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ADOBE® DIRECTOR® 11

USER GUIDE

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Page 1 ADOBE® DIRECTOR® 11 USER GUIDE...
Page 2 Adobe Systems Incorporated. Please note that the content in this guide is protected under copyright law even if it is not distributed with software that includes an end user license agreement.
Page 3 Unpublished-rights reserved under the copyright laws of the United States. Adobe Systems Incor- porated, 345 Park Avenue, San Jose, CA 95110-2704, USA. For U.S. Government End Users, Adobe agrees to comply with all applicable equal opportunity laws including, if appropriate, the provisions of Executive Order 11246, as...
Page 4: Table Of Contents
Adobe Help ........
Page 5 Selecting sprites ............... . . 62 Naming sprites .
Page 6 ..............131 Working with Adobe Fireworks .
Page 7 Controlling Flash content with Lingo or JavaScript syntax ....... . 197 Controlling Flash content appearance with Lingo or JavaScript syntax .
Page 8 viii Playing digital video Direct To Stage ........... . . 250 Controlling digital video in the Score .
Page 9 Chapter 15: 3D Basics What you need to know ..............300 About 3D in Director .
Page 10 Collisions ................380 Vector math .
Page 11 Changing Publish settings ............. . . 443 Using dswmedia folders and the support folder to publish Shockwave content .
Page 12: Chapter 1: Getting Started
Insert the installation disc into your disc drive, and follow the on-screen instructions. Activate the software If you have a single-user retail license for your Adobe software, you will be asked to activate your software; this is a simple, anonymous process that you must complete within 30 days of starting the software.
Page 13: Adobe Help
DVD. Printed documentation Printed editions of the in-product Help are available for purchase in the Adobe Store, at www.adobe.com/go/store. You can also find books published by Adobe publishing partners in the Adobe Store. Stand-alone Adobe products may include a printed getting started guide.
Page 14: Resources
User communities Extras You have access to a wide variety of resources that will help you make the most of your Adobe software. Some of these resources are installed on your computer during the setup process; additional helpful samples and documents are included on the installation or content disc.
Page 15: Adobe Developer Center
Visit the Adobe Support website (www.adobe.com/go/support) to find troubleshooting information for your product and to learn about free and paid technical support options. Follow the Training link for access to Adobe Press books, a variety of training resources, Adobe software certification programs, and more.
Page 16: What's New
Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) performance on a variety of video cards and provides a platform for further 3D enhancements in future releases. Develop Adobe Shockwave® content and projector movies in languages other than English. Create Unicode support content in most Unicode-supported languages written from left to right.
Page 17 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • Shockwave Player is supported on Mac OS X v10.4, Windows Vista, and Mac PPC. • Shockwave Projector is supported on Mac OS X v10.4, Windows Vista, and Mac PPC. Develop movies using the Multiuser Xtra supported on Windows and Mac OS X v10.4. This Xtra is Multiuser Xtra available out of the box.
Page 18: Chapter 2: Workspace
Chapter 2: Workspace ® ® The Adobe Director workspace is designed to make the most efficient use of the space on your screen. Windows, also called panels, can be organized into tabbed panel groups, and panel groups can be docked together. To make the most of the features in Director, you should take a few minutes to understand how to navigate and customize your workspace.
Page 19: Understanding The Director Metaphor
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • Exiting and re-entering the tabbed view. Windows®’ users can exit the tabbed document mode by clicking the Restore button. Mac® users can use the Break Apart Tabbed Documents option in the Window menu to enter into the untabbed mode, where all the tabs from the tabbed document window are split up into separate windows.
Page 20: Navigating The Director Workspace
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide A. Stage B. Score C. Cast The Cast window, the Stage, and the Score in Director Navigating the Director workspace When you first start Director, several windows open in the default workspace. The Tool palette and the Stage are stand-alone windows.
Page 21 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide The default Director workspace (Windows platform) Manipulating the default workspace The default workspace is designed for most people who are new to using Director. You can manipulate the default workspace to suit your needs. For example, you can display additional windows as you need them or hide windows to keep your workspace clean and easy to work with.
Page 22: Getting To Know Window Types
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide These commands all open dialog boxes that allow you to modify the behavior of windows. The General command controls windows in general. Other commands control a specific window or set of windows. (The Network command is also available, but it does not control window preferences. Rather, it controls Internet connection settings.)
Page 23 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Move around on the Stage If the Stage is not already displayed, select Window > Stage. Do one of the following: • From the Tool palette, select the Hand tool. • Press and hold the Spacebar.
Page 24: Using The Score
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Using the Score Like the Stage, the Score provides a view of your movie. The Stage provides a graphical view. The Score provides a view of the movie’s timeline. The Stage displays the point in time that is selected within the Score.
Page 25 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Create a new marker If the Score is not already displayed, select Window > Score. Display the frame that you want to mark with a marker. Directly above the frame that you want to mark, click the white bar in the Marker channel.
Page 26 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide To show or hide the effects channels: • Click the Hide/Show Effects Channels button in the upper-right corner of the Score to change the display. A. Hide/Show Effects Channels button Setting the number of sprite channels Although the Score can include as many as 1000 sprite channels, most movies use as few as possible to improve performance in the authoring environment and during playback.
Page 27: Using The Control Panel
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Change the zoom setting On the right side of the Score, click the Zoom Menu button. A. Zoom Menu button Select a size from the Zoom menu. Sizes are displayed as a percentage of full size.
Page 28: Using The Cast Window
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide A. Volume button B. Rewind, Stop, and Play buttons Movie playback options in the floating Control panel Navigating frames in a movie As you build a movie, you sometimes need to check individual frames or examine transitions from one frame to the next.
Page 29 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide The Cast window filled with cast members Create a new cast member If the Cast window is not already displayed, select Window > Cast. On the Tool palette, select a text, drawing, or control button.
Page 30: Using The Property Inspector
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Using the Property inspector Every cast member and sprite in a movie has properties. You can view and change these properties by using the Property inspector. In addition to cast members and sprites, the entire movie also has a set of properties. The Property inspector displays a Movie tab, where you can view and change these properties.
Page 31: Setting Movie Properties
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Setting cast member and sprite properties Each time you select a sprite, cast member, or multiple sprites and cast members, your view of the Property inspector changes. New options and tabs appear, depending on what you have selected. If you select multiple sprites and cast members, the Property inspector displays only the properties that apply to all the selected items.
Page 32: Using The Script Window
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide In the Preferred 3D Renderer box, select a default renderer used to draw 3D sprites within the movie, if that renderer is available on the client computer. OpenGL specifies the openGL drivers for hardware acceleration that work with Mac and Windows platforms.
Page 33: Using The Message Window
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • Control when a sound plays, based on how much of the sound has already streamed from the Internet. • Create animation, stream movies from the web, perform navigation, format text, and respond to user actions with the keyboard and mouse.
Page 34: Customizing Your Workspace
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Switch between standard and trace modes If the Message window is not already displayed, select Window > Message. In the Message window, click the Trace button. A. Trace button When the Trace button is indented, the Message window is in trace mode.
Page 35 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide A. Expander arrow to collapse and expand panels or panel groups B. Gripper to dock and undock panels or panel groups C. Options menu button Features in the header bar Customizing panel groups Director comes preconfigured with several default panel groups. Some of these panel groups contain multiple panels on tabs.
Page 36 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Note: If Group [panel name] With is not available on the Options menu, then the panel cannot be moved to a new panel group. From the Group [panel name] With menu, do one of the following: •...
Page 37 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide A. Gripper is present in the header bar A header bar with a gripper, indicating that the panel is dockable Dock a panel or panel group • On the header bar below the title bar, click and drag the gripper to another dockable panel group or to one of the docking channels.
Page 38 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • To return to the default layout, select Window > Panel Sets > Default. Remove a panel set Select Window > Panel Sets > Remove Panel Set. From the Panel Set list, select the panel set that you want to remove.
Page 39: Working With Xtra Extensions
Xtra extensions. For information on creating custom Xtra extensions, see the Macromedia Xtras Developers Support page in the Director Support Center at www.adobe.com/support/xtras/. Xtra extensions provide several types of additional functionality. After they are installed, they are available for your use whenever you open Director.
Page 40 Xtra extensions can import media as cast members into Director. Some of these media Xtra extensions are built into ® Director, such as Adobe Flash , Vector Shape, and Animated GIF. Other media Xtra extensions come from third- party developers. These include databases, 3D graphics processors, special types of graphics, and so on.
Page 41: Connecting To The Internet
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Adding transitions Transition Xtra extensions provide additional transitions beyond the predefined transitions that are available in Director. You can access these additional transitions in the same place that you access the standard transitions. Display transition Xtra extensions that are available for your movie Select a frame in the Score.
Page 42 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Once Per Session checks for data revisions only once from the time you start to the time you quit Director. This option improves performance but might not always display the most current version of a page.
Page 43: Chapter 3: Score, Stage, And Cast
Chapter 3: Score, Stage, and Cast ® ® This chapter describes how to use three of the most important windows in Adobe Director : the Score, the Stage, and the Cast windows. Using the Tool palette with the Stage The Tool palette contains useful tools for creating and manipulating sprites on the Stage. It also contains drawing tools and elements that you can place directly on the Stage.
Page 44: Using Multiple Score Windows
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • The Guides tab lets you control the guides and grid that appear on the Stage to assist with movie authoring. The bottom half of the Guides tab contains grid settings. Setting guides and grid properties Guides are horizontal or vertical lines that you can either drag around the Stage or lock in place to assist with sprite placement.
Page 45: Changing Score Settings
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Changing Score settings Set preferences for the Score to control the appearance of the Score and the information that appears in numbered sprite channels. By doing so, you can display a script preview and cast member information.
Page 46: About Cast Members
Cast members are the media and other assets in your movie. They can be bitmaps, vector shapes, text, scripts, sounds, ® Adobe Flash content or components, DVD content, QuickTime movies, Windows Media video or audio, Shockwave® Player 3D content, rich text, sounds of various formats, and more. When you place a cast member on the Stage or in the Score, you create a sprite.
Page 47 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide You can create and edit cast members in Director by using basic tools and media editors such as the Paint and Text windows, or you can edit cast members by using external editors. In addition, you can import cast members from almost every popular media format into a movie file.
Page 48 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide A. Cast button In the New Cast dialog box, type a name for the new cast. Specify how to store the cast: Internal stores the cast within the movie file. This option makes the cast available only to the current movie.
Page 49 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • Embedding fonts in movies • Creating an animated color cursor cast member • Drawing vector shapes • Using Flash Content • Using Windows Media files in Director • Using DVD media content in Director •...
Page 50 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide To change the name of the current cast, enter the new name in the Name text box. Select a Preload option to define how cast members are loaded into memory when the movie runs: When Needed loads each cast member into memory when it is required by the movie. This setting can slow down the movie while it plays, but it causes the movie to begin playing sooner.
Page 51 For an Xtra cast member, the information in the Property inspector is determined by the developer of the Xtra. Some Xtra extensions have options in addition to those listed here. For non-Adobe Xtra extensions, see the documentation supplied by the developer.
Page 52 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • Setting Flash component parameters • Setting Windows Media properties • Setting QuickTime digital video cast member properties Launching cast member editors You can open any cast member in the appropriate editor directly from the Cast window. You can use the Director internal media editors, such as the Text, Paint, or Vector Shape window, or you can specify external editors for certain types of cast members.
Page 53 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide When Director displays the specified cast member, do one of the following: • Select a cast member on the list, click Select to close the dialog box, and select the cast member in the Cast window.
Page 54 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide To select files to import, do one of the following: • Double-click a file. • Select one or more files, and click Add. • Click Add All. You can switch folders and import files from different folders at the same time.
Page 55 For more information about this property, see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel. About import file formats Director can import files in all the formats listed in the following table. For information about additional file formats Director might support, see the Director Support Center website at www.adobe.com/support/director. German: http://www.adobe.com/de/support/ French: http://www.adobe.com/fr/support/...
Page 56 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • If you distribute a movie, you also must include all linked cast member files, and they must be in their expected locations.The Copy Linked And Dependent Files option in the Publish Settings dialog box ensures that the linked media are automatically placed in the relative location during publishing.
Page 57: Using The Cast Window
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide To apply the current settings to all the remaining files that you selected for importing, select Same Settings For Remaining Images. Controlling cast member unloading When Director runs low on memory, it removes cast members from memory. Use the Property inspector to specify the priority with which a cast member is removed from memory.
Page 58 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Note: If you are using a Mac OS X operating system, select the Director menu, instead of the Edit menu, to access Preferences. To set the Cast window to appear in either List or Thumbnail view, select the appropriate Cast View option.
Page 59 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide To select the display format of the cast member ID that appears below each cast thumbnail image in the Cast window, select one of the following options from the Label menu: Number displays the cast number.
Page 60 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Select multiple nonadjacent cast members • In either List or Thumbnail view, Control-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac) each cast member that you want to select. Copying cast members You can create multiple versions of a cast member in a single cast. You can also copy cast members from one Cast window to another.
Page 61 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Organizing cast members within the Cast window The Sort command in the Modify menu helps clean up and organize the Cast window. Use Sort to sort cast members by their media type, name, size, or usage in the Score. You can also use Sort to remove empty positions in a Cast window.
Page 62 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Options menu Use a Cast panel Options menu • Click the Options menu control in the upper right of the panel, and select a menu item. Help launches the page in the Help system that is relevant to the current panel.
Page 63 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Note: Save your panel layout if you want to restore your Cast panel configuration the next time you open your file. Select Window > Panel Sets > Save Panel Layout. Managing casts When casts are grouped with other casts, they appear as tabs in the Cast panel group, as shown.
Page 64: Using Cast List View
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Select the previous or next cast member • Click the Previous Cast Member or Next Cast Member button. Move a selected cast member to a new position in the Cast window (Thumbnail view) or to the Stage •...
Page 65: Using Cast Thumbnail View
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Column Title Column Information Type The cast member type. Modified The date and time the cast member was changed. Comments Displays text entered in the Comments text box on the Property inspector Member tab. Four additional columns are available in the Cast Window Preferences dialog box. For more information, see...
Page 66 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Icon Cast member type Icon Cast member type Animated GIF Behavior Bitmap Button Check box Custom cursor Digital video Field Film loop Flash component Flash movie Font Linked bitmap (all linked cast member icons are changed...
Page 67: Launching External Editors
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Creating a custom cast member thumbnail Note: For most cast members, Director displays a scaled version as the thumbnail unless you define a custom thumbnail. Creating a custom thumbnail is useful for behaviors that you want to identify in the Library palette, because behaviors have no identifying image.
Page 68: Managing External Casts
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Define an external editor Select Edit > Preferences > Editors. Note: If you are using a Mac OS X operating system, select the Director menu, instead of the Edit menu, to access Preferences. Select a type of media for which you want to define an external editor.
Page 69: Creating Libraries
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide When you distribute a movie that uses an external cast, you must include the external cast file. The Copy Linked And Dependent Files option in the Publish Settings dialog box ensures that the linked media are automatically placed in the relative location during Publishing.
Page 70: Setting Cast Member Properties By Using Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Create an external cast file, using the procedure under Creating new casts. Do not select Use In Current Movie. With the Cast window for the external cast active, select File > Save, and place the external cast in the Libs folder in the Director application folder.
Page 71 The custom tab for the type of cast member you are working with might also contain a More Options button. This button displays the Cast Member Properties dialog box for the current cast member. The Xtra developer determines the content of the Properties dialog box. For non-Adobe Xtra extensions, refer to the developer’s documentation that the developer supplies.
Page 72: Chapter 4: Sprites
Chapter 4: Sprites ® ® A sprite is an object that controls when, where, and how cast members appear in an Adobe Director movie. Multiple sprites can use the same cast member. You can also switch cast members assigned to a sprite as the movie plays.
Page 73: Selecting Sprites
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Select Edit > Preferences > Sprite. Note: If you are using a Mac OS® X operating system, select the Director menu, instead of the Edit menu, to access Preferences. To set the effect of selecting a sprite on the Stage, choose a Stage Selection option: Entire Sprite selects the sprite in all frames that it occupies.
Page 74 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Single frame within sprite selected Select sprites Do one of the following: Note: The following techniques select an entire sprite only if Edit Sprite Frames is not enabled for the sprites you select. • On the Stage, click a sprite to select the entire sprite span.
Page 75: Naming Sprites
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Select a frame within a sprite that is not a keyframe Do one of the following: • In the Score, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac) the frame within the sprite. • On the Stage, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac) to select only the current frame of the sprite. The sprite appears on the Stage with a single border.
Page 76 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Consider naming the sprite with an easily recognizable name that will be easy to script. View a sprite in the Score by its name In the Score, select the Sprite labels menu. Select Name. All the sprites in the Score appear with their sprite name listed.
Page 77: Finding Sprites
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide put sprite(1).name -- this displays the name in the message window. You can also refer to the sprite by using its given name when evoking script commands on the sprite. For example: sendSprite ("pete", #handlername) -- call the "handlername" method in sprite("pete") put sprite("somename").rect -- display the sprite's rect...
Page 78: Creating Sprite Channel Names
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Creating sprite channel names You can also name sprite channels. When authoring sprites in Lingo or JavaScript syntax, you often must work in a particular channel or manage several different channels. Naming a sprite channel can expedite your work when authoring and managing many composite layers.
Page 79: Displaying And Editing Sprite Properties
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Note: If you give each sprite a unique name, you don’t need to update any scripts you have written when you move a sprite to a new channel. For more information, see Naming sprites. Displaying and editing sprite properties As you work with sprites in your movie, be sure to monitor and possibly modify sprite properties.
Page 80 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Note: To open a window for editing the sprite’s cast member, double-click the thumbnail image. Edit any of the following sprite settings in the Property inspector: Lock changes the sprite to a locked sprite so it can’t be changed. See Locking and unlocking sprites.
Page 81 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide A. Name, cast, and media type of sprite’s cast member B. Channel number; left, top, right, and bottom coordinates; ink; and blend settings C. Attached behavior(s) D. Overlay opacity control E. Sprite Overlay Change how the overlay appears Click the sprite on the Stage to select it.
Page 82 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Displaying sprite labels in the Score Sprite labels appear in the Score’s sprite bars and display key information about the sprite in relation to the movie. For example, if you detect a strange blip caused by an ink effect, you can select Ink from the Sprite Label menu and quickly locate the problem in those sprites that have Ink properties by sorting the Ink label.
Page 83: Locking And Unlocking Sprites
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Editing sprite properties with Lingo or JavaScript syntax You can use Lingo or JavaScript syntax to check and edit sprite properties with scripts as the movie plays. Note: Sprite properties changed with Lingo are not saved in the Score unless you’re using Score recording.
Page 84: Positioning Sprites
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • Right-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac), and select Unlock Sprite from the context menu. Positioning sprites The easiest way to position a sprite is to simply drag the sprite into place on the Stage. To position a sprite more precisely, do any of the following: •...
Page 85 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Do one of the following on the Stage: • Drag a sprite to a new position. Hold down Shift to limit the movement to horizontal or vertical straight lines. • Select a sprite and use the arrow keys to move the selected sprite 1 pixel at a time. Hold down Shift as you press an arrow key to move the selection 10 pixels at a time.
Page 86 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Moving a sprite with the Snap To Grid or Snap To Guides feature selected lets you snap the sprite’s edges and regis- tration point to the nearest grid or guide line. When you’re not using the guides or the grid, you can hide them.
Page 87 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Align sprites using the Align window On the Stage or in the Score, select the sprites to align. Select entire sprites, keyframes, or frames within sprites in as many different frames or channels as you need. All of the elements align to the last sprite or frame selected.
Page 88: Controlling The Entrance Of A Sprite On The Stage
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Determine whether two sprites overlap • Use the operator to determine whether a sprite’s bounding rectangle touches the sprite...intersects bounding rectangle of a second sprite. Use the operator to determine whether a sprite is entirely sprite...within...
Page 89: Controlling The Duration Of A Sprite On The Stage
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Controlling the duration of a sprite on the stage By default, Director assigns each new sprite a duration of 30 frames. You can change the duration of a sprite—that is, the amount of time the sprite appears in a movie—by adjusting its length, changing the number of frames in which it appears, or by using the Extend command.
Page 90: Changing The Appearance Of Sprites
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Split an existing sprite In the Score, click the frame within a sprite where you want the split to occur. The playhead moves to the selected frame. Select Modify > Split Sprite. Director splits the sprite into two new ones.
Page 91 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide On the Stage, drag any of the sprite’s resize handles. To maintain the sprite’s proportions, hold down Shift while dragging. Scale a sprite by pixels or by an exact percentage Select the sprite you want to scale and click the Sprite tab of the Property inspector (Graphical view).
Page 92 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Rotation changes the angle of the sprite. Skewing changes the corner angles of the sprite’s rectangle. Rotated sprite Skewed sprite After a sprite is rotated or skewed, you can still resize it. Director can automatically change rotation and skew from frame to frame to create animation. See...
Page 93 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Rotate Skew A. Skew B. Rotate Resize a rotated or skewed sprite Do one of the following: • Click the Rotate And Skew tool and drag any of the sprite’s handles. Use Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac) to maintain the sprite’s proportions as you resize.
Page 94 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • Select Modify > Transform > Mirror Horizontal or Mirror Vertical to flip the sprite without moving the registration point but inverting the skew and rotation angles. Changing the color of a sprite You can tint or color sprites by selecting new foreground and background colors from the Property inspector or by using Lingo or JavaScript syntax.
Page 95: Using Sprite Inks
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Set blending for a sprite Select the sprite. Select a percentage from the Blend menu in the Property inspector, or enter a blend percentage between 0 and 100. Set blending with Lingo or JavaScript syntax •...
Page 96 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Select the desired type of ink from the Ink menu on the Sprite tab in the Property inspector. Change a sprite’s ink with script • Set the sprite’s sprite property. For more information about this property, see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel.
Page 97 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide About Darken and Lighten inks Darken and Lighten inks provide a great control over a sprite’s RGB properties. Use them to create color effects in sprites varying from subtle to surreal. Darken and Lighten each change how Director applies the foreground and background color properties of a sprite.
Page 98: Assigning A Cast Member To A Sprite With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Mask determines the exact transparent or opaque parts of a sprite. For Mask ink to work, you must place a mask cast member in the Cast window position immediately following the cast member to be masked. The black areas of the mask make the sprite opaque, and white areas are transparent.
Page 99: Exchanging Cast Members
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Setting this property is the most reliable way to specify a sprite’s cast member. You can also set the memberNum sprite property, but this is reliable only when the new cast member is in the same cast as the current cast member.
Page 100: Chapter 5: Animation
Chapter 5: Animation ® Animation is the appearance of an image changing over time. The most common types of animation in Adobe ® Director involve moving a sprite on the Stage (tweening animation) and using a series of cast members in the same sprite (frame-by-frame animation).
Page 101: Tweening The Path Of A Sprite
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide A. Keyframes B. Start frame C. End frame Tweening the path of a sprite Sprite paths are the lines Director displays on the Stage to show the movement of a sprite. Sprite paths are controlled by the Sprite Overlay Settings dialog box.
Page 102: Accelerating And Decelerating Sprites
Tweening size works best for vector-based cast members created in the Vector Shape ® ® window or in Adobe Flash (bitmaps can become distorted when resized). Director can tween all of these properties at once.
Page 103: Suggestions And Shortcuts For Tweening
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Note: To prevent Director from tweening a certain sprite property, select Modify > Sprite > Tweening and turn off any of the tweening options. If the Score isn’t open, select Window > Score. Position a sprite on the Stage and make sure it spans all the frames in which you want the sprite to change.
Page 104: Changing Tweening Settings
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • To extend the sprite and leave the last keyframe in place, Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac) a keyframe at the end of a sprite. • To move many keyframe positions at once, Control-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac) multiple keyframes to select them, and then move the sprite on the Stage.
Page 105: Switching A Sprite's Cast Members
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Ease-Out defines the percentage of the sprite span through which the sprite decelerates. Switching a sprite’s cast members To show different content while maintaining all other sprite properties, exchange the cast member assigned to a sprite.
Page 106: Frame-By-Frame Animation
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Use Edit Sprite Frames Do one of the following: • Select a sprite or sprites and select Edit > Edit Sprite Frames. • Alt-double-click (Windows) or Option-double-click (Mac) a frame within the sprite. Return sprites to their normal state Do one of the following: •...
Page 107: Shortcuts For Animating With Multiple Cast Members
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Animate a sprite with multiple cast members Create a sprite by placing the first cast member in the animation on the Stage in the appropriate frame. Change the length of the sprite as needed. Drag the start or end frame in the Score, or enter a new start or end frame number in the Sprite Inspector.
Page 108 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Cast To Time places selected cast members in the Score as a single sprite. Select the frame in the Score where you want to place the new sprite. Make the Cast window active. Select the series of cast members to be placed in the new sprite.
Page 109: Using Film Loops
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Onion skinning provides a benefit in the Paint window similar to that provided by Space To Time on the Stage. For more information, see Using onion skinning. Select Edit > Preferences > Sprite and set Span Duration to 1 frame.
Page 110: Setting Film Loop Properties
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Select Insert > Film Loop. Enter a name for the film loop. Director stores all the Score data and cast member references as a new film loop cast member. Note: Drag a selection from the Score to the Cast window to quickly create a film loop cast member in that position.
Page 111: Step-Recording Animation
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide 0—Never sets the selected cast members to be retained in memory; these cast members are never unloaded. Click the Film Loop tab and display the Graphical view. To determine how the film loop appears within the sprite bounding rectangle, select Framing options from the following: Crop makes the movie image appear at its default size.
Page 112: Real-Time Recording Animation
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Real-time recording animation You can create animation by recording the movement of a sprite as you drag it across the Stage. The real-time recording technique is especially useful for simulating the movement of a pointer or for quickly creating a complex motion for later refinement.
Page 113: Animating Sprites With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Animating sprites with Lingo or JavaScript syntax Lingo or JavaScript syntax can create animation regardless of the settings in the Score. This allows you to create or modify animation depending on movie conditions. To move a sprite on the Stage, use a script that controls the sprite’s location. For more information, see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel.
Page 114: Chapter 6: Bitmaps
Chapter 6: Bitmaps ® ® Bitmaps and vector shapes are the two main types of graphics used with Adobe Director . A bitmap defines an image as a grid of colored pixels, and it stores the color for each pixel in the image. A vector shape is a mathematical description of a geometric form that includes the thickness of the line, the fill color, and additional features of the line that can be expressed mathematically.
Page 115: About Importing Bitmaps
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide About importing bitmaps Importing bitmaps is similar to importing other types of media. If you import a bitmap with a color palette or depth different from that of the current movie, the Image Options dialog box appears. You must choose to import the bitmap at its original color depth or at the current system color depth.
Page 116: Using The Paint Window
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide You can make an animated GIF play Direct To Stage, meaning that it immediately appears on the Stage instead of being first composed in an offscreen buffer with other sprites. A Direct To Stage GIF takes less time to load, but you can’t place other sprites in front of it or use any ink effect.
Page 117 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Select an irregular area Do one of the following: • Click the Lasso tool in the Paint window, and drag to enclose the pixels you want to select. The Lasso selects only those pixels of a color that are different from the color the Lasso was on when you first started dragging it.
Page 118 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Zoom in or out on an area • Click the Magnifying Glass tool, and click in the Paint window to zoom in. Shift-click to zoom out. For more information, see Zooming in and out in the Paint window.
Page 119 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Paint shapes or lines • Click and drag the shape tools. To constrain lines to horizontal or vertical, ovals to circles, and rectangles to squares, Shift-click and drag. A. Other line width B. Shape tools The filled tools create shapes that are filled with the foreground color and the current pattern.
Page 120 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • To define a tile (a pattern that is based on a rectangular section of an existing cast member), select Tile Settings from the Patterns menu. For more information, see Editing patterns Creating a custom tile.
Page 121 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Select a polygon area with the Lasso tool Press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac) while clicking the first point. Click the remaining points. Double-click the last point. Change Lasso tool settings Hold down the mouse button while the pointer is on the Lasso tool.
Page 122 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide See Thru Lasso modifies the selection function so that pixels with the same color as the first pixel selected are excluded in the selection. Using the Airbrush tool The Airbrush tool sprays the currently selected color, ink, and fill pattern. To modify the spray, select the ink effects from the Ink menu in the Paint window.
Page 123 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Open the menu again, and select Settings from the Brush menu. Enter values for the options in the Brush Settings dialog box. (You can also double-click the Brush tool to open the Brush Settings dialog box.) To select from the default brush shapes, select Standard from the menu, and click a brush shape in the chart below the menu.
Page 124: Changing Selected Areas Of A Bitmap
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Magnified image Return to normal view Do one of the following: • Click the normal-sized image in the upper-right corner. • Select View > Zoom > 100%. Changing selected areas of a bitmap After you select part of an image in the Paint window with the Lasso or Marquee tool, you can change the selected area.
Page 125 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Lingo or JavaScript™ syntax can flip and rotate bitmaps by flipping and rotating bitmap sprites. For more infor- mation, see Rotating and skewing sprites Flipping sprites. Note: To repeat any of these effects after using them, press Control+Y (Windows) or Command+Y (Mac).
Page 126: Using Auto Distort
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • To reverse the colors of the selected area, click the Invert button. • To increase or reduce the brightness of the selected area, click the Lighten Color or Darken Color button. This effect works on 8-bit (256 color) images only.
Page 127: Changing Registration Points
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Changing registration points A registration point is a marker that appears on a sprite when you select it with your mouse. (Registration points don’t appear on unselected sprites or when a movie is playing.) Registration points provide a fixed reference point within an image, which helps you to align sprites and control them from Lingo or JavaScript syntax.
Page 128: Changing Size, Color Depth, And Color Palette For Bitmaps
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Set a bitmap’s registration point with Lingo or JavaScript syntax • Set the cast member property. Set the property to specify whether Director regPoint centerRegPoint automatically centers the registration point if the bitmap is edited. For example, you can set the regPoint cast member...
Page 129: Controlling Bitmap Images With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide 256 grays Remapped to closest colors in black and white Dithered in black and white Click Transform to execute the changes. The settings you select in the Transform Bitmap dialog box can’t be undone. Controlling bitmap images with Lingo or JavaScript syntax Lingo or JavaScript syntax lets you control bitmap images in two ways.
Page 130 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Capture the current graphic contents of the Stage • Set a bitmap’s cast member property to the Stage’s property. For more information, see the picture picture Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel. For example, the statement makes the current image member("Archive").picture = (the stage).picture...
Page 131: Using Gradients
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Determine the color of an individual pixel of an image object or set that pixel’s color • Use the method. getPixel setPixel Copy part or all of an image object into a different image object •...
Page 132 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Selecting a gradient type automatically sets the current Paint window ink to Gradient. You can also select Gradient ink from the Ink menu at the bottom left of the Paint window to create a gradient with all the current settings.
Page 133 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Adjacent Colors uses all colors between the foreground and background colors and blends them with a dithered pattern. Two Colors uses only the foreground and background colors and blends them with a dithered pattern. One Color uses only the foreground color and fades it with a dithered pattern.
Page 134: Using Patterns
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Three Smooth cycles the gradient from foreground to destination, destination to foreground, and foreground to destination. Four Sharp cycles the gradient from foreground to destination four times. Four Smooth cycles the gradient from foreground to destination, destination to foreground, foreground to destination, and destination to foreground.
Page 135: Creating A Custom Tile
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • To edit a pattern, select Custom. Custom is an editable copy of the Standard palette set. Select the pattern to edit or use the Copy and Paste buttons to move an existing pattern to one of the empty tile positions.
Page 136 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide You can select an ink effect from the Ink menu at the bottom of the Paint window. The result of the ink you select depends on whether you are working in color or in black and white. Some inks work better when painting with patterns, and others work better when painting with solid colors.
Page 137 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Reveal works indirectly with the art in the previous cast position. Imagine the previous cast member’s artwork covered with a white area. Reveal ink erases the white area to show the artwork in the previous window. Reveal ink can be used to create specific shapes from shades created with the Airbrush tool.
Page 138: Using Onion Skinning
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Using onion skinning Onion skinning derives its name from a technique used by conventional animators, who would draw on thin onion skin paper so that they could see through it to one or more of the previous images in the animation.
Page 139 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide A. Registration point Two preceding cast members shown with onion skinning and registration points The specified number of cast members appear as dimmed images behind the current cast member. The order is determined by the position in the cast.
Page 140: About The Paste As Pict Option
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Open the cast member you want to use as the first background cast member in the reference series. Click the Set Background button. Select the position in the cast where you want the first cast member in the foreground series to appear. Click the New Cast Member button in the Paint window to create a new cast member.
Page 141: Setting And Changing Pict Cast Member Properties
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide If the bitmap cast member is linked to an external file, the full path for the file appears in the Name text box. To choose a different file to link to the cast member, either type a new filename into the text box, or click the Browse button (...) and select the path to the new filename.
Page 142: Compressing Bitmaps
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide To control the way colors cycle when you draw with Cycle ink, select one of the following options: Repeat Sequence causes colors to cycle from the foreground color to the destination color and then repeat from foreground to destination.
Page 143: Working With Adobe Fireworks
(that is, 100 indicates no compression). Note: Director saves the publish settings when you save the movie. Working with Adobe Fireworks You can combine the power of Fireworks and Director. Fireworks lets you export graphics and interactive content into Director.
Page 144 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Exporting layered and sliced content to Director By exporting Fireworks slices to Director, you can export sliced and interactive content such as buttons and rollover images. By exporting layers to Director, you can export layered Fireworks content such as animations.
Page 145 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Change the following options if you wish: Color lets you specify a color depth for the imported graphics. If the graphics contain transparency, select 32-bit color. Registration lets you set the registration point for the imported graphics.
Page 146: Bitmap Filters
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Make changes to the image, and click Done when you finish. Fireworks exports the new graphic to Director. Optimizing cast members in Director You can start Fireworks from Director to make quick optimization changes to selected cast members.
Page 147 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Install a filter • Place the filter in the Xtras folder in the Director application folder. For more information about installing Xtra extensions, see the Getting Started topics in the Director Help Panel. You can work with filters through the user interface or through scripting. Filters added through the user interface can be accessed through scripting by using the property of the sprite to which the filters are applied.
Page 148 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Apply a filter to a sprite, using Lingo/JavaScript In Lingo sprite(1).filterlist.append(MyFilter) In JavaScript sprite(1).filterlist.append(MyFilter) ; append the filter to a filterlist at some specified position in the filterlist: sprite(1).filterlist.addAt(2,MyFilter) OR sprite(1).filterlist.addAt(-2,MyFilter) Apply a filter to an image of a member, using Lingo/JavaScript In Lingo img = sprite(1).member.image...
Page 149 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Blur filter applied to a text sprite Property summary Property Description Value Range Default BlurX:Number The amount of 0-255 horizontal blur. BlurY:Number The amount of 0-255 vertical blur. Quality:Number The number of 0-15 times to perform the blur.
Page 150 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Description Value Range Default alpha:Number The alpha transparency value for the color. 0-255 knockout:Boolean Specifies whether the object has a knockout effect. The True/false false value true makes the object's fill transparent and reveals the background color of the document.
Page 151 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide strengthPercent: 0-1000 Number shadowColor:Color The shadow color of the bevel. RGB (0,0,0) shadowAlpha:Number The alpha transparency value of the shadow color. 0-255 highlightColor:Number The highlight color of the bevel in the format RGB (FF,FF,FF) 0xRRGGBB.
Page 152 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property summary Property Description Value Range Default brightness:Number Adjusts the brightness of an image. -100 to 100 contrast:Number Adjusts the highlights, shadows, and -100 to 100 midtones of an image. saturation:Number Adjusts the intensity of a color.
Page 153 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Description Value Range Default colorList:List of new color A list of newColorRatio values that defines a gradient. [newColor- ratios Ratio(Color(255, 255,255), 0, 0), newColor- Ratio(Color(0, 0, 0), 255, 255)] angle:Number The angle of the bevel.
Page 154 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Description Value Range Default strength:Number The strength of the imprint or spread. The higher the 0-10 value, the more color is imprinted and the stronger the contrast between the glow and the background. strengthPercent:Number...
Page 155 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Drop Shadow filter Use the Drop Shadow filter to add a drop shadow to a variety of sprites. Several style options are available, including inner or outer shadow and knockout mode. Drop shadow filter applied to a text sprite...
Page 156 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide propList("distance",5, "angle",5, "color",color(20,20,30), "alpha",0.5, "blurX",3, "blurY",50, "strength",3, "quality",3, "inner",1, "knockout",1, "hideObject",1)); var MyFilter2 = filter(symbol("DropShadowFilter"), propList(symbol("shadowColor"),0xff0000,symbol("alphas"),list(20,30))); Convolution Matrix filter Use the Convolution Matrix filter to apply a matrix convolution filter effect. A convolution combines pixels in the input image with neighboring pixels to produce an image.
Page 157 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide sprite(1).filterlist.append(myFilter) JavaScript Syntax: // This is an Embossing Effect myList = list(-2, -1, 0,-1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 2); myMatrix = newMatrix(3,3,myList); //myMatrix.setVal(3,3,0); // Another way to set particular matrix element value myFilter = filter(symbol("ConvolutionMatrixFilter"),propList(symbol("matrix"),myMatrix,symbol("Bias") ,20, symbol("Divisor"),1, symbol("Color"),rgb(251,0,0),...
Page 158 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Description Value Range Default Mode: Number Determines what Director should do in any empty spaces created by pixels 0(Wrap), 1(Clamp), 0 (Wrap) being shifted away. To display the original pixels (filter mode Ignore), to...
Page 159 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Remove filters applied to a sprite You can remove a specific filter you have applied to a sprite or remove all filters applied to a sprite. In the Property Inspector, click the Filters tab. All filters applied to a selected sprite are listed.
Page 160 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide When you finish working with the filter controls, the Auto Filter dialog box reappears. Click Set Ending Values, and use the filter controls to enter filter settings for the last cast member in the sequence.
Page 161: Chapter 7: Vector Shapes
Chapter 7: Vector Shapes ® ® Vector shapes and bitmaps are the two main types of graphics used with Adobe Director . A vector shape is a mathematical description of a geometric form that includes the thickness of the line, the fill color, and additional features of the line that can be expressed mathematically.
Page 162 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide To open the Vector Shape window, Select Window > Vector Shape. Zooming in and out in the Vector Shape window You can use the Magnify tool or the Zoom commands on the View menu to zoom in or out at four levels of magni- fication.
Page 163 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • To create a corner point, click once. • To create a curve point, click and drag. Dragging creates control handles that define how the line curves through the point that you define. • To constrain a new point to vertical, horizontal, or a 45 angle, hold down Shift while clicking.
Page 164 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Choosing fill and line settings for vector shapes Use controls in either the Vector Shape window or Lingo or JavaScript syntax to choose a vector shape’s fill color, line width and color, and background color. The background is the area outside of a vector shape but within the cast member’s bounding rectangle.
Page 165: Editing Vector Shapes
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Specify a vector shape’s fill in script • Set the , and cast member properties. For more information fillColor fillMode fillOffset fillScale about these properties, see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel.
Page 166: Defining Gradients For Vector Shapes
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide If you select two endpoint vertices, you join them. If you select points in the middle of the curve, you join the start of the second curve to the end of the first curve. Select Modify > Join Curves.
Page 167: Controlling Vector Shapes With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Define a gradient for a vector shape Create a closed vector shape in the Vector Shape window. Click the Gradient button in the Fill type controls. To select colors for the gradient, click the color box on the left side of the Gradient Colors control and select a starting color from the Color menu.
Page 168: Setting Vector Shape Properties
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • To display or specify the registration point for the vector shape’s cast member, test or set the regPointVertex property. • To display or specify the point around which a vector shape scales and rotates, test or set the originMode property.
Page 169: Setting Shape Cast Member Properties
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Shapes are images you create directly on the Stage with the Line, Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, and Ellipse tools on the Tool palette. Fill shapes with a color, pattern, or custom tile. Shapes require even less memory than vector shapes, but Director does not anti-alias shapes, so they don’t appear as smooth on the Stage as vector shapes.
Page 170: Chapter 8: Color, Tempo, And Transitions
Chapter 8: Color, Tempo, and Transitions ® ® Several behind-the-scenes functions in Adobe Director are important to the appearance and performance of a movie. To control the way Director manages colors, it’s important to understand the difference between RGB and index color, and how to assign colors to various elements in your movie.See...
Page 171 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Director identifies an RGB color as a set of hexadecimal numbers that specify the amounts of red, green, and blue required to create the color. When a computer is set to display thousands or millions of colors, Director always displays RGB colors accurately.
Page 172 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide If the movie is set to specify colors as RGB values, selecting a color from the Color menu specifies the RGB value of the color, not its index value. (For an explanation of the difference between index and RGB color, see...
Page 173 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Select Edit Favorite Colors. Select the color box you want to change. Select a new color for the box, using one of the following options: • Click the color box to open the Color menu and select a color from the current palette.
Page 174 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • Double-click the cell in the palette channel where you want the new palette setting to appear. • Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) the cell in the effects channel where you want the new palette setting to appear, and then select Palette from the Context menu.
Page 175 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide A. Select a palette to change B. Define a new color C. Reserve, select, and rearrange colors D. Tools If you add new palettes to your movie from other graphics applications, those palettes appear in the palette list and in the Cast window.
Page 176 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Note: Be sure to select Remap Colors, not Dither. Click Transform to remap all the cast members to the new palette. Select one or more colors Click a color in the Color Palettes window. If the selection arrow is inactive, click the Arrow tool at the bottom of the window.
Page 177 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide In the Select Colors Used In Bitmap dialog box, click Select. Select all colors not currently selected • Click the Invert Selection button in the Color Palettes window. Changing colors in a color palette You can define a new color for a color palette by selecting a color you want to change and then using the controls at the bottom of the Color Palettes window or the system color.
Page 178 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Controlling color palettes with Lingo or JavaScript syntax By using the method, you can change the current palette and specify how quickly a new palette puppetPalette fades in. This method is useful when you want to change the palette to suit changing conditions in the movie without entering a new frame.
Page 179: Setting Palette Cast Member Properties
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Setting palette cast member properties When you create a color palette in the Color Palettes window or import a bitmap with its own palette, the palette appears in a cast as an ordinary cast member. Use cast member properties to name the palette and to specify how it is unloaded from memory.
Page 180: About Tempo
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide To specify how Director removes the cast member from memory if memory is low, select one of the following options from the Unload menu: 3—Normal sets the selected cast members to be removed from memory after any priority 2 cast members have been removed.
Page 181 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide A. Tempo channel B. Click here to show or hide the effects channels In the Score, do one of the following: • Double-click the cell in the tempo channel where you want the new tempo setting to appear.
Page 182: Using Transitions
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide A. Step Forward B. Tempo setting C. Actual tempo Note: The Control panel attached to the bottom of the Stage does not include tempo settings. Tempo settings are available only from the floating (detached) version of the Control panel. To detach the Control panel from the Stage, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) the Control panel.
Page 183 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Creating transitions Like tempos, palettes, sounds, and behaviors, transitions have a channel set aside for them in the Score. A. Transition channel B. Transition A transition always takes place between the end of the current frame and the beginning of the frame where the transition is set.
Page 184 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Using transition Xtra extensions You can add custom transitions that are available as transition Xtra extensions. Transition Xtra extensions appear in the Frame Properties: Transitions dialog box. Transition Xtra extensions are often more complex than the transitions that are provided with Director and might include an additional dialog box for specialized settings.
Page 185 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide If you are using an Xtra transition, click Options to set values that are specific to the Xtra transition. The developer of the Xtra determines the contents of the Options dialog box. See the documentation supplied with the...
Page 186: Chapter 9: Text
Chapter 9: Text ® ® Adobe Director creates text that is editable, anti-aliased, and compact for fast downloading of outline fonts on both the Mac® and Windows® platforms. By combining these features with any of the animation capabilities of Director such as rotation, you can create wonderful text effects in your Director movies.
Page 187: Creating Text Cast Members
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide When you open a movie created in a previous version of Director with the entire font set embedded in it, the characters of the font are represented by the character sets that they belong to in the Font Cast Member Properties dialog.
Page 188: Importing Text
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Create text cast members in the Text window Select Insert > Media Element > Text. If the Text window is already open, click the New Cast Member button to create a new text cast member.
Page 189: Editing And Formatting Text
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Editing and formatting text Director offers several ways to edit and format text. You can edit text directly on the Stage and format it with the Text inspector, or use the Text window to work in a more traditional text editing environment. The Font and Paragraph dialog boxes contain many of the same formatting controls as the Text window and the Text inspector.
Page 190: Formatting Paragraphs
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • To specify the font, select a font from the list of available fonts. Be sure to use embedded fonts for movies that you intend to distribute (for more information, see Embedding fonts in movies).
Page 191 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Director adjusts line spacing to match the size of the text you are using. If you change the line spacing setting, Director stops making automatic adjustments. To resume automatic adjustments of spacing, enter in the Line Spacing text box.
Page 192: Finding And Replacing Text
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide About anti-aliased text Anti-aliased text is text that uses color variations to make its jagged angles and curves look smoother. Director uses the font file information for anti-aliasing by default. You can change this setting using the Text tab of the Property...
Page 193: Creating A Hypertext Link
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Whole Words Only searches only for occurrences of the specified whole word. Case Sensitive searches only for text with the same capitalization as the text in the Find box. Creating a hypertext link In the Text inspector, you can turn any selected range of text into a hypertext link that links to a URL or initiates other actions.
Page 194: Using Editable Text
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Specify field settings • Select Window > Field, or double-click a field cast member in the Cast window. If necessary, use the Previous Cast Member and Next Cast Member buttons to navigate to the field you want to edit.
Page 195: Mapping Fonts Between Platforms For Field Cast Members
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Select Modify > Convert To Bitmap. Mapping fonts between platforms for field cast members Director uses a file named Fontmap.txt to map fonts in fields between the Windows and Mac platforms. When you create a new movie, Director looks for Fontmap.txt in the same folder as the Director application.
Page 196: Setting Text Or Field Cast Member Properties
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Setting text or field cast member properties Use the Property inspector to view and change settings for selected text cast members. In addition to standard Name and Unload properties, you can specify whether text is editable while the movie plays, improve performance with pre-rendering, and control anti-aliasing and kerning.
Page 197 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Use Hypertext Styles (text cast members only) makes hypertext links appear as they would in a web browser (with blue underlining), and then appear in red after the link has been visited. (For more information, see Creating a hypertext link.)
Page 198: Formatting Chunks Of Text With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide You can also use the Save Bitmap feature with pre-render options if you’re using special text characters for an audience that is not equipped to display them. For example, using Save Bitmap enables a non-Japanese system to display a text sprite that contains Japanese characters.
Page 199: Formatting Text Or Field Cast Members With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Applying paragraph formats with Lingo or JavaScript syntax Lingo or JavaScript syntax can control paragraph formatting such as alignment and indenting for a chunk expression: • To set text alignment for a text or field cast member, set the property.
Page 200: Controlling Scrolling Text With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • To specify the size of the margin inside a field’s box, set the field cast member property. margin • To specify the size of the drop shadow for a field’s box, set the field cast member property.
Page 201: Checking For Specific Text With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
Unicode is an industry text-encoding standard that lets computers consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in any of the world's writing systems. Adobe Director supports Unicode and provides support for multilingual data in movies. Using Director, you can create and view movies containing text in languages other than English.
Page 202 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • You cannot name a scripting Xtra as a Unicode string using the 'kMoaMmDictType_MessageTable' registry key. Also, you cannot expose lingo functions named in Unicode by using the scripting Xtras. • 3D model names are not supported in Unicode.
Page 203 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide On your computer, open the Control Panel and double-click the Regional And Language Options icon to open the Regional And Language Options dialog box. Click the Languages tab. Click the Details button to open the Text Services And Input Languages dialog box.
Page 204: Using Flash Content
Components, and Other Interactive Media Types ® ® ® To add complex media and new capabilities to your Adobe Director movie, you can use Flash content, Flash components, other Director movies, and ActiveX controls. Each of these multimedia formats has interactive capabil- ities that are preserved by Director.
Page 205: Adding A Flash Content Cast Member
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide ® Flash content is particularly effective for use in Shockwave Player content, because as vector-based media, it is extremely small and therefore loads much more quickly than most other media types. Because Flash content is vector-based, you can scale and rotate the Flash content while still maintaining their sharpness.
Page 206 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Loop makes the movie play again from frame 1 once it finishes. When Loop is deselected, the movie plays once and stops. Direct To Stage displays the movie when it appears on the Stage with the fastest, smoothest playback. Deselect Direct To Stage to have Director apply ink effects and perform compositing of the sprite with other sprites in a memory buffer before actually displaying it.
Page 207: Editing A Flash Cast Member
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • You can rotate, skew, scale, or flip Flash content just as you would for a vector shape or bitmap. • If the movie is set up to play Direct To Stage, the movie always appears on top of other sprites, regardless of the channel in which it is placed, and ink effects are ignored.
Page 208: Controlling Flash Content With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Flash starts when you double click a Flash cast member. Controlling Flash content with Lingo or JavaScript syntax Lingo or JavaScript syntax gives you precise control over the way Director streams and displays Flash content. Use these scripts to check and control cast member streaming, to zoom and colorize the Flash asset, and to pan the Flash image.
Page 209 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Colorizing and blending Flash sprites Use Lingo or JavaScript syntax to change a sprite’s color and blend as the Director content plays. For more infor- mation, see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel.
Page 210: Streaming Flash Content With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Placing Flash content on the Stage Lingo or JavaScript syntax can set whether Flash content appears at the front of the Stage and whether specific areas of Flash content and the Stage overlap. For more information, see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel.
Page 211: Using Lingo Or Javascript Syntax With Flash Variables
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Controlling Flash content playback with Lingo or JavaScript syntax Use Lingo or JavaScript syntax to control the Flash content tempo; to specify which frame plays; and to start, stop, pause, and rewind the Flash content. For more information, see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel.
Page 212: Sending Messages From Flash Content Using Geturl
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide For example, the following expression sets the Flash variable called myColorSwatch to red on the sprite called myFlashSprite: sprite("myFlashSprite").myColorSwatch = "red" Get the value of a Flash variable • Use the following syntax: put spriteReference.myFlashVariable...
Page 213 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide In Flash, you create a button or frame and then assign it a action in which you specify the message you getURL() want the Flash sprite to send to Director. Sending simple messages and script statements You can send simple strings or script statements from Flash content to a Director movie.
Page 214 Director. For example, if you want to send a script statement from the Flash sprite that directs Director to launch a browser and open adobe.com, you would do the following: getURL("lingo:gotonetpage(\"http://www.adobe.com\")");...
Page 215: Sending Xml Data From Flash To Director
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Sending XML Data from Flash to Director You can send XML data from a Flash sprite or object to a script. On the Flash side, use the ActionScript method. XMLobject send method has a URL and a parameter.
Page 216 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Note: If you do not import any Flash cast members, you must manually add the Flash Asset Xtra to your movie’s Xtra list for global Flash objects to work correctly in Shockwave and projectors. For more information about the movie Xtra...
Page 217: Using The Flash Local Connection Object
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Using the Flash local connection object Flash includes an object type called local connection. The Flash local connection object can be very useful for allowing separate movies on the same computer to connect and to communicate with each other. Because the local connection object is a Flash object supported in Director, it can allow communication between separate Flash content, Director movies, or combinations of the two.
Page 218 . When the movie is running in a browser, the domain is determined by the server that localHost hosts the movie, such as adobe.com. Set up the callback for these user-defined messages. Decide what string you want to use as your message subjects, so that you know what the event name will be.
Page 219 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide event is generated each time the local connection object receives an incoming message. This allowDomain provides an opportunity for the callback handler to determine whether the message is coming from myAllowDomain a trusted domain. The...
Page 220: Using Flash Media Server
ActionScript. For a detailed example, see Using the Flash local connection object. The Adobe Director installation CD for Windows includes Flash Media Server, the Flash Media Server authoring components for Flash, and documentation. The Adobe Director installation CD for Mac includes the Flash Media Server authoring components for Flash and documentation.
Page 221: Using The Flash Settings Panel
To receive a video stream from the server, the stream must be attached to a video clip instance in a Flash sprite. Sample Flash content containing a video clip object is included in the Adobe/Support/Flash/ folder on the Director installation CD.
Page 222: Playback Performance Tips For Flash Content
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide To display the Flash Settings panel, use the following script: sprite(flashSpriteReference).settingsPanel(integerWhichTabToDisplay) For more information about the parameters for this method, see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel. You can invoke the Settings panel by allowing the user to click a button on the Stage that opens the panel. In this case,...
Page 223: Using Director Movies Within Director Movies
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • If adequate for your needs, use the Low quality setting rather than High. Using Low turns off anti-aliasing, which in turn, speeds up Flash animation rendering. A handy technique is to switch the quality of the sprite to Low while displaying a fast-moving animation sequence (such as a spinning logo), and then switch the quality back to High on the fly as the animation slows down or comes to a stop.
Page 224: Setting Linked Director Movie Properties
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Once it is imported, the movie appears as a cast member in the Cast window. The cast members of a movie imported as internal media also appear in the Cast window. You can animate the cast member just as you would for any graphic cast member, film loop, or digital video.
Page 225: Using Activex Controls
Note: Not all ActiveX controls expose their methods and properties in all hosts. Test the controls you want to use to see how they work in Director. Because ActiveX controls are non-Adobe software, Adobe Technical Support does not support them.
Page 226 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Select Insert > Control > ActiveX. In the dialog box that appears, select the ActiveX control and then click OK. The ActiveX Control Properties dialog box appears. (If the ActiveX control does not appear in the list, it may not have been installed properly by the system. You can attempt to verify this by viewing the list of ActiveX controls in another application, such as Visual Basic.)
Page 227: Using Flash Components
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Using ActiveX control methods An ActiveX control describes its functionality by using methods. Methods are simply functions implemented in the control that Director can call to perform some action. For example, an edit or other text-oriented control supports methods that let Director retrieve or modify the current text, perhaps performing such operations as copy and paste.
Page 228 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide You can also add components to the existing set by creating your own in Flash and dragging and dropping them into the Director Components folder. The Components folder is a sub-folder under the Configuration folder located in the directory where you installed Director.
Page 229 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide RadioButton component inserts a graphic radio button that represents a single choice within a set of mutually exclusive choices. Note: Use the onMouseClick() option when scripting for the radio buttons to ensure that the user can select only one radio button at a time.
Page 230: Button Component
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide A list appears of events that can be generated by the component. Set the event to true if you want to respond to the event in Director. The following example shows how to add a behavior to an instance of the Flash Button component that prints a message to the Message Window when the button is clicked.
Page 231: Checkbox Component
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Style Description The background of a component. This is the only color style that doesn’t inherit its value. themeColor Possible values are “haloGreen”, “haloBlue”, and “haloOrange”. The text of a component label. color The disabled color for text.
Page 232: Datechooser Component
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Using styles with the CheckBox component You can set style properties to change the appearance of a CheckBox instance. If the name of a style property ends , it is a color style property and behaves differently than non-color style properties.
Page 233 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide monthNames sets the month names that are displayed in the heading row of the calendar. The value is an array and the default value is [“January”,“February”,“March”,“April”,“May”,“June”,“July”,“August”,“September”,“October”,“November”,“December”] dayNames sets the names of the days of the week. The value is an array and the default value is [“S”,“M”,“T”,“W”,“T”,“F”,“S”].
Page 234: Label Component
TextInput field that accepts a user’s name. If you’re building an application using components based on version 2 (v2) of the Adobe Component Architecture, it’s a good idea to use a Label component instead of a plain text field because you can use styles to maintain a consistent look and feel.
Page 235: List Component
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Using styles with the Label component You can set style properties to change the appearance of a label instance. All text in a Label component instance must share the same style. For example, you can’t set the style to for one word in a label and to “...
Page 236 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide List component parameters You can set the following authoring parameters for each List component instance in the Property inspector or in the Component Inspector panel: data an array of values that populate the data of the list. The default value is [] (an empty array). There is no equiv- alent runtime property.
Page 237 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Style (Continued) Description (Continued) The color of a row if it has been selected and disabled. selectionDisabledColo The length of any transitions when selecting items. selectionDuration Determines whether rolling over a row activates highlighting. useRollOver...
Page 238: Numericstepper Component
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property (Continued) Description (Continued) Indicates whether the list is selectable ( ) or not ( List.selectable true false The index of a selection in a single-selection list. List.selectedIndex An array of the selected items in a multiple-selection list.
Page 239: Radiobutton Component
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Using styles with the NumericStepper component Set style properties to change the appearance of a stepper instance. If the name of a style property ends in , it Color is a color style property and behaves differently than non-color style properties.
Page 240 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide RadioButton parameters You can set the following authoring parameters for each RadioButton component instance in the Property inspector or in the Component Inspector panel: label sets the value of the text on the button; the default value is Radio Button.
Page 241: Scrollpane Component
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property summary for the RadioButton class Property Description The value associated with a radio button instance. RadioButton.data The group name for a radio button group or radio button instance. RadioButton.groupName The text that appears next to a radio button.
Page 242 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide vLineScrollSize indicates the number of units a vertical scroll bar moves each time an arrow button is pressed. The default value is 5. vPageScrollSize indicates the number of units a vertical scroll bar moves each time the track is pressed. The default value is 20.
Page 243: Textarea Component
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide TextArea component Use a TextArea component wherever you need a multiline text field. If you need a single-line text field, use the TextInput component. For example, you could use a TextArea component as a comment field in a form. You could set up a listener that checks if the field is empty when a user tabs out of the field.
Page 244: Textinput Component
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property summary for the TextArea class Property Description A Boolean value indicating whether the field is editable ( ) or not ( TextArea.editable true false Defines the horizontal position of the text within the scroll pane.
Page 245 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide editable indicates whether the TextInput component is editable (true) or not (false). The default value is true. password indicates whether the field is a password field (true) or not (false). The default value is false.
Page 246: Tree Component
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Event summary for the TextInput class Event Description Triggered when the Input field changes. TextInput.change Triggered when the enter key is pressed. TextInput.enter Tree component The Tree component allows a user to view hierarchical data. The tree appears within a box like the List component, but each item in a tree is called a node and can be either a leaf or a branch.
Page 247 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide <node> <node label="Mail"> <node label="INBOX"/> <node label="Personal Folder"> <node label="Business" isBranch="true" /> <node label="Demo" isBranch="true" /> <node label="Personal" isBranch="true" /> <node label="Saved Mail" isBranch="true" /> <node label="bar" isBranch="true" /> </node> <node label="Sent" isBranch="true" /> <node label="Trash"/>...
Page 248 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Customizing the Tree component You can size a Tree component horizontally and vertically during authoring and at runtime. While authoring, select the component on the Stage and drag the resize handles. At runtime, use the method.
Page 249 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Event Description Broadcast when a user rolls out of a node Tree.itemRollOut Broadcast when a user clicks on a node Tree.change Broadcast when a node is opened by a user. Alert.click...
Page 250: Chapter 11: Sound And Synchronization
Give your movie added appeal by including a sound track, a voice-over, ambient noises, or other sounds. ® ® With Adobe Director , you can control when sounds start and stop, how long they last, their quality and volume, and several other effects. Using Shockwave® Audio (SWA), you can compress sounds for easier distribution and stream them from an Internet source.
Page 251: Setting Sound Cast Member Properties
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Director imports AIFF and WAV sounds (both compressed and uncompressed), AU, Shockwave Audio, and MP3. For best results, use sounds that have 8- or 16-bit depth and a sampling rate of 44.1, 22.050, or 11.025 kHz.
Page 252: Looping A Sound
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Note: To speed up or slow down a sound, convert it to a sound-only QuickTime movie and use the sprite movieRate property. In addition to the two sound channels in the Score, Director can use as many as six additional sound channels simul- taneously.
Page 253: Playing Sounds With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • The default number of sounds that Director can mix in Windows is eight. This number can be decreased by modifying the value for MixMaxChannels in the Director.ini file in the Director folder. Playing sounds with Lingo or JavaScript syntax Lingo or JavaScript syntax lets you play and control sounds regardless of the settings in the Score.
Page 254: About Shockwave Audio
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide After queuing sounds, you can still control whether the queue is obeyed. You can select to interrupt loops with the method or to pause playback with the method. The method lets you skip breakLoop() pause() playNext() immediately to the next sound in the queue.
Page 255: Compressing Internal Sounds With Shockwave Audio
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Shockwave Audio can compress the size of sounds by a ratio of up to 176:1 and is streamable, which means Director doesn’t have to load the entire sound into RAM before it begins playing. Director starts to play the beginning of the sound while the rest of the sound is still streaming from its source (from a disk or over the Internet).
Page 256: Streaming Linked Shockwave Audio And Mp3 Audio Files
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Select Compression Enabled to turn on compression. Select a setting from the kBits/second menu. Select Convert Stereo to Mono if you want to convert a stereo file to monaural. Streaming linked Shockwave Audio and MP3 audio...
Page 257: Playing Audio With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Playing audio with Lingo or JavaScript syntax Use SWA script to preload and control SWA and MP3 sounds and to determine how much sound has streamed over the Internet. Script that controls other types of sounds can also control streaming SWA and MP3 sounds by controlling the sound channel in which the sound plays.
Page 258: Synchronizing Media
® ® (Windows) Use Sound Forge 4.0 or later or Cool Edit 96 (Adobe Audition ) or later to define cue points (called markers or regions within these programs). For instructions, see the Readme Windows Sound Loop-Cue.txt file in the Director application folder.
Page 259: Synchronizing Sound With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Synchronizing sound with Lingo or JavaScript syntax By writing script that performs an action when a cue point is reached in a sound or QuickTime file, you can synchronize a movie with sound or digital video. For more information about the following methods and properties, see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel.
Page 260: Chapter 12: Using Digital Video
Chapter 12: Using Digital Video ® ® Give your Adobe Director movie added appeal by including digital video. Digital video offers high-quality real- time image animation and sounds and also supports media such as Windows® Media Audio® and video files and DVD content.
Page 261: Using The Video Windows
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide QuickTime must be installed on a computer in order to author or play back a movie that contains QuickTime digital video. RealPlayer® 10.5 must be installed on a computer to author or play back a movie that contains RealMedia digital video.
Page 262: Controlling Digital Video In The Score
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Note: The Direct To Stage feature cannot be used with DVD or RealMedia digital video because DVD is always Direct To Stage and RealMedia is always non-Direct To Stage. Direct To Stage often provides the best performance from a digital video, but it has the following disadvantages: •...
Page 263: Playing Digital Video With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide To make sure that Director plays an entire digital video, do one of the following: • Create a tempo setting in the tempo channel by using the Wait For Cue Point option in the Frame Properties: Tempo dialog box.
Page 264: Setting Quicktime Digital Video Cast Member Properties
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • 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...
Page 265: Controlling Quicktime With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Center is available only if Crop is selected. It determines whether transformations occur with the cast member that is centered within the sprite or with the cast member’s upper-left corner aligned with the sprite’s upper-left corner.
Page 266 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • To obtain a floating-point value that identifies which version of QuickTime is installed on the local computer, use the method. quickTimeVersion() • To control a QuickTime sprite’s sound volume, set the sprite property. volume •...
Page 267: Using Windows Media Files In Director
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Rotating and scaling QuickTime video Lingo or JavaScript syntax can rotate and scale QuickTime videos. For more information, see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel. • To control the rotation of a QuickTime sprite, set the QuickTime sprite property.
Page 268 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Select Windows Media from the Files of Type menu. Select the digital video files you want to import. Click Import. A Windows Media cast member appears in the Cast window. When you import an AVI file (as opposed to a WMV or WMA file), you are prompted to select QuickTime or Windows Media as the import format.
Page 269: Using Dvd Media Content In Director
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide DTS (Direct To Stage) allows drivers installed on the computer to completely control playback of the video portion of the Windows Media cast member. For more information, see Playing digital video Direct To Stage. Paused (paused at start) if checked, the Windows Media cast member is paused on the first frame of the video.
Page 270 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide When linking to DVD media content, that content can reside either on a DVD disc located in the DVD drive or on a local hard disk in a DVD Volume Folder. For DVD support to be functional in Director, a DVD drive and DVD player and decoder need to be installed and functional in either case.
Page 271 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Note: When creating a DVD cast member, if a video_ts folder cannot be found when the DVD cast member is created, an error alert will appear that says, “Unable to locate DVD volume. ” This alert appears only once per session. At that point, you can name the new DVD member and then set its folder property to a folder location that contains a valid video_ts folder.
Page 272: Cropping Digital Video
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • audio • audiotrack • closedCaptions • folder • pausedAtStart • subPicture • volume Cropping digital video Cropping a digital video means trimming the edges off the top or sides of the movie image. Cropping hides the cropped portions and doesn’t permanently remove them.
Page 273: Using Digital Video On The Internet
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide If you would rather scale the movie than resize it, select Scale instead of Crop on the QuickTime tab in the Property inspector. Director scales the movie if you resize the bounding rectangle. Note: If the Stage size is larger than the monitor size, turn off the title bar and the resizable options. The projector might not display the movie correctly when these options are turned on.
Page 274: Using Realmedia Content In Director
RealMedia Asset.x32 (Windows) in the Movie Xtras dialog box). Please read the license agreement carefully before creating Shockwave content using RealMedia content. Director, Lingo, Shockwave, and Xtra are trademarks of Adobe, 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 Adobe, Inc.
Page 275 If you access a third-party website mentioned in this guide, you do so at your own risk. Adobe provides these links only as a convenience, and the inclusion of the link does not imply that Adobe endorses or accepts any responsibility for the content on those third-party sites.
Page 276 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide You can have as many RealMedia streams and cast members in your Director movie as you want, as long as you play them consecutively. This version of Director does not support playing multiple RealMedia cast members concur- rently.
Page 277 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide If your movie contains multiple RealMedia sprites (not playing at the same time) that reference the same cast member, consider creating two cast members that reference the same URL. In that way, the sprites can be controlled independently.
Page 278 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • If the RealMedia cast member in your movie references a local file instead of a remote URL, be sure that the file path you specified in the Property inspector is relative to the final document, or that you update the file path with the new location of the file before publishing your movie.
Page 279 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Use the options on the Property inspector RealMedia tab to specify the properties of the cast member. For more information, see The RealMedia tab in the Property inspector. Obtaining dynamic RealMedia cast member properties When a RealMedia cast member is initially created, the values that are listed in the Property inspector for the...
Page 280 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide You can work with the following media properties: • specifies whether the audio portion of the RealMedia stream plays ( ) or not ( audio (RealMedia) TRUE FALSE The default setting is . This property has no effect if is enabled.
Page 281 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide RealMedia Target identifies a RealMedia sprite as the target for RealMedia behaviors that are attached to the graphic, text, or field sprites for the playback controls. You must attach this behavior to a RealMedia sprite on the Stage before you can use any of the other RealMedia behaviors.
Page 282 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide These sprites should be basic graphic sprites, not functional buttons. The RealMedia behaviors add the button functionality. Drag the RealMedia Control Button, RealMedia Slider Bar, RealMedia Slider, and RealMedia Buffering Indicator behaviors to the sprites that you created on the Stage, and select the appropriate action and group, using the menu in the Parameters dialog box.
Page 283 Publishing Shockwave content with RealMedia The Xtra for RealMedia is not part of the standard Shockwave, but can be downloaded from the Adobe website. The first time a user attempts to play Shockwave content that contains a RealMedia cast member, the Shockwave Player automatically downloads and installs the Xtra for RealMedia if you selected RealMedia Asset.x32 in the Movie Xtras...
Page 284: Using Lingo Or Javascript Syntax Sound Elements With Realmedia
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide If RealMedia Asset.x32 does not appear in the list, click the Add button, and select it in the Add Xtras dialog box. Select the Include in Projector and Download If Needed options. Using Lingo or JavaScript syntax sound elements with...
Page 285 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • endTime • getPlayList() • loopCount • loopEndTime • loopsRemaining • loopStartTime • play() • playFile() • playNext() • queue() • rewind() • sampleCount • setPlayList() • (Use the RealMedia cast member properties instead. For more...
Page 286: Chapter 13: Behaviors
Chapter 13: Behaviors ® ® A behavior in Adobe Director is prewritten Lingo or JavaScript™ syntax that you use to provide interactivity and add interesting effects to a movie. You drag a behavior from the Library palette and drop it on a sprite or frame to attach it.
Page 287 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide To view a brief description of included behaviors, move the pointer over a behavior icon. If the behavior includes a longer description, you can view it in the Behavior inspector or in Director Help. For...
Page 288: Changing The Order Of Attached Behaviors
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Attach the same behavior to several sprites at once, using the Library palette • Select the sprites on the Stage or in the Score and drag a behavior to any one of them. Attach behaviors that have already been copied to a cast Select Window >...
Page 289: Getting Information About Behaviors
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Getting information about behaviors Behaviors included with Director have brief pop-up descriptions. Some also have longer descriptions and instruc- tions that you can view in the Behavior inspector. A scrolling pane in the Behavior inspector displays the complete description provided by the behavior’s author.
Page 290 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Do one of the following: • To create a new behavior, click the Behaviors menu, select New Behavior, and enter a name for the new behavior. The behavior appears in the currently selected Cast window in the first empty position. Select an empty cast position first if you want the behavior to appear in a different place.
Page 291 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide MouseUp indicates that the mouse button was released. MouseDown indicates that the mouse button was clicked. RightMouseUp indicates that the right mouse button was released. (On the Mac, Director treats a Control-click the same as a right mouse click on a Windows® system.) RightMouseDown indicates that the right mouse button was clicked.
Page 292: Writing Behaviors With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Change Cursor changes the pointer to a shape you select from the pop-up menu. Restore Cursor restores the current system pointer. New Action executes any method or sends a message to a handler. You specify the new handler’s name.
Page 293: Setting Behavior Properties With Script
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide To allow users to set different values for a property in different instances of the behavior, the behavior’s script must have the following: • statement (Lingo) or a statement (JavaScript syntax) that allows each instance to maintain a...
Page 294: Creating An On Getpropertydescriptionlist Handler
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • is the property’s name. A symbol ( ) operator must precede the name in the property definition. A movement colon separates the name’s definition and the list of parameters. • specifies the property’s default value. This example sets 5 as the default.
Page 295: Including A Description For The Behavior Inspector
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide description[#noise] = \ [#default:"", \ #format: #sound, \ #comment:"Sound cast member name" \ return description // JavaScript syntax function getPropertyDescriptionList() { var description = propList(); var tProp = propList(); tProp.addProp("default",5); tProp.addProp("format","integer"); tProp.addProp("comment","Set motion to the right:");...
Page 296 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide if ( sprite(me.spriteNum).locH > window("stage").rect.right ) then sprite(me.spriteNum).locH = window("stage").rect.left else sprite(me.spriteNum).locH = sprite(me.spriteNum).locH + 5 end if on mouseUp me sprite(me.spriteNum).foreColor = random(255) sound(noise) on getBehaviorDescription(me) return "This changes sprite position" on getPropertyDescriptionList(me) description = [:]...
Page 297: Sending Messages To Behaviors Attached To Sprites
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide description["Movement"]["format"] = "integer"; description["Movement"]["comnt"] = "Set motion to the right"; description["Movement"]["range"] = new Array(); description["Movement"]["range"]["min"] = 1; description["Movement"]["range"]["max"] = 10; description["noise"] = new Array(); description["noise"]["default"] = ""; description["noise"]["format"] = "sound"; description["noise"]["comment"] = "Sound cast member name";...
Page 298 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide on mouseDown me sendAllSprites (#bumpCounter, 2) // JavaScript syntax function mouseDown() { _movie.sendAllSprites(symbol("bumpCounter"), 2); Note: The symbol ( ) operator must precede the message in the method. sendAllSprites Sending messages to specific behaviors only method sends an event to specific behaviors. Unlike the...
Page 299: Using Inheritance In Behaviors
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Using inheritance in behaviors Behaviors can have ancestor scripts in the same way that parent scripts do. (Ancestor scripts are additional scripts whose handlers and properties a parent script can call on and use.) •...
Page 300: Chapter 14: Navigation And User Interaction
Chapter 14: Navigation and User Interaction ® ® Adding interactivity lets you involve your audience in your Adobe Director movies. Using the keyboard, the mouse, or both, your audience can download content from the Internet, jump to different parts of movies, enter information, move objects, click buttons, and perform many other interactive operations.
Page 301: Adding Push Buttons, Radio Buttons, And Check Boxes
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Stop the movie. Drag the behavior from the Library palette to the sprite in frame 1. Go Next Button Rewind and play the movie again. The playhead is again stopped in the first frame by the behavior.
Page 302 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Jumping to a different frame Lingo or JavaScript syntax lets you jump to a different frame in the current movie or in another movie. • To jump to a specific frame in the current movie, use the method, and pass it a frame name or number as a parameter.
Page 303: Detecting Mouse Clicks With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • Use the methods. play play done method branches a movie to another frame, another movie, or a specified frame in another movie. The play method remembers the original frame and returns to it without requiring that you specify where to play done return.
Page 304: Making Sprites Editable Or Moveable With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Make a sprite draggable on the Stage • Click the Moveable button in the Property inspector. Make a text sprite editable • Click the Editable button in the Property inspector. A. Editable button B. Moveable button...
Page 305: Checking Which Text Is Under The Pointer With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Checking which text is under the pointer with Lingo or JavaScript syntax Lingo or JavaScript syntax can detect which text component in a text or field cast member is currently under the mouse pointer. Use script that applies to text and field cast members in the following ways: •...
Page 306: Finding Mouse Pointer Locations With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Finding mouse pointer locations with Lingo or JavaScript syntax When working in Director, you sometimes need to determine where the mouse pointer is on the Stage. Use the properties. For more information about these properties, see the Scripting Reference...
Page 307: Identifying Keys On Different Keyboards
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Lingo term Windows key Mac key RETURN Enter Return commandDown Control Command optionDown Option controlDown Control Control ENTER Enter key on the numeric keypad (during Enter key on the numeric keypad (during authoring, pressing Enter starts playing the...
Page 308: Creating An Animated Color Cursor Cast Member
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Windows PowerPC Purpose Cursor Options.x32 Cursor Options This file supports the creation of cursors while you author movies in Director. Do not distribute this file with projectors; it is not licensed for redistribution. Cursor Asset.x32...
Page 309: Using An Animated Color Cursor In A Movie
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide You can also enter a cast member number in the Member box and press Tab. Then Director selects the cast member that has that number or the cast member with the number closest to it.
Page 310 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide , substitute a cast member name (surrounded by quotation marks) or a cast member whichCursorCastMember number. For example, the following sprite script changes the cursor to the cast member named myCursor when the cursor is over the sprite: on mouseEnter cursor (member "myCursor")
Page 311: Chapter 15: 3D Basics
Chapter 15: 3D Basics ® ® Adobe Director lets you bring robust, high-performance 3D graphics to the web. With Director, you can develop a wide spectrum of 3D productions, ranging from simple text handling to interactive product demonstrations to ®...
Page 312 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide The Property inspector includes a 3D Model tab. See Using the Property inspector for • The Behavior library lets you select the behaviors you want to use. • The Behavior inspector lets you create and modify behaviors.
Page 313: The 3D Xtra Extension
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide The 3D methods and properties are covered according to function in each of these sources. They are also presented in dictionary form with syntax guidelines, definitions, and examples, in the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel.
Page 314: Using The Property Inspector For 3D
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide A. Dolly Camera B. Rotate Camera C. Pan Camera • The two buttons below the camera buttons let you control whether the y-axis or the z-axis is the up axis when using the Camera Rotate tool.
Page 315 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Open the Cast window if it isn’t already open. Click the 3D cast member you want to select. Click the Property inspector button in the toolbar. Click the 3D Model tab in the Property inspector.
Page 316: Using Rendering Methods
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Using rendering methods The rendering method refers to the specific way Director displays 3D images on the Stage. The methods available depend on the type of hardware you have. The rendering methods include the following: •...
Page 317: Using 3D Anti-Aliasing
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Using 3D anti-aliasing Director gives you the ability to use anti-aliasing with 3D cast members in your movies. Anti-aliasing improves the appearance of graphics by smoothing the lines between shapes or areas of different color so that the lines do not appear jagged.
Page 318: 3D Behaviors
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Turning off anti-aliasing If you plan to animate any part of a 3D sprite, you might want to turn anti-aliasing off temporarily to improve the animation performance. To do this, set the property for the sprite to .
Page 319: 3D Text
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide For example, attaching the Create Box action and Mouse Left trigger behaviors to a sprite will cause a box to be created in the 3D world each time the sprite is clicked with the left mouse button.
Page 320 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Each 3D cast member contains a group object called world, which may contain a tree-like parent-child hierarchy of nodes, such as models, groups, lights, and cameras. Each node may have one parent and any number of children.
Page 321 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Saving the 3D world Changes made to the 3D world can be saved in authoring and projectors. The saved world can be reused as a new cast member. You must save the Director movie for the changes to the 3D world to get effected.
Page 322: 3D Cast Members
Chapter 16: The 3D Cast Member, 3D Text, and 3D Behaviors ® ® Several Adobe Director features let you create a 3D movie: • A 3D cast member contains a complex internal structure that includes model resources, models, lights, and cameras.
Page 323: Model Resources
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide The following figure shows the relationships between cameras, lights, and models within the 3D cast member; the relation of a model to a model resource; and the relationships of a model to shaders, textures, and motion.
Page 324: Models
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Method Function Returns Creates a new mesh model resource. Returns a new mesh model resource newMesh(name, numFaces, with a unique name. If the name isn’t is the user-specified number of triangles. numVertices, numFaces unique, returns a script error.
Page 325: Shaders
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Method Function Returns Returns the number of model objects included in the Integer. model.count cast member. Returns the model named Returns the model object named model(name) name if it exists. Returns if the name void object does not exist.
Page 326: Textures
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Method Function Returns Returns the number of shader objects included in the Integer. shader.count cast member. Returns the shader named Returns the shader object named shader(name) name if it exists. Returns if the name void object does not exist.
Page 327: Motions
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Method Function Returns Creates a new texture named Returns a new texture object with a newTexture name (name, type, unique name. If the name isn’t can have the following values: source) type unique, returns a script error.
Page 328: Lights
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Method Function Returns Deletes the motion named . Script references to if the motion named deleteMotion name TRUE (1) (name) this motion persist but return exists. void name FALSE (0) the motion named doesn’t name exist.
Page 329: Cameras
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Cameras Cameras provide different views of the 3D world. A 3D cast member can have many cameras. Each sprite that uses the cast member can display a different camera view of the 3D world. Use the following cast member methods and properties to perform basic camera operations:...
Page 330: Creating 3D Text
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Method Function Returns Returns the number of group objects included in the Integer. group.count cast member. Returns the group named Returns the group object named group(name) name if it exists. Returns if the name void object does not exist.
Page 331 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Click the Property inspector 3D Extruder tab. Set the camera position and rotation. As with the standard 3D Property inspector tab, you control camera position and rotation with the values that you enter in the text boxes at the top of the pane. The default camera position represents a vantage point looking up through the middle of the scene.
Page 332: Script And 3D Text
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Shaders and shader properties determine the appearance of the surface of the 3D text model. Textures are 2D images drawn on the surface of the text. Use the Property inspector to assign a texture to the text’s shader. You can also control the color of the shader’s specular highlights and its diffuse or overall color and reflectivity.
Page 333 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Type of Script Element Sprite function pointToLine Sprite function pointToParagraph Sprite function pointToWord Hypertext Lingo hyperlinkClicked Hypertext Lingo hyperlink Hypertext Lingo hyperlinks Hypertext Lingo hyperlinkRange Hypertext Lingo hyperlinkState Lingo and JavaScript syntax script for 3D text In addition to working with most existing methods and properties, 3D text also adds some properties of its own.
Page 334: Using 3D Behaviors
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Range or Default Get and set Specifies how the text appears. displayMode #modeNormal #Mode3D Default is , which #modeNormal is 2D text Not applicable Creates a new model resource in member Specify an existing 3D cast member(1).
Page 335 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide The following table describes the available triggers: Name Description Mouse Left Triggers action when the user presses, holds down, or releases the left mouse button ® (Windows ) or the mouse button (Mac®). Mouse Right Triggers action when user presses, holds down, or releases the right mouse button.
Page 336 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Local actions When you attach a local action to a sprite, that action responds only to a trigger that is attached to that same sprite. The following table describes the available local actions: Name Effect...
Page 337 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Public actions As with local actions, you can add public actions to a movie by attaching them to any 3D sprite. Unlike local actions, public actions are triggered whether the trigger is attached to the same sprite as the action or to any other sprite.
Page 338 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Applying 3D behaviors Apply 3D behaviors in the same way as you apply standard behaviors in Director. You can attach as many behaviors to a sprite as needed, but each behavior that requires a trigger must have a unique trigger to activate it.
Page 339 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide About behavior groups The Parameters dialog boxes of the local and public action behaviors give you the option to assign the behavior to a group of behaviors. Groups let a single trigger initiate actions across multiple sprites. To establish a group, select a name for the group and enter that name in the Parameters dialog box of each behavior that you attach to the sprites in the group.
Page 340: Chapter 17: Working With Models And Model Resources
3D cast member uses one of these cameras. A camera’s position can be moved with the ® Property inspector or the Shockwave® 3D window. You can also use the Adobe® Director 3D behaviors or Lingo or JavaScript syntax to add camera and manipulate camera positions.
Page 341: Primitives
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Name Access Description Range or Default Unique string naming model resource. If imported, the name of name the model. If created by scripting, the assigned name in the constructor method. Type of geometry. type...
Page 342 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Value Range Get and set Radius of the sphere. Positive floating-point radius value. The default is 25.0. Get and set Controls the number of polygons used in the An integer value of 1 or resolution creation of the sphere surface.
Page 343 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Value Range Get and set Height of the box, measured along the y-axis. Positive floating-point height value. The default is 50.0 Get and set Width of the box, measured along the x-axis.
Page 344 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Mesh generator properties The mesh generator is the most complex model resource. It allows experienced 3D programmers to create compli- cated geometries at runtime. The mesh generator primitive’s property is and is created by the member’s method.
Page 345 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Value Range Get and set List indicating which texture coordinates to use Set the value to a list of face [index]. for faces at designated index points. three integers specifying textureCoordi the indexes of the texture...
Page 346 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Value Range Get and set Lifetime of all particles emitted, in milliseconds. Positive integer. The lifetime default is 10.000 Get and set Color value of a particle at the end of its life.
Page 347 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Value Range Get and set Mode in which particles are emitted. emitter.mode #burst All particles emitted at once. #stream X particles emitted per frame with X equaling emitter. numParticles/(lifet ime*milliseconds PerFrame) Note:...
Page 348: Cast Member Methods
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Value Range Get and set A drag value affecting simulation at each anima- Percentage between emitter.drag tion step. 100.0 Get and set Vector representing simulated gravity. The Any vector. emitter.gravi vector’s length indicates its strength.
Page 349 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Method Description Returns This method loads a W3D format file from adds Nothing if the operation is loadFile fileName, (fileName, all models as children of the world, and updates all palettes. successful, or a script error Overwrite, if the operation fails.
Page 350: Models
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Models Models can be referred to by name or number. Models can be added to or removed from the world at any time. In the member’s parent-child hierarchy, each model can have a maximum of one parent, but it can have an unlimited number of children.
Page 351 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Value Get and set Model resource object defining model’s geometry. Model resource resource object. Get and set List of all shaders used by the model. Setting this List. shaderList property to a single shader sets every element of the to that shader.
Page 352 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Model methods Use the following methods to work with models: Method Description Returns Adds to this model’s list of children. An equivalent Nothing. addChild(aNode, aNode preserveWorld) operation is to set to equal aNode.parent this model argument is optional.
Page 353 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Method Description Returns Registers a handler named that is called in the Nothing. registerScript handlerName (eventName, when the member method scriptInstance handlerName, is called with as an argument. sendEvent() eventName scriptInstance) is 0, a movie script handler is called.
Page 354 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Method Description Returns Scales the model by a factor of in the dimension, in the Nothing. scale(x, y, z) dimension, and in the dimension. Scaling is applied in object-relative space. Points the node’s “front” at the world position and then tries Nothing.
Page 355: Shaders
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • Relative to another object: If you want to move an object so that it goes toward the right edge of the screen, use . If you want to rotate the object parallel to the model.translate (vector(10,0,0), sprite(1).camera)
Page 356 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Name Access Description Default Get and set This property controls whether or not the transparent TRUE (1) model is blended using alpha values or rendered as opaque. The default is TRUE (1) (alpha blended). The functionality of depends on shader.blend...
Page 357 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Name Access Description Default diffuseLightMap Get and set Get: Returns the texture associated with the void second layer. Set: Specifies a texture to be used in the second layer and applies the following values:...
Page 358 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Name Access Description Default Get and set Access to the texture coordinate generation #none textureMode method for the first layer. Possible values are as follows: #none #wrapPlanar #wrapCylindrical #wrapSpherical #reflection #diffuseLight #specularLight Get and set...
Page 359 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Name Access Description Default Get and set Access to the list of texture coordinate modifier Identity transform. texture transforms, one per texturing layer. TransformList is applied to all textureTransform texture coordinates regardless of the property setting.
Page 360 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Name Access Description Default Get and set Access to the blending source associated with a blendSource #constant specified layer. List[index] When the property is set to blendFunction for the <index>th layer, this results in #blend the <index>th texture being combined with the...
Page 361 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Name Access Description Default Allows you to get or set the texture clamping Get and set TRUE (1). textureRepeat behavior associated with a specified layer. List[index] Texture clamping refers to how a texture clamps to its shader.
Page 362: Textures
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Default Get and set Percentage of lighting steps to be treated as highlight Percentage highlight. Get and set Factor controlling darkness of shadowed areas. shadowStrength Get and set Factor controlling brightness of highlighted...
Page 363 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Be aware of the limitations of your video RAM and that of your intended audience. Some video cards have as little as 4 megabytes of video RAM. Carefully budget your total texture size when designing your 3D world.
Page 364 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Default Get and set Determines whether bilinear filtering is used nearFiltering TRUE (1) when rendering a projected texture map that covers more screen space than the original. For more information, see the Scripting Refer- ence topics in the Director Help Panel.
Page 365: Groups
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Groups Groups have many of the same properties and methods as models, except that you need to substitute the word group for the word when writing scripts. A group is a node that can have a parent and/or children. These can be model models, lights, cameras, or other groups.
Page 366 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Method Description Returns Adds to this group’s list of children. An equivalent opera- Nothing. addChild(aNode, aNode preserveWorld) tion is to set to equal aNode.parent this group argument is optional. It can have two preserveWorld values: .
Page 367: Modifiers
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Method Description Returns Moves the group by along the x-axis, Nothing. translate xIncrement yIncrement (xIncrement, along the y-axis, and along the z-axis. zIncrement yIncrement, zIncrement, parameter is optional. It determines how argu- relativeTo relativeTo) ments are interpreted. The possible values are as follows: : the default.
Page 368 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Level of detail (LOD) modifier properties The level of detail (LOD) modifier provides per-model control over the number of polygons used to render a model, by allowing you to reduce the number to a lower value, based on the model’s distance from the camera. This modifier is attached to all imported models.
Page 369 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Default Get and set The following are the possible values: whichModel.toon. #gradient style : sharp transitions between available #toon colors. : smooth transitions between avail- #gradient able colors. : sharp transitions between #black and white black and white.
Page 370 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Default Get and set value indicating whichModel. TRUE (1) TRUE (1) FALSE (0) inker.creases whether lines are drawn when mesh boundaries meet at a crease. Get and set A floating-point value controlling crease angle model.inker.
Page 371 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide This separation is deliberate and valuable: it can be important for a collision to be registered. In a game, for example, a projectile could strike a wall and the player’s score could be increased. However, in that same game, you might not want the projectile to bounce off the wall.
Page 372: Animation Modifiers
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Method Description Returns is set to , this Nothing. whichModel.collision. collision.enabled TRUE (1) setCollisionCallback method registers the script instance to receive (#handlerName, scriptObjectName) an event when a collision occurs. If is set to , no collision.enabled...
Page 373 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • Play list: The Bones player manages a queue of motions. The first motion in the play list is the motion that is currently playing or paused. When that motion finishes playing, it’s removed from the play list and the next motion begins.
Page 374 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Method Description Returns Adds the specified motion to the end of the play Nothing. whichModel.bonesPlayer. queue(“name”, looped, startTime, list. The parameters are same as those for the endTime, playRate, timeOffset) method. play() Removes the most recently added motion from Nothing.
Page 375 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Default Get and set , automatic linear blending (from 0.0 to whichModel. TRUE (1) TRUE bonesPlayer. 100.0) is applied over the blend time. Otherwise, autoBlend is ignored, and the amount of blendTime blending is user-determined by the property.
Page 376 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Default Get and set = object returns to starting position whichModel. TRUE (1) TRUE (1) bonesPlayer. at end of animation. positionReset = object remains at final animation FALSE (0) position after motion completes.
Page 377 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Keyframe player methods Use the following methods to work with keyframe animations: Method Description Returns Plays the motion named starting at the Nothing. whichModel.keyframePlayer.play name ("name", looped, startTime, endTime, time , with the currently playing...
Page 378 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Returns Get and set A value indicating how quickly or slowly to whichModel. keyframePlayer. play back the motion. For example, a value of playRate 2.0 doubles the speed of the motion; a value of 0.5 halves the speed of the motion.
Page 379 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Returns Get and set = object returns to starting position whichModel. TRUE (1) TRUE (1) keyframePlayer. at end of animation; = object FALSE (0) positionReset remains at final animation position, and begins again from there if looping is on.
Page 380 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Mesh deform modifier properties The mesh deform modifier lets you alter an existing model resource’s geometry at runtime. You can create twist, bend, and ripple effects. Unlike other modifiers, the mesh deform modifier directly affects model resources as well as the models that use those resources.
Page 381: Motions
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Motions Motions are simply animations that have been predefined in a 3D-modeling application. They are included in the file that’s exported from the 3D application and imported into Director. Motions can be reused on any model in the 3D cast member, as long as the motion is appropriate to the geometry of the model.
Page 382: Light Properties
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Lights and cameras have the same methods and parent-child properties as models and groups. Lights transform and cameras can be added, deleted, cloned, moved, and rotated in the same ways as models and groups. You can access their names, parents, children, and other properties in the same way you would with models and groups.
Page 383: Light Methods
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Name Access Description Default Get and set Angle of the light’s projection cone. spotAngle 90.0 If type equals , setting a value less than the #spot umbra causes a “property not found” error. Get and set...
Page 384 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Method Description Returns Clones a light named , adds it to the light’s parent’s child list, and Light object. clone(name) name adds it to the world. All children of the light are automatically cloned. This can be avoided by removing the children, performing the cloning operation, and then adding the children back.
Page 385: Cameras
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Method Description Returns Rotates the light by degrees around the x-axis, y degrees around the Nothing. rotate(x,y,z, relativeTo) y-axis, and z degrees around the z-axis. argument is optional and defaults to . If relativeTo #self included, it defines the coordinate space of the axes.
Page 386 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Name Access Description Default Get and set Transform object representing camera’s posi- Identity transform. transform tion relative to its parent’s transform. property gives transform.position the relative position; gives the relative transform.rotation rotation. Get and set A property list associated with this camera.
Page 387 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Name Access Description Default Get and set Method of determining the vertical field of projection #perspective view, which must be of type #perspective #orthographic Get and set A floating-point value specifying the vertical fieldOfView 30.0...
Page 388 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Name Access Description Default Number of backdrops in use on this sprite. backdrop.count A list containing a vector and a floating-point boundingSphere [vector (0,0,0), 0.0] value, with the vector representing the posi- tion and the value the radius of a bounding sphere surrounding the camera and all its children.
Page 389 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Method Description Returns Registers a handler named that is called in the Nothing. registerScript handlerName (eventName, when the member method scriptInstance sendEvent() handlerName, called with as an argument. eventName scriptInstance) is 0, a movie script handler is called.
Page 390: Chapter 18: Controlling The 3D World
Chapter 18: Controlling the 3D World ® ® Adobe Director provides powerful methods for overall control of the three-dimensional (3D) world, including Lingo and JavaScript™ syntax for handling new 3D-generated events, selecting models (picking), vector math opera- tions, and transforms. In addition, the properties and methods of the Director global...
Page 391: Collisions
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Method Description Returns Sends an event named to all scripts registered to Nothing. sendEvent eventName (eventName, receive it. A script error is generated if arg1,arg2...) Similar to except that the event is deliv- the operation fails.
Page 392 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Selecting models Selecting models (picking) refers to clicking on models in a 3D cast member. Because models are objects that exist within a 3D cast member and a 3D sprite, they are not normally sensitive to mouse clicks. Normally, only the entire sprite is sensitive to mouse clicks.
Page 393: Vector Math
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Method Description Returns Returns a list of models under the ray starting at the vector The first model inter- modelsUnder and pointing down the vector sected by the ray plus a list Ray(location locationVector , with both vectors specified in world-relative...
Page 394 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Vector methods Use the following methods to work with vectors: Method Description Returns Normalizes the vector by modifying it into a unit vector of length 1. Nothing. Vector is modi- normalize() This is done by dividing each component of the vector by the fied.
Page 395: Transforms
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Operator Description Returns Returns a new vector that results from applying the positional and A new vector object transform* vector transformation changes defined by . Note transform vector that vector*transform is an invalid operation. Returns a new vector equaling...
Page 396 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Default Script vector object describing the rotation (in rotation vector (0,0,0) degrees) of the transform with the value vector(xRotation, yRotation, .This value can vary because of the zRotation) permissible types of transform operation. For...
Page 397 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Method Description Returns Applies a rotation transformation after the current transformation: Nothing rotate (xAngle, model.transform.identity() yAngle, zAngle) model.transform.translate(100,0,0) model.transform.rotate(0,0,90) After this series of transformations, performed in this order, the model’s local origin will be at , assuming the model’s parent is the world.
Page 398: Rendering Functionality
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Method Description Returns Alters the original transform by preapplying the positional/rota- Nothing preMultiply (transform2) tional/scaling effects of to the original transform. transform2 describes a rotation of 90° around the x-axis and this trans- transform2 form describes a translation of 100 units in the y-axis, alters this transform so that it transform.preMultiply(transform2)
Page 399 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Default The rasterizer library all 3D sprites use to draw None renderer themselves. This property must be set before any 3D sprite comes into existence. Its default value is determined by the...
Page 400 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Default A four-digit integer identifying the pixel format textureRender #rgba5551 Format used for textures on the 3D hardware accelerator card. Adjust this to improved color fidelity or to fit more textures on the card. You can fit twice as many 16-bit textures as 32-bit textures in the same space.
Page 401 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Movie properties Use the following properties to control which renderer the movie uses: Property Access Description The renderer a particular movie prefers. The default value is preferred3d #auto Renderer which allows the movie to pick the best available renderer. This property is not the same as the property.
Page 402 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Default Independent rotation transforms for the default camera vector Rotation (0.0, 0.0, camera with values ranging from Float_Min 0.0) Float_Max Light applied to entire scene. ambient rgb(0,0,0) Color Background color in all views.
Page 403 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Default Integer number of bytes that have been downloaded, None bytes Streamed with values from 0 to the size of the file in bytes. Total size of stream to be downloaded, with values...
Page 404 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Access Description Default Determines which camera this sprite is using. None camera Controls the desired playback speed. If the targetFrame Rate property is , then useTargetFramerate TRUE (1) property of all model resources is lod.bias...
Page 405: Chapter 19: Movies In A Window
Chapter 19: Movies in a Window ® ® Adobe Director can play several movies simultaneously by creating windows in which additional movies can play. A movie in a window (MIAW) is a distinct Director movie that retains all its interactivity.
Page 406: Creating Or Declaring A Miaw
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Creating or declaring a MIAW You must first explicitly create or declare the MIAW before you can use it or set its properties. Explicitly declare a new MIAW in Lingo • Use the following script: window().new ("window name")
Page 407: Setting The Window Size And Location For A Miaw
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide window().new("movieName").open() // JavaScript syntax new window("movieName"); window("movieName").open(); -or- new window("movieName").open(); Unless you explicitly preload the movie through scripting, Director doesn’t load the movie into memory until the window is opened, which can cause a noticeable pause. To load the first frame of the movie, use the preLoadMovie method.
Page 408: Controlling The Appearance Of A Miaw
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide window("stage").rect window("stage").drawRect window("stage").sourceRect sourceRect A property of the movie’s stage that indicates the “template” rect position at which the stage should appear. When a window is opened that is to display a particular movie, that movie’s...
Page 409 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide General General properties let you set what type of MIAW you want, its title, whether it is resizable, and more. Some properties are for Windows® only. Title lets you set the text that appears in the title bar of the window.
Page 410 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide window("window_name").appearanceOptions.mask = member("my mask") Drag Mask lets you use a bitmap cast member as a mask to determine which areas of the window a user can click to move the window. Use this to create your own custom non-rectangular title bars or to make the entire window draggable.
Page 411: Controlling Miaw Layering
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Setting default MIAW properties using the Display Template A movie can define the default properties of its window by using the Display Template. When a MIAW is created, the movie’s Display Template properties determine the initial state and appearance of the window. You can set the Display Template properties through the Property inspector when authoring a movie.
Page 412: Listing The Current Miaws
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • (Windows only) This event handler is triggered when a user clicks on the Windows on trayIconMouseDown system tray icon. This event is only meaningful if the property is set to systemTrayIcon true • (Windows only) A user double-clicks the Windows system tray icon. This event is...
Page 413: Chapter 20: Using Xtras
Using the XML Parser Xtra ® ® The XML Parser Xtra lets Adobe Director movies read, parse, and use the contents of Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents. Using the XML Parser Xtra requires that you understand the structure and content of the documents you are parsing.
Page 414 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide An XML document is well formed if it has a coherent nesting structure and no misplaced angle brackets. Some XML documents can be associated with a document type declaration (DTD) file that describes specific rules for the XML tags the document uses.
Page 415 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • Character data has the property name !CHARDATA, and the value is the string representation of the character data. • A processing instruction is a property with the name !PROCINST; its value is another two-element property list.
Page 416 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Node Script Return value if an element Return value if text Return value if Processing Instruction String representing the name of the attributeName[N] VOID VOID Nth attribute. (N is an integer) is returned if no Nth attribute VOID exists or there is a script error.
Page 417 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide To refer to the text data that occurs within a particular tag, use the property. The text is a child node of the tag text that contains it, so you need an additional level of child reference. This script returns the following string, which...
Page 418 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide put gParserObject.child[1].child[1].attributeName.count -- 2 Parser objects and XML nodes As described in earlier sections, the parser object in the variable stores the root of the parsed tree gParserObject of the XML document. An XML node is a node within the tree. The root node is like an XML node because almost all the operations on XML nodes can be applied to the root node.
Page 419: Using The Mui Xtra
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide The XML Parser Xtra adheres strictly to the XML specification, which states that XML documents are, by default, encoded using the UTF-8 character set. If the document is not encoded in UTF-8, it must include a declaration of its character set in the first line of the document.
Page 420 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide What the MUI Xtra contains The MUI Xtra contains several components that you can use to create dialog boxes: • Lingo elements: • Alert • FileOpen • FileSave • GetItemPropList • GetUrl • GetWidgetList •...
Page 421 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide To create an alert: Use the Alert function. To create an open file dialog box: Use the FileOpen function. To create a save file dialog box: Use the FileSave function. To create a dialog box for entering a URL: Use the GetUrl function.
Page 422 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Before opening the dialog box, use the Initialize command to specify which list Director uses as the source of defini- tions for the overall dialog box. The following are the overall dialog box properties and their possible values:...
Page 423 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Window beginning Additional components as desired. This can include nested sets of additional horizontal and vertical groups, horizontal and vertical dividers, labels, and interface features such as buttons, check boxes, editable fields, and other interface elements.
Page 424 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Component Possible setting for #value Examples #WindowEnd (Ignored) (Not applicable) #GroupHBegin (Ignored) (Not applicable) #GroupHEnd (Ignored) (Not applicable) #GroupVBegin (Ignored) (Not applicable) #GroupVEnd (Ignored) (Not applicable) #label String "label: ", "Long Label Text Here" #IntegerSliderH...
Page 425 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide set tempItemPropList = GetItemPropList(theBox) set the type of tempItemPropList = #pushButton set the title of tempItemPropList = "OK" append (aWindowItemList, duplicate(tempItemPropList)) -- Set up end of overall group set tempItemPropList = GetItemPropList(theBox) set the type of tempItemPropList = #groupHBegin...
Page 426 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Attribute Possible values Can be set for #sliderStyle A linear list of one or both of #ticks or #value. Sliders #layoutStyle A list of values that includes one or more of the following: #minimize, All items that aren’t grouped by the #lockPosition, #lockSize, #centerH, #right, #left, #centerV, #top, #bottom.
Page 427 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Property Title Available attributes #popupList #popupStyle, #valueList, #layoutStyle #pushButton #textSize, #layoutStyle #radioButton #textSize, #layoutStyle #toggleButton #textSize, #layoutStyle #windowBegin None #windowEnd None The GetWidgetList function also returns a list of supported general purpose dialog box component types.
Page 428 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • Always make sure there is always a way to close a dialog box. Otherwise, it can be impossible to dismiss it. • Because you can update items, if text changes you can enable an OK button that is unavailable until the text changes.
Page 429: Using The Physics (Dynamiks) Xtra
With this Xtra, developers can focus on game play and user interaction, and not worry about creating a real-time physics engine with Lingo scripts. The Physics (dynamiks) Xtra is a fully integrated rigid body physics simulation engine for Adobe® Director®. The dynamics Xtra is supported on Windows and MAC platforms.
Page 430 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • Angular joint or Constraint • Raycasting Rigid Bodies The objects created in the physics world are rigid bodies that do not change shape. The geometry of the bodies does not vary for each advance of time in the simulation.
Page 431 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Collision Detection The physics world has methods to enable/disable collision between pairs of rigid bodies. In addition, you can register for a collision callback handler to be called when there is collision between pairs of bodies.
Page 432 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Set the properties of the Physics world using Lingo: The Physics world is initialized with the default set of properties. You must set the world properties like gravity, contactTolerance, and damping. Step the simulation: Call the simulate() method to step the Physics world. Each simulate call updates the Physics with new positions of the bodies based on mathematical calculations.
Page 433: Chapter 21: Making Director Movies Accessible
Chapter 21: Making Director Movies Accessible ® ® Adobe Director includes features that let you make existing and new movies accessible to users who have hearing, visual, or mobility impairment. The U.S. government has stated that multimedia created for the purpose of fulfilling a government contract must be made accessible to computer users with disabilities.
Page 434 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Attach the Accessibility Target behavior Create a shape sprite on the Stage using the Rectangle tool in the Tools panel. The accessibility behaviors use this sprite to create a focus ring around other sprites that you define as navigable with the keyboard. The focus ring shows which sprite is the current selection during keyboard navigation.
Page 435 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide In the dialog box that appears, select the accessibility group name for the scene, such as Accessibility_Scene_1. Click OK. Select the editable text sprite if it is not selected. Using the arrow keys, move the sprite until it is no longer on the visible part of the Stage.
Page 436 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide All the sprites can now be navigated to and activated with the keyboard. You can repeat this process for each scene in your movie. Enabling text-to-speech You can add the ability for your text cast members to be spoken aloud by the computer. You can also specify text to be spoken when sprites are selected.
Page 437 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Attach the keyboard navigation behaviors to sprites in your scene. For more information, see Enabling keyboard navigation. Drag the Accessibility Speak Enable/Disable behavior from Library palette to the sprite that should toggle the text-to-speech behaviors.
Page 438: Accessibility Scripting With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide These words are replaced in the captioning display sprite by later sections of the text being spoken. You select the number of words in each section by using the remaining text boxes in the dialog box.
Page 439: Deploying Accessible Movies
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Temporarily pause the speech • Use the method. voicePause() Some speech engines might continue to speak for several seconds after the pause method is used. Resume the speech • Use the method. voiceResume() Stop speech synthesis •...
Page 440: System Requirements
Mac OS8.6 and later include text-to-speech software. No additions are necessary. Understanding the Xtra download process Because the Speech Xtra is from Adobe, it is considered a trusted download. The user does not have to interact with ® any dialog boxes for the download to occur. When a user encounters accessible Shockwave Player content for the first time, the Xtra downloads automatically.
Page 441: Chapter 22: Managing Memory
Chapter 22: Managing Memory ® ® Adobe Director has effective built-in memory management that is sufficient for most projects. To make memory available for new sprites, Director simply unloads the cast members used for sprites that are no longer on the Stage.
Page 442: Loading And Unloading Individual Cast Members
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Physical Memory shows the amount of actual RAM installed in the system. Total Used indicates how much RAM is being used for a movie. Free Memory indicates how much more memory is currently available in your system.
Page 443: Preloading Digital Video
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide There are several more script terms related to memory management. For a complete list, see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel. Preloading digital video It is recommended that you do not preload digital video cast members. Digital video is played by streaming the video file from a disk.
Page 444: Chapter 23: Managing And Testing Director Projects
Director Projects ® ® By carefully managing the resources that go into your Adobe Director movies, you can avoid problems that might arise when you make changes to the movie or change the location of the movie file or its linked media. Good testing practices can help you discover problems early in the project while they are still small and easily remedied.
Page 445: About Testing Movies To Avoid Problems
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Naming sprites makes changes to your script even easier. For example, the following script refers to a sprite by its number: sprite (1).text Instead, use the following script: sprite("input").member.text When you use the marker name to refer to a frame, you can move the marker without breaking the script.
Page 446: Printing Movies
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • If you encounter a problem, try to isolate the problem in a new Director file that incorporates only the problem feature or item. Make a list of the minimum steps that are required to reproduce the problem in a new file. This process usually reveals the source of the problem and whether the problem is limited to one feature, or if it is caused by the interaction of two or more features in your movie.
Page 447: Resources
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Range prints the range of frames specified in the Begin and End text boxes. To specify which frames in the defined range to print, select one of the following Include options: Every Frame is the default setting and prints every frame that is specified in Range.
Page 448: Chapter 24: Packaging Movies For Distribution
For more information about how to distribute Xtra extensions with projectors, see TechNote 13965 in the Director Support Center at www.adobe.com/go/director_support. Although the note might refer to Director 7, the infor- mation is the same for more recent versions of Director.
Page 449: Shockwave Player Browser Compatibility
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Shockwave player browser compatibility Shockwave Player can play Director movies in the following browsers: ® • For Microsoft Windows®: An Intel Pentium IV with 256 MB of available RAM running Windows XP SP2 or ®...
Page 450: About Xtra Extensions
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Specify the browser to use for previewing Select Edit > Preferences > Network. Note: If you are using a Mac OS X operating system, select the Director menu, instead of the Edit menu, to access Preferences.
Page 451: Managing Xtra Extensions For Distributed Movies
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide If a user chooses to download an Xtra extension, Director retrieves the Xtra extension from the URL specified in Xtrainfo.txt, using the Verisign download security system. Verisign is a standard means of downloading software from secure sources.
Page 452: About Distribution Formats
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Note: Another way to include Xtra extensions with a movie is to create an Xtras folder containing all required Xtra extensions in the same folder as a projector file. This allows you to see which Xtra extensions are included without opening the movie.
Page 453: Creating Shockwave Content
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Distributing movies on a disk Whenever a movie plays from a disk, it accesses all external linked files the same way that it did in the authoring environment. All linked media (bitmaps, sounds, digital videos, and so on) must be in the same relative location as they were when you created the movie.
Page 454: Changing Publish Settings
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Changing Publish settings Publish settings let you determine what type of Director movie you want to create and what properties that movie will have. Access Publish settings • Select File > Publish Settings to open the Publish Settings dialog box.
Page 455 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • To publish a Shockwave file (DCR) without an HTML file, select Shockwave File (DCR), and enter a name for the .dcr file. You can set additional Shockwave options from the Shockwave tab. For more information, see...
Page 456 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Setting Files options Use the Files tab to set file options for projectors. By default a projector consists of just the current movie, but you can add external casts to the movie by using this tab. You can also exclude Xtra extensions from your projector.
Page 457 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Click the Files tab. To set the Primary movie components for your projector, select from the following options: Include Linked Cast Files Lets you automatically include all linked cast files to the primary movie. Including the linked cast files in the movie increases its size.
Page 458 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • Click Save As Default to apply the settings to all movies created during the session. These settings are lost after you close and re-open Director • Click Defaults to revert to the default settings.
Page 459 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • To make the DCR movie match the dimensions of your DIR movie, select Match Movie in the Dimensions field. If you use the default Match Movie setting in the Dimensions field, values in the...
Page 460 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide To let users resize the Stage without resizing the sprites, select Expand Stage Size. The movie is aligned within the browser based on the align tags that you specify in step 5. Example of Expand Stage Size To specify align tags for your movie, use the Horizontal Align and Vertical Align menus.
Page 461: Using Dswmedia Folders And The Support Folder To Publish Shockwave Content
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • In the Poster Frame field, enter the frame number from your movie’s Score that you want to appear as a JPEG image for users who are unable to view your movie. • To specify compression for the image, move the Quality slider to the desired compression setting. The higher the percentage, the less the image is compressed.
Page 462: Converting Movies Created In Previous Versions Of Director
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide The dswMedia folder is automatically created in the relative path if you have not disabled the option Copy Linked And Dependent Files in the Files tab of the Publish Settings dialog box. Use the following procedure to test Shockwave content with linked media when you have disabled the Copy Linked And Dependent Files option.
Page 463 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide The Choose Files dialog box Click Next. The File Upgrade - Configure Settings dialog box appears. The Configure Settings dialog box Select the movie for which you want to specify a code page. Select a code page for the movie from the Select Code Page pop-up menu. To use the same code page for all the movies, select Apply The Same Code Page To All.
Page 464: About Projectors
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide The Select Code Page dialog box For each movie, select the code page that was used to create the previous version. Select Apply To All if you want the same code page to be used for upgrading all the movies.
Page 465 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Shockwave makes the projector use the Shockwave Player installed in a user’s system instead of including the player code in the projector file. If the Shockwave Player is not available when the movie runs, the movie prompts the user to download it.
Page 466 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Create a fast-start projector Create a new folder on your computer desktop. In Director, select Modify > Movie > Xtras. Select the name of each Xtra extension, deselect Include in Projector for each, and then click OK.
Page 467: About Cross-Platform Projectors
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide About cross-platform projectors Cross-platform projectors are projectors created on one platform or operating system that can run on another. In Director’s case, you can create projectors that will play on the Mac OS X system, but are created or authored on a Windows system and vice versa.
Page 468: Exporting Digital Video And Frame-By-Frame Bitmaps
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide At the end of a project, use Update Movies to compress all your movies and casts at once. Update and compress movies and casts Select Xtras > Update Movies. Select one of the following Action options: Update converts movies from Director 5 or later versions to the latest file format.
Page 469 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide You can export QuickTime digital video from either the Windows or the Mac version of Director. QuickTime must be installed on the system to export as QuickTime (version 4 or later is required for Windows; version 3 or later is required for Mac).
Page 470: Setting Quicktime Export Options
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Setting QuickTime export options Use the QuickTime Options dialog box to specify options for exporting a movie as a QuickTime digital video. This dialog box appears when you click the Options button in the Export dialog box and QuickTime is the specified format.
Page 471: About Organizing Movie Files
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide To determine the compression quality and resulting file size when using the chosen compressor, use the Quality slider. A higher-quality setting preserves the appearance of the images and motion but increases the size of the file.
Page 472 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide The size of your movie may be less of an issue if you use streaming Shockwave content. For more information, see Setting movie playback options.
Page 473: Chapter 25: Using Shockwave Player
Chapter 25: Using Shockwave Player ® ® Adobe Director movies can use the Internet in various ways: hosting multiuser sessions such as chats and games, streaming movies and sounds, retrieving data from the network, and interacting with a browser. Whether it is distributed on disk or downloaded from the Internet, a movie can use an active network connection to retrieve linked files, send information, open web pages, and perform many other network activities.
Page 474: About Network Operations
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide A challenge of authoring for Internet streaming is ensuring that all cast members have been downloaded by the time the movie needs them. To avoid missing cast members, make sure that all the cast members required for a particular scene have been downloaded before beginning the scene.
Page 475: Setting Shockwave Playback Options
To view Shockwave content, your users must have the Shockwave Player, which comes preinstalled on many computer systems. The player is also available for free downloading from the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/. The Shockwave Player includes a volume control and a standard context menu that appears when a user right-clicks (Windows®) or Control-clicks (Mac®) a movie.
Page 476: About Creating Multiuser Applications
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • Include Cast Member Comments lets you include comments you might have entered in the Comments text box of the Property inspector for your cast members. You can then use Lingo or JavaScript syntax to access the comments in the DCR file.
Page 477: Checking Whether Media Elements Are Loaded With Lingo Or Java Script Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Loop Until Media In Marker Is Available loops the playhead to a specified frame until all the media elements for the frame at the specified marker have been downloaded. Loop Until Media In Frame Is Available loops the playhead to a specified frame until all the media elements that are required for a certain frame have been downloaded.
Page 478: Downloading Files From The Internet With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Downloading files from the Internet with Lingo or JavaScript syntax Lingo or JavaScript syntax uses the Internet’s resources by obtaining files from the Internet. The data is copied to the local disk or cache. After data is available on the local computer, use these scripts to retrieve the data for the movie.
Page 479 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Retrieve a file as text Use the method or the method to start retrieving text. For more information about getNetText() postNetText this method, see the Scripting Reference topics in the Director Help Panel. Use the method to return the text you retrieved with .
Page 480: Retrieving Network Operation Results With Lingo Or Javascript Syntax
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide Retrieving network operation results with Lingo or JavaScript syntax Lingo or JavaScript syntax can retrieve network operation results, such as a text result, a unique identifier for a network operation, a file’s MIME type, and the date an HTTP item was last modified.
Page 481 ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • Searching for files on a user’s system with , or getNthFileNameInFolder() searchCurrentFolder() searchPath() • Permanently downloading files from a URL to the user’s local drive using is disabled in downloadNetThing() Shockwave. (This function works in authoring and projector.)
Page 482: Testing Your Movie
Windows The \Adobe\Shockwave 8 subfolder of the system folder; the system folder is typically c:\winnt\system32 or c:\windows\system Mac The OS 9 path is the System Folder:Extensions:Adobe:Shockwave 8 folder. The OS X path is /my Volume/Users/<me>/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Shockwave/prefs. method cannot write to a file that is on a CD.
Page 483: About Downloading Speed
ADOBE DIRECTOR 11.0 User Guide • Compare a streaming version of the movie to a nonstreaming version to see if the performance is different. Some smaller movies might work better without streaming playback. • Verify that all linked media elements appear correctly. To see if the movie correctly handles an error, try forcing the linked media elements to fail.
Page 484: Index
Index Numerics Airbrush tool, Paint window 107, automatically adjusting line spacing 3D behaviors Align window 74, 76 AVI files 458 about 323 alternate image options 449 axis action 325 ancestor scripts 287 Camera Rotate tool 302 applying 327 Animate In Background projector colors 326 groups 328 option 454...
Page 485 INDEX 474 types 323 boxes compared to sprites 17 behaviors, definition of 22 creating 325 copying 49 Bevel filter 139 properties 331 creating 18, 37 bevel, 3D text 320 boxes, text 188 cursors, animated 297 binary operations, vectors 383 brightness, changing 166 defined 35 bitmaps browsers...
Page 486 INDEX 475 text, creating 176 turning on and off 15 Reset Monitor option 454 thumbnail view 54 character formatting 178 troubleshooting 167 thumbnails, custom 56 character sets, XML 407 Color menu 160 transition properties 173 check boxes 290 color palette 20 types of 17 child models 339 Color Palettes window 162, 163...
Page 487 INDEX 476 fields 182 decelerating sprites 91 protected formats 441 film loops 98 decreasing view of Stage 12 Publish command 442 guides 75 Default Tool palette 32 testing 471 hypertext links 182 default workspace, settings of 9 URLs 441 libraries 58 deleting Xtra extensions 439, 440 MIAWs (movie in a window) 395...
Page 488 INDEX 477 palettes 164, 166 controlling with Lingo or JavaScript syntax 197 Fade To Black/White 163 patterns 123 creating cast members 194 protected movies 441 fading sprites 83 editing 196 Favorite colors, editing 161 sprite frames 94 events 218 field text 175 sprites and cast members 20 importing 193 fields...
Page 489 INDEX 478 navigating 14, 17 handlers managing projects 433 Paste Relative command 101 anti-aliasing, turning on and off sound 239 Preload options 39 text 177 behaviors 281 printing 435 Include Original Data For Editing callback 207 option 43 returning to 291 events 379 increasing view of Stage 12 selecting within a sprite 64...
Page 490 INDEX 479 bitmap controls 118 keyboards lines, Paint window tools 109 browser support 471 accessibility navigation 422 Lingo syntax cast member properties, changing cross-platform equivalents 295 3D text methods and properties press detection 295 cursor location detection 295 animating sprites 102 trigger behaviors 324 downloading files 467 assigning cast members to sprites...
Page 491 INDEX 480 file structure 433 media Xtra extensions 29 commands 312 media files 44 memory cylinders 331 sounds 239 MIAWs (movie in a window) 396 defined 308, 312, 329 testing 450 preloading extruder 337 digital video links, hypertext 182 mesh generator 333 sounds, importing 239 list view mode in Property inspector particle systems 334...
Page 492 INDEX 481 properties 370 rendering properties 390 downloading files 467 mouse safe mode 450 results, retrieving 469 clicks, detecting 292 saving as Shockwave content 442 security 469 cursor colors, animating 296 selecting colors for 20 speed 472 Flash movies 198 setting properties of 20 networks, local 442 pointer location detection 295...
Page 493 INDEX 482 opening panels and panel groups 27 definition of 23 keyboards 295 optimizing cast members 135 saving, opening, and removing 26 projectors 456 Options menu, Cast panel 50, 51 panels Play Cast Member action 280 Options menu, location of 23 closing, opening, and collapsing play done method 291 organizing...
Page 494 INDEX 483 primitives 329, 330 transitions 173 radio buttons 290 printing movies 435 tweening 89, 91, 93 projectors vector shapes 157 radius properties 331 real-time recording 101 about 453 vectors 382 rect property 396 creating 453 Xtra cast members 59 Rectangle tool 152 cross-platform 456 Property inspector...
Page 495 INDEX 484 saturation, color 166 scripts, testing and debugging scripts options 447 Save All command 58 playback options 464 scroll bar, displaying on Stage 185 Save As Shockwave Movie command Preview in Browser command 438 scrolling text 189 Publish command 442 Save Bitmap command 186 searching for safe mode 450...
Page 496 INDEX 485 streaming Shockwave Audio 245 defined 61 Stage streaming, formats supported 239 Direct To Stage option 304 cast members, creating in 38 synchronizing with cue points draggable 293 color 160 247, 262 duration, changing 78 compared to Score 13 transitions, playing during 172 editable 293 definition of 9, 11...
Page 497 INDEX 486 events 169 text-to-speech scripting 425, 427 settings, changing 93 sound 247 textures speed 91 commands 315 sprite properties 91 defined 311, 351 sprites 89 tabbing, text 189 interactions with models 312 tips 92 tabs in panel groups, rearranging 25 mesh generator 333 tabs, Cast panel methods 353...
Page 498 INDEX 487 setting attributes with Lingo or JavaScript 153 Verisign Xtra downloading 440 about 402 versions, previous attributes 406 opening movies 52, 451 character sets 407 Update Movies command 456 data, sending from Flash to Director 204 vertex nodes 404, 407 colors 150 parser objects 402, 407 defined 150...

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Director 11