Overview and Definitions

The Basic commodity in Director is the Director Movie:

Director movies are interactive multimedia pieces that can include animation, sound, text, digital video, and many other types of media. A movie can be as small and simple as an animated logo or as complex as an online chat room or game.

You're probably familiar with Director movies in the Shockwave movie format, which play in web browsers.

A movie may link to external media or be one of a series of movies that refer to each other. Director's interactivity lets the movie respond to events and change in specified ways.

Director divides lengths of time into a series of frames, similar to the frames in a celluloid movie.

When creating and editing movies, you typically work in the four key windows that make up Director's work area:

the Stage

, the rectangular area where the movie plays(Fig. 3.1):

Macromedia Director stage Window

the Score

, where the movie is assembled(Fig. 3.2);

Macromedia Director Score Window

one or more Cast windows

, where the movie's media elements are assembled (Fig. 3.3);

Macromedia Director Cast Window

and

the Control Panel

, which controls how the movie plays back(Fig. 3.4).

Macromedia Director Control Panel

To create a new movie:

• Choose File > New > Movie.