Director Interface
Macromedia Director is a program designed to create self-contained,
self-running programs. It can also be used too create content for
the web in the form of Shockwave. Director's interface is designed
around a movie/theatre metaphor. The media elements in a Director
project are called the Cast members, they interact on a Stage,
the Score keeps track of the media over time and you, as the
multimedia designer, become the Director of a movie.
A movie is the term used for a multimedia piece you create
with Director. Like animated motion pictures, Director movies can
contain animation, sound, special effects and even video. They also
have an added dimension not capable in a motion picture, interactivity.
Interactivity means that the movie responds to the choices you make.
Director movies can be as simple as an animated logo, or as complex
as an online chat room, or game. Every movie has several unique qualities,
including stage size, position, colour and much more. You specify
the movie properties (as well as properties for other elements) in
the Property Inspector.
When creating and editing movies, you typically work in 4 key windows
that make up Director's work area. These are: the Stage, the
rectangular area where the movie plays; one or more Cast windows,
where all the movie's media elements are stored; the Score,
where the movie is assembled and the Control Panel, which controls
how the movie plays..
- The Score organises and controls a movies content over time in channels and frames (see below). It also controls special effects such as transitions.
- The Cast window displays all the media that make up a movie, such as images, text, sounds, digital video. It can be viewed as series of icons (as above called Internal Cast) or in list view mode.
- The Stage is the 'screen' on which Director movies are projected. It is used to determine where all the visible media in a movie appears.
- The
Control Panel provides a set of controls similar to those on a
VCR.
- Channels are rows in the Score that contain effects (timing controls, transitions,
sounds) and sprites (visual media). Sprites are instances
of cast members on the Stage. The sprite channels represent how sprites
are displayed and controlled over time. Sprite channels are numbered,
allowing visible media to be layered on the Stage.
- Frames are the numbered columns in the Score. A frame is a single step, or moment in time in the movie, like frames in a traditional film. The playback head shows which frame is currently displayed on the Stage. By clicking any frame in the Score, the playback head will move to that location in the movie.
