Macromedia Director is the #1 tool for creating interactive multimedia. Its power and versatility are unmatched, allowing users to combine text, graphics, animation, video, and sound to create streaming, multiuser content for use in presentations, CD-ROMs, and the Web. Although it's organized around the metaphor of a film production, with cast, stage, scripts, and so on, Director is not known for its ease of use. Director 8 Demystified steps in to guide readers through the related technologies (Lingo and Shockwave), technical skills, and creative concepts necessary to tap the power of Director 8. This new edition also covers features new to this latest release, including new design and authoring tools and one-click publishing of Shockwave content.
FREE Two-Day Shipping for students on millions of items. Learn more |
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
When a book calls itself an "official guide" to something, readers inevitably get a little skeptical. But, when you're dealing with an application that's as big as Macromedia Director is, an official guide actually is a welcome sight. Director 8 Demystified offers a much-needed road map to the latest version of the multimedia content creation tool; and, as the officially sanctioned guide, it offers a complete rundown of the new program.
Written in part by the author of Director 7 Demystified and the author of the official Director and Lingo Authorized books for versions 7 and 8, this new book provides insight from a pair of experienced users, developers, and writers. Broken down into three well-illustrated main sections (four, if you count the one that contains appendices, references, and glossary), this massive volume starts with the basics of using Director, and then digs deeper into Lingo, scripting, handling multiple movies, and Shockwave. The third section, "Special Topics," goes into lengthy discussions on debugging, troubleshooting, using digital audio and video, and Xtras.
Sidebars with tips; important points to remember, like compatibility issues; pointers to chapter numbers in which a mentioned topic was discussed previously; and, more importantly, new or changed features in version 8 appear frequently throughout the book. Although there also are plenty of exercises and examples, more project-based tutorials would have been welcome, especially something on large projects. Content, media management, and handling large content backups aren't dealt with in enough depth, either.
Director 8 Demystified is an almost mandatory book for the serious Director user. Comprehensive, thorough, and filled with code snippets and examples, it should be bundled with Director itself. --Mike Caputo
From the Back Cover
Previous editions of Director Demystified have been hailed as the essential companion to Director — the book that stays next to the computer rather than on the shelf. This new edition will cover features new to Director 8, such as improved design and authoring tools and the ability to sort cast members by name, size, and date with the Cast Manager. Additional features include enhanced media control, multiuser connectivity, and one-click publishing of Shockwave content.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lingo is still mystified.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Director 8 Demystified (Paperback)
I have been playing with programming for a little over a year. I took a couple of java classes to start, which were mainly geared toward creating applets. That experience showed me that the best way to learn was to get a good book, because you can buy about 6 or 8 expensive books (or more) for the price of one expensive class, and the classes are reprises of some book or other. It's a matter of finding the right book, or at least a good book. I'm not going to rave about this book. It's good, and it got me well started with director, but I'm glad I had the other programming experience (I've played with VB as well) to make Lingo a little more accessible. Lingo is a powerful and complex language in its own right, and it is the real power in Director. You will have an animation going in the first hour you use this book, but expect to have to create some new neural pathways to understand Lingo as you get deeper into it. I am writing this to give my brain a much needed break from the Ancestor, Parent, Child coding that is director's version of classes and instances, and to warn you of what you will encounter. There is a 400 page lexicon of the language at the end of the book, which I am sure will be handy once I accept that I have to get a handle on it. I understand the popularity of Flash now, it does what java applets claimed they would do but in a much more user friendly envoirenment (evolution I guess), but it doesn't go as far as director in it's language potential. I belive that Director can do a great deal of what the rest of java promises as well - director isn't just for the web. Buy the book, but don't expect an easy road.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Search is Over ....,
By Solo Goodspeed (Granada Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Director 8 Demystified (Paperback)
Of all the applications I've self-taught, Macromedia Director has got to be the toughest one to find a concise tutorial publication for. I tried the Visual Quickstart, which is just that: program features in depth, with no practical exercises. I tried Training from the Source, which focussed mostly on the 3D capabilities, only slightly skimming the rest of this massive program's productivity tools. It seemed for a while there was no one book I could use to get up and running with Director; at one point I literally had four books piled on each other to use as a cross reference!The reason I put off checking out this title was because it didn't cover 8.5, which is what I'm using .... now I'm kicking myself for all the time and money I could have saved picking it up to begin with. The only difference between 8.0 and 8.5 is the 3D tools, and frankly (at least for now) that is a trivial plus to this industry standard, interactive media development tool that I've wanted to get a handle on since getting my first Mac back in '93. Starting with a guided tour of the interface, working through simple step-by-step fundamental exercises, and culminating in a massive Lingo glossary, I'm happy to say my search for the all-in-one-book beginner's guide to Macromedia Director is over. Replete with screenshots galore, as well as a CD rom with tutorial materials and tantalizing sample files (including one created for Oingo Boingo, now how cool is THAT), I must concede with the other reviewers in this section that "Demystified" is the ultimate starting place for Macromedia's defining application, hands down. Now, if only there were more hours to the day ....
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great source for Lingo,
By Ken2001 (Memphis, TN) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Director 8 Demystified (Paperback)
Despite the title, this book is the best source for learning Lingo, especially if you're a beginner. I didn't find this out until recently, while shopping for a book on Lingo. After looking over several books, such as Director In A Nutshell, I found myself intimidated by all the scripting and technical jargon associated with Lingo. I was looking for a book that could explain each aspect of Lingo in simplistic terms augemented by examples (both in the book and on CD). After weeks of searching, I discovered that the best source for Lingo was already in my possession. Initially, I bought the book for my college classes, but eventually, because of desperation, I decided to refer to it for examples in Lingo. To my surprise, it covered everything I needed to know plus gave tips on how to efficiently apply the language.This is a great book for learning Lingo as well as the rest of Director. I recommend it to anyone who is beginning to learn the software. The content is easy to follow and ...can learn to create simple movies easily. The only subject that this book doesn't get into deeply is Shockwave. There is a short chapter on it, but it doesn't go beyond the basics. However, there are other books such as Shocking the Web that can get you up to speed on Shockwave. Other than that, I have no complaints about the book and will always use it whenever I have a problem with Director.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
