MACROMEDIA DIRECTOR - LECTURE NOTES -

INTRODUCTION Macromedia Director 8.5 is the best selling multimedia authoring program and leading tool for creating interactive media for world wide webs, CDs, information kiosks, presentations and interactive TV Director’s easy to use interface lets you combine graphics, sound, video and other media in sequence and then add interactivity

TIME BASED AUTHORING OF A MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATION Time-based authoring organises elements and events along a timeline A basic linear time-based multimedia presentation can be thought as a movie –start; duration; end

FRAME Movie is composed of individual frames Media organised according to –their spatial location in a frame –which frames they appear in Frame are shown in sequence at a given tempo –tempo fixed in a real movie around 30 frames per second for smooth animation tempo may vary during multimedia presentation

NON LINEAR MOVIE Simple linear playback of frames does not suit most multimedia presentation Variations in tempo –frames with all still images may be displayed for a long time –only animation requires high frame rate –User interaction & navigation may require non-linear jumps to particular frame

DIRECTOR BASICS Director is based on the metaphor of a theater production stage sprites scoreAll the action takes place on the stage and cast appears on the stage as sprites, according to a timeline called score movieA director file is called a movie frameEach movie, cast member, sprite and pint in time (frame) can have its own script (Lingo)

The stage is a 2D layoutThe stage is a 2D layout THE STAGE

THE CAST The cast is your multimedia database containing still images, movies, sound files, text, programming scripts, and even other director files

THE CAST

CAST INFORMATION The CAST view can be used to yield information about each cast member Further information is available in the Property Inspector

CAST INFORMATION

CREATING YOUR PRESENTATION MOVIE Creating your presentation involves –Arranging media from the cast on the 2D stage –Organising when the media are visible in the score Adding a cast member to the stage and score creates an instance of the cast member, known as sprite The presentation can contain sprites that are different instances of the same cast member –Similar to an object being an instance of a class

CAST MEMBERS & SPRITES Changes to a sprite only affects itself –Eg. colour, animation etc Changes to a cast member affects all of its sprites –Editing the “class” definition A sprite can change its cast member during a movie CAST MEMBER CAST MEMBER CAST MEMBER SPRITE

THE SCORE The score displays which frames a sprite appears in Sprites that overlap in time occupy separate channels –Up to 1000 channels available –Sprites that do not coincide in time can occupy same channel Two separate channels for sound Each frame is played back on the stage at a rate specified in the tempo channel The score provides elaborate visual effects and transitions, adjustment of colour palettes and tempo control

THE SCORE

IN BUILT FOR CREATING MEDIA Paint facility Vector based images Text editing Colour control

BEHAVIOURS Complex effects are achieved with behaviours –Response to an event, such as mouse click –Transitions between frames eg fade-in and fade-out Navigation –Looping on frames –Jumping to specific frames Behaviours are attached to –Sprites –Cast members –Frames Large library of predefined behaviours are available

THE LINGO SCRIPTING LANGUAGE Director utilises Lingo – a full-featured scripting language, to enable interactivity, programmed control and other behaviour Inbuilt behaviours are written in lingo –Can be modified to provide custom behaviours –New behaviours can be created from scratch by writing lingo routines –A built in script editor offers lingo debugging facilities

LINGO SCRIPTS Lingo scripts usually specify an action in response to an event eg. on MouseUp beep end –on MouseDown –on MouseOver –On MouseIn etc The list of functions is endless and the best way to utilise them is to play with example scripts

MORE LINGO EXAMPLES I Looping on current frame on exitFrame go to the frame end Jumping to new frame on exitFrame go to Frame 6 end Exiting presentation on MouseUp quit end

MORE LINGO EXAMPLES II Playing new frames on MouseDown play frame “framename” end Return to original frame on exitFrame play done end

BUILDING A DIRECTOR PRESENTATION I Obtain the elements you wish to install in the Movie Import them into the Director Cast Design relevant interactions –ie. Write the score Place the cast members on the Stage, creating Sprites at the relevant frame

BUILDING A DIRECTOR PRESENTATION II Change the properties of a sprite –Extend or shorten its time on stage –Recolour or animate Incorporate any control elements –Ed. Add button navigation graphics Drag n’ drop the appropriate Behaviour onto navigational elements Write any other Lingo you may require

BUILDING A DIRECTOR PRESENTATION III Play the movie and test out any interactions Save the movie as a Dir file –This is the editable movie format for director Once the movie is authored, create a projector If the delivery is for the web, publish the presentation as a Shockwave movie

PRESENTATION FILE TYPES The DIR file is used during the authoring stage so that the cast members etc can be modified The finished presentation is a projector –Standalone executable file (include movie player) –Compressed or uncompressed –Shockwave file requiring external shockwave player The presentation can be published as a shockwave (DCR) file and accompanying HTML file for the web –Browser requires freely available shockwave plugin