Afterburner, AppletAce, Attain, Attain Enterprise Learning System, Attain Essentials, Attain Objects for Dreamweaver,
Authorware, Authorware Attain, Authorware Interactive Studio, Authorware Star, Authorware Synergy, Backstage, Backstage
Designer, Backstage Desktop Studio, Backstage Enterprise Studio, Backstage Internet Studio, Contribute, Design in Motion,
Director, Director Multimedia Studio, Doc Around the Clock, Dreamweaver, Dreamweaver Attain, Drumbeat, Drumbeat 2000,
Extreme 3D, Fireworks, Flash, Fontographer, FreeHand, FreeHand Graphics Studio, Generator, Generator Developer’s Studio,
Generator Dynamic Graphics Server, Knowledge Objects, Knowledge Stream, Knowledge Track, Lingo, Live Effects,
Macromedia, Macromedia Contribute, Macromedia M Logo & Design, Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Xres, Macromind,
Macromind Action, MAGIC, Mediamaker, Object Authoring, Power Applets, Priority Access, Roundtrip HTML, Scriptlets,
SoundEdit, ShockRave, Shockmachine, Shockwave, Shockwave Remote, Shockwave Internet Studio, Showcase, Tools to Power
Your Ideas, Universal Media, Virtuoso, Web Design 101, Whirlwind and Xtra are trademarks of Macromedia, Inc. and may be
registered in the United States or in other jurisdictions including internationally. Other product names, logos, designs, titles,
words or phrases mentioned within this publication may be trademarks, servicemarks, or tradenames of Macromedia, Inc. or
other entities and may be registered in certain jurisdictions including internationally.
This guide contains links to third-party Web sites that are not under the control of Macromedia, and Macromedia is not
responsible for the content on any linked site. If you access a third-party Web site mentioned in this guide, then you do so at your
own risk. Macromedia provides these links only as a convenience, and the inclusion of the link does not imply that Macromedia
endorses or accepts any responsibility for the content on those third-party sites.
Apple Disclaimer
APPLE COMPUTER, INC. MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THE
ENCLOSED COMPUTER SOFTWARE PACKAGE, ITS MERCHANTABILITY OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES IS NOT PERMITTED BY SOME
STATES. THE ABOVE EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THIS WARRANTY PROVIDES YOU WITH
SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS. THERE MAY BE OTHER RIGHTS THAT YOU MAY HAVE WHICH VARY FROM
STAT E TO S TATE.
Writing: Jay Armstrong, George Brown, Stephanie Gowin, and, Tim Statler
Editing: Rosana Francescato, Mary Ferguson, Mary Kraemer, and Noreen Maher
Project Management: Stuart Manning
Production: Chris Basmajian, Caroline Branch, John Francis, and Patrice O’Neill
Multimedia: Aaron Begley and Benjamin Salles
First Edition: December 2002
Macromedia, Inc.
600 Townsend St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
Macromedia Director MX is the world’s foremost authoring tool for creating interactive
multimedia. Developers rely on Director to create attention-grabbing business presentations,
advertising kiosks, interactive entertainment, and educational products. To see some of the
exciting and varied ways in which developers use Director, visit the Director showcase at
www.macromedia.com/software/director/special/inspiration/. You can also see great examples of
Shockwave at www.shockwave.com.
Your users can view your completed Director movie over the Internet, either in a web browser or
independent of a browser,or in a stand-alone projector suitable for LANs and distribution
through CD-ROM and DVD-ROM.
System requirements
The following hardware and software are the minimum required to author Director movies:
• For Microsoft Windows: An Intel Pentium II 200 processor running Windows 98, 2000, or
XP; 128 MB of available RAM plus 100 MB of available disk space; a color monitor; and a
CD-ROM drive
• For the Macintosh: A Power Macintosh G3 running System 10.1 or later; 128 MB of available
RAM plus 100 MB of available disk space; a color monitor; and a CD-ROM drive
The following hardware and software are the minimum required to play back Director movies:
• For Microsoft Windows: An Intel Pentium II 200 processor running Windows 95/98, 2000,
XP, or NT version 4.0 or later; 32 MB of installed RAM; Netscape Navigator 4.0 or later,
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or later, or America Online 4.0 or later web browser; and a
color monitor
• For the Macintosh OS X: A Power Macintosh G3 running System 10.1 or later; 128 MB of
available RAM; Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.1 or later; and a color monitor
• For the Macintosh Classic operating system: A Power Macintosh 180 (G3 recommended)
running System 8.6 or later; 32 MB of installed RAM; Netscape 4.0 or later, Microsoft
Internet Explorer 4.5 or later, or America Online 4.0 or later web browser; and a color monitor
13
Installing Director
Follow these steps to install Director on either a Windows or a Macintosh computer.
To install Director on a Windows or a Macintosh computer:
1 Insert the Director CD into the computer’s CD-ROM drive and do one of the following:
• In Windows, if the installation program doesn’t start automatically, choose Run from the
Windows Start menu, type d:\setup.exe (where d is your CD-ROM drive letter), and
click OK.
• On the Macintosh, double-click the Director Installer icon.
2 Follow the onscreen instructions.
3 If prompted, restart your computer.
What’s new in Director MX
New features in Director MX build on a proven development environment to make Director
more powerful, more tightly integrated with the Macromedia MX product family, and better
suited to create content that is accessible to everyone, even those with disabilities.
Developers can deliver rich multimedia content that integrates interactive audio, video, bitmaps,
vectors, text, fonts, and more. Director MX lets you work more effectively with the shared
Macromedia MX user interface, take advantage of unprecedented Macromedia Flash MX
integration, and deliver content to a broader audience.
Integration with other Macromedia MX products
Director MX is truly a part of the Macromedia MX family; this is evident in the workspace,
which matches those of other Macromedia MX products, as well as in other aspects of the
application’s strong integration with Macromedia Flash MX, ColdFusion MX, Flash
Communications Server MX, and other Macromedia MX products.
The Macromedia MX workspace lets you organize and customize an environment that’s shared
among Dreamweaver MX, Fireworks MX, and Macromedia Flash MX. The familiar and flexible
working environment helps you maximize productivity. Dockable panels can be grouped and
collapsed or expanded as needed for a smooth workflow.
Enhanced control of Macromedia Flash media through Lingo gives you complete access to all
properties and methods of Flash MX ActionScript objects. Greatly reduce your development time
by directly controlling all elements within your content that were authored in Flash MX.
Access to the Flash MX launch-and-edit feature lets you simply double-click a SWF file to
automatically launch Flash MX. Once you edit the file, it’s automatically saved and reimported
into Director MX. This roundtrip editing significantly streamlines your workflow.
Macromedia Flash Communication Server MX support allows you to use all the functional
capabilities provided by Flash Communication Server MX, including the ability to access
installed USB or FireWire cameras as well as installed microphones. You can combine the power
of the Flash Communication Server MX with Director MX to create multiuser games, distancelearning applications, and real-time collaboration forums. Previous users of the Shockwave
Multiuser Server are encouraged to use Flash Communication Server MX. However, the
Shockwave Multiuser Server is available on the Director installation CD.
Introduction14
Macromedia Flash MX importing
lets you take advantage of the power of Flash MX and its
lightweight vector graphics by importing Flash files into Director MX content. Director
developers can use this powerful combination to create the most effective multimedia content.
Macromedia Flash Remoting MX provides a secure, high-performance connection between
Macromedia ColdFusion MX and Shockwave Player. When used with Director MX, Flash
Remoting MX lets you easily pass data to ColdFusion MX and back.
Macromedia Fireworks MX integration gives Director MX developers access to the robust design
and production environment of Fireworks MX, allowing developers to create graphics for
presentations or Shockwave content. In addition, the tight integration between Fireworks MX
and Director MX offers a roundtrip workflow between these graphic and multimedia
environments. Integration features include launching and editing, Fireworks MX importing,
launching and optimizing, and the Fireworks MX Import Xtra.
Accessible content
Director MX allows you to create content that meets internationally recommended guidelines
and government accessibility requirements—including Section 508 guidelines. Director MX lets
you add text-to-speech, captioning, and tab-navigation features to web-based Shockwave content
or stand-alone applications on both Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh systems.
The cross-platform Speech Xtra makes Director MX applications “self-voicing”—that is, text is
converted to speech without a screen reader. The user’s operating system provides voices at the
system level. You can create completely customizable, accessible content that doesn’t rely on
screen readers. Any user with Shockwave Player and an installed speech engine (which ships with
current operating systems) can then use your accessible content.
Drag-and-drop accessibility behaviors in Director MX let you easily control speech and tab
ordering, as well as synchronize text with spoken words, in order to repurpose existing Director
applications to adhere to accessibility guidelines.
Enhanced power of Director
Director MX introduces many new features that improve on the renowned power of Director to
create rich media multimedia content that can be deployed on CDs, DVDs, or corporate
intranets—or to more than 300 million web users with Shockwave Player.
Advanced debugging capabilities enhance the power of Lingo, the object-oriented Director
programming language. Director MX offers a streamlined professional debugging layout, with
everything you need in one convenient place.
The unified Script and Debugger windows let you debug, browse, and edit scripts all in the same
window. The Script window switches to debugging mode when a Lingo error or a breakpoint is
encountered. You can edit scripts while in debugging mode.
New Script window buttons save you development time when you’re working in Lingo. Among
the buttons are a button that lets you inspect and debug code faster and realize better input
responses when editing large files, a button that pinpoints debugging issues more quickly when
working with others, and a button that organizes 3D Lingo commands separately from other
Lingo commands for faster 3D debugging.
The Scripting Xtras window helps you organize your third-party scripting Xtra extensions more
efficiently. The window detects all installed scripting Xtra extensions, gets their methods and
properties, and organizes them in a convenient pop-up menu.
Getting Started15
An Object inspector with data browser functionality
lets you inspect all properties of script
instances, and examine the hierarchy of elements inside 3D cast members and Flash MX sprites.
The ability to quickly examine and modify all your movie components reduces both debugging
and development time.
Color-coding of recently changed variables makes tracking changes quick and easy with
immediate visual feedback. As you step through your code, the Debugger window displays the
variables whose values have changed in red.
The split-paned Message window shows you the results of your code changes immediately. Now
movies can execute and display information in the Output pane while you enter and execute
Lingo commands in the Input pane.
QuickTime 6 support allows you to take advantage of QuickTime 6 features, including support
for streaming MPEG4 video and MP3 audio.
Macintosh OS X support lets you create Director MX content using Mac OS X, the modern Apple
operating system. You can author in Mac OS X and create Shockwave applications and
executables that can be viewed on Mac OS X as well as pre–Mac OS X systems.
Resources for learning Director
The Director package contains a variety of media to help you learn the program quickly and
become proficient in creating multimedia—including the printed books Using Director MX and
Director MX Lingo Dictionary, both of which are also available as online help. Using Director MX
contains two tutorials. The Director MX workspace contains tooltips and context-sensitive help,
and additional help is available on the Director MX website at www.macromedia.com/support/
director. The new Answers panel in the Director workspace gives you a quick and easy way to find
out about the latest Director materials available on the web.
Director Help
Director Help is the comprehensive information source for all Director features. The help system
includes complete conceptual overviews of all features, animated examples, descriptions of all
interface elements, and a reference of all Lingo commands and elements. Topics are extensively
cross-referenced and indexed to make finding information and jumping to related topics quick
and easy.
You can access Director Help from the Help menu. To access context-sensitive help, select
Help from the Options menu for any panel, palette, or inspector, or click the Help button in
any dialog box.
Director MX tutorials
When you’re ready to start working in Director, begin with Chapter 2, “Director MX Basics
Tutorial,” on page 53. The tutorial shows you how to create a basic movie using some of the most
useful and powerful features of Director.
If you want to produce 3D content, see Chapter 3, “Director MX 3D Tutorial,” on page 103.
Using Director MX manual
This printed manual contains all the information found in Director Help.
Introduction16
Director MX Lingo Dictionary
The Director MX Lingo Dictionary is a printed version of all the Lingo topics in Director Help.
Answers panel
The Answers panel provides quick access to information that helps you work effectively with
Director. This includes tutorials, TechNotes, and other useful content.
You can get the latest Director information from macromedia.com by simply clicking the Update
button in the Answers panel.
Tooltips
When you place the pointer over a Director tool or other workspace feature for a few seconds, a
small tooltip appears that explains the function of the item.
Keyboard shortcuts
Many commands that are available from Director menus are also accessible through keyboard
shortcuts. When you display a menu or submenu, the appropriate key combinations are shown
next to the commands for which keyboard shortcuts are available.
The following illustration shows key board shortcuts for a variety of commands on the Control
menu. (The illustration shows Director running on Windows. When Director is running on a
Macintosh, the keyboard shortcuts reflect Macintosh keys.)
Director Support Center
The Director Support Center website (www.macromedia.com/support/director/) contains the
latest information on Director, plus additional topics, examples, tips, and updates. Check the
website often for the latest news on Director and how to get the most out of the program.
Getting Started17
Conventions used in Director Help and printed books
The help system and printed books use the following conventions:
• The terms Lingo and Director refer to Director MX.
• Within the text and in Lingo examples, Lingo elements and parts of actual code are shown in
this font. For example, set answer = 2 + 2 is a sample Lingo statement.
• Quotation marks that are part of Lingo statements are shown in the text and Lingo code
examples as straight quotation marks (") rather than as curly quotation marks (”).
• The continuation symbol (¬), which you enter by pressing Alt+Enter (Windows) or
Option+Return (Macintosh), indicates that a long line of Lingo has been broken onto two or
more lines. Lines of Lingo that are broken this way are not separate lines of code. When you
see the continuation symbol in this book, type the lines as one line when you enter them in the
Script window.
• Variables used to represent parameters in Lingo appear in italics. For example,
whichCastMember is commonly used to indicate where you insert the name of a cast member
in Lingo.
• Text that you should type is shown in this font.
Introduction18
CHAPTER 1
Director Basics
Macromedia Director MX is the tool of choice for legions of web and multimedia developers.
With Director, you can create movies for websites, kiosks, and presentations as well as movies for
education and entertainment. Movies can be as small and simple as an animated logo or as
complex as an online chat room or game. Director movies can include a variety of media, such as
sound, text, graphics, animation, and digital video. A Director movie can link to external media
or be one of a series of movies that refer to one another.
Your users view completed Director movies in one of the following ways:
• In the Macromedia Shockwave movie format, which plays in Shockwave-enabled web
browsers. Millions of web users already have the Shockwave Player on their computers,
browsers, or system software. Others have downloaded Shockwave Player, which is free, from
Macromedia’s website at www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/.
• In a projector, which plays on your user’s computer as a stand-alone application.
Creating a new movie
Director is organized around a movie metaphor.
To create a new movie:
• Select File > New > Movie.
19
Introducing the Director workspace
When you first launch Director, there are several windows in the default layout, including the
Stage, the Score, the Cast, and the Property inspector.
Tools
Stage
Property inspector
ScoreCast
Default Director MX window layout (Windows platform)
When creating and editing a movie, you typically work in four of these windows: the Stage, the
Score, the Cast, and the Property inspector.
The Stage
If the Stage is not open, select Window > Stage.
The Stage is the visible portion of a movie on which you determine where your media
elements appear.
During authoring, you have the ability to define the properties of your Stage, such as its size and
color. As you work on your movie, you can use zooming to make the Stage either larger or smaller
than the original movie, while also scaling the coordinates for the Stage objects. To align objects
on the Stage, you can select to display guides and grids or use the Align window.
Chapter 120
To scroll around the Stage, do one of the following:
• Use the scroll bars. (To show or hide Stage scroll bars, select Edit > Preferences > General and
select or deselect Show Stage Scrollbars.)
• Select the Hand tool from the Tool palette and drag inside the Stage to reposition the
visible portion.
• Bring the Stage to the front, hold down the Spacebar to temporarily switch to the Hand tool,
and then drag inside the Stage to reposition the visible portion.
Title bar
Canvas area
Scroll bars
Control panel
The Control panel
The Control panel governs how movies play back in the authoring environment. To go to a
specific frame number in a movie, enter the number in the frame counter, and press Enter
(Windows) or Return (Macintosh). You can also use the toolbar buttons or keyboard shortcuts
to play a movie.
By default, the Control panel is attached to the bottom of the Stage. You can turn it into a
floating panel by detaching it.
To detach the Control panel from the Stage, do one of the following:
• Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) the Control panel. In the context menu,
select Detach Control Panel.
• Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) the Property inspector or Tool palette. In
the context menu, select Detach Control Panel.
Director Basics21
The floating (detached) Control panel displays tempo information that does not appear when the
Control panel is attached to the Stage. For more information about tempo, see “About tempo”
on page 267.
Actual tempo
Tempo Setting
The floating Control panel
To close the floating Control panel, do one of the following:
• Select Window > Control Panel.
• Press Control+2 (Windows) or Command+2 (Macintosh).
Note: After you close the floating Control panel, you can use these same instructions to reopen it. However, you
cannot close a Control panel when it is attached to the Stage; you can only detach it.
To reattach the floating Control panel to the Stage, do one of the following:
• Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) the Control panel. In the context menu,
select Attach Control Panel.
• Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) the Property inspector or Tool palette. In
the context menu, select Attach Control Panel.
The Score
If the Score is not visible, select Window > Score.
The Score organizes and controls a movie’s content over time in rows that contain the media,
called channels. The Score includes special channels that control the movie’s tempo, sound,
and color palettes. The Score also includes frames and the playhead. You use the Score to assign
scripts—Lingo instructions that specify what the movie does when certain events occur in
the movie.
Chapter 122
You can control the Score by zooming to reduce or magnify your view and by displaying multiple
Score windows. You can also control the Score’s appearance by selecting Edit > Preferences > Score.
ScorePlayhead
KeyframeSprite in Score
The Cast window
If the Cast window is not visible, select Window > Cast.
In the Cast window, you can view your cast members, which are the media in your movie, such as
sounds, text, graphics, and other movies. Cast members can also include assets that you use in
your Score but not on the Stage, such as scripts, palettes, fonts, and transitions. You can create
cast members in Director, and you can import existing media to include in your cast. The Cast
window lets you view your cast members as a list or as thumbnails, depending on your preference.
Chapter 123
The Property inspector
If the Property inspector is not visible, select Window > Property Inspector.
The Property inspector provides a convenient way to view and change attributes of any selected
object, or multiple objects, in your movie. After you select an object, relevant category tabs and
associated fields appear in the Property inspector. If you select multiple objects, only the
information that is common to all the selected objects appears.
The List View Mode icon in the Property inspector lets you toggle between a List and a
Graphical view.
List View Mode icon
Chapter 124
The following illustrations show different information that appears in the Property inspector,
depending on what is selected. In the first illustration, a sprite is selected. In the second
illustration, a cast member is selected.
To show more or less information in the Property inspector:
• Click the expander arrow in the Property inspector.
Director Basics 25
The following illustrations show different information appearing in the Property inspector
depending on whether the expanded information is hidden or shown.
Chapter 126
Setting Stage and movie properties
You use the Property inspector’s Movie tab to specify settings that affect the entire movie, such as
how colors are defined, the size and location of the Stage, the number of channels in the Score,
copyright information, and font mapping. These settings apply only to the current movie,
whereas the settings you select from Edit > Preferences apply to every movie.
To set Stage and movie properties:
1 Click the Movie tab in the Property inspector in Graphical view.
2 To define the size of the Stage, select a preset value from the Stage Size pop-up menu or enter
values in the Width and Height fields.
3 To specify the location of the Stage during playback if the movie does not take up the full
screen, select an option from the Location pop-up menu or enter values for Left and Top; these
values specify the number of pixels the Stage is placed from the upper left corner of the screen,
and they apply only if the Stage is smaller than the current monitor’s screen size.
Centered places the Stage window in the center of your monitor. This option is useful if you
play a movie that was created for a 13-inch screen on a larger screen or if you’re creating a
movie on a large screen that will be seen on smaller screens.
Upper Left places the Stage in the upper left corner of the screen.
4 To specify the number of channels in the Score, enter a value for Channels.
5 To set the color of the Stage for the movie, click the color box next to Color and select a color,
or enter an RGB value in the text box on the right.
Director Basics 27
6 To select a color palette for the movie, select a palette from the Palette pop-up menu. This
palette remains selected until Director encounters a different palette setting in the Palette
channel.
For a complete discussion of color palettes and using color in Director, see “Controlling color”
on page 255.
7 To determine how the movie assigns colors, select either RGB or Palette Index.
RGB makes the movie assign all color values as absolute RGB values.
Palette Index makes the movie assign color according to its position in the current palette.
8 To let users cut, copy, and paste editable fields while a movie is playing, select Enable Edit
Shortcuts.
9 To select a default renderer used to draw 3D sprites within the movie, if that renderer is
available on the client computer, select one of the following options from the Preferred 3D
Renderer pop-up menu:
OpenGL specifies the openGL drivers for hardware acceleration that work with Macintosh and
Windows platforms.
DirectX 7.0 specifies the DirectX 7 drivers for hardware acceleration that work only with
Windows platforms.
DirectX 5.2 specifies the DirectX 5.2 drivers for hardware acceleration that work only with
Windows platforms.
Software specifies Director’s built-in software renderer that works with Macintosh and
Windows platforms.
Auto specifies that the most suitable renderer should be selected. This option is the default
value for this property.
Note: If the preferred renderer is not available on the client computer, the movie selects the most suitable
available renderer.
10 To enter copyright and other information about the movie, enter text in the About and
Copyright text boxes.
This information is important if your movie will be downloaded from the Internet and saved
on a user’s system.
11 To save the current font map settings in a text file named Fontmap.txt, click Save. To load the
font mapping assignments specified in the selected font map file, click Load. See “Mapping
fonts between platforms for field cast members” on page 284.
Increasing or decreasing your view of the Stage
You can author in Director on a zoomed Stage—one that is either larger or smaller than the
normal size of the movie. Additionally, the Stage includes an offstage canvas area within the Stage
window but outside of the active movie area. This canvas area is useful for assembling your media
either before or after they appear on the Stage.
The offstage canvas is also useful as a way to preload media in projectors. For example, sprites in a
frame, but offstage, are loaded into memory so they are ready to play in the subsequent frame.
Chapter 128
When you change the size of the Stage, any guides or grids you use to assist you with alignment
will also scale to the zoomed size, and you can manipulate Stage objects in the same way that you
would on a Stage that is not zoomed.
To zoom the Stage, do one of the following:
• Press Control+the Plus (+) key (Windows) or Command+the Plus (+) key (Macintosh) to
zoom in and increase the Stage size. Press Control+the Minus (-) key (Windows) or
Command+the Minus (-) key (Macintosh) to zoom out and decrease the Stage size. (In
Windows, if you want to use the keys on the numeric keypad, NumLock must be off.)
You can press the keys repeatedly until the Stage is the desired size.
• Select a zoom amount from the Zoom menu in the lower left corner of the Stage.
Zoom menu
Note: If you don’t see the Zoom menu, select Edit > Preferences > General, check Show Stage Scrollbars, and
then click OK.
• Select View > Zoom, and select Zoom Stage In to increase the size of the Stage in increments,
Zoom Stage Out to decrease Stage size, or a percentage to select a specific Stage size.
• To zoom in while selecting an area of the Stage to center within the zoomed window, select the
Magnifying Glass tool from the Tool palette. Click a point on the Stage to zoom and center.
• To zoom out while selecting an area of the Stage to center within the zoomed window, select
the Magnifying Glass tool from the Tool palette. Press Alt (Windows) or Option (Macintosh)
while clicking a point on the Stage to zoom and center.
The Stage’s title bar indicates the zoom Stage size expressed as a percentage of the normal
Stage size.
About Sprites
A sprite is an object that controls when, where, and how cast members appear in a movie. You
create sprites by placing cast members on the Stage or in the Score. Creating a Director movie
consists largely of defining sprites’ properties, where they appear, when they appear in the movie,
and how they behave. Different sprites can be created from a single cast member. Each sprite can
have its own values for different properties, and most changes to these properties do not affect the
cast member. Most changes to a cast member, however, will change the sprites created from that
cast member.
For information on creating and changing sprites, see “Creating sprites” on page 157.
Director Basics 29
About channels in the Score
Channels are the rows in the Score that control your media. The Score contains sprite channels
and special effects channels.
Sprite channels are numbered and contain sprites that control all visible media in the movie.
Effects channels at the top of the Score contain behaviors as well as controls for the tempo,
palettes, transitions, and sounds. The Score displays channels in the order shown in the
following figure.
Markers channel
Tempo channel
Palette channel
Transition channel
Sound channels
Behavior channel
Sprite channels
The first channel in the Score contains markers that identify places in the Score, such as the
beginning of a new scene. Markers are useful for making quick jumps to specific locations in a
movie. See “Using markers” on page 42.
Although the Score can include as many as 1000 channels, most movies use as few channels as
possible to improve performance in the authoring environment and during playback. Sprites in
higher channels appear on the Stage in front of sprites in lower channels. Use the Property
inspector’s Movie tab to control the number of channels in the Score for the current movie. See
“Setting Stage and movie properties” on page 27.
Turning channels on and off
To hide the contents of any channel on the Stage, or to disable the contents if they are not visible
sprites, you use the button to the left of the channel. When you turn off a special effects channel,
the channel’s data has no effect on the movie. You should turn off Score channels when testing
performance or working on complex overlapping animations. Turning off a channel has no effect
on projectors or Shockwave.
Chapter 130
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