MACROMEDIA DIRECTOR MX-USING DIRECTOR MX Mounting instructions

Using Director MX
Macromedia Director MX

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Apple Disclaimer
APPLE COMPUTER, INC. MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THE
ENCLOSED COMPUTER SOFTWARE PACKAGE, ITS MERCHANTABILITY OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES IS NOT PERMITTED BY SOME
STATES. THE ABOVE EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THIS WARRANTY PROVIDES YOU WITH
SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS. THERE MAY BE OTHER RIGHTS THAT YOU MAY HAVE WHICH VARY FROM
STATE TO STATE.
Copyright © 2002 Macromedia, Inc. All rights reserved. This manual may not be copied, photocopied, reproduced,
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Macromedia, Inc.
Third Party Software Notices and/or Additional Terms and Conditions can be found at http://www.macromedia.com/go/
thirdparty/.
Part Number ZDR90M100
Acknowledgments
Writing: Jay Armstrong, George Brown, Stephanie Gowin, and, Tim Statler
Editing: Rosana Francescato, Mary Ferguson, Mary Kraemer, and Noreen Maher
Project Management: Stuart Manning
Production: Chris Basmajian, Caroline Branch, John Francis, and Patrice O’Neill
Multimedia: Aaron Begley and Benjamin Salles
First Edition: December 2002
Macromedia, Inc.
600 Townsend St.
San Francisco, CA 94103

3
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Installing Director. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
What’s new in Director MX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Resources for learning Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Conventions used in Director Help and printed books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
CHAPTER 1
Director Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Creating a new movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Introducing the Director workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Managing the workspace in Director MX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Using multiple Score windows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Changing Score settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Using markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Selecting and editing frames 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 extend Director functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
About distributing movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Answers panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
CHAPTER 2
Director MX Basics Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
What you’ll learn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
About the Director metaphor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
View the completed movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Open the tutorial movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Set up the movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
View your cast members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Edit a text cast member. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Build the first scene. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Edit sprites in the Score window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Create an animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Change the tempo of an animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Create a sunset animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Contents4
Add navigation buttons to the animation scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Build the sound and video scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Write Lingo scripts to control movie playback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Add Lingo to navigation buttons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Write Lingo that refers to scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
About controlling video in Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Add scripts for video control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Control sound with Lingo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Add sounds to buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Publish your movie for the web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Continue learning about Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
CHAPTER 3
Director MX 3D Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
What you’ll learn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
What you should know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
View the completed movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Open the tutorial movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Create 3D text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Modify behaviors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Creating new casts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Creating cast members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Using the Cast window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Naming cast members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Using Cast List view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Using Cast Thumbnail view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Moving cast members within the Cast window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Organizing cast members within the Cast window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Setting Cast window preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Changing Cast properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Viewing and setting cast member properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Finding cast members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Importing cast members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Launching external editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Managing external casts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Creating libraries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Setting cast member properties using Lingo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Setting Xtra cast member properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Contents 5
CHAPTER 5
Sprites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Creating sprites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Changing sprite preferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Selecting sprites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Layering sprites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Displaying and editing sprite properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Locking and unlocking sprites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Positioning sprites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Changing the appearance of sprites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Using sprite inks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Assigning a cast member to a sprite with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
CHAPTER 6
Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
About tweening in Director. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Tweening the path of a sprite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Accelerating and decelerating sprites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Tweening other sprite properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Suggestions and shortcuts for tweening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Changing tweening settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Switching a sprite’s cast members. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Editing 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 recording animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Linking a sequence with Paste Relative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Animating sprites with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
CHAPTER 7
Bitmaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
About importing bitmaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Using animated GIFs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Using the Paint window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Changing selected areas of a bitmap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Flipping, rotating, and applying effects to bitmaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Using Auto Distort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Changing registration points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Changing size, color depth, and color palette for bitmaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Controlling bitmap images with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Using gradients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Using patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Creating a custom tile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Using Paint window inks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Using bitmap filters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Using onion skinning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
About the Paste as Pict option. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Contents6
Setting bitmap cast member properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Setting PICT cast member properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Setting Paint window preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Compressing bitmaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Working with Macromedia Fireworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
CHAPTER 8
Vector Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Drawing vector shapes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Editing vector shapes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Defining gradients for vector shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Controlling vector shapes with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Setting vector shape properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Using shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Setting shape cast member properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
CHAPTER 9
Color, Tempo, 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 members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Editing and formatting text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Creating a hypertext link. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Working with fields. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Using editable text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Converting text to a bitmap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Mapping fonts between platforms for field cast members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Setting text or field cast member properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Formatting chunks of text with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Formatting text or field cast members with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Controlling scrolling text with Lingo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Checking for specific text with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Modifying strings with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Contents 7
CHAPTER 11
Using Flash and Other Interactive Media Types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Using Flash Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Editing a Flash cast member . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Controlling a Flash movie with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Controlling a Flash movie’s appearance with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Streaming Flash movies with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Playing back Flash movies with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Using Lingo to set and test Flash variables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Sending Lingo instructions from Flash movies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Using Flash objects in Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Using the Flash local connection object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Using Flash Communication Server MX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Using the Flash Settings panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Playback performance tips for Flash movies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Using Director movies within Director movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Setting linked Director movie properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Using ActiveX controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
CHAPTER 12
Sound and Synchronization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Importing 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 Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Compressing internal sounds with Shockwave Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Streaming linked Shockwave Audio and MP3 audio files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Playing Shockwave Audio and MP3 audio with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Synchronizing media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
Synchronizing sound with Lingo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Accessibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
CHAPTER 13
Using Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Importing digital video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Using the Video window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Setting digital video cast member properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Playing digital video direct-to-Stage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Controlling digital video in the Score . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Playing digital video with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Controlling QuickTime with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Cropping digital video. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
About using digital video on the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Preloading AVI digital video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Synchronizing video and animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Using RealMedia content in Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Using Lingo sound elements with RealMedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Contents8
CHAPTER 14
Behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Attaching behaviors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Changing the order of attached behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Getting information about behaviors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Creating and modifying behaviors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Writing behaviors with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Setting up a Parameters dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Setting behavior properties with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Customizing a behavior’s property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Creating an on getPropertyDescriptionList handler. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Including a description for the Behavior inspector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Example of a complete behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Sending messages to behaviors attached to sprites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Using inheritance in behaviors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
CHAPTER 15
Navigation and User Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Creating basic navigation controls with behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
Adding push buttons, radio buttons, and check boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
Jumping to locations with 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
Responding to rollovers with Lingo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Finding mouse pointer locations with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Checking keys with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Equivalent cross-platform keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Identifying keys on different keyboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
About animated color cursors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Creating an animated color cursor cast member . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Using an animated color cursor in a movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
CHAPTER 16
Writing Scripts with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Scripting basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Lingo terminology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Lingo syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Writing Lingo statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
Using handlers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
Using lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
Expressing literal values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
Using operators to manipulate values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Controlling flow in scripts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Creating and attaching scripts with the Script window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
Using linked scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Using parent scripts and child objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Troubleshooting Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

Contents 9
CHAPTER 17
3D Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
What you need to know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
From 2D to 3D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
The 3D Xtra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
Using the Shockwave 3D window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
Using the Property inspector for 3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
Using rendering methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
Using 3D Anti-aliasing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
3D behaviors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
3D text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
The 3D world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
CHAPTER 18
The 3D Cast Member, 3D Text, and 3D Behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
About the 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 behaviors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
CHAPTER 19
Working with Models and Model Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
About models and model resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Model resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Primitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
Cast member commands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482
Shaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
Textures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
Modifiers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
Animation modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
Motions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
About lights and cameras. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
Light properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
Light commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515

Contents10
CHAPTER 20
Controlling the 3D World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
3D Lingo events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
Collisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522
Vector math. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
Transforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526
Rendering functionality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530
CHAPTER 21
Movies in a Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
Creating a MIAW using Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
Opening and closing a MIAW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
Setting the window type for a MIAW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
Setting the window size and location for a MIAW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540
Cropping and scaling a MIAW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540
Controlling the appearance of a MIAW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541
Listing the current movies in windows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541
Controlling interaction between MIAWs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542
Controlling events involving MIAWs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542
CHAPTER 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 and character sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549
CHAPTER 23
Making Director Movies Accessible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551
About government requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551
Making Director movies accessible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551
Using the Accessibility behavior library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552
Using accessibility Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559
Deploying accessible movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560
CHAPTER 24
Managing Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563
How Director unloads items from memory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563
Loading and unloading individual cast members. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564
Preloading digital video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565
CHAPTER 25
Managing and Testing Director Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
Managing Director projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
About testing movies to avoid problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568

Contents 11
CHAPTER 26
Packaging Movies for Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571
Shockwave browser compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571
Previewing a movie in a browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572
About Xtra extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572
Managing Xtra extensions for distributed movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574
About distribution formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574
Creating Shockwave movies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576
Setting movie options for browser resizing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
About projectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582
Creating projectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582
Processing movies with Update Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
Exporting digital video and 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 movie playback options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592
Setting Shockwave playback options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593
About creating multiuser applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594
About streaming with the Score and behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594
Checking whether media elements are loaded with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595
Downloading files from the Internet with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596
Retrieving network operation results with Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597
Using Lingo in different Internet environments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598
Testing your movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601
About downloading speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601
INDEX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603

Contents12

13
INTRODUCTION
Getting Started
Macromedia Director MX is the world’s foremost authoring tool for creating interactive
multimedia. Developers rely on Director to create attention-grabbing business presentations,
advertising kiosks, interactive entertainment, and educational products. To see some of the
exciting and varied ways in which developers use Director, visit the Director showcase at
www.macromedia.com/software/director/special/inspiration/. You can also see great examples of
Shockwave at www.shockwave.com.
Your users can view your completed Director movie over the Internet, either in a web browser or
independent of a browser,or in a stand-alone projector suitable for LANs and distribution
through CD-ROM and DVD-ROM.
System requirements
The following hardware and software are the minimum required to author Director movies:
•For Microsoft Windows: An Intel Pentium II 200 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 later; 128 MB of available
RAM plus 100 MB of available disk space; a color monitor; and a CD-ROM drive
The following hardware and software are the minimum required to play back Director movies:
•For Microsoft Windows: An Intel Pentium II 200 processor running Windows 95/98, 2000,
XP, or NT version 4.0 or later; 32 MB of installed RAM; Netscape Navigator 4.0 or later,
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or later, or America Online 4.0 or later web browser; and a
color monitor
•For the Macintosh OS X: A Power Macintosh G3 running System 10.1 or later; 128 MB of
available RAM; Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.1 or later; and a color monitor
•For the Macintosh Classic operating system: A Power Macintosh 180 (G3 recommended)
running System 8.6 or later; 32 MB of installed RAM; Netscape 4.0 or later, Microsoft
Internet Explorer 4.5 or later, or America Online 4.0 or later web browser; and a color monitor

Introduction14
Installing Director
Follow these steps to install Director on either a Windows or a Macintosh computer.
To install Director on a Windows or a Macintosh computer:
1Insert the Director CD into the computer’s CD-ROM drive and do one of the following:
•In Windows, if the installation program doesn’t start automatically, choose Run from the
Windows Start menu, type d:\setup.exe (where dis your CD-ROM drive letter), and
click OK.
•On the Macintosh, double-click the Director Installer icon.
2Follow the onscreen instructions.
3If prompted, restart your computer.
What’s new in Director MX
New features in Director MX build on a proven development environment to make Director
more powerful, more tightly integrated with the Macromedia MX product family, and better
suited to create content that is accessible to everyone, even those with disabilities.
Developers can deliver rich multimedia content that integrates interactive audio, video, bitmaps,
vectors, text, fonts, and more. Director MX lets you work more effectively with the shared
Macromedia MX user interface, take advantage of unprecedented Macromedia Flash MX
integration, and deliver content to a broader audience.
Integration with other Macromedia MX products
Director MX is truly a part of the Macromedia MX family; this is evident in the workspace,
which matches those of other Macromedia MX products, as well as in other aspects of the
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 an environment that’s shared
among Dreamweaver MX, Fireworks MX, and Macromedia Flash MX. The familiar and flexible
working environment helps you maximize productivity. Dockable panels can be grouped and
collapsed or expanded as needed for a smooth workflow.
Enhanced control of Macromedia Flash media through Lingo gives you complete access to all
properties and methods of Flash MX ActionScript objects. Greatly reduce your development time
by directly controlling all elements within your content that were authored in Flash MX.
Access to the Flash MX launch-and-edit feature lets you simply double-click a SWF file to
automatically launch Flash MX. Once you edit the file, it’s automatically saved and reimported
into Director MX. This roundtrip editing significantly streamlines your workflow.
Macromedia Flash Communication Server MX support allows you to use all the functional
capabilities provided by Flash Communication Server MX, including the ability to access
installed USB or FireWire cameras as well as installed microphones. You can combine the power
of the Flash Communication Server MX with Director MX to create multiuser games, distance-
learning applications, and real-time collaboration forums. Previous users of the Shockwave
Multiuser Server are encouraged to use Flash Communication Server MX. However, the
Shockwave Multiuser Server is available on the Director installation CD.

Getting Started 15
Macromedia Flash MX importing lets you take advantage of the power of Flash MX and its
lightweight vector graphics by importing Flash files into Director MX content. Director
developers can use this powerful combination to create the most effective multimedia content.
Macromedia Flash Remoting MX provides a secure, high-performance connection between
Macromedia ColdFusion MX and Shockwave Player. When used with Director MX, Flash
Remoting MX lets you easily pass data to ColdFusion MX and back.
Macromedia Fireworks MX integration gives Director MX developers access to the robust design
and production environment of Fireworks MX, allowing developers to create graphics for
presentations or Shockwave content. In addition, the tight integration between Fireworks MX
and Director MX offers a roundtrip workflow between these graphic and multimedia
environments. Integration features include launching and editing, Fireworks MX importing,
launching and optimizing, and the Fireworks MX Import Xtra.
Accessible content
Director MX allows you to create content that meets internationally recommended guidelines
and government accessibility requirements—including Section 508 guidelines. Director MX lets
you add text-to-speech, captioning, and tab-navigation features to web-based Shockwave content
or stand-alone applications on both Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh systems.
The cross-platform Speech Xtra makes Director MX applications “self-voicing”—that is, text is
converted to speech without a screen reader. The user’s operating system provides voices at the
system level. You can create completely customizable, 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.
Drag-and-drop accessibility behaviors in Director MX let you easily control speech and tab
ordering, as well as synchronize text with spoken words, in order to repurpose existing Director
applications to adhere to accessibility guidelines.
Enhanced power of Director
Director MX introduces many new features that improve on the renowned power of Director to
create rich media multimedia content that can be deployed on CDs, DVDs, or corporate
intranets—or to more than 300 million web users with Shockwave Player.
Advanced debugging capabilities enhance the power of Lingo, the object-oriented Director
programming language. Director MX offers a streamlined professional debugging layout, with
everything you need in one convenient place.
The unified Script and Debugger windows let you debug, browse, and edit scripts all in the same
window. The Script window switches to debugging mode when a Lingo error or a breakpoint is
encountered. You can edit scripts while in debugging mode.
New Script window buttons save you development time when you’re working in Lingo. Among
the buttons are a button that lets you inspect and debug code faster and realize better input
responses when editing large files, a button that pinpoints debugging issues more quickly when
working with others, and a button that organizes 3D Lingo commands separately from other
Lingo commands for faster 3D debugging.
The Scripting Xtras window helps you organize your third-party scripting Xtra extensions more
efficiently. The window detects all installed scripting Xtra extensions, gets their methods and
properties, and organizes them in a convenient pop-up menu.

Introduction16
An Object inspector with data browser functionality lets you inspect all properties of script
instances, and examine the hierarchy of elements inside 3D cast members and Flash MX sprites.
The ability to quickly examine and modify all your movie components reduces both debugging
and development time.
Color-coding of recently changed variables makes tracking changes quick and easy with
immediate visual feedback. As you step through your code, the Debugger window displays the
variables whose values have changed in red.
The split-paned Message window shows you the results of your code changes immediately. Now
movies can execute and display information in the Output pane while you enter and execute
Lingo commands in the Input pane.
QuickTime 6 support allows you to take advantage of QuickTime 6 features, including support
for streaming MPEG4 video and MP3 audio.
Macintosh OS X support lets you create Director MX content using Mac OS X, the modern Apple
operating system. You can author in Mac OS X and create Shockwave applications and
executables that can be viewed on Mac OS X as well as pre–Mac OS X systems.
Resources for learning Director
The Director package contains a variety of media to help you learn the program quickly and
become proficient in creating multimedia—including 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 tooltips and context-sensitive help,
and additional help is available on the Director MX website at www.macromedia.com/support/
director. The new Answers panel in the Director workspace gives you a quick and easy way to find
out about the latest Director materials available on the web.
Director Help
Director Help is the comprehensive information source for all Director features. The help system
includes complete conceptual overviews of all features, animated examples, descriptions of all
interface elements, and a reference of all Lingo commands and elements. Topics are extensively
cross-referenced and indexed to make finding information and jumping to related topics quick
and easy.
You can access Director Help from the Help menu. To access context-sensitive help, select
Help from the Options menu for any panel, palette, or inspector, or click the Help button in
any dialog box.
Director MX tutorials
When you’re ready to start working in Director, begin with Chapter 2, “Director MX Basics
Tutorial,” on page 53. The tutorial shows you how to create a basic movie using some of the most
useful and powerful features of Director.
If you want to produce 3D content, see Chapter 3, “Director MX 3D Tutorial,” on page 103.
Using Director MX manual
This printed manual contains all the information found in Director Help.

Getting Started 17
Director MX Lingo Dictionary
The Director MX Lingo Dictionary is a printed version of all the Lingo topics in Director Help.
Answers panel
The Answers panel provides quick access to information that helps you work effectively with
Director. This includes tutorials, TechNotes, and other useful content.
You can get the latest Director information from macromedia.com by simply clicking the Update
button in the Answers panel.
Tooltips
When you place the pointer over a Director tool or other workspace feature for a few seconds, a
small tooltip appears that explains the function of 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 shown
next to the commands for which keyboard shortcuts are available.
The following illustration shows key board shortcuts for a variety of commands on the Control
menu. (The illustration shows Director running on Windows. When Director is running on a
Macintosh, the keyboard shortcuts reflect Macintosh keys.)
Director Support Center
The Director Support Center website (www.macromedia.com/support/director/) contains the
latest information on Director, plus additional topics, examples, tips, and updates. Check the
website often for the latest news on Director and how to get the most out of the program.

Introduction18
Conventions used in Director Help and printed books
The help system and printed books use the following conventions:
•The terms Lingo and Director refer to Director MX.
•Within the text and in Lingo examples, Lingo elements and parts of actual code are shown in
this font. For example, set answer = 2 + 2 is a sample Lingo statement.
•Quotation marks that are part of Lingo statements are shown in the text and Lingo code
examples as straight 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 broken onto two or
more lines. Lines of Lingo that are broken this way are not separate lines of code. When you
see the continuation symbol in this book, type the lines as one line when you enter them in the
Script window.
•Variables used to represent parameters in Lingo appear in italics. For example,
whichCastMember is commonly used to indicate where you insert the name of a cast member
in Lingo.
•Text that you should type is shown in this font.

19
CHAPTER 1
Director Basics
Macromedia Director MX is the tool of choice for legions of web and multimedia developers.
With Director, you can create movies for websites, kiosks, and presentations as well as movies for
education and entertainment. Movies can be as small and simple as an animated logo or as
complex as an online chat room or game. Director movies can include a variety of media, such as
sound, text, graphics, animation, and digital video. A Director movie 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, which plays in Shockwave-enabled web
browsers. Millions of web users already have the Shockwave Player on their computers,
browsers, or system software. Others have downloaded Shockwave Player, which is free, from
Macromedia’s website at www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/.
•In a projector, which plays on your user’s computer as a stand-alone application.
Creating a new movie
Director is organized around a movie metaphor.
To create a new movie:
•Select File > New > Movie.

Chapter 120
Introducing the Director workspace
When you first launch Director, there are several windows in the default layout, including the
Stage, the Score, the Cast, and the Property inspector.
Default Director MX window layout (Windows platform)
When creating and editing a movie, you typically work in four of these windows: the Stage, the
Score, the Cast, and the Property inspector.
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 define the properties of your Stage, such as its size and
color. As you work on your movie, you can use zooming to make the Stage either larger or smaller
than the original movie, while also scaling the coordinates for the Stage objects. To align objects
on the Stage, you can select to display guides and grids or use the Align window.
Tools Stage Property inspector
ScoreCast