Macromedia Director 8 Foundation Level Course

What is Director? Director is a challenging program for creating animation and multimedia productions for CD-ROM development and the Web

Director File Types In Director 8 you can use many file types. We will cover the most important ones: Movie Files Shockwave Files Protected Movie Files Projector Files

Movie Properties Setting up Movie Properties: List View Mode Movie Palette Stage Size Stage location Stage Fill Score Channels RGB and Palette Index Remap Palettes If needed Enable Edit Shortcuts About Copyright Save font Map Load Font Map

The Authoring Environment The Toolbar The Score The Stage The Tools Palette The Cast

The Cast window holds everything that would go into the development of your multimedia production. Choose Cast Cast View Style Previous Cast Member Cast Member Name Next Cast Member Cast Member Script Drag Cast Member Cast Member Properties Cast Member Number

The Score The score tells the cast members what they should do and when they should do it. The score provides a frame by frame record of all the components that form your movie. Effects Channels Time Channel Markers Hide/Show Effects Channels Button Zoom Menu On/Off Channel Button

Sprites A sprite is an object within your movie that contains a cast member Sprite

Behaviors Using Director’s Behaviors allows you to add interactive features to movies without having to either write or even understand Lingo scripting language

Frames and Channels The vertical columns in the Score are called Frames. They represent small slices of time for your movie. The horizontal columns in the Score are called Channels. Channels Frames

Inspectors Director Inspectors give a glimpse of the various details of elements and relevant properties in a movie

The Toolbar The Toolbar is a shortcut to often-used commands. The Toolbar cannot be edited to remove commands, add new ones, or re-arrange preset button order. The Playback controls alone are valuable. In most cases, they can be used as a compact substitute for the Control Panel.

Arrow Tool The Arrow tool is used to select, move and place objects on the stage.

Rotate and Skew Tool The Rotate and Skew tool is used to rotate and manipulate objects on the stage.

Hand Tool The Hand tool is used to move around the stage in your movie.

Magnifying Glass Tool The Magnifying Glass tool allows you to enlarge or reduce the screen view.

Text Tool The Text tool is used to create and edit text elements on the stage.

Line Tool The Line tool is used to draw lines on the stage. Line Thickness

Filled Rectangle and Rectangle Tool The Filled Rectangle tool is used to draw Filled Rectangle shapes on the stage. The Rectangle tool is used to draw Rectangle shapes on the stage without a fill.

Filled Round Rectangle and Round Rectangle Tool The Filled Round Rectangle tool is used to draw filled round edged rectangle shapes on the stage. The Round Rectangle tool is used to draw round edged rectangle shapes on the stage without a fill.

Filled Ellipse and Ellipse Tool The Filled Ellipse tool is used to draw filled oval shapes on the stage. The Ellipse tool is used to draw oval shapes on the stage without a fill.

Check Box Tool The Check Box tool enables you to create a check box selection button with ease.

Radio Button Tool The Radio Button tool enables you to create a radio selection button on the stage.

Field Tool The Field tool enables you to create the input text field on the stage.

Push Button Tool The Push Button tool enables you to create an already configured Push Button within the movie.

The Pattern tool in the Tool Palette allows you to change the fill of a sprite to a selected pattern. Pattern Tool

The Paint Window The Paint Window is used to create or to change bitmap cast members.

Paint Tools Paint Window has a complete set of Paint Tools and inks for creating and changing bitmap cast members.

The Paint Toolbar Flip Horizontal Tool Rotate Left Tool Free Rotate Tool Warp Tool Smooth Tool Invert Color Tool Darken Tool Switch Colors Tool Flip Vertical Tool Rotate Right Tool Skew Tool Perspective Tool Trace Edges Tool Lighten Tool Fill Tool

Importing Bitmaps Importing Bitmaps copies the contents of the file into the movie, so you won’t need to provide the file when distributing the movie.

The Vector Shape Window The Vector Shape Window is used to draw vector shapes

Vector Tools Vector Shape Window has a complete set of Vector Tools for creating and changing vector cast members.

The Vector Toolbar Gradient Type Gradient Cycles Gradient Spread Gradient Angle Gradient X Offset Gradient Y Offset

Color Depth Color Depth is sometimes called Bit Depth, and it relates to the number of colors that a computer can display at the same time.

Color Mode Director offers a choice of two basic color modes for your movies and authoring process: RGB Palette Index

Color Choices Whenever it is necessary to specify a color in Director, the selection is made from the color menu.

Color Palettes A Color Palette is a set of colors to choose among when working with graphics in Director.

Text and Field Windows The Text and Field Windows allow you to create: Text Cast Members Field Cast Members

Adding Cast Members to the Score Adding the Cast to the Score begins the development process of your Interactive movie.

Adding Behaviors to the Score The Behavior Inspector is what contains the controls to create and customize behaviors (Lingo scripting).

The Projector The Projector embeds the Director movie to make it a stand alone player.

Projector Options The Projector Options window contains General Settings that will affect the movie or movies combined in a Projector.

Publish Settings Formats

Publish Settings General

Publish Settings Shockwave

Publish Settings Compression

Publish Settings Shockwave Save

Publish Settings Image