Before starting on the first lesson – my assumption is Director MX 2004 is already installed on your computer.

Systematic Approach to Learning Director MX 2004

*Each lesson is clearly illustrated and sequenced using text, graphical and mini movies, using a concept map to organize lessons.

*Each lesson outlines skills and concepts to be learned.

*Each lesson builds on skills and concepts from each previous lesson to more complex   Director MX 2004 skills and concepts.

Lesson 1 Skills:

1. Setting Sprite Preferences
2. Setting the Property Inspector
3. Selecting an external Cast members
4. Working with Cast members on the Stage
5. Selecting Inks
6. Using the Library to select Behaviors
7. Working with Sound in a Movie

Create New Movie

1. Create a New Folder on your Desktop or C Drive and name it - Director UFO Project
2. Open Director - File New > Movie
3. File > Save as "UFO Movie"

Set Sprite Preferences

You use the Sprite Preferences dialog box to control the way sprites behave and appear in the Score window and on the Stage.

To change preferences for sprites:

1. Select Edit > Preferences > Sprite.
Note: If you are using a Macintosh OS X operating system, select the Director menu, instead of the Edit menu, to access Preferences.

2. To determine if selecting a sprite on the Stage selects the entire span of the sprite or only the current frame in the sprite, select the following Stage Selection option: Entire Sprite selects the sprite in all frames that it occupies.

3. To determine the appearance and behavior of sprites yet to be created, select Tweening.Tweening turns on tweening for all tweenable properties. This option is on by default. With this option off, sprites must be manually tweened when new frames or keyframes are added to the sprite.

4. To determine the length of sprites measured in frames, select Frames and Terminate at Markers. Frames defines the default number of frames for sprites. Terminate at Markers makes new sprites end at the first marker.

5. To specify the frame used as the beginning of a sprite span when creating or editing new sprites on the Stage, select Previous Marker.
Previous Marker sets the sprite span to begin at the sprite’s previous marker.

Set Properties Inspector On the Movie tab, you can control how colors are defined, the size and location of the Stage, the number of channels in the Score, copyright information, and font mapping. The Movie tab is available whenever an item on the Stage or in the Score is selected. To set movie properties: 1. Make sure that the Property inspector is in graphical view, and select the Movie tab. 2. Stage Size – allows you to change the size of the Stage by choosing an option from the pop-up menu - select a preset value 500x330 3. Channels sets the number of channels available for sprites in the Score. The number of channels in the Score for our movie is 100. 4. Color sets the background color of the Stage. 5. Palette sets the default color palette for your movie 6. RGB represents colors in the movie as RGB values. 7. Enable Edit Shortcuts – allows users to cut copy, and paste editable fields while a movie is playing. Selecting Auto allows Director to determine the best 3D rendering method that best suits your hardware. 8. In the About and Copyright boxes, enter copyright and other information about the movie. This information is important if your movie will be distributed over the Internet.

1. Click on Frame1 of Channel 1 - Drag the "background sky cast member" onto the Stage and fit to Stage. Right click on "background sky" sprite and lock sprite 2. Click on Frame 1 of Channel 2 - Drag the "ground cast member" onto the Stage and fit to Stage. Select cast member and set ink to "Background Transparent". Right click on "ground" sprite and lock sprite 3. Click on Frame 1 of Channel 3 - Drag the "building cast member" onto the Stage and fit to Stage. Set "building cast sprite" from Frame 1 to Frame 60. Select cast member and set ink to "Background Transparent". Right click on "building" sprite and select "lock sprite". 4. Click on Frame 1 of Channel 4 - Drag the "cloud,moon,stars cast member" onto the Stage and fit to Stage. Select cast member and set ink to "Background Transparent". Right click on "cloud,moon,stars cast member" sprite and select "lock sprite". 5 & 6. Click on Frame 1 of Channel 5 - Drag the "star cast member" onto the Stage and fit to Stage. Select cast member and set ink to "Background Transparent". Right click on "star cast member" sprite and select "lock sprite". Repeat process for Channel 6 and add another "star cast member". 7 & 8. Click on Frame 1 of Channel 7 - Drag the "cloud cast member" onto the Stage and fit to Stage. Select cast member and set ink to "Background Transparent". Right click on "cloud cast member" sprite and select "lock sprite". Repeat process for Channel 8 and add another "cloud cast member". 9 & 10. Click on Frame 1 of Channel 9 - Drag the "trees cast member" onto the Stage and fit to Stage. Select cast member and set ink to "Background Transparent". Right click on "trees cast member" sprite and select "lock sprite". Repeat process for Channel 10 and add another "trees cast member". 11. Click on Frame 3 of Channel 11 - Drag the "UFO cast member" off the Stage and fit to top left. Select cast member and set ink to "Background Transparent".Click on the UFO cast member by manually draging the UFO cast member across the Stage. Right click on "UFO member" sprite and select "lock sprite". Note: To test movie - use control panel 12. Click on Frame 3 of Sound Channel 11 - Drag the "UFO Sound Track cast member" onto the Channel 1 Sound Channel. Right click on "UFO cast member" sprite and do not select "lock sprite". Note: Play movie use control panel 13. Select Widows > Library Palette > Animation > Automatic Drag Fade In Out behavior unto the UFO. Set Fade In time to 1.20. 14.Click on Sound Channel 1 Frame 3- Drag the "Space cast member" onto the Stage. Select Windows>Library Palette> Navigation> Hold on Current Frame Behavior. Insert behavior to frame 100 on the script channel. 15. Click on Frame 55 of Channel 12 - Drag the "UFO Laser cast member" onto the Stage to Frame 57 to Frame 60 and fit to Stage. Select cast member and set ink to "Background Transparent". Fit to Stage as shown.   16. Click on Frame 50 of Sound Channel 2 - Drag the "UFO Laser Fire Sound cast member" to Frame 70. Drag the "Explosion Sound cast member" from Frame 70-100. 17. Click on Frame 60 of Channel 13 - Drag "explosion cast member" to Frame 60. Click on Frame 60 of Channel 14 - Drag the "blast cast member" onto the Stage from Frame 60-63 and fit to Stage. Select cast member and set ink to "Background Transparent". Fit to Stage as shown. Select Windows>Library Palette>Navigation. Drag Hold on Current Frame behavior to Frame 1 of the Script Channel. 18. Select Widows > Library Palette > Navigation In the first frame and last frame in the behavior channel drag the "Hold on Current frame" behavior from the cast window. 19. Click on Frame 1 of Channel 14 - Drag the "Play Button member" onto the Stage to endFrame 100. Click in Frame 3 in the Marker Channel and Name the Marker "Play". 20. Select the "Play button cast member" and drag the "Go to Next Button Behavior" onto the "Play button cast member". 21. Go to the Control Panel - select Rewind, Play. Click on the Play cast member Button in the UFO movie.