Macromedia Director Tutorial and Training

Macromedia Director Training, Online Director Course
Class Name

Macromedia Director 8/MX Level 1

With Andre Perdisky Director for Macintosh and Windows as a reference book, weekly lessons, visits to showcase sites that exemplify lesson topics and comments to student assignments, we will be diving into the most important application for multimedia projects: Macromedia Director.

Macromedia Director is used to create dazzling 3D entertainment, interactive product demonstrations, online learning applications and more on the Web, CD, DVD and corporate intranets. Director files can also be seen by the Web majority, that’s over 200 million viewers and 250,000 new installations daily via the Shockwave Player. This class sheds a needed light into the exciting world of multimedia. Don't know what Director is? Visit http://www.macromedia.com/software/director/and rush back here to learn the most important tool for multimedia.

Outline
Week 1: Building a Score
  • Know how to create an interactive file, also known as a 'movie'
  • Be able to create 'Cast members' for your movies
  • Become comfortable with the multiple panels and settings
  • Start animating objects, also known as 'sprites'
  • Learn to 'Step record' and 'real-time record'
  • Learn to incorporate external Flash movies
Week 2: The First 'Behaviors'
  • Know the intricacies of the Director movie speed
  • Use Scene transitions
  • Be able to set pauses in your movie
  • Use the Paint tools proficiently
  • Use Ink effects
  • Be able to use 'onion skinning' to better see/tweak an entire animation
  • Be able to apply image filters
  • Edit/create vector shapes
  • Learn about color depth, color mode, and color palettes
  • Tactics for limited color displays
Week 3: External Files, Text and Sound
  • Be importing/incorporating/editing digital video and animated gifs
  • Be creating/importing text
  • Know how to embed fonts, create field text
  • Know how to set text for user input and for hyperlinks
  • Be able to import sounds
  • Understand the multiple sound possibilities in Director
Week 4: Publishing settings and Lingo
  • Be able to create self-contained 'Projector' movies
  • Understand how to make movies for the web by working with Shockwave
  • Be able to make stretchable, streaming Shockwave movies
  • Understand the various Xtras types
  • Install, use, include Xtras in your movies
  • Be able to assign/create/modify Behaviors in your movies
  • Be able to understand the logic behind 'Lingo': Director's programming language
  • Write a few Lingo scripts yourself for navigation purposes
  • You will be using Lingo handlers, messages, variables and events
  • Be making interactive sprites
  • Understand why Director is the most important tool in the multimedia industry
Prerequisites
It is necessary to possess a good understanding of how computers and the Internet work. It will be assumed that students can upload files to the Internet. This should not be the first multimedia/graphics application you learn!
Requirements
Programming-wise: Nothing at all! It doesn't hurt to know a bit about JavaScript or Basic as Director's Lingo is based on similar ideas and this course will get into a bit of Lingo.

Web space: You will have to upload assignments to the Internet so that your teacher may review them. This means you all must have some storage space on the Internet. This storage space must be configured (MIME-Type) to handle Shockwave files and native Director files. If you don't have web space to store your files on, you can get lots of megabytes of free space with http://www.geocities.com.

Software: IMPORTANT! If you wish to be able to use Macromedia's 30-day trial version for the complete duration of the course, you must not install this trial version before class has started!

System Requirements:The latest Shockwave plug-in is mandatory. To get the most of this class, having a recent version of Internet Explorer installed is encouraged

Minimal requirements to create and edit Director movies on a Mac:
Processor: Power Macintosh
Operating System: MacOS 8.5 or later
RAM: 32 MB (64 recommended)
Free disk space: 40 MB
Monitor: thousand colors, 800x600 resolution

Minimal requirements to create and edit Flash 5 movies in Windows:
Processor: 233-MHz Pentium
Operating System: Windows 95, 98, 2000, Me, XP or NT 4.0 or later
RAM: For Windows 95 and 98, 32 MB (64 recommended); for Windows NT, XP and 2000, 64 MB (128 MB recommended)
Free disk space: 40 MB
Monitor: thousand colors, 800x600 resolution.

Class Books
Student needs to have one of the below books depending on the software version:
Required Book: Director 8 for Macintosh and Windows [
Required Book: Macromedia Director MX for Windows and Macintosh ]
Course Price
  • Member Price: $80.00 US
  • Non-Member Price: $180.00 US
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Additional Information:
This online course is limited to 60 participants. Your place in the course is confirmed by your payment. Introductory courses are intended for students with no experience in the subject matter and are seeking beginner level training.

Refund Policy: All Online Class fees are only refundable or creditable during the first week of class. A processing fee of five dollars ($5.00) will be charged for each refund request. If you have any questions please contact us

Additional Cost: Book and software migh be required for the course. Read the Requirements and Book section for more information. Course fee does not include the book and software cost .

Start Date: Click on the Register Now button to process to the registration page. You will see the start date of the class on that page. To get the start date of other courses, click on Open Class List link on the top navigation bar.

How eClasses Work: Instructors post lectures, reading selections, and hands-on assignments once a week in the online classroom. Students can discuss the assignments with the instructor and amongst themselves in the classroom area. This format has no set meeting time, which allows students to attend class at a time most convenient to them, yet still provides logically organized communication between class participants. Students can apply for the completion certificate after finishing the class. Web Study certificate is also available. Click on the Certificates link on the top navigation bar for more information.

 

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  • Member Price: $80.00 US
  • Non-Member Price: $180.00 US
  • Course Duration: 4 weeks
  • CEUs: 2.0
  • Web Course No: A240
  • Course Instructor: Stephane Richer
  • Co-Instructor/TA: Francis Vidal
  • Session Open for Registration
Before you register for this class, please read carefully the Outline, Prerequisites, Requirements, Books, and Refund Policy section.

Instructor: Stephane Richer
Stephane RicherStephane Richer is the president of a print and web design company called Noise Communications based in Montreal. Stephane comes from the print design world where he evolved during the 1980's. In the 90's he turned to digital presentations and web design. After years of focusing on HTML/DHTML/CSS designs, Stephane switched to Macromedia's Flash when it was in its 3rd version. He now considers Flash to be one of the most important design tools for creating stunning designs for the web. He has been teaching Flash at our organization since January 2000. In 2001, he started teaching Fireworks and Director classes as well.


Director 8 for Macintosh and Windows book
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