Director MX Foundation
Duration 3 days
Objectives
Macromedia Director is the heavyweight CDROM and Web authoring tool. Its the most established application from the Macromedia stable, and as such offers the most powerful features for developing CDROM applications, online games and now with the addition of the 3D engine, online 3D gaming.
Despite its awesome power, Director still makes it surprisingly easy and quick to develop CD-ROMs and shockwave content. On this course you will learn how to build a complete CDROM from scratch, covering the score, the cast and the stage - the three key work areas of the application. In addition, you will learn how to import a variety of media including Video, JPEGS, MP3 and Photoshop files. Finally, you will use Director's built-in behaviours (pre-built scripts) to construct a web banner with animating 3D for export to the web.
Requirements
Good PC or Mac Skills. Knowledge of bitmap editors, such as Photoshop an advantage but not essential. Knowledge of any other graphics, sound or illustration program also helpful but not essential.
Course Outline
Introduction to Director
What can Director do exactly?
Examples: Animation, Interactive Movies, Web Games, CD ROMs
Director for the Web
Director for the Desktop
The Director MX Interface 1: Construction
The Stage Window
The Control Panel
The Cast Window
The Score Window
The Director MX Interface 2: Media
The Paint Editor
The Vector Shape Editor
The Text Editor
The Tool Bar
Quicktime, AVI and Realmedia
Importing bitmaps and other media
The Director MX Interface 3: Bits and Bobs
The Align Window
The Library Pallette
The Property Inspector
The Marker Window
Creating a simple Animation
Placing Cast Members on the Stage
Frames, Channels and Keyframes
Animating sprites in the score
Using Ink settings to overlay sprites
Editing multiple sprites with the property inspector
Movie control and preview
Starting and stopping the movie
Full-screen playback
Playing subsections of the score
Looping the score
Additional animation techniques
Tweening Animations
Frame-by-Frame animation
Reversing Animations
Circular Animation
Controling Playback Speed
Creating Film Loops
Using Sound
Audio File types and considerations
Sound editing applications
Adding sound to the score
Starting and Stopping Sound
Background Audio Loops
Sound Effects and Synchronisation
Behaviours
What are Behaviours?
Using the built-in behaviours in Director
What are Events and Actions?
Creating a Button using a custom Behaviour
Applying Behaviours to Sprites
Re-using Behaviours
Making a Projector
Overview of Projectors
Full Screen Option
Background Animation
Compression Settings
Saving the Projector
Previewing the Projector
Shockwave 3D
About Shockwave 3D
Using the 3D inspector
Creating extruded text
Using a Cast Member as a Surface Texture
Using Behaviours to rotate 3d text around an axis
Project: Bringing it all Together
A CD-ROM project or
A Web Banner project or
A project of your choosing
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