Macromedia Director

Adobe Director (formerly Macromedia Director) is a multimedia application authoring platform created by Macromedianow part of Adobe Systems. It allows users to build applications built on a movie metaphor, with the user as the "director" of the movie. Originally designed for creating animation sequences, the addition of a scripting language called Lingo made it a popular choice for creating CD-ROMs and standalone kiosks and web content using Adobe Shockwave. Adobe Director supports both 2D and 3D multimedia projects. The differences between Director and Flash have been the subject of much discussion, especially in the Director development community. Extensibility is one of the main differences between the two, as are some of the sundry codecs that can be imported. Director has tended to be the larger of the two, but that footprint has been part of its weakness. This weakness manifest into the erosion of Director's ubiquity as the leader of authoring tools, especially in the critical window of 1998 - 2000. The download footprint of the Director Shockwave plugin was significantly larger than the Shockwave Flash download footprint. Additionally, Macromedia partnered with distributors such as Dell, Apple, etc. to have the Flash plugin pre-installed on machines for users, so that they would not be prompted to install any additional software. At that point in time (19982000), broadband internet access was not the norm for most users, and the fivefold difference in size was significant. Director started out as MacroMind "VideoWorks", an application for the original Apple Macintosh. Animations were initially limited to the black and white of early Macintosh screens. The name was changed to "Director" in 1987, with the addition of new capabilities and the Lingo scripting language in 1988. A Windows version was available in the early 1990s.

From 1995 to 1997 a competing multimedia authoring program appeared called mTropolis . In 1997 mTropolis was purchased and buried by Quark, Inc., who had its own plans into multimedia authoring with Quark Immedia.

PRODUCT TIMELINE

1985: VideoWorks 1988: Named Director 1.0 1993: Macromind Director became Macromedia Director (v 3.1.3) 1994: Macromedia Director 4 was released (Windows and Powermac support) 1996: Macromedia Director 5 was released (Shockwave) 1997: Macromedia Director 6 was released (Behavior support) 1997: Macromedia Director 6.5 was also released later that year November 16, 1998: Macromedia Director 7 was released 2000: Macromedia Director 8 was released 2001: Macromedia Director 8.5 was released (Shockwave3D) 2002: Macromedia Director MX was released (Also known as Director 9) January 5, 2004: Macromedia Director MX 2004 was released (Also known as Director 10) March 25, 2008: Adobe Director 11 was released March 23, 2009: Adobe Director 11.5 was released September 6, 2010: Adobe Director 11.5.8 was released

The first Director release under the Adobe brand (v. 11) featured DirectX 9 and Unicode support and extended 3D capabilities based on the NVIDIA PhysX engine, as well as bitmap filters, enhanced video, audio and

image file formats support, and Adobe Flash CS3 integration. Shockwave Player 11 was also released. Version 11.5 added 5.1 channel surround sound audio capabilities, real-time mixing, audio effects and DSP filters. Also, there is added support for H.264-video integration for full-screen and high-definition playback. Other supported formats include: 3D importer for Google SketchUp, streaming support using RTMP and ByteArray datatypes.

DIRECTOR GIVES YOU THE POWER TO CREATE THE MOST MEDI RICH, HIGH PERFORMANCE CONTENT FOR:

CD/DVD kiosk presentations Internet

Offering comprehensive capabilities for multimedia authoring, Director is differentiated both by the breadth of multimedia file types that can be integrated and controlled, and by the ease with which the resulting content and applications can be deployed for optimal playback across platforms.

Macromedia Director As a multimedia authoring tool designed to create rich interactive content for both fixed media and the Internet, Director can incorporate photo-quality images, full-screen or long-form digital video, sounds, animation, 3D models, text, hypertext, bitmaps, and Macromedia Flash content. Macromedia Flash As a vector-based program designed to create and display small files on the web, Macromedia Flash accomplishes this feat by limiting the types of images and media that can be displayed. Director also provides a rich suite of tools to control how and when these elements appear, move, sound, and change while the movie plays. While Macromedia Flash is typically used to create content, Director is usually used to aggregate and shape many different multimedia files into a single coherent presentation. The power of Director is multiplied by the addition of custom features and functionality through Xtra extensions, all part of the extensible plug-in Director MX architecture. You can:

Create full-featured applications that access, launch, and control other applications from within the Director MX executable. Build your own or choose from hundreds of existing Xtras to extend your work.

Director MX 2004 also enables developers to create accessible content for people with disabilities, or easily repurpose existing Director content to meet government accessibility guidelines.

USE DIRECTOR MX 2004 WHEN YOU WANT TO:

Create streaming, interactive, multiuser content using:

Interactive 2D and real-time 3D animation Video: DVD-Video, RealVideo, Windows Media, Apple QuickTime, AVI Sounds: RealAudio, MP3, AIF, WAV Graphics: JPG, GIF, PNG, PSD, BMP, and more Macromedia Flash Text and fonts Xtras

Deploy to fixed media. The performance, media-handling, and extensibility of Director make it ideally suited for deploying content on CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, kiosks, and other fixed media, as you can:

Get optimal content playback. While fixed media content often involves hundreds of megabytes of data, the advanced

Director dynamic memory management enables quick loading and unloading of this data into system memory for smooth playback. Create fully featured applications that can access, launch, and control other applications from within the Director executable. Enjoy greater controlsuch as read/write access to the user's diskas well as control over devices like joysticks.

Get maximum performance with large files. Quickly load and unload hundreds of megabytes of data into system memory with the advanced memory management of Director. The result? A consistent, smooth playback for end users. Take control with the extensibility of Director. Launch other applications from within Director, use such input devices as joysticks, and integrate custom functionality for the absolute best user experience. Make your website more compelling and effective by adding interactive, real-time 3D. Use interactive 3D to:

Enhance the quality of online games and entertainment Make experiences, such as shopping and learning online, more enjoyable and practical Increase sales and reduce returns

Use media-heavy content such as bitmaps, sound, and long video streams. Make media-rich content that's both lightweight and high-performance with the advanced compression, extensive media support, and fast-rendering engine of Director MX 2004.

Director supports many image formats (like GIF) that you can use to create small, non-photo-realistic images. Director and Lingo, its programming language, were designed to quickly animate many sprites (bitmaps, vectors, etc.) on the

Stage for high-performing content.

Deploy cross-platform accessible content for people with disabilities that does not require a screen reader. Director MX 2004 is ideal for creating accessible CD/DVD-ROMs, kiosks, and web-based applications that run on systems based on both Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows. Visually impaired Internet users frequently use screen-reading software, which reads aloud the contents of a web page. Because Director MX 2004 uses native text-to-speech capabilities within the OS, you can create accessible self-voicing content that works without screen readers or other assistive technologies. This is important in situations where it's impractical to ins tall expensive screen readers, such as in public libraries and museum kiosks.