Director Tutorial: Basics of Animation - Class Notes

READING: D8D Chapters 1 and 2

Download file "6INTRO.dir"and open it in Director

These notes are to be used in-class. They should be useful in reminding you the main points that we discussed in the Guided Tour.

If you know Flash, you may want to review these notes

Director - uses a movie metaphor

• The Movie - the .dir file
• The Stage - where the action happens
• The Cast - who appear in the movie
• The Score - who plays when
• The Control Panel - gets them moving
• The Script - who plays what
• The Tool palette - to create easily fields and buttons
• The Property inspector - everything you may want to know about a cast member or sprite

Director's Windows

• Stage = cmd-1
• Control Panel = cmd-2
• Cast Window = cmd-3
• Score Window = cmd-4
• Paint Window = cmd-5
• Text Window =cmd-6
• Script Window = cmd-0
• Also: Tool palette, Vector Shape window, Color Palettes window, Digital Video window, Library Palette, Field Window, lots of windows!!!

Target: Recreate movie basicAnim.dir

Create a new movie.
Create a new cast member.
Place sprites of your cast members on the Stage.

1. Click on your cast member in the cast window or the paint window and drag to any spot on the stage (it will simultaneously appear in the score).
2. Alternatively, you can drag a cast member from the cast window to a particular frame in the score; a sprite will then appear on the stage (centered).

Whatever happens on the stage appears in the score.

Sprites vs cast members - differences?

Sprite vs Sprite segments - differents?
How many frames will your sprite segment occupy?
Use File>Preferences>Sprite (span duration - default is 28 frames)

Features of the Score window to become familiar with:

1. Frames and Channels (columns and rows of the score grid)
2. Rearranging the contents of cells in the score (copy and paste, or drag and drop, shuffling)
3. Ink effects (i.e. background transparent)
4. Center Current Frame
5. Colorizing cells/sprite segments in the score
6. Channels for Transitions, tempo, soundtracks, behaviors and scripting (in a few weeks!)
   

Navigational tips (i.e. moving between the score, the cast, the paint window with keyboard shortcuts)

Things you can do in the Paint window:
Anything you draw in the Paint window automatically becomes a cast member (it automatically appears in the cast window).

1. Select color/ change color
2. Draw simple bitmap images
3. Make bitmapped type
4. Create boxes and shapes
5. Rotate, skew, distort, warp
6. Gradient colors
7. Add a text title
8. Add a background image (move sprites down to make room for it)

Some of them are available in the vector shape window.

Transform a cast member in the Paint window (it must be selected - use the selection marquee tool to select it). If you want to keep the original cast member as well, be sure to do your transformation on a duplicate of the original cast member.

Onion Skinning achieves a similar purpose when you are creating a series of castmembers for an animation sequence in the Paint window. It allows you to see the previous cast members for reference as you paint the new ones.
Onion Skinning gives a first animation.
Align cast members with hairline
Stack them 5 frames each sprite segment in score

Save your movie with .dir

Publish the movie - see the .dcr and .html produced

Create a stand-alone Projector