Re: Director & Flash

by =?iso-8859-1?Q?St=E9phane?= Bergeron <stephberg(at)videotron.ca>

 Date:  Sat, 21 Nov 1998 11:45:16 -0500
 To:  hwg-graphics(at)hwg.org
  todo: View Thread, Original
Hi Helen,

At 03:25 PM 19/11/99 -0500, you wrote:
>To the multimedia experts among you:
>
>I have a client with a large movie created in Director who wants to get
>this movie onto the web.  It needs lots of editing and I'm trying to
>decide which of the following options would be better to pursue:
>
>a) buy director 7 studio (pricy), edit the movie there, and output it as
>a DCR file (or is it possible to output Flash files from Director 7?),
>or

As far as I know it's not possible to output Director movies directly in=20
Flash unless there's an Xtra that does it which I'm not familiar with but I=
=20
doubt it.  Since you say it's a rather large Director movie I'm willing to=
=20
bet some and even a lot of its functionality relies on Lingo which Flash=20
has no way to understand.  Flash 4's Actions Scripts are pretty powerful=20
but still a far cry from what can be done with Lingo.

>b) buy flash 4, start over from scratch (or import the current director
>movie--is this possible in Flash?),

Unfortunately, no.  You can import a Flash file in Director but not the=20
other way around.

>and output as a Flash file, which I
>understand from the Macromedia site would probably be more suitable for
>Web use (its primary intended use).

Right, but Director produces Shockwave movies and the process of "Shocking"=
=20
it will reduce the file size drastically especially since Director doesn't=
=20
add all the "player" software you need to create a standalone=20
projector.   I have seen some incredible Shockwave stuff on the Web 3 or 4=
=20
years ago long before I heard of Flash so a lot can be done for the Web=20
with Director.  But with its vector based format Flash is an incredible=20
medium for the Web and I'm sure you could recreate the Director movie in=20
Flash.  It might take some time though.  If you are new to both programs=20
you may find Flash a lot easier to learn even if you only want to edit the=
=20
Director file it has a pretty steep learning curve but is worth the time=20
you put into it.

Without seeing the movie and what type of media files in includes, it's=20
hard for me to advise you on a course of action but your decision may hinge=
=20
on a matter of budget and the time you have to complete the=20
project.  Director is indeed very pricey but it handles imported multimedia=
=20
files (QuickTime, sound, etc) much better than Flash and is better at=20
synchronizing them.  On the other hand, you may be able to reproduce the=20
movie quite well in Flash depending on the look you're after.  Some say=20
that Flash is like the lite version of Director but to me they are very=20
different product that work differently and are not suited to the same=20
types of projects.  Flash's lightweight file size is very appealing so it=20
may be your best bet here.

Hope this helps and did not confuse the issue even more...

St=E9phane Bergeron

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