Passive applications

1
Passive applications

• Simplicity in itself
• But no easier to design
• Emphasis on simple linear progression
• e.g. forward and back (book structure)
• Observe, then press to move on
• Mainly sit back and watch
• Media is mostly auto-running on page load
• Media rich but little interaction
• Offers benefit of small cognitive overhead in
  usage
• Little, if anything can go wrong
• Main criticisms are that it does not require
  active attendance (users tend to switch off)

2
Passive applications

• Mainly focused on the child or teenager in the
  past
• But, also making big inroads into the adult
  market as well

3
Highly interactive applications

• Like a web site you can go anywhere at any time
• Emphasis on a non-linear design
• Diversity of actions on users part
• Clear selectable options (interaction)
• Gets the user to work, so is active in
  attendance
• Due to interaction diversity there is a higher
  cognitive overhead involved
• Hence things can go wrong
• Overuse though is detrimental, you are overly
  busy and start to miss the media message

4
Highly interactive applications

• Backtracking must be supported as it is important
  users be able to reverse a few times to take on
  board findings on a new page
• A problem with highly interactive systems is that
  a user might become easily side-tracked, or
  change direction due to the brain getting new
  stimulation

5
So what do you build them in?

• Macromedia Director
• With a little help from
• Adobe Premiere
• Macromedia Flash
• Macromedia Fireworks
• Adobe Audition
• Zillions of others.
• Adobe and Macromedia joined forces
• Dont go above Flash / Fireworks MX2004 as will
  not talk to Director MX2004 easily
• Coding in Director is either Lingo or JavaScript

6
Macromedia Director
7
What is Director?

• An authoring tool for multimedia
• Authoring tools themselves are available in 3
  flavours - card, icon, or time based
• Director is time based, making the tool powerful
  for temporal media inclusion
• Integrates all types of media resource into the
  multimedia application
• Industry standard????
• Used for both CD / DVD-ROM (projector) and
  Internet applications (ShockWave)

8
Creating a Director application

• Building Pages (or Screens)
• Firstly design your pages and space them on the
  timeline (a page to a point in time)
• Secondly add a marker to signpost the page
• Thirdly add a script to make the application
  pause at that page
• To move out of pages add buttons

9
Buttons Interaction

• Firstly need to stop the application
• Use markers and script
• Add script to button
• On exitFrame me
• go to b
• End
• Quit to Quit

10
Rollover Interaction

• Triggers interaction on mouse rollover
• The number in brackets must correspond to the
  sprite channel location of the trigger object
• on enterFrame
• if rollover (2) then go to "b"
• end
• on exitframe
• go the frame
• end

11
Library Functions

• Tool tips
• Rollover
• Random movement
• Graphics cycle
• Produces code but not good code - behaviours

12
Lingo

• Directors own scripting language
• Enables the development of advanced
  applications
• Can add your own specifics
• Pretty straightforward scripting language if you
  start from the basics
• Even if you yourself do not write, you use Lingo
  in the form of pre-built Behaviours
• It is behind all Directors interactivity and
  functions

13
Three main Terms

• Statement
• One line of code and is the basic building block
  of Lingo.
• Stop
• sprite(23).blend 100
• Handler
• A group of statements put together.
• Begins with a handler name and ends with an end.
• Everything in the handler is run when the handler
  is triggered.
• The example below commands your movie to show a
  pop up box saying hello
• on hellobox
• Alert hello
• end

14
Three main Terms (cont)

• Event.
• Events can trigger code to run.
• An event is anything such as a mouse click or
  move or when a certain frame is entered on the
  score.
• on mouseUp
• alert hello
• end

15
Adding an Event

• Director Movie with a square drawn on the stage
• Right click square and choose script

16
Different Types Of Script

• Behaviour Scripts
• Associated with a frame or a sprite.
• Good to run code associated with that frame or
  sprite and are also useful if you want to add the
  same code to lots of different frames or sprites.
  
• Cast Member Scripts
• These are attached to cast members, and does not
  independently have an instance in the cast window
• Movie Scripts
• These are applied to the whole movie rather than
  to specific sprites or frames

17
Start and end of Movie

• Start
• Set up variables
• Go to Window and choose Script.
• Type in the script window that appears.
• Make sure this is a movie script rather than a
  behaviour.
• on startMovie
• sprite("circle1").foreColor 26
• end
• on stopMovie
• sprite("circle1").foreColor 44
• end

18
Frame Scripts

• Has its own layer on the score
• In that channel, right click in the frame you
  want the script on and choose Frame Script.
• You can then type in code.
• on exitFrame me
• go to "square"
• end

19
Handlers

• Like sub routines - Add them to the movie script
• on movesprite
• sprite("circle").locH sprite("circle").locH
  5
• sprite("circle").locV sprite("circle").locV
  5
• end
• This moves the horizontal location of the circle
  5 to the right, and the vertical location 5 to
  the right.
• To trigger the handler off a button.
• on mouseUp me
• movesprite
• end

20
Global Variables

• If in handlers, have to be added to the movie
  script and where the handler is called from
• global colourcircle
• on changetext
• member("text1").text colourcircle
• end
• global colourcircle
• on mouseUp me
• colourcircle "black"
• changetext
• end

21
Properties

• Change Colour
• sprite("circle1").foreColor 123
• Move an object
• sprite("circle1").locH 24
• sprite("circle1").locV 24

22
Members and Sprites

• Changing the member properties changes every
  instance (every sprite of that member) on the
  stage.
• Changing the sprite just changes the sprite you
  refer to
• on exitFrame me
• if member("box").pattern gt 64 then
• member("box").pattern 0
• else
• member("box").pattern member("box").pattern
  1
• end if
• sprite(1).blend sprite(1).blend -1
• go to the frame
• end

23
Other approaches to Lingo

• Behaviours - Ready to go lingo
• A code module you add to your work
• Generic in its form (not overly flexible)
• Director already provides many for you to look at
• In general are simple to use
• Many have their own individual quirks, and with
  many there are issues of usage
• Some are very clumsy as you have to integrate them