Fred Endsley

Preparation:

Scan for specific output if possible. Retain as much initial information as you might need later!

For film/photo enlargement, scan in/out at 300 to 1200 DPI depending or your patience and storage budget. For printing, ideally scan to output information at about twice the lines-per-inch of the anticipated printing device or medium; if your printing medium is 300 "LPI" then you should ideally use a scan output setting of 600 DPI and a scan input setting of at least 600 DPI.

For screen display (from CD-ROM, interactive kiosk, etc.) on 72 DPI monitors you only need a file resolution of 72 DPI - otherwise the screen display will scale up the imagery, possibly beyond the dimensions of the monitor; set scan resolution settings as high as your patience and budget allows - especially if you want to save the original scanned image for other higher resolution output. Then create a seperate version downsampled to 72 DPI.

Save original high-res scans as 24/32-bit. This means that each pixel will be capable of representing any of 16.7 million colors. Unfortunately multimedia applications are generally ineffective or incapable of animating in 32-bit color depth, so you will probably, again, want to create a seperate version at a lower bit-depth necessary for your multimedia purposes.

At 16-bit depth, each pixel can represent any of 16 thousand colors, and Director can animate small to medium size images and files effectively in 16-bit color depth, though the movie file sizes can get large and unwieldy quickly.

At 8-bit depth, each pixel can represent any of 256 colors. In 8-bit color depth, images and other types of multimedia files are sufficiently small enough RAM-users to allow Director to animate nimbly even with larger scale images (a full-sceen/640 x 480 pixel image is 300K).

You should normally import your images as uncompressed Pict files (bitmapped). Though Director can import and use other various types of image files, it will only allow for manipulating Pict files within the program.

Downsampling:

You can downsample high-res images to 8-bit as part of the Director import process, or do the downsampling by conversion to index color in Photoshop. This does not mean you are throwing away pixels (640 x 480 is still 640 x 480), but each pixel will only be able to represent one of 256 colors. Thus the contrast between individual pixels increases creating a more "pixelated" look.

Downsampling in Photoshop provides the best opportunities for controlling palette conversion for best results using custom or adaptive palettes, as well as post-conversion quality adjustments. Director is not really a sophisticated paint or retouching program.

Another way to possibly downsample in Director is when saving. Image cast members will be saved at whatever resolution the monitor display is set to. Be careful to make sure to set the monitor bit depth is set to the desired resolution before opening a new Director movie.

Also, enable the Modify Movie Properties to "always switch the monitor bit depth to match the movie". Then, before importing any cast members, Save (the movie/name) As. Now when you import and save cast members they will all (no matter their original bit depth) automatically be saved at the bit-depth of the movie options.

One advantage to downsampling during import or save is that you can batch-convert all the pict files in one folder at once. This can also be done with far better palette control with a program like Debabelizer.

If you do downsample in Photoshop, you have the opportunity to optimize tonal range, color balance, saturation, sharpness,etc. of the final downsampled image before importing to Director. I recommend exaggerating slightly the effects of these controls to emphasize the clarity of images that will become animated. Also keep in mind that colors created on a Mac will appear slightly darker when viewed on a PC.

Palettes:

If you downsample to 8-bit, you should do it by converting the RGB Mode to Indexed Color Mode. You will then have the choice of bit depth from 8-bit down to 1-bit (1-bit is greatly memory saving for text, and B&W or monocolor graphics). You also will have the choice between using the 256 color 'System palette', the individual 'adaptive palette', or loading a 'custom palette'.

If all image cast members are converted using the system palette, the movie will run efficiently, though the cast members will look more pixelated.

If Indexed Color files are converted using individual adaptive palettes, the image colors will blend more smoothly, but movies will run more slowly and will tend to 'screen-flash' every time the palette changes between cast members.

If an image is converted using it's own adaptive palette, and then that palette is saved as a custom palette to be used converting all other images, the image quality will be maximized and the movie will animate efficiently, having only one palette to deal with.

For best screen display of photographic images, I would suggest selecting 'dither' when downsampling. For line-art, text, flat color, etc. dithering will cause edge-softening.

Anything 'white' in Indexed Color images can be rendered as transparent in Director, while any RGB images at any bit depth will have a residue of information preventing complete transparency when imported (unless you can use the PhotoCaster XTRA).

Similarly, white or any other selected color can be made transparent when saving images as GIF files for use in web pages.

This is particularly crucial when cutting out parts of images that will have white backgrounds meant to be transparent. You would have to repeat the cutting out process for any RGB images imported into Director, and Photoshop's lasso functions work better than Director's. Generally, when cutting out in Photoshop, turn off the lasso's alias and don't use feathering, both of which leave a light, non-transparent outline.

Importing:

If you have a lot of images to import, group them all into one new folder in advance to allow batch-importing. If their order in the cast window will be important, adopt an alphabetical naming system when preparing and saving images.

It is also possibly advantageous to create much of the movie in Photoshop by placing each element into it's relative position within a seperate layer. Then each layer can be copied out to a seperate new white window, converted to index color, saved as Pict, and imported as a cast member into Director where it should retain it's relative stage position. The white background can be made transparent using inking. Again, the PhotoCaster Xtra does this automatically and much better and faster.

Other types of files, including sound (AIFF), text (RTF), graphic, palette, etc. can also be imported at this or any time.

Placing Castmembers Onstage:

After importing, a sequence (or all) of selected castmembers can be entered into the score using 'Cast to Time'. This will place the cast members in sequential horizontal cells of the first available or selected channel.

Or you can drag a selected sequence of castmembers to the stage or frame of the score. This places the cast members all in the same frame 'vertically' in sequential channels. You can then adjust the position of each cast member relative to the others on the stage, then using 'Space to Time' move all selected score cells in a vertical frame to a horizontally sequential position in one channel.

Memory Management:

Keep in mind that others may need to play your movies on computers with less RAM and lower bit depth monitor display than your 'authoring' computer, perhaps with as little as 8-16 megs of RAM. Considering that systems use upwards of 5 megs of RAM and Director uses at least 1.5-2 megs, you should probably try to limit each movie to about 4 megs of cast member memory use. This is difficult if you are using many large or higher bit depth cast members.

You can set the Modify Movie Cast Properties to "load cast members when needed", but movies will continually hesitate while loading cast members. If you set it to "load cast members before (or after) frame 1", you can later use lingo to "unLoadCast" members which are big memory users when theyÕre no longer needed.

RAM use can be monitored by checking the Inspector's Memory Window or with the Message Window.

Other memory-saving schemes:

• When possible, convert Director text and graphic cast members to Bitmap and then transform their bitmaps to 1-bit. This also means that you don't need to include or license fonts or ATM in the final product. Turning off ATM will free up considerable RAM from the system which could allow your movies to play more quickly.

• Use brief sound bytes rather than long continuous ones that need to be carried as cast members throughout the score. Save sound files as 8-bit, 11mhz when possible (for voice, or simple singular sounds). Mix sounds down to single track cast members and use only 1 sound channel if possible.

• Delete all unused cast members. "Recompile all scripts" and "Save and Compact" periodically and when finished with movie.

• Record or edit-down Quick Time movies to less FPS (frames per second) - Director can't play them anywhere near 30 FPS anyway.

• Export individual frames which layer multiple stationary cast members (inc. text, etc.) as pict files. Import them back into the cast (all cast members will now be combined as single, full-screen bitmapped cast member) and replace all cast members in relevant score frame(s). Dragging single new full-screen cast member to particular score cell will center cast member to fill 640 x 480 stage/screen. Delete unused cast members from cast window.

• Use "auto distort" or other Paint Window functions to create sequentially transformed cast members rather than rescaling or distorting through time on stage (which uses more RAM/processing memory).

• Use 'copy' ink when possible, or next in preference, use 'matte'. 'Background transparent', other inking, or inking changes from frame to frame can use lots of processing memory.

• Set the background color when possible using the control panel rather than creating extra full-screen cast members.

• Use 'trails' to continue presence of stationary sprite onstage after it's initial frame.

• Break large movies into 2 or more smaller movies at logical points, using text or sounds to cover transitions between movies.

• Use Shared Director movie casts to incorporate cast members that are used in a number of related movies.

• Use lingo and puppet functions (sprite location, forecolor, palette, etc.) to create temporary changes to sprites without creating new cast members.

• Keep Lingo scripts as short and simple as possible to shorten execution time. Use 'global variables' to eliminate repetitive script use.

Menu Shortcuts for Director:

comm-1 comm-2 comm-3 comm-4 comm-5 comm-6 comm-7 comm-8 comm-9 comm-0 comm-m comm-r comm-shift-r comm-opt-p, enter or + comm-opt-r, or 0 (zero) comm-opt-L/arrow, or 1 comm-opt-R/arrow, or 2 comm-. (period) comm-opt-l comm-u comm-shift-d comm-l comm-shift-l double-click comm-shift-opt-l comm-d comm-e comm-f comm-h comm-; comm-] comm-[ comm-b comm-shift-b comm-y comm-shift-k comm-shift-opt-c cont-space-drag sprite comm-shift-l comm-drag comm-h keypad arrows spacebar (pressed) comm-, (comma) keypad minus (-) Keypad equals (=) tab shift-tab comm-p comm-?

stage on/off control panel on/off cast window score window paint window text window tool window field window digital video window script window message window import export play rewind step back step forward stop loop preferences movie properties cast member properties sprite properties edit cast member cast to time duplicate cast member exchange selected cast members in score and cast find/change text find selection find cast member insert frame delete frame - be careful! in-between linear in-between special repeat effect (paint/effects window) show/hide rulers (paint window) recompile all scripts real-time recording place selected castmember onstage proportionately scales sprite find selected cast member in score nudge selected sprite(s) turns paint tool into "hand" tool launch external editor change stage contents to black hide/show cursor moves playback head to end of movie moves play back head to first movie frame print (frame, selected range, screen, window) help pointer