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Macromedia Training Overview
This course is intended for the intermediate to advanced Director user who wants to learn Lingo programming at a deep level. It moves beyond basic scripting into topics that can be used to make feature-rich multimedia movies that allow for a greater level of user interaction. You will first learn to code efficiently using Lingo's "dot syntax" dialect, which you'll use throughout the course. You'll create an additional movie in a separate window that interacts with the Stage, and will manage complex lists that hold a variety of data ranging from user preferences to variables that control animation via Lingo instead of the Score. You'll carefully control the user's interface, allowing them to type information in fields, move sprites with keystrokes, and use keyboard shortcuts. You'll learn to use Object Oriented Programming to create reusable code objects and animate sprites onstage. Lastly, you'll learn to pause playback and animations indefinitely or for specific time intervals, check for potential bugs, and deliver the final movie in the form of a Projector
Prerequisites
To ensure your success, we recommend you first take the following courses or have equivalent knowledge:
- Director 8.5 Introduction:
- Director 8.5 Advanced:
Delivery method
Instructor-led, group-paced, classroom-delivery learning model with structured hands-on activities.
Hardware/Software Requirements
You will need
- An Intel Pentium II processor (or higher).
- Windows 95, 98, 2000, Windows NT 4 (Service Pack 3) or Windows ME.
- At least 64 MB of available RAM.
- A color monitor capable of at least 800 x 600, 256 color display.
- At least 100 MB of available hard disk space.
- A CD-ROM drive.
- Macromedia Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio.
- Directx 5.2 or OpenGL (recommended).
Performance-Based Objectives
Lesson objectives help students become comfortable with the course, and also provide a means to evaluate learning. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Write Lingo code using dot syntax instead of the less efficient "traditional" syntax.
- Create a Movie in a Window to run alongside and control the main movie window.
- Hide sprites to create effects such as rollovers and pop-up information panels.
- Create Behaviors with editable parameters to simplify authoring and reduce the number of scripts.
- Sort, duplicate, and create sublists within lists for data management.
- Write to and read from a preference file on the viewer's hard disk.
- Introduce randomness within movies to make them run differently each time.
- Trap user keystrokes to control sprite movement and ensure proper data entry into fields.
- Create parent scripts that can spawn child objects that share some attributes but also have their own unique property values.
- Make a movie wait a specified duration before continuing, and allow the user to pause animation.
Course duration
1 Day
Macromedia Training Course outline
Lesson 1: Movie Planning and Dot Syntax
- Topic 1A: Planning a Complex Movie
- Task 1A-1: Viewing the Completed Movie
- Task 1A-2: Structuring the Movie
Topic 1B: Dot Syntax
- Task 1B-1: Using Dot Syntax
Lesson 2: Movie in a Window, Sprite Visibility, andBehaviors with Parameters
- Topic 2A: Movie In a Window
- Task 2A-1: Creating a MIAW to Control a Game
- Task 2A-2: Calling Main Movie Handlers from MIAWs
Topic 2B: Controlling Sprite Visibility
- Task 2B-1: Hiding Sprites to Create Information Panels
- Task 2B-2: Creating Disjoint Rollovers
Topic 2C: Behaviors with Editable Parameters
- Task 2C-1: Applying a Behavior with Parameters
- Task 2C-2: Creating a Behavior with Parameters
Lesson 3: List Management and Randomizing
- Topic 3A: List Management
- Task 3A-1: Working With a Question List for a Quiz Game
- Task 3A-2: Reading and Writing a Preference File Based on a List
- Task 3A-3: Managing a List of Game Players
- Task 3A-4: Working with a Sorted High Scores List
- Task 3A-5: Duplicating a List
Topic 3B: Randomizing
- Task 3B-1: Generating and Controlling Random Numbers
- Task 3B-2: Randomizing Sprite Positions and Velocities
- Task 3B-3: Creating a Function to Randomize the Order of Any List
Lesson 4: User Feedback and Control
- Topic 4A: Field Entry
- Task 4A-1: Creating User Entry Fields
- Task 4A-2: Ensuring Field Entry and Disabling Field Editing
Topic 4B: Trapping User Keystrokes
- Task 4B-1: Assigning Handlers to Key Presses
- Task 4B-2: Overriding Movie Script keyDown Handlers
- Task 4B-3: Using Arrow Keys to Move a Sprite
Lesson 5: Object Oriented Programming
- Topic 5A: Object Oriented Programming Principles
- Task 5A-1: Creating a Simple Parent Script and Child Objects
- Task 5A-2: Creating a Simple Ancestor Script
- Task 5A-3: Preserving Object Encapsulation
Topic 5B: Creating Child Objects Spontaneously for Animation
- Task 5B-1: Creating a Parent Script to Define and Animate Missiles
- Task 5B-2: Creating a Script to Fire Missiles on Demand
Topic 5C: Using Ancestor Scripts for Animation
- Task 5C-1: Creating an Ancestor Script to Define Spaceships
- Task 5C-2: Creating Two Types of Spaceships with Parent Scripts
- Task 5C-3: Calling Two Spaceship Parent Scripts
- Task 5C-4: Checking for Sprite Collisions and Calling Public Methods
Lesson 6: Final Scripting
- Topic 6A: Pausing actorList Animation
- Task 6A-1: Pausing the Game
Topic 6B: Timing
- Task 6B-1: Making the Movie Wait
Topic 6C: Contingencies
- Task 6C-1: Checking for Contingencies
Topic 6D: Eliminating Authoring Elements
- Task 6D-1: Removing Authoring Elements
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