Table of Contents

Lesson 1. Director Basics.
Creating a Folder on Your Hard Drive . Opening Director. Opening the Toolbar. Using the Control Panel. Viewing the Cast. Opening the Score. Opening the Text and Paint Windows. Using the Help System. Creating a New Movie. Importing an Image. Adding Sprites to the Stage. Creating Text Cast Members. Changing the Color of Cast Members. Adding Sprites to the Score. Making Changes to Multiple Sprites. Sequencing Sprites. Playing a Movie.

Lesson 2. Animated Bullet Lists.
Opening the File. Adding Text Cast Members. Using the Paint Window. Placing Sprites in the Score. Positioning Sprites on the Stage. Positioning Sprites on the Stage. Aligning Sprites with the Align Panel. Naming Cast members. Animating Text Using Keyframes. Repeating the Animation Process. Aligning Sprites Using the Sprite Inspector.

Lesson 3. Reversing Animations.
Setting the Stage Color and Movie Tempo. Importing Media Elements into the Cast. Using Ink Effects on the Background Image. Animating a Graphic Image. Reversing Animations.

Lesson 4. Transitions, Sounds, and Video.
Setting Registration Points. Exchanging Cast Members. Using a Screen Transition. Adding Sounds to the Score. Adding Digital Video.

Lesson 5. Adding Interactivity.
Building a Menu Screen. Writing a Lingo Script. Creating a Destination Screen. Adding Markers for Navigation. Creating Navigation Scripts. Creating a Projector.

Lesson 6. More Animation Techniques.
Setting Movie Properties. Setting Keyframes. Creating a Circular Path Animation. Animating with Real-Time Recording.

Lesson 7. Keyframes and Layers.
Creating a Custom Stage. Importing the Media. Setting the Movie Tempo. Placing the Graphics on the Stage. Copying Sprites to a New Location. Creating the Animation with Keyframes. Playing Selected Frames Only. Finishing the Basic Animation. Layering the Sprites. Exchanging Cast Members. Adding Background Music.

Lesson 8. Film Loops and Buttons.
Exchanging Cast Members. Creating a Film Loop. Creating Key Frames with a Film Loop. Layering the Sprites. Reversing an Animation. Creating Buttons. Adding Interactivity with the Behavior Inspector. Adding a Second Button. Creating a Behavior to Pause the Movie.

Lesson 9. Built-in Behaviors.
Placing the Graphics. Adding Behaviors. Using the Behavior Inspector. Modifying Behaviors.

Lesson 10. Custom Cursors.
Changing a Cursor. Sprite Bounding Areas. Changing the Sprite. Making a New and Animated Cursor. Applying the Cursor. Modifying the Frame Rate.

Lesson 11. Alpha Channels.
Defining the Alpha Channel. Creating the Basic Animation. Applying Different Inks. Creating an Alpha Mask. Layering the Mask. On Your Own.

Lesson 12. Sprite Properties and Palettes.
Importing Media Elements. Setting a Movie's Stage Size, Background Color, and Default Palette. Setting Cast and Sprite Preferences. Organizing the Cast. Setting the Location of a Sprite. Snapping to the Grid. Creating a Behavior for Navigational Elements. On Your Own. Reducing the File Size of a Bitmap. Finding an Index Color Number. Modifying Sprite Properties. Adding a Background Sound.

Lesson 13. Markers and Navigation.
Inserting Markers. Building a Destination Screen. Exchanging Cast Members. Navigating to a Marker. Looping on a Frame. Using Relative Markers. Simplifying Scripts Using Relative Markers.

Lesson 14. Color Cycling and Blends.
Adding a Marker for the Closing Sequence. Changing the Background Transparent Color. Animating with Color Cycling. Tweening a Blend of Sprites. Setting a Gradient. Cycling Gradient Colors.

Lesson 15. Shockwave for Director.
Obtaining Shockwave Plug-Ins and the Browser Software. Creating and Playing a Shockwave Movie. Preparing a Movie for Streaming Shockwave. On Your Own.

Lesson 16. Learning Lingo.
Choosing Between a Script and a Behavior. Creating a Simple Lingo Script. Testing a Script. Using the Message Window. Examining Lingo Elements. Examining Types of Lingo Scripts. Creating Different Types of Scripts.

Lesson 17. Handlers and Events.
What Events Are. Watching Events. Logging Events. On Your Own. Handlers and Handler Hierarchy. Parameters and Return Values.

Lesson 18. Navigating with Lingo.
Setting Up for This Lesson. Checking Movie Properties and Filling in the Score. Using Lingo to Wait at the Main Menu. Using Markers to Label Frames. Branching to a Marker. Adding a Back Button. On Your Own. Branching to Another Movie. Implementing a Quit Button.

Lesson 19. Advanced Navigation.
Setting Up for This Lesson. Adding Visual Feedback Using mouseEnter. Completing the Feedback Sequence Using mouseLeave. Assigning Additional Scripts to a Sprite. On Your Own. Adding Audio Feedback. Using soundBusy to Check the Sound Channel. Using a repeat Structure. Navigating Relative to Markers.

Lesson 20. Synchronizing with Digital vVdeo.
Setting Up for This Lesson. Importing a Digital Video. Playing a Digital Video Cast Member. Creating Animated Text. Using Cue Points in the QuickTime Movie. Synchronizing the Animation Using the Tempo Channel. Synchronizing the Animation Using Lingo. Using Variables. Adding Comments and a Global Variable to a Movie Script. Moving Text Off the Stage. Getting Timing Information from a Digital Video. Synchronizing with a Voice-Over in a Movie. Adding a Background by Moving Channels. Using a Transition to Play Over a Digital Video.

Lesson 21. Controlling Sprites with Lingo.
Setting Up for This Lesson. Using the Score to Animate the Arm. Adding Sprites to the Stage. Using rollOver to Control Button States. On Your Own.

Lesson 22. Optimizing Scripts.
Using a Local Variable. Using a case Statement. Using Parameters. Using a Global Variable. Using Symbols in a case Statement. Using Symbols as Parameters. Using Lingo to Play Sounds. Using the Memory Inspector and Preloading Cast Members. On Your Own.

Lesson 23. Keyboard Control.
Determining Key Codes. Setting Up for this Lesson. Creating the Drawing Dot. Using Key Codes to Control Action Using the Keyboard. Using a case Statement instead of if-then-else. Using Trails. Creating a Bounding Rectangle. Using the constraint of sprite to Limit Movement. Using the width of sprite to Increase Drawing Speed. Adding Key Codes for the Up and Down Arrows. Using the keyPressed . Using the optionDown and the stageColor to Add Features. On Your Own.

Lesson 24. Using Lists and Multiple Casts.
Setting Up for This Lesson. Planning a Strategy for Multiple Casts. Creating a New External Cast. Moving Assets to an External Cast. Linking an Existing External Cast to a Movie. Creating a Template Layout in the Score. Using Lingo to Switch Casts. Controlling Navigation with an if-then or case Structure. Creating a Navigation List. Writing a Navigation Script. Deleting a Portion of a String. On Your Own.

Lesson 25. Databases and Lists.
Looking at the Finished Movie. Setting Up for This Lesson. Using a Field Cast Member. Creating a Property List from Field Text. Using the Watcher. Watching the Script in the Debugger. Retrieving Data from the Property List.

Lesson 26. Using a List Database.
Creating a Highlight. Using the the rect Function to Move Highlights. Retrieving Values with getaProp. Using Chunk Expressions. Concatenating Two Expressions. Setting the the memberNum Property. Sending Parameters. Combining Your Work into a Handler. Adding a Script to a Button. Adding Another Highlight. Changing Directions. Puppeting Sound.

Lesson 27. Using Lingo on the Web.
Setting Up for This Project. Selecting a Web Browser. Using gotoNetPage to Launch a Web Browser. Using a Test File on a Local Drive. Testing Your Movie on the Internet. Using a Field to Display Status Information. Using the Timer to Reset Status Messages. Using getNetText to Retrieve Data from the Internet. Creating a Scrolling Text Field. Using netDone and getNetText to Display the Downloaded Text. Using netError. Understanding Shockwave Movies. On Your Own.

Lesson 28. Date Conversions.
Retrieving the Current Date. How to Compare Dates. Creating a Date Calculator. Displaying the Current Date. Making Fields Editable. Making a Date Comparison. On Your Own. How to Prevent Your Movie from Running after a Certain Date. Creating a Handler for a hyperlinkClicked Event.

Lesson 29. Creating Hypertext.
Setting Up Your Movie for Hyperlinks. Assigning a Hyperlink.

Promotional Information

Learn to use Macromedia Director 7 and its built-in scripting language, Lingo, the powerful, cross-platform application that helps you create dynamic interactive movies for multimedia and Internet productions. Presented in manageable step-by-step sessions, this book helps you learn to use Director 7 and Lingo at your own pace. The enclosed cross-platform CD-ROM contains all the files you need to work through the lessons, plus completed versions with which you can compare your own results.