Amazon.co.uk Review
The Visual QuickStart series is terrific, and
Director 8 for Macintosh and Windows is a worthy member of the group. S porting a clear layout, easy-to-read type, and a tear-out keyboard shortcut guide printed on card stock, this book should be the one you reach for if you are learning or about to learn Macromedia Director.
Like the other books in the series, pages are divided in to two columns: outer columns for step-by-step tutorials and explanations; inner columns for screen shots. Each picture is annotated, and many have elements within the picture identified as well. Visual QuickStart Guides don't come with a companion CD-ROM, but that's one way Peachpit Press keeps costs down. With the wealth of material available on Macromedia's site and on the Director installa tion CD-ROMs, there is little need for more.
There is, however, a need for clearly explained examples and tutorials, which this book recognises. Its 18 chapters progress deeper and deeper into the program, winding their way through the basics of using the program, animation, painting, adding external elements like QuickTime movies and sound files, exporting for the Web, using Director Behaviours, and using scripts and Lingo. Lingo is Director's scripting language, and worthy of a book all its own (of which there a re several), but if you have never used it before, the chapter in this book will be more than enough to get your feet wet.
In ligh t of the cost of the book, and the concise and descriptive step-by-step text, Director 8 for Macintosh and Windows Visual QuickSt art Guide is one of the best books for any new user of Macromedia Director. --Mike Caputo
Product Description
Like the other books in Peachpit's popular QuickStart series, this one uses dozens of screenshots in each chapter accompanied by simple, step-by-step instructions to guide readers through the complexities of creating Director X "movies" for CD-ROM and the Web. Whether they use the book as a tutorial or reference, readers learn in no time how to combine bitmap graphics, digital video, sound, and text into creative interactive multimedia productions. Completely revised and updated with brand-new graphics, this book covers features new to version X, for both the Windows and Macintosh platforms. Macromedia Director is the program of choice for a wide variety of creative professionals who use it to produce Web content, CD/DVD titles and games, interactive advertising pieces, kiosks, and business presentations. It features easy-to-use drag-and-drop behaviors and a powerful object-oriented scripting language called Lingo, Director movies can be "shocked" with Macromedia Shockwave to prepare them for distribution over the Internet. Previous Edition ISBN: 0-201-35398-9.
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