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Book Review of:
Director 7 
for Macintosh and Windows 

From the September, 2000 issue of PC Alamode Magazine
by Russell Albach
coverIf you have been to a web site in the last six months, it is almost a certainty that you have been exposed to Director by Macromedia. Director is an application used to create animation's and multimedia presentations. You have probably seen installation animation's for many new applications purchased in the last year or two. When you begin the install program, an animation starts to lead you through an interactive set up. Trial software downloaded from the Internet frequently contains some sort of animation created by Director. I know some of you are thinking that I am probably confusing Director with Flash, also a Macromedia product. Nope. Flash is something like a "lite" version of Director. Both create the same basic animation's and presentations, but Director is more capable. 

From the sales brochure:  

"Besides animation's and various presentations, Director can also create interactive movies, technical simulations, and commercial productions like entertainment titles for CD-ROM, as well as the web. "Director is the market leading multimedia solution for creating engaging, rich media corporate presentations, e-merchandising applications, and entertainment. Director combines graphics, sound, animation, text, and video to create streaming, multiuser, interactive Web content that is easy to deploy for CD, DVD-ROM, and the Web. Macromedia Director streamlines the authoring process with centralized, automated functions that make it easier to manage assets, edit complex animation's, build graphics on the fly, and create content for low bandwidth. Director Shockwave Studio eases the development of Shockwave content, which continues to enhance the Web experience of over 109 million people. 

Director Shockwave Studio has a modern, professional authoring environment that enables developers to deliver results. Studio components include: Director to integrate, control, and deliver media created from the studio's content creation tools; Fireworks to create graphics in a robust design and production environment; features/develop. sound editors; BIAS Peak LE (Macintosh) or Sonic Foundry SoundForgeXP (Windows) to create and edit sound for use in Director; develop behavior libraries to quickly and easily create interactivity in Director; and the Shockwave Multiuser Server 2 to deliver multiuser experiences and multiplayer games on the Internet." 

"Why use Director Shockwave Studio?" Both novice and advanced users create compelling content quickly and easily. In this professional authoring environment, developers can take advantage of excellent asset management, rich-media file support, and other features to turn around multimedia in Internet time. Create applications that are rich in media and in depth. Attract your audience with immersive, entertaining, visually compelling and interactive content. Director can help you do this with multiuser communities, dazzling animation's, and more. Build presentations, product demonstrations, advertisements, or games for the Shockwave audience of over 120 million browsers. Output optimized Shockwave as well as stand-alone applications for CD and DVD-ROM." 
 Now that the sales brochure has been covered, what the heck does that mean in terms the average computer drudge can grasp? You can create multimedia that is the equal of anything Madison Avenue, or Hollywood can dream up, and do it for the cost of the application, and time spent learning to use it. The time is the key here. Like most applications, Director has a rather steep learning curve. The manuals and online help included do little to flatten the curve. By the time you actually reach a point where you can create projects, the computer world has moved on to something different. (Cue Director for Macintosh and Windows).  The publishing world is bursting at the seams with how-to and self-help books. Most of them, at least those I have read, are no more help than "instructions included". The most successful series of these books I know of are the "dummies" series. While this book, by Andre Persidsky, is not from that series, it is just as well done. Each instruction is accompanied by an illustration clearly depicting the action desired. You read the command set you would enter in the application, while following the written instructions by looking at a step by step illustration. Understand now, that you still need to learn all of the procedures, you just learn them faster. Manuals are generally written by technical writers, who translate information the programmer's use, into something less technical. Maybe another step should be to translate it one more time by people who actually know how to use the application. Mr. Persidsky is either a user of Director, or a terrific technical writer. The book is laid out in a somewhat sequential manner. He has you follow along in the creation of individual pieces, then combine them into a completed project. The best way to learn anything is the same as it has always been; practice, practice, practice.  I mentioned Flash earlier. This also creates the same types of projects Director does. 

While Director has additional items, the main difference is a scripting language called Lingo. This gives more elaborate control over the actions of a movie or animation, even allowing the user to change behaviors. The book has twenty six pages on how to use Lingo. Learning to use Lingo nearly doubles the time to learn to properly use Director, so any extra help is appreciated.  The book, at 387 pages, is written in an easy to read type, and relatively easy to understand. It should be noted that applications like Director are very sophisticated, so books on the proper use are not of the "see spot run" variety. 

If you want to try out the latest version of Director for free, you can download Director 8 from http://www.macromedia.com/software/director/. It is 21.7MB , and will run for 30 days before it times out. You can also see some Director creations at http://www.macromedia.com/software/director/productinfo/. If you look in your browser cache after you go there, you will have copies of the animation's that you can save to replay. The Shockwave player will usually not let you save the animation's from a Director, or Flash animation, so this is a way you can bypass that. Look for file with a suffix of .swf, .dir, .spc, .dxr,. or .dcr  Start your browser, select FILE, OPEN, type in the file name, or browse to it, select OPEN and the file will play just as on the web site. You probably will not be able to view the source code for an animation. Part of the process in creating an animation involves encrypting and compacting the animation both to protect the code, and probably more importantly, to shrink the size to enable it to load and play faster.  None of the local bookstores I called had this book in stock, but all said they would be happy to order it. You can also order it online for $19.99 from Peachpit.  Requirements: an interest in creating really terrific animation's. 

Director 7 for Macintosh & Windows
by Andre Persidsky
Peachpit Press
1249 Eighth Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
800-283-9444
I am one of millions of computer users waiting for computers, and operating systems, that actually work as advertised. Snarlingly arben2@swbell.net