other media
types. Because Flash movies are vector-based, you can scale and rotate them while still
maintaining their sharpness. For example, you can create splash screens for your Shockwave
movies that load quickly and entertain your users while the rest of the Director movie streams
into memory, or you can create interactive maps in Flash that users can pan across or zoom in on
to reveal details with vector-based precision. However, because each Flash sprite on the Stage
loads its own instance of the Flash Asset Xtra, performance can slow as the number of Flash
sprites increases.
Adding a Flash movie cast member
All Flash cast members added to a Director movie must have been created with Flash 2.0 or later
and saved in the Flash format (SWF).
The following procedure explains how to create a Flash cast member and set properties for it at
the same time. You can also import a cast member by using the Import command or by dragging
and dropping a SWF file to the Director Cast window.
To add 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 add a file from your computer or from a network drive, click Browse, select the file, and
click Open. Director creates a relative link to the file, so it must maintain the same location
relative to the Director file, or the link will become invalid.
•
To add a file from a location on the Internet, click Internet, type the URL of the file, and
click OK.
•
Type the pathname or the URL of the file in the Link File box.
3
Set Media options:
Linked
leaves the actual media of the Flash movie stored in an external file. When a sprite
created with this cast member appears on the stage in a Director movie, Director will
automatically load the file into memory by looking in the location specified in the Link File
box. Deselect Linked to have Director copy the Flash movie into the cast.
Preload
requires Director to load the entire Flash movie into memory before playing the
movie’s first frame. Deselect Preload to have Director start playing the movie immediately,
while continuing to stream the cast member into memory. This option is only available if you
selected Linked. If the Flash file is internal instead of linked, it must load completely into
memory before beginning to play.