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A short course in online movie-making. Learn to use Macromedia Director 8, the powerful, cross-platform application that helps you create dynamic interactive movies for multimedia and Internet productions. Presented in manageable step-by-step sessions, this book helps you learn to use Director 8 at your own pace. The enclosed cross-platform CD-ROM contains all the files you need to work through the lessons, plus completed versions with which you can compare your own results.
Lesson 1. Director Basics.
Creating a Folder on Your Hard Drive. Opening Director. Opening the Toolbar. Using the Control Panel. Viewing the Cast. Opening the Score. Opening the Text and Paint Windows. Using the Help System. Setting Up Your Window for Convenient Work. Creating a New Movie. Setting the Stage Size. Importing an Image. Adding Sprites to the Stage. Creating Text Cast Members. Changing the Color of Cast Members. Adding Sprites to the Score. Making Changes to Multiple Sprites. Sequencing Sprites. Playing the Movie.
Adding Text Cast Members. Using the Paint Window. Placing Sprites in the Score. Positioning Sprites on the Stage. Aligning Sprites with the Align Panel. Naming cast members. Animating Text Using KeyFrames. Repeating the Animation Process. A Deeper Look at the Property Inspector. Aligning Sprites Using the Property Inspector.
Setting the Stage Color and Movie Tempo. Importing Media Elements into the Cast. Using Ink Effects on the Background Image. Animating a Graphic Image. Reversing Animations.
Setting Registration Points. Exchanging Cast Members. Using a Screen Transition. Adding Sounds to the Score. Adding Digital Video.
Building a Menu Screen. Writing a Lingo Script. Creating a Destination Screen. Adding Markers for Navigation. Creating Navigation Scripts. Creating a Projector.
Setting Movie Properties. Setting Keyframes. Creating a Circular Path Animation. Animating with Real-Time Recording.
Creating a Custom Stage. Importing the Media. Setting the Movie Tempo. Placing the Graphics on the Stage. Copying Sprites to a New Location. Creating the Animation with Keyframes. Locking Sprites. Playing Selected Frames Only. Finishing the Basic Animation. Layering the Sprites. Exchanging Cast Members. Adding Background Music.
Exchanging Cast Members. Creating a Film Loop. Creating KeyFrames with a Film Loop. Layering the Sprites. Reversing an Animation. Creating Buttons. Adding Interactivity with the Behavior Inspector. Adding a Second Behavior. Creating a Behavior to Pause the Movie.
Placing the Graphics. Adding Behaviors. Using the Behavior Inspector. Modifying behaviors.
Changing the Cursor. Restoring the Cursor. Working with Sprite Bounding Areas. Changing the Sprite. Building Better Buttons. Creating a New, Animated cursor. Applying the Cursor. Modifying the Frame Rate.
Defining the Alpha Channel. Experimenting with an Alpha Channel. Using Masks in Director. Applying Different Inks. Creating an Alpha Mask. Layering the Mask. On Your Own.
Importing Media Elements. Setting a Movie's Stage Size, Background Color, and Default Palette. Setting Cast and Sprite Preferences. Organizing the Cast. Setting the Location of a Sprite. Snapping to the Grid. Creating a Behavior for Navigational Elements. On Your Own. Using a Palette Index. Modifying Sprite Properties. Adding an Introduction.
Inserting Markers. Building a Destination Screen. Exchanging Cast Members. Navigating to a Marker. Looping on a Frame. Using Relative Markers. Simplifying Scripts Using Relative Markers.
Adding a Marker for a Closing Sequence. Changing the Background Transparent Color. Animating Sprites. Working with Text and Fonts. Animating with Blends. Creating Custom Menus.
Obtaining Shockwave Plug-Ins and the Browser Software. Creating and Playing a Shockwave Movie. Preparing a Movie for Streaming Shockwave. On Your Own.
Some History. Creating a Simple Lingo Script. Testing a Script. Using the Message Window. Examining Lingo Elements. Examining Types of Lingo Scripts. Creating Different Types of Scripts.
What Events Are. Watching Events. Logging Events. On Your Own. Handlers and Handler Hierarchy. Parameters and Return Values.
Setting Up for This Lesson. Checking Movie Properties and Filling in the Score. Using Lingo to Wait at the Main Menu. Using Markers to Label Frames. Branching to a Marker. Adding a Back Button. On Your Own. Branching to Another Movie. Implementing a Quit Button.
Setting Up for This Lesson. Adding Visual Feedback Using mouseEnter. Completing the Feedback Sequence Using mouseLeave. Assigning Additional Scripts to a Sprite. On Your Own. Navigating Relative to Markers. Adding Audio Feedback. Testing Conditions with Lingo. Using a repeat Structure.
Setting Up for This Lesson. Importing a Digital Video. Playing a Digital Video Cast Member. Creating Animated Text. Using Cue Points in the QuickTime Movie. Synchronizing the Animation Using the Tempo Channel. Synchronizing the Animation Using Lingo. Using Variables. Adding Comments and a Global Variable to a Movie Script. Moving Text off the Stage. Getting Timing Information from a Digital Video. Synchronizing with a Voice-Over in a Movie. Adding a Background by Moving Channels. Using a Transition to Play Over a Digital Video.
Setting Up for This Lesson. Using the Score to Animate the Arm. Adding Sprites to the Stage. Using rollOver to Control Button States. On Your Own. Using locH and locV to Move the Arm. Creating Custom Messages and Handlers. Calling a Movie Handler from a Cast Member Script. Using if-then to Set Limits. Increasing the Arm Speed. On Your Own. Swapping Cast Members. Calling the Handlers. On Your Own.
Using a Local Variable. Using a case Statement. Using Parameters. Using a Global Variable. Using Symbols in a case Statement. Using Symbols as Parameters. Using Lingo to Play Sounds. Using the Memory Inspector and Preloading Cast Members. On Your Own.
Determining Key Codes. Setting Up for This Lesson. Creating the Drawing Dot. Using Key Codes to Control Action Using the Keyboard. Using a case Statement instead of if-then-else. Using Trails. Creating a Bounding Rectangle. Using the constraint of sprite to Limit Movement. Using the width of sprite to Increase Drawing Speed. Adding Key Codes for the Up and Down Arrows. Using the keyPressed. Using the optionDown and the stageColor to Add Features. On Your Own.
Setting Up for This Lesson. Planning a Strategy for Multiple Casts. Creating a New External Cast. Moving Assets to an External Cast. Linking an Existing External Cast to a Movie. Creating a Template Layout in the Score. Using Lingo to Switch Casts. Controlling Navigation with an if-then or case Structure. Creating a Navigation List. Writing a Navigation Script. Deleting a Portion of a String. On Your Own.
Looking at the Finished Movie. Setting Up for This Lesson. Using a Field Cast Member. Creating a Property List from Field Text. Using the Watcher. Watching the Script in the Debugger. Retrieving Data from the Property List.
Creating a Highlight. Using The the rect Function To Move Highlights. Retrieving Values with getaProp. Using Chunk Expressions. Concatenating Two Expressions. Setting the memberNum Property. Sending Parameters. Combining Your Work into a Handler. Adding a Script to a Button. Adding Another Highlight. Changing Directions. Adding a Background Sound.
Setting Up for This Project. Selecting a Web Browser. Using gotoNetPage to Launch a Web Browser. Using a Test File on a Local Drive. Testing Your Movie on the Internet. Using a Field to Display Status Information. Using the Timer to Reset Status Messages. Using getNetText to Retrieve Data from the Internet. Creating a Scrolling Text Field. Using netDone and getNetText to Display the Downloaded Text. Using netError. Understanding Shockwave Movies. On Your Own.
Retrieving the Current Date. How to Compare Dates. Creating a Date Calculator. Displaying the Current Date. Making Fields Editable. Setting Up a Date Comparison. On Your Own. Preventing Your Movie from Running after a Certain Date.
Setting Up Your Movie for Hyperlinks. Assigning a Hyperlink. Creating a Handler for a hyperlinkClicked Event. On Your Own. Modifying Hyperlinks with Lingo.
Watching the Mouse Position. Monitoring the Current Sprite and Frame. Sending Yourself Feedback. Using Alert. Logging Messages to a File. Windows Shortcuts. Macintosh Shortcuts.