Multimedia Authoring: Scripting (Lingo)
Cast/Score/Scripting paradigm. This section is a very brief introduction to Director. For further Information, You should consult:
Macromedia Director Using Director Manual In Library Macromedia Director : Lingo Dictionary Manual In Library Macromedia Director: Application Help Select Help from within the Director
application. This is very thorough resource of information.
Macromedia Director Guided tours see Help menu option. A variety of web sites contain director tutorials, hints and information including
http://www.macromedia.com

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More Director References Macromedia Director MX
Demystied, Phil Gross, Macromedia 0321180976) Press (ISBN:
Macromedia Director MX and
Lingo: Training from the Source Phil Gross, Macromedia Press (ISBN: 0321180968)

Director 8 and Lingo

(Inside Macromedia), Scott Wilson, Delmar (ISBN: 0766820084)
Related Additional Material and Coursework
Tutorials with additional Director Instructional Material See Lab Worksheets 1 + 2 Also Assessed Exercise 2
Director Overview/Denitions movies Basic Director Commodity: interactive multimedia pieces that can include animation, sound, text, digital video, and many other types of media. link to external media A movie can be as small and simple as an animated logo or as complex as an online chat room or game. Frames Director divides lengths of time into a series of frames, cf. celluloid movie.

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Creating and editing movies 4 Key Windows: the Stage Rectangular area where the movie plays
the Score : Where the movie is assembled;
one or more Cast windows Where the movies media elements are assembled;
and the Control Panel Controls how the movie plays back.

To create a new movie:

Choose File > New > Movie
Some other key Director Components (1) Channels the rows in the Score that contain sprites for controlling media numbered contain the sprites that control all the visible media Special effects channels at the top contain behaviors as well as controls for the tempo, palettes, transitions, and sounds. Sprites Sprites are objects that control when, where, and how media appears in a movie.
Some other key Director Components (2) Cast members The media assigned to sprites. media that make up a movie. includes bitmap images, text, vector shapes, sounds, Flash movies, digital videos, and more. Lingo Directors scripting language, adds interactivity to a movie. Behaviors pre-existing sets of Lingo instructions. Markers identify xed locations at a particular frame in a movie.

Lingo Scripting (1)

Commands terms that instruct a movie to do something while the movie is playing. For example, go to sends the playback head to a specic frame, marker, or another movie. Properties attributes that dene an object. For example colorDepth is a property of a bitmap cast member, Functions terms that return a value. For example, the date function returns the current date set in the computer. The key function returns the key that was pressed last. Parentheses occur at the end of a function, Keywords reserved words that have a special meaning. For example, end indicates the end of a handler,

Lingo Scripting (2)

Events actions that scripts respond to. Constants elements that dont change. For example, the constants TAB, EMPTY, and RETURN always have the same meaning, and Operators terms that calculate a new value from one or more values. For example, the add operator (+) adds two or more values together to produce a new value.
Lingo Data Types Lingo supports a variety of data types: references to sprites and cast members, (Boolean) values: TRUE and FALSE , strings, constants, integers, and oating-point numbers. Standard Program structure syntax
Lingo Script Types (1) Director uses four types of scripts. Behaviors Behaviors are attached to sprites or frames in the Score.

Figure 14: Behavior Icon

Movie scripts available to the entire movie
Figure 15: Movie script icon
Lingo Script Types (2) Parent scripts special scripts that contain Lingo used to create child objects.
Figure 16: Parent script icon
Scripts attached to cast members independent of the Score. dont appear in the Cast window.

Figure 17: Script button

Director Example 1: Simple Animation

A Bouncing Ball Graphic

Run Example in Browser (Shockwave) Run Example in Browser (Lecture ONLY) No Lingo scripting. basic animation where a cast member
Creating the Bouncing Ball Graphic The following steps achieve a simple bouncing ball animation along a path: 1. Let us begin by creating a new movie and setting the Stage size: Start a New movie: File > New > Movie (Shortcut = Command+N) Choose Modify > Movie > Properties. In stage size, choose 640 x 480.

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2. Now let us create a ball, using a the vector shape tool:
Choose Window > Vector Shape
(Shortcut = Command+Shift+V)
Click the lled ellipse button. Draw an ellipse (circle) about the size of

the Vector Shape Window

Click on the Gradient ll button. To change the colours, click the colour
box on the left side of the Gradient colour control
Change the colour on the right side of
the Gradient Colours to a dark blue.
Change the Gradient type pull-down
menu from Linear to Radial.
Change the Stroke Colour to white.
3. Now let us change a few other properties of this ellipse Close the Vector Shape window. In the Cast Window, select the ellipse. Choose Edit > Duplicate (Shortcut = Command+D). Double click the new cast, which opens it in the Vector Shape Tool. Change the Cycles to 3 and the Spread to 200. Name the latest ellipse to bouncing ball

4. Now we are going to animate the ball.
Drag bouncing ball from the cast
member window to the stage.
You will notice the sprite (the
object that appears in the score) is extended over 20 frames.
Drag the right end of the sprite to

frame 40.

Click anywhere in the middle of

the sprite to select it.

resize the ellipse.
4. Ball Animation (Key Frames)
Click on frame 40 in channel 1 Create keyframes at frame 20
(the end of the sprite), hold down Option and shift and drag the ellipse to the right end of the stage.
To curve the path, we are going to

and 30.

each keyframe, a circle appears on the path shown on the stage. and drag it up.
insert keyframes within the sprite.
Click on frame 10 of the sprite and choose Insert > Keyframe
Click on the keyframe 10 circle Change other Keyframes. Rewind and play the movie.
(Shortcut = Command+Option+K)
Further Animation: 1.1 Shrinking the ball Run Example Shrinking the ball (Shockwave) Run Shrinking the ball (Lecture Only)
(Optional) Click on keyframe 40 in
the score and drag it to frame 60, notice how all the keyframes spread out proportionally.
(Optional) Click on the keyframes in the
score and adjust the path if you feel like it.
While moving the keyframes, resize the
balls so they slowly get smaller. Notice while you resize the balls, the path changes and you will need to edit the path again.
Rewind and play the movie. Save your movie as example2.dir.
1.2. Animating sprite colour Run Example: Animating sprite colour (Shockwave) Run Example: Animating sprite colour (Lecture Only)
Working still with example1.dir. Open Property Inspector for Sprite
Right Mouse (or Ctrl) on Sprite (Score or Stage) Select Properties.
Click on the keyframes in the score,
and change the Foreground colour chip, Forecolor, to different colours.
Changing the foreground colour is like

putting a coloured lm over your object. The resulting colour is a mixture of the objects original colour and the lm. For this reason, light colours work better than dark colours for this effect.
Rewind and play the movie. Save as example3.dir
1.3. Animating sprite transparency Making the Ball Disappear Run Example: Making the Ball Disappear (Shockwave) Run Example: Making the Ball Disappear (Lecture Only) Open example1.dir Open Property Inspector for Sprite Click on the keyframes in the score, and Change the Blend Transparency to 100, 75, 50, 25, 0 for the consecutive keyframes. Rewind and play the movie. Save as example4.dir
1.4. Animating sprite shape Deforming The Ball Run Example: Deforming The Ball (Shockwave) Run Example: Deforming The Ball (Lecture Only) Open example1.dir Open Property Inspector for Sprite Click on the keyframes in the score, and Change the Skew Angle to 0, 20, 40, 60 and 80 for the consecutive keyframes. Rewind and play the movie Save as example5.dir
Director Example 2: Importing media
To import multimedia data there are two basic ways: Choose File > Import. Useful for importing batches of data (e.g. Several image sequences. Drag and drop source media into a cast member location Quite Intuitive
Examples: Simple Image import and Manipulation Drag an image into a spare cast member. Drag this cast member to the Score Set suitable Properties for Sprite Manipulate as for a vector item above. Examples: ex dave roll.dir sets up some keyframes and alters the rotation of the image (Shockwave) ex dave roll.dir sets up some keyframes and alters the rotation of the image (Lecture Only) ex dave sq.dir alters the skew angle (Shockwave) ex dave sq.dir alters the skew angle (Lecture Only)

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Example: Falling Over Movie, ex dave movie.dir Example: Falling Over Movie, ex dave movie.dir (Shockwave) Run Example: Falling Over Movie, ex dave movie.dir (Lecture Only)
Several Gif images depicting sequence

exist on disk.

Choose File > Import Select items you wish to import by
double-clicking or pressing the Add button
Click on the Import Button Several new cast members should be

Set looping on and play

Example: Pinching Movie Movie, ex dave pinch.dir
Example: Pinching Movie Movie, ex dave pinch.dir (Shockwave) Example: Pinching Movie Movie, ex dave pinch.dir (Lecture Only)
Photoshop has been used to set a pinch effect of varying degree for an image. Import images as before To reverse the image set to obtain a smooth back and forth animation: Select the sprite sequence in the score Copy Sequence Press Command+C (Copy), Click on the frame just after the sprite sequence Paste Sequence Command+V (Paste). press
Click on this second sprite sequence and choose Modify > Reverse Sequence. Select the 2 sprites by pressing Shift and clicking on both. Choose Modify > Join Sprites.

Simple Lingo Scripting

Director Example 3: Very Simple Action
Here we illustrate the basic mechanism of scripting in Director by developing and extending a very basic example: Making a button beep and attaching a message to a button Making the a button beep (Shockwave) Making the a button beep (Lecture Only)
Making the Button Beep Movie Open a new movie. Turn the looping on in the control panel.
Open the tool palette. Click the push button icon. Draw a button on the stage, and type in a label: button here
Our First Lingo Now lets write a simple script for the button:
Press Ctrl+click the button in the cast
window and choose Cast Member Script.
Director writes the rst and last line for
us, add a beep command so the script look like this: on mouseUp beep end
Close the window. Rewind and play the movie. Click the button a few times.
To pop up a message box on button press (and still beep) Reopen the cast member script. Change the text so it now reads. on mouseUp beep alert "Button Pressed" end Close the window. Play the movie and click the button.

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Director Example 4: Controlling Navigation with Lingo A slightly more complex Lingo Example This examples illustrates how we may use Lingo Scripts as: Cast Member Scripts Sprite Scripts Behaviour Scripts
Director Example 4: Ready Made Example
To save time, we begin we a preassembled Director movie: Run Lingo Navigation Example (Shockwave) Run Lingo Navigation Example (Lecture Only)
Open lingo ex.3.2.dir Play the movie
press some of the buttons The Numbered buttons record moves through Scenes/Frames The Next/Back buttons replay what has been recorded.
The Loop the Frame script We are rst going to create a loop the frame script:
Cast Member 11 controls the Frame

Looping

Note we have created a special frame
marking channel in the Score.
To create the associated script either
Double click on the script icon in the Score Ctrl-click on the Cast member and select Member Script
The scripting window appears. You can

edit the script text, it now reads: on exitFrame go the frame end This frame script tells Director to keep playing the same frame.
The Loop lasts to frame 24 Pressing
down Alt and dragging the frame script in the Score can change this length.
Scene Markers (1) Now we will create some markers To Create a Marker You Click in the marking channel for the Frame and label some the marker with some typed text In this example:

Markers are at frame 1,

10 and 20, naming them scene1, scene2 and scene3 respectively.

Note:

You can delete a marker by clicking the triangle and dragging it below the marker channel.

A cast member (9) script

go to next command tells Director to go to the next consecutive marker in the score.
for the next button has also been created: on mouseUp go to next end
Scene Markers (2) A cast member (10) script for the back button has also been created: on mouseUp go to previous end The go to previous command tells Director to go to the previous marker in the score. Once again, Play the movie, click on these buttons to see how they work.
Sprite Scripts Now We will create some sprite scripts: Sometimes a button will behave one way in one part of the movie and behave another way in a different part of the movie. A typical example use of sprite scripts.
The Next Button Sprite Scripts (1) Desired Action of Next Button: Jump to next scene
The Next Button Sprite Scripts (2)
Here we have split actions to map to our
Scene Markers. To achieve this: Click on frame 10 of channel 6 (the next button) this sprite and choose Modify > Split Sprite. Do the same at frame 20.
To attach a script to each split action:
Select the each sprite sequence (here in channel 6). Ctrl-click on sequence and select Script. from the pull-down in the score to give a script window. We add a suitable jump to next scene In example shown we have go to "scene2" : This command tells Director to send the movie to marker "scene2". Could do other sequences similar But alternatives exist.
Behaviour Scripts Example Here: Another way to write the sprite script on last slide - using the Behaviour Inspector.

Behaviour Scripts can do A LOT MORE.
A Behaviour Script for Next Button (Scene 2) (1)
We now work with the second sprite
sequence (channel 6 in the score).
We will create (or have created) an
associated behaviour script: Ctrl-click on the second sequence Open the Behaviour Inspector window Click on the Script Window icon next to the Behaviour Inspector Tab.
To Create/name a new Behaviour:
Click the + icon at the top left of the window and select new behaviour from the pull-down. Give the behaviour a name, here it is called next2.
A Behaviour Script for Next Button (Scene 2) (2)
To add events/actions to the script you
can: Under Events click the + icon In this example we have added a mouseUp from the menu. Under Actions click the + icon In this example we have chosen Navigation > Go to marker then nd scene3 on the list You can add/edit Lingo text manually in the Script Editor window for the particular behaviour
Summary: Sprite Script Order We now 2 scripts attached to a single object (achieving much the same task): a Cast Member script
a Sprite script. Sprite scripts take priority over cast member scripts So Here cast member script will be ignored.
Some more Lingo to add to our example Another part of our Application: The jump buttons 1-3 (Buttons 4-6 currently inactive).
We will be using Lingo play/ play do to record actions We have created a Vector Graphic Image (Cast Member 2) for the main Recorder Interface
A problem in Director? In Director: a script can only be associated with a complete Object For the way we have created the Recorder Interface we require (and this is clearly a common requirement in many other cases): Only part an image to be linked instead of the whole object. One part for each of the jump buttons 1-3. There is a solution: Use invisible buttons. These are shape cast members with an invisible border.
Creating our Invisible Buttons
We have added our invisible as Cast
Member 14. To create this component: Open the Tool palette window. Click on the no line button. Click on the rectangle button and draw a rectangle on the stage around the 1 button.
We have added this sprite to 8 and we
have attached a sprite script: Ctrl-click on frame 1 of channel 8 and select script. Attach a sprite script to this shape with the command play scene1. Extend the sprite sequence so it covers frame 1 to 24.
Repeat the steps placing the sprite over

the 2 and 3 button

Final Part: the Back Button (1) Director provides the ability to record actions for future use The Lingo Play command The play command is similar to the go to command but allows: Director records every time a play is initiated, Keeping track of the users path through the movie. You can move back on along this path by using the play done command.
Final Part: the Back Button (1) So in this Example Select the sprite sequence in channel 5 and Cast member 10.

Attach a Sprite script reading on mouseUp play done end Rewind, play the movie, click all the 1, 2, 3 buttons in various orders, click the back button also and observe the effect of Back button Complete example: lingo ex3.2.dir (Web Based) Complete example: lingo ex3.2.dir (Local Version)