Creating animation components using Director

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Director is a tool for multimedia creation based on VideoWorks, one of the very first Macintoh programs. Director is currently the most popular tool for interactive CD-ROMs, and through a new technology called Shockwave it can now be used to enhance Web pages.

Director comprises two distinct layers of features:

For our project, we will use Director's animation features to create Shockwave files that will be displayed in our web pages.


Basic Operation:

  1. Set the computer display to 256 colors, so that your pictures will be automatically set to 8 bits per pixel of color content (this will reduce file size). You can use the Control Strip (displayed by clicking on the tab "protruding" from the margin of the screen):
    using Control Strip to change number of colors on screen
  2. Open the windows you will need for this first part of the animation process:
    the Paint window the Cast window
  3. Set the width and height of the animation to a small size for quicker download:
    the Movie Properties
dialog

Animation contents

  1. Avoid registration problems by animating characters that fly or swim. Walking characters must be aligned with the ground accurately to yield convincing motions.
  2. Minimize the length of the animation by making sure that the beginning and the end of the motion are the same. This allows you to loop the animation (i.e., play it indefinitely), thus getting greater mileage from a small file.

Import images

  1. If you want to add pictures from outside sources (e.g., from the scanner) to your animation, use the File-->Import command:
    importing a picture
  2. After importing, thumbnails of the images will appear in the Internal Cast window (if necessary, display it using the Cast command in the Window menu). Double-clicking the thumbnail opens the picture in the Paint window, where it can be modified as needed.

Paint images

  1. To create new animation images, click on the "+" button at the top-left of the Paint window. This will create a blank new cast member.
    the Plus button in the Paint window
  2. Use the painting tools in the Paint window's toolbox (similar to the toolbox in Photoshop) to create your picture.
  3. For pictures representing the various positions of an animation character, it is helpful to modify a copy of the previous picture rather than start from scratch each time.
  4. You may also want to see previous and/or following positions as you draw. Display the Onion Skin palette using the View menu, then click on the first button on the left of the palette to turn Onion Skin on. Use the second and third controls from the left to select how many previous/following images you want to see. This only works if your pictures appear sequentially in the Internal Cast window.
    the Onion Skin palette


Additional Info:


Copyright 1997 by Sandro Corsi. Last modified 9 MAR 97