classNotes 03 | FixITsystems

Reversing Animations in Director – Chapter 3

When selecting a color for a sprite, stage, etc, remember to single click
the color, and hold briefly.

tempo – the frame rate (or frames per second) pg. 76

hint: double clicking on the magnifying glass on the tool pallet has
the same effect as setting the stage to 100% and centering the stage in the
stage window. pg. 78

hint: When the spacebar is held down, and the stage window has focus,
the pointer becomes a hand, and you can "pan" around the stage.

Increasing or decreasing the tempo changes the speed at which Director
plays the movie, but playback for video movies and audio files within the
movie are not effected. pg. 81

Three ways to import Media Elements

CTRL+R – keyboard shortcut for Importing media elements

File -> Import

Over the Cast Window -> Right Click -> Import

Director can import 3 types of text files: (pg. 83)

RTF (Rich text)

HTML (Hyper Text
Markup Language)

plain ASCII text.

hint: you can drag cast members within the cast window to re-arrange
their location for more logical groupings – pg. 84

hint: you can sort a group of cast members within the cast window by
selecting Modify > Sort (this cannot be done within the list view
however)

CTRL+S to save (keyboard shortcut) pg. 85

Matte and Background Transparent inks both remove the part of the image which
is the background color for that sprite. pg. 87

The Matte ink, does not remove part of an image which has the background
color for that sprite, if that part of the image is surrounded (enclosed) by
other color(s).

hint: Shift+Enter, when the numeric keypad is off, will generate a
temporary preview of the Director Movie. – pg. 88

Inserting key frames can be done by selecting Insert > Keyframe,
CTRL+ALT+K, or Right Clicking>Insert Keyframe – pg. 90

Holding the Shift Key, while moving an object, will allow a sprite to
move only straight up/down or straight left/right. – pg. 91

Sprites can be copy CTRL+C and pasted CTRL+V within the Score – pg. 93

To reverse an animation sequence, select the sprite(s) in the score you would like
to reverse, and the select Modify > Reverse. – pg. 93

Transitions and Audio Files – Chapter 4

Hints for using Transitions

Transition – visual effects used to reveal or remove objects on
the stage. In traditional film making this comes from wipes, dissolves, etc.

Only use when necessary

Useful for major changes between scenes

Don’t use just because you can

Cuts are most common transition, and they work on the basis of no
transition. i.e. you are here, now you are there.

Hints for using Sound FX

Try re-using the same sounds over and over to reduce project file
size

Sample Rate – how often the sound is sampled

– similar to the frame rate of a movie

The higher the sample rate, the larger the file.

Typical Sample Rates are 8,12,22,and 44 KHz Although there
are others

Bit Depth – How much information is stored to determine the number
of changes in
amplitude (volume)

– similar to color bit depth in a bitmap image file

Typically 8 or 16 bits

Number of Channels – Stereo or Mono

Typically 1 (mono) or 2 (Stereo) for the computer

If you take a stereo file, and make it mono, you effectively
cut the file size in half

Visual Diagrams of Audio Sampling – http://people.uis.edu/jduva1/courses/455/sound.html

Types of Sound Files Director supports

AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format)

WAV (WAVE – Windows Audio File)

SWA (Mac. sound file format)

Sounds can be made to loop, or play continuously, throughout the movie. –
pg. 106

Set looping by the check box under the sound tab, from the Property
Inspector – pg. 107

hint: To keep your Director file small, reuse as many sounds as
possible. – pg. 108

Video Information

hint: Digital video performance is best when video is scaled up or
down by a multiple of 2, for example, 25%, 50%, 100%, 200%, 400%, etc. – pg.
113

Video file format supported by Director

AVI – Only on Windows machines however – Default Video Type

QuickTime – Only if QuickTime is already installed on the system –
Default Video Type

MPEG – Not a native format – Must have an Extra to use them.

Other Director Information from Chapter 4

Registration points – the way of determining the position (X and
Y) of sprites on the
stage in Director. Rotation is about the registration point. – pg. 98

Exchange Cast Members (CTRL+E) allows a Director Author to replace a
sprite on the stage, with a different Cast Member – pg. 102

hint: You can open the paint window by double clicking on the sprite
on the stage, or by double clicking on the cast member in the cast window. –
pg. 103

Flow Charts

Flow charts – used to show how a non-linear project will flow.
This is part of the pre-production process when developing a project.

Nonlinear project – when a project does not follow a set path, but
the user/program can diverge and skip sections, repeat a section, and/or go
back to previous sections.

Nonlinear examples:

Interactive CD-ROMs

Role-playing and FPS (First Person Shooter) games

The web

Boxes with a label, usually a title, represent each
"screen". Animations are not shown during a flowchart,
therefore screens can be animated or static.

Lines are drawn between boxes which show how a user can move from one
screen to another. Arrows should be used to help determine which
"direction" the end-user can go between screens.

Uses of a flowchart:

Make sure all necessary screens are visible

Make sure user doesn’t get "trapped" in a screen/down a
path

Help reduce actual design building time

Get something which boss/client can sign off – if a client wants
more, it will cost them more because they didn’t sign off on it.

Ensure that screens are not made, that cannot be seen because the
user can not click on a way to get there.