User manual MACROMEDIA DIRECTOR MX-USING DIRECTOR MX

[. . . ] Using Director MX Macromedia Director MX Trademarks Afterburner, AppletAce, Attain, Attain Enterprise Learning System, Attain Essentials, Attain Objects for Dreamweaver, Authorware, Authorware Attain, Authorware Interactive Studio, Authorware Star, Authorware Synergy, Backstage, Backstage Designer, Backstage Desktop Studio, Backstage Enterprise Studio, Backstage Internet Studio, Contribute, Design in Motion, Director, Director Multimedia Studio, Doc Around the Clock, Dreamweaver, Dreamweaver Attain, Drumbeat, Drumbeat 2000, Extreme 3D, Fireworks, Flash, Fontographer, FreeHand, FreeHand Graphics Studio, Generator, Generator Developer's Studio, Generator Dynamic Graphics Server, Knowledge Objects, Knowledge Stream, Knowledge Track, Lingo, Live Effects, Macromedia, Macromedia Contribute, Macromedia M Logo & Design, Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Xres, Macromind, Macromind Action, MAGIC, Mediamaker, Object Authoring, Power Applets, Priority Access, Roundtrip HTML, Scriptlets, SoundEdit, ShockRave, Shockmachine, Shockwave, Shockwave Remote, Shockwave Internet Studio, Showcase, Tools to Power Your Ideas, Universal Media, Virtuoso, Web Design 101, Whirlwind and Xtra are trademarks of Macromedia, Inc. and may be registered in the United States or in other jurisdictions including internationally. Other product names, logos, designs, titles, words or phrases mentioned within this publication may be trademarks, servicemarks, or tradenames of Macromedia, Inc. or other entities and may be registered in certain jurisdictions including internationally. [. . . ] Extend the sprite through as many frames as necessary. Playing complete digital videos A digital video, the same as a sound, is a time-based cast member. If you place a video in only a single frame of the Score, the playhead moves to the next frame before Director has time to play more than a brief instant of the video. To make sure that Director plays an entire digital video, do one of the following: · Create a tempo setting in the tempo channel using the Wait for Cue Point option in the Frame Properties: Tempo dialog box. This option keeps the playhead from moving to the next frame until a cue point in the video has passed or, if there are no cue points, until the end of the video is reached. For more information, see "Synchronizing video and animation" on page 341. · Use Lingo or behaviors to make the playhead stay in a frame until the end of the video or until a certain cue point passes. See "Synchronizing video and animation" on page 341. · Extend the video through enough frames to give it time to play all the way through. QuickTime VR You can use a QuickTime VR movie in a Director movie by inserting it as you would any other QuickTime cast member. To get the best performance, turn on Direct to Stage (see "Playing digital video direct-to-Stage" on page 334). Using Video 335 Playing digital video with Lingo Lingo can take advantage of the most important and powerful features of digital video. Besides playing digital video linearly, Lingo can pause, stop, and rewind a video. These abilities are useful for jumping to segments within a digital video and for emulating a typical digital video control panel. This last feature is especially useful for AVI digital video, which has no control panel. Lingo also lets you work with individual tracks in a digital video by determining the tracks' content and position and turning these tracks on and off. For information on using Lingo with RealMedia movies, see "Using RealMedia content in Director" on page 341. Controlling digital video playback with Lingo The following list describes how you can control digital video with Lingo. For more information, see the Lingo Dictionary. · To turn on looping in a digital video cast member, set the digital video's loop cast member property to TRUE. · To determine the current time of a digital video sprite, check the sprite's currentTime property. · · · · · To pause a digital video sprite, set the sprite's movieRate property to 0. To start a paused digital video sprite, set the sprite's movieRate property to 1. To play a digital video sprite in reverse, set the sprite's movieRate property to -1. To rewind a digital video sprite to the beginning, set the sprite's movieTime property to 0. To control a digital video sprite's playback rate, set the sprite's movieRate property to the desired rate. use the soundDevice system property to specify QT3Mix. · To mix QuickTime audio tracks with internal Director sounds (necessary only in Windows), Determining digital video content with Lingo The following list describes how Lingo can determine a digital video's content. For more information, see the Lingo Dictionary. · To determine the time units a digital video cast member uses, check the video's timeScale cast member property. · To determine whether a digital video is QuickTime or AVI, check the digital video's digitalVideoType cast member property. · To determine the number of tracks in a digital video sprite or cast member, check the digital video's trackCount sprite or cast member property. · To determine which type of media a digital video track contains, check the digital video's trackType sprite or cast member property. · To determine the start time of a track in a digital video sprite or cast member, check the digital video's trackStartTime sprite or cast member property. · To determine the stop time of a track in a digital video sprite or cast member, check the digital video's trackStopTime sprite or cast member property. 336 Chapter 13 · To determine whether a sprite's track is enabled to play, check the digital video's trackEnabled sprite property. · To obtain the text at the current time from a text track in a digital video sprite, check the digital video's trackText sprite property. · To determine the time of the track before the current time in a digital video, check the digital video's trackPreviousSampleTime cast member property and trackPreviousKeyTime sprite property. · To determine the time of the next sample after the current time in a digital video, check the digital video's trackNextSampleTime cast member property and trackNextKeyTime sprite property. Turning on and off digital video tracks with Lingo By turning a digital video's soundtracks on or off, you can play only the animation or control which sounds play. To control whether individual digital video tracks play: · Use the setTrackEnabled command. Controlling QuickTime with Lingo Lingo can control QuickTime in ways that aren't available for AVI. You can use Lingo to control a QuickTime video's appearance and sound volume. [. . . ] See troubleshooting decelerating sprites 188 decimal numbers 405 depth bevel 464, 465 tunnel (extrusion) 463, 466 detecting mouse clicks with Lingo 377 Dialogs Appear at Mouse Position option 46 diffuse color 449, 464 digital video AVI files, importing 147 controlling in the Score 335 controlling QuickTime with Lingo 337 controlling with Lingo 336 cropping 339 determining content of 336 Direct to Stage 334 exporting 586 importing 332 improving playback performance 341 preloading 341 synchronizing with cue points 328, 341 turning tracks on and off with Lingo 337 using on the Internet 340 Video window 332 digital video cast member properties 333 Direct to Stage digital video property 334 Direct to Stage Flash movie 295 directional light 449 Director 5 and later movies, updating 45 Director 8, similarities to 444 Disk Cache Size option 47 Display Sprite Frames option 158 distributing movies on disk 575 on Internet 575 on local network 575 distribution formats projector 575 protected 575 Shockwave 574 dithering 221, 265 dithering 494. See also newsprint shader Dolly button 447 dollying 469 dot syntax in Lingo 393 Download _ Frames Before Playing playback property 593 downloading media 449 downloading considerations 601 Drag cast member control 134 drivers 449 Dropper tool (Paint window) 207 dswmedia folder 332, 598, 600 duration of sprites 173 DXR (protected movies) 575 E Ease-In and Ease-Out tweening options 191 Edit Sprites Frame option 192 Editable setting 163 editable text creating 283 creating with Lingo 284 editing bitmaps 206 fields 282 scripts 414 sprites 192 text 276 editors, external 151 effects filters 232 Paint window buttons 215 elements, definitions of 389 608 Index Ellipse tool 247 ellipses, drawing 247 embedded fonts 274 empty lists 399 Enable Edit Shortcuts option 28 end frame 163, 173 engraver shader 494 Enter Frame event 364 Entire Sprite option 158 Eraser tool (Paint window) 207 events and actions, included 363 events, Behavior inspector Enter Frame 364 Exit Frame 364 Key Down 364 Key Up 364 Mouse Down 363 Mouse Enter 364 Mouse Leave 364 Mouse Up 363 Mouse Within 364 Prepare Frame 364 Right Mouse Down 364 Right Mouse Up 364 events, definition of 389 Every frame sprite label option 165 Exchange Cast Members command 191 EXE (projectors) 575 Exit Frame event 364 exporting movies as digital video 586 QuickTime options 588 to Macromedia Director 241 expressions, definition of 389 Extend Sprite command 174 Extended display option 41 Extended Score display option 166 extending one-frame sprites 173 external casts 128 managing 153 external editors 151 external sounds 320 Extreme tweening option 191 extruder model resource 481 Eyedropper tool 262 Eyedropper tool (Paint window) 207 F facets, text 463 Fade to Black/White 260 fading sprites 180, 188 FALSE keyword definition of 392 testing for 409 favorite colors, editing 258 field cast member properties 285 Field window 283 fields checking content of 290 checking for user clicks with Lingo 379 creating 282 modifying 291 file references, URLs as 599 files downloading with Lingo 597 importing 146 linking to 149 types supported 149 Fill color (Paint window) 218 fill settings for vector shapes 248 film loop cast member properties 198 film loops creating 197 editing 198 using 197 Filter Bitmap command 232 finding cast members 144 sprite locations with Lingo 380 text 281 First frame option 165 Flash Communication Server MX 306, 309 Flash movies controlling playback with Lingo 300 controlling with Lingo 297 creating cast member 294 managing files 297 performance tips 312 playback settings 295 quality settings 295 Scale Mode options 295 sending Lingo messages with 302 streaming with Lingo 300 tips for using 296 variables in 301 Flash objects 304 Flip button (Paint window) 215 Index 609 Flip command 163 flipping Flash movies with Lingo 298 sprites 178 floating-point numbers 405 flow of Lingo scripts 386, 410 Fontmap. txt file 28, 284 fonts embedding in a movie 274 embedding in a movie with Lingo 275 in 3D text 462 mapping across platforms 284 Foreground and Background color 163, 179 foreground color chip 253 Foreground/Background Color control (Paint window) 209 Foreground/Destination Color control (Paint window) 224 formatting characters 278 fields 282 paragraphs 278 text 280 formatting scripts 414 frame behaviors 397 Frame Properties dialog box Palette 260 Sound 321 Tempo 268 Transition 270 Frame Properties Transition dialog box 270 frame rate 267 for animated GIFs 205 See also tempo frame-by-frame animation 193 defined 185 frames adding 44 adding to Score 33 checking whether content is loaded 596 editing in Score 43 exporting as bitmaps 586 identifying in Lingo 406 in the Score 31 jumping to with Lingo 375 looping 376 moving sprites in 172 printing 48 selecting within a sprite 160 start and end 163 Full Screen projector option 583 functions charToNum 381 contains 290 definition of 390 getError 328 getErrorString 328 getVariable() 301 hitTest 301 key 380 keyCode 380 netDone 596 netError 596 netLastModDate 597 netMime 598 netStatus 600 netTextResult 597 numToChar 381 return 397 rollOver 379 setVariable() 301 syntax for returning values 390 G General Preferences dialog box 46 getError function 328 getErrorString function 328 getNetText command 597 getNetText function 276 getPropertyDescriptionList handler 367 Ghost ink 183 GIFs, animated 205 global variables. See variables, global go command 375, 376 Go to Frame action 364 Go to Marker action 364 Go to Movie action 364 Go to Net Page action 364 gotoNetMovie command 376, 597 gotoNetPage command 376 Gouraud shading 488 government requirements 551 Gradient (Paint window) 224, 225 gradients editing bitmap gradients 225 for bitmaps 224 for vector shapes 251 setting for vector shapes with Lingo 252 Graphical view, in Property inspector 448 610 Index grid 169 aligning sprites to 170 configuring 171 groups (3D) 454 commands 462 overview 471 guides 169 adding and configuring 170 aligning sprites to 170 H half cylinders. See spheres Hand tool (Paint window) 207 handlers 521 adding other 420 arguments of 396 custom 394 definition of 390 finding 415 for movie in a window 542 getPropertyDescriptionList 367 in behaviors 365 new 421 passing values to 396 results from 397 strategies for placing 397 when run 397 hardware accelerators 449 hexadecimal RGB values 255 horizontal panning 469 HTML exporting 576 format options for export 577 hue, changing of color 264 hypertext links, creating 282 I icons, cast member 138 image objects creating with Lingo 222 editing 223 Image Options dialog box 150 Import Pict File as PICT option 148 importing ActiveX 316 cast members 146 color palette requirements 266 digital video 332 image options 150 JPEG files 204 importing (continued) linking to files 149 PICS and Scrapbook 150 Preserve Original Data for External Editing option 148, 151 sound 320 supported file types 149 text 276 text with Lingo 276 Xtra extensions 50 In a Window projector option 583 inches, specifying as unit of measure 278 Include Original Data for Editing option 148 independent actions 469 independent behaviors 466 index color 255 inheritance 418. 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